Death of a Smiley Red Ball 19 March 2010

Smiley blue ball was lost at sea.
Ean got another blue ball.
Blue ball without a face was not as good to Ean.
Today we bought a smiley red ball.
Ean was delighted.

Smiley red ball getting married to blue ball. Fai put them together and plucked some petra for smiley red ball.

Smiley Red ball rolled into Uncle Singh's bonfire and part of the ball melted. Jianyi tried to patch the ball with some masking tape.

However we were not meant to have a Smiley ball with us. Red deflated......

Now blue ball is alone.....

PD 12-14 March 2010

Sunday 11am:

There were 3 groups of raptors. One at Tanjung Tuan, another just over my house and the last group was moving inland. Each group of raptors consisted of about 100-200 birds. It was marvellous watching them swoop and soar as they rode the currents.

Golden Showers is Fai's favourite tree. It was in full bloom and the boys managed to get a few seed pods that had dropped onto the pavement in Palm Springs Resort.

Kent happily sweeping his driveway on a Monday morning.

7am

10.30am

Watching the sunrise in PD, breathing in the fresh crisp air and listening to the melodious chirping of the birds was nice. It is a stark contrast to the smog choked air in PJ.

I shall be spending more time here.




This sunbird has chosen the Southwest corner of the house to nest. The nest hangs on a Petra vine and sways gently when the wind blows. It is indeed an engineering feat as it withstood a heavy shower the night before.

Venus flytrap 10 March 2010

Eu Fai spotted a wierd looking plant with a Fly's wings sticking out of it in the Usborne children's encyclopedia (Yes, my kids go through encyclopedias for FUN!).

So I told him it was a Venus flytrap and asked if he wanted to see how it eats insects on Youtube.

He watched the plant devour a frog, a slug and various insects.

Then he exclaimed " That plant is alive! It moves and eats! It is like an animal!"

Oh My! What a teachable moment.

Lost in TTDI Monday 8 March 2010

I have been invited to this park a couple of times. It is a popular meeting place; where kids can wade in the stream, scoop up a few fishes while the parents get to do some socializing. So when Wai Leng invited me to a gathering in TTDI Park, I just had to go.
Here was the plan:
Step 1 get the boys to sleep early on Sunday.

Step 2: Get the boys to wake up early on Monday. Preferably by 730am.This was because Kent had a full schedule planned for the day and since he is the one with the car. We would have to fit ourselves into his schedule.

Well, Step 1 failed as the boys were still bouncing off the bedroom walls at 10.30pm. However i did manage to get them to settle down by 10.45 and they were asleep not long after.
Step 2 failed as well, as they were still asleep at 7.30am BUT they did manage to wake up by 8.15. However by that time Kent was long gone :(

Luck was on our side that day. (or so I thought) Kent called to say that he could drop us at TTDI.

Problem : Which park in TTDI?

Solution: ASK

So I asked WL. She seemed unsure.
So I asked S. She was very clear. (or so I thought)

We came to a guard house. We saw a road leading up a hill. We thought the park must be just after the bend.
Bend after bend after bend.

We passed a man training for a marathon (he had on a shirt with 'marathon' printed on it) .

We were ambushed by macaques. 3 females with their babies clinging to them. They stared blankly at me and started advancing towards us when I said "Shoo! Shoo!" I was a little scared. Then Han roared "RUUUUURRRRR!!!!" Wolverine-style. That scared them off. Phew!
Han was proud of himself for saving us.

A nice couple smiled and said this hill has a lot of monkeys, you might want to try the park with a nice stream"

Me: This doesn't lead to the park with the stream???

Couple: No. This is the jogging track. It loops back here. (we were at the peak!) To get to the other park. Go back to Trellises.......

Walking down the hill, we promised ourselves BR icecream as a reward. The gradient was steep. We didn't realise this on the way up. My kids were great sports. The boys didn't complain. JY wished she stayed home but she kept on going good-naturedly. Ean slept in my arms.

I called S up and told her we were lost when we reached the guardhouse at the base of the hill. KV came to our rescue.
He drove us to the right park.

There were 3 mothers' group assemled there. USJ homeschool group, IBU and Japanese Mothers.

I met up with a few lovely mommies. Ann, Liani, Sabrina, Latifah, WL and S.

Fai and Han had a blast with Arian. The stream was shallow. Great for little ones.

The playground was within sight. The park was clean and well-maintained. Landscaping was done well.

JY hung around with the mommies.

Raptors in PD

Kent came back from a day trip to PD and said that he spotted about a hundred buzzards flying behind our house. What a sight that must have been.
I can't wait to get to PD to watch the raptors as they make their annual migration.

Get more info here:
http://www.raptorwatch.org/tt_raptors.htm