{Birthday Special} - E is 7 and free DIY Paper Bunting

Little E turned 7 years old finally, a day he has been longing for as it signifies that he is a big boy now. A major milestone to a young kid as that's the age he starts formal schooling, a.k.a. The Big Boy school.

We had a simple celebration at home, with wonderful spread of dinner cooked by the grandma, a chocolate mango mousse cake with special decoration by mommy, and a Star War LEGO set that he always wanted. 

The very happy birthday boy.

The birthday tradition - longevity noodles and red eggs. Roast chicken legs are the kiddos' favorites.

E was smiling the whole time and had such great appetite. Ate double portion of fried noodles, a whole chicken drumsticks and double slices of the mango mousse cake. That, brought smiles to me too.

With his Lego Star Wars Clone Commander, spent the night assembling it by himself.

However, secretly I was worried he would be disappointed as this time round, I did not arranged a party with his little friends - mommy had resumed working so no time to bake him a cake nor organized a party, but I had a pleasant surprise when he told me this during bedtime..

"Mommy, today is the happiest day for me!"  

"Really? Can you tell me why?", I pretended blunt.

"I got my favorite mango chocolate cake, my favorite LEGO toy, and all my friends celebrated for me too!"

"All your friends? In school?", now I got really curious. 

I did not packed party food to bring to his school this time, since I don't think his class teacher will like him to disrupt the lesson - local government school teachers are well known to be really strict.

"Teacher Chan asked the class if we know whose birthday is it today, I raised my hand, and she invited everyone to sing birthday song for me...", his eyes sparkling and his face brighten up as he told me, "in 3 different languages!! English, Bahasa and 华语!"

"Wow, you are one lucky boy to have 50 person celebrating with you..."

"Yes, I know! I am so happy mommy!"

He was smiling like the morning sun, warmth and bright.

Despite all the horror stories I have heard about the local teachers - how they punished the students unreasonably, how they gave crazy amount of homework etc (no offense to all teachers, personally I adored all my former teachers).... I am just glad that E got a caring teacher for his first year of formal schooling life.

A good & caring teacher is hard to come by, E must have got a lucky star shinning upon him.

Happy birthday, my boy. 

May you be blessed always.

May you be happy always.

May you enjoy every single day of your life.

Mommy love you, to the moon and back.

Love,

Mommy pH

【FREE DIY Bunting a Template】

In case anyone of you interested to make a paper bunting, I've made the template available in baby blue and soft pink. Download one that suit yourself and print it on an A4 size paper. Enjoy! 😉 

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

{Made by PH} It's a Big Boy's Wallet!

E is entering primary 1 starting 4 January, officially a big boy attending a big school. He will be making new friends, learning new stuff (7 subjects!) and learning to be truly independent - buying food on his own, adapting to social life in a large class (50 students!) and taking the school bus all by himself. He seem cool about it, but mommy somehow having butterfly in the stomach... 

I have took the past few months to slowly build his confidence and independence, and as an encouragement from me, I decided to make him something special that no one else has.

So I made this, a Big Boy's wallet, designed and made by mommy. 

Embroidered with a special "E".

Comes with multiple compartments for cards and notes.

With a zipped coin compartment too. 

Fit for a Lego, or two perhaps. :)

Small enough to fit into his school pants, but huge with mommy's love & blessing.

This is a rather spontaneous project (we are only 1 day away from school opening day!), somehow the design just appeared in my mind and I decided to make it with my favorite London Town thick cotton fabric. Took me about 2+ hours to complete and I'm pretty happy with the outcome (he too!), I surely hope this wallet will last him for the next few years in school.

Have a blast in your new school, little E!

Psss... This is actually the second wallet I made for E, he got his first little boy's wallet 2 years ago when I was teaching him about money value. You may check it out here, he still using it till these day but since it does not has a zipped compartment it's less ideal.

Xoxo,

PH



Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Make Your Own... Christmas Craft!

Christmas is one of our favorite holiday of the year, a peaceful and meaningful occasion that unites us with the loved ones. The kids love it the most too as that's the time they receive gifts (who does not like presents? *laugh*)

The duo and I setup the Christmas tree, lighted it up but we wanted to make our home really really Christmas-ty, so we started making more some Christmas craft. Here's how make your own Christmas decor with with absolutely no cost! 

Using plain papers, we've cut out lots of shapes - snowflakes, Christmas cottages, Christmas trees, and even volcanoes..

Then we made Christmas cards.

Make your own... Pop-Up Christmas Tree Card 

Next we made an ever Christmas wreath. Since it is made of fresh Christmas tree twigs, it smells so good and we decorate it with fresh flowers from our garden everyday.. 

Make Your Own...Evergreen Christmas Wreath!

Then we deployed these crafts all around  the house. By using blue tac stickers, the papers stick on easily without damaging the surface. The duo were so excited going around the house sticking on their Christmas cottages and trees... They we so proud as they showed daddy later at night.

 

Make Your Own... Popsicle Stick Tree!

You can either purchased a set of ready packed craft set (E received it as birthday pressie last year) or buy the Popsicle sticks from stationeries or bakery supplies stores. Then just glue, paint, stick!

What about some sparkly stars too? 

Make Your Own... Snowflakes! 

We followed these simple steps to fold the paper and just cut out any shapes of snowflakes we like, it was too challenging for C as the paper is rather thick to cut, so I let her design and I did the cutting for her.. You can practically design endless shapes, creativity is your only limit!

Make Your Own... Felt Christmas Tree!

Not to forget, our cute felt Christmas tree which functions as a child play too.

This Christmas tree was made with large button holes to let little ones learn to button on and off. It served its purpose well - both E and C practiced by themselves and can handle buttons well now, and it is such a pretty addition for the door :)

Not a crafty person? This is a super easy one that requires no crafting interest at all..

Just get a real small size Christmas tree from IKEA for only RM8.90, hang  some golden ornaments or balls and it is perfect addition for indoor or the garden.. Well, will have to change it to a beautiful pot thou. *smile*

That's all peeps, easy-peasy craft to brighten the home. 

Hope you have a wonderful time bonding with your little ones and celebrating with your loved ones..

Xoxo,

PH

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Paleontologist for a day @ Dinosaur Discovery

It's school holiday and the duo are staying home with me most of the time. I was planning to meet up with my buddies and at the same time do not want the duo to feel neglected (afterall school holiday should be fun isn't it?). Since I am meeting up them at Avenue K Shopping Mall, I thought of just bringing the duo to the Dinoscovery located at the roof top.

We spent about an hour at the dinosaur Discovery center, while its quite a small setup, it was educational and fun. The dinosaurs on display are of actual scale and will move their heads or bodied so gave a vivid feeling (too bad the Pterosaurs were just stationed, would be nice if they actually could "fly" around). My girl was petrified by the Tyrannosaurus when it opened its big mouth and went hiding behind me. Lol.

  

We were given vests, head lamp, maps and an RFID tag as if we were the paleontologists. The kiddos were really excited as it felt like the real thing.

The kiddos were given a map each to collect stamps along the way. Upon completing this map (optionally, complete some questions about the Dino too), you will be given a certificate upon exiting. However, personally I would think they should have provided each of us a headlamp and an RFID tag too since the ticket charge is not cheap.

Showing off their certificates.

What to expect?

There were about 20 types of dinosaur species on display (rough count, visitors were not allowed to take pictures), and there were some activities available to make the visit more exciting. Among those we have tried are..

• Attack with an Angkylosaurous tail. E wore the tail on his back and use it to hit the sand bag, it's heavy and hard to aim!

• Rock climbing. E and I completed the climb while C was too scared as there were some Pterosaurs hanging above.

• Race with the Theratop. We took turn to race with the creature and the duo was really trying hard!

• Shooting mosquitoes with air guns. Up to 8 shots per person.

• Errupting Volcano & Sandpit at the children play area, the duo were having lots of fun with the volcano. 

At the entrance.

At the exit, there is some a cafe and a coloring corner for the kids to wind down.

You can opt to buy your pictures too. I didn't, so just took a snap of the LCD display.. ;P

Need more information? Here you go..

Ticket price (available online too):

RM25(MyKad adult) | RM40 (adult) 

RM35(MyKid child) | RM50 (child)

Free admission for children under 60cm

Special discount for Maxis and CIMB cardholder.

Location: 

Level 4, Avenue K, 

156, Jalan Ampang, 

Kuala Lumpur.

Operating Hour: 

Weekdays 10am - 7pm 

Weekends 10am - 8pm

For more info, visit their website: http://discoveria.com.my/

Have fun & enjoy the holiday!

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

{Christmas Special} Pop Up Christmas Tree Card

The kiddos are spending home with me this holiday season so I though of doing a series of Christmas crafts with them. Good for bonding and to have some decoration for the home & family too. 

After the Christmas Wreath I made last weekend, I found it is not quite suitable for little ones with the use of hot glue gun (I burnt my fingers few times), I decided to start with activities that are kids-friendly and something that would be fun... So when I told them we are making Pop-Up Christmas Tree card, they got super excited. I have not met a kids who do not like pop-up so far. I insisted they had to call me Teacher PH instead of mommy, they loved the idea! Lol.

We had a good 45 minutes making these cards. From left to right - by Ethan, by teacher PH, by Claire. 

The duo drew, cut, glued and decorated the card all by themselves. I just gave suggestions and jumped in for damage control, e.g. When Claire accidentally squeezed too much glue or could not cut a round Christmas ball. So these cards may not be perfect, but are truly their own artwork. I am emphasize on the kiddo's learning progress than to cheat a perfect outcome.

Ethan and I completed this wrapping paper strips Christmas trip for the card cover. He found the paper stencil punchers so we made some flower & little people punch holes, how cute!

The pop-up Christmas tree with 2D gift box. Noticed the little soldier I added? *smile*

The pop -up Christmas tree as done by Ethan. He dedicated it to Yuky 姐姐, one of my buddies whom we are meeting up for lunch later.

It was a total mess on our dinning table, but we managed to clean up within 10'minutes. The kiddos had been trained to clean up and we have a pretty good team work by now. :)

What you need to make some Christmas cards with your little ones..

• Some colorful papers

• child-friendly scissors 

• artwork glue

• used wrapping papers / ribbons / buttons / washi tapes 

• pencils & market pens

• paper stencil punchers (optional but adds fun to the making)

• cutters (optional, NOT SAFE FOR KIDS)

• old newspapers to protect the work surface

• some creative juice ;-) 

Here's the simple tutorial on how to make the pop-up tree..

Cheers!

Xoxo,

PH

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.