I know I keep saying this but, I CAN'T BELIEVE MY BABY BOY IS 3!!!
How fast time flies. My boy is not only adapting well to his pre-school but he will be celebrating his birthday for the first time with his classmates.
Since my boy is a BIG fan of Team Umizoomi, the cartoon on Super Math Powers (and I can tell that my boy is really good at Math), we did an Umizoomi theme for his birthday.
I wanted something practical that the parents can use after the party so I went with recyclable bags with a special "customised" birthday label that I did myself affixed on them.
Thanks for coming Umifriend!
To be honest, I was kind of sick of receiving snacks and stationery in the birthday goody bags so for these bags, we bought art colouring sets and balloons instead. I find them more useful and fun for the children. Sorry kids, no fatty snacks for you this time!
On the actual day, I brought the goody bags and other DIY Umizoomi decorations to the school.
Me, busying decorating the cake while my boy looks on excitedly
Left: Printed a picture of Team Umizoomi and stuck chopsticks at the back; Right: The final rainbow cake from Prima Deli with all the decorations.
Simple mini Umizoomi characters pasted on toothpicks and stuck on the fishballs and sausages.
Boy was so mesmerised by the cake in this family photo!
It's a very simple birthday celebration but I think the boy really enjoyed himself. He looked very serious when the kids were singing to him though (maybe stage fright? Haha!).
Cutting the cake
It's layers of rainbow inside as well!
My boy loves cake (like me hehe) so he got the biggest slice!
I helped the boy give out the goody bags after and he really loved it.
What colour do you want? Here you go!
After the birthday party, we brought the kids to Cool de Sac, where Harvest Kids (our church's children church ministry) members have free entry on weekdays (no need ticket entry any more)! #mychurchissocool *grin*
This is not the kid's first time to Cool de Sac (read about their first experience here) and will definitely not be the last. It's one of our favourite indoor playgrounds!
Running about going crazy on the play structures and Lego area
It's the first time he's getting his arm painted!
He chose an elephant from the list of pictures himself! My boy is so grown up haha!
It is finished! =)
They love getting their bodies painted here. I think the boy went around showing off his elephant for a few days.
Happy birthday my darling boy! May you always gain wisdom and stature as you grow up and find favour with God and with men in all that you do! Mummy loves you! =)
The entire Lee Family (i.e. the hubby's side of the family) went to visit Adventure Cove on Christmas Day! It was the first time for most of us so we were pretty excited (the girl and I are theme park addict so naturally we were the most excited!).
Adventure Cove
A selfie while waiting for the rest of the family to arrive
The folks at the door do check your bags for outside food so if you must bring food into Adventure Cove (which *cough* we *cough* did), do so very discretely (like wrapped in a towel at the bottom of a bag of baby diapers and clothes... do NOT say that you learned this from me)! *laughs*
Lockers
The lockers here are expensive in my opinion (costs $10 for the regular and $20 for the big ones!) so I recommend not bringing too many valuables so that
you don't need a large locker. The only good thing about the locker is that it can be re-opened as many times as you like.
Life Jackets for all ages
Life Jackets are provided and I find them useful for the Adventure River and Bluwater Bay (wave pool) as the currents can be strong. However, they are not allowed on the slides.
We started our day at Bluwater Bay because it was right at the heart of the water park.
Bluwater Bay, with a lovely view of the cable cars in the background
Girl and I having fun in the waves
We also put our non-valuable but essential items on one of the lounge chairs
As we were early, we started with the first and scariest ride (with the longest queues as the day goes by) of the water park: Riptide Rocket!
This is the first time we get to sit a conveyor belt to ride a slide instead of climbing the stairs!
This ride is not for the faint-hearted man! It is Southeast Asia’s first
hydro-magnetic coaster, which explains why I have never gone on something like that before even though I have been to countless of water parks. The ride is really fast, has plunging drops and is some serious business! My girl was so freaked out!
The irony was that even though my girl met the height limit for the scariest ride in the water park, she did not meet the height limit for the rest of the slides which were nothing compared to this! So strange!
Anyway, since the girl couldn't ride the big slides, she contented herself happily with the smaller slides at the kids playground, Big Bucket Treehouse.
The nephews lying in wait (literally) for the buckets of water to splash on them
While the kids busied themselves with the playground, the rest of us went to ride all the slides. The slides were fun, though not as fun as the slides at Melaka Wonderland (they had much shorter queues too). The only slide that was better than Melaka Wonderland was the Riptide Rocket.
Nevertheless, Adventure Cove made up for the lackluster slides with the Adventure River, which was one of the best lazy rivers I've been in! Why? Because we got to get up close and personal with manta rays! So cool!
Adventure River
(it's just like a typical lazy river but longer and with more things to see!)
Managed to take a selfie, but only of half the clan
Floating along a VERY crowded river!
This underwater tunnel is so cool!
We got to view the lovely fish swimming pass us
The Adventure River also travelled passed the Ray Bay, which had the cutest manta rays I've ever seen! So pretty!
Taking lots and lots of selfies with the pretty manta rays!
My boy was slightly freaked out by the caves (he doesn't like the dark very much)
Creepy but very cool!
The other highlight of Adventure Cove for me was snorkeling at Rainbow Reef. It's probably the only place you can snorkel in clear waters in Singapore.
It's not my first time snorkelling (I've snorkelled in Cebu and Thailand before) but it is the first time that I've snorkelled in Singapore!
We're one of the first to enter the Rainbow Reef
Me in the snorkelling gear
As the Rainbow Reef is about 3 metres deep, you must be able to swim in order to enter. Kids are not allowed.
It's called Rainbow Reef because of the colourful fish! So beautiful!
This photo of the hubby is my favourite photo of the day
(Taken by our awesome Sony Xperia Z5 Premium)
Please be careful where you tread.
Do NOT step on the corals because let me tell you, that's not a pleasant experience!
(I was smart enough to keep my body afloat and did not step on anything except for the steps leading out of the pool)
We ended the day with the newest attraction, the Wet Maze and obstacle course. There was a super long queue at the obstacle course and it wasn't as fun as I had expected.
Wet Maze
We had only expected to stay till 3pm but ended up staying till 5pm. If you've never been there, I'd highly recommend going at least once. It is a different experience as compared to other water parks that we're used to =)
It was time for us to leave Cameron Highlands, where we had a pretty awesome time recreating our farm experience in Australia at neighbouring Malaysia.
On our way down the mountain
We travelled about an hour to Luen Fong Restaurant at Tanjung Tualang, which is famous for their live giant river prawns.
This way to Tanjung Tualang
Restoran Luen Fong (Address: 19 Jalan Pasar, Tanjung Tualang, 31800 Tanjung Tualang, Perak)
With the tanks filled with giant river prawns
The last time I saw prawns this big was in Bangkok and Shenzhen! Yums! =)
Since they were famous for their river prawns, we ordered two dishes to try the different ways it can be cooked.
Steamed with garlic
Clockwise from left: Hubby enjoying his favourite prawns;
Cooked with salted egg; Fresh steamed fish.
If you love giant prawns then you should really give this restaurant a try! The hubby love it so much, we're already many arrangements to go back on our next road trip! =)
After lunch, we head straight to Malacca where we stayed at our favourite Hatten Hotel as usual. We left our luggage in the rooms and went to our favourite mall, Mahkota Parade to shop. I won't elaborate on what we did because I've done so previously in 2014 and 2015 (we love Malacca so much that we visit at least once a year, sometimes twice!).
Without fail we will definitely bring the kids to Kidzooona in Mahkota Parade (you can read more about it here). Both my kids can spend hours here and often had to be dragged out otherwise they would not want to leave! The adults then take turns watching them so that the others can shop in peace =)
Sushi chefs in the making
Doctor, doctor!
We have visited Malacca four times and have not visited the very famous Jonker Street so I insisted that we do at least once!
The very recognisable red Christ Church in Melaka
At Malacca River in Jonker Street
Jonker Street was bustling with tourists
Jonker Street is a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Other than the very famous chicken rice and dessert which had super long queues all the way to the road, Jonker Street is also famous for the Mamee Jonker House. It's like the much smaller, Malaysian version of the Nissin Cup Noodle Museum in Japan.
Mamee Jonker House
Inside Mamee Jonker House
With the famous Mamee mascot
The entrance fee to the museum was just RM 5, so we thought that we'll check it out.
World of Good Taste
Old school Mamee products displayed in old school provision shop
The Mamee living room
A TV screen that shows you chilling on the sofa
Checking out the noodle maker
How many of you remember eating Double Decker potato chips?
I know I did!
With the Mister Potato mascot
The museum was too small in my opinion but for the price, I would say it's still ok. There's a restaurant in Mamee Jonker House too in case you get hungry =)
