>>> Snow! <<<

Woke up this morning to a blanket of snow! Gosh, it was inches thick and made a beautiful sight.

We were invited to MIL's house for lunch and the boys had a play with whatever snow that was on the ground. Dusted our sledge from the garage and Zac had a play with it but slope wasn't steep enough.

Little monkey forgot his gloves and complained how cold it was! What did he expect???

Ollie getting ready to snowball me but not before getting a photo outta him!

Unfortunately, the sun came out in full force as well and by afternoon, it was gone! So annoying!

That was what left of the snow by 3ish in the afternoon!

Spent the afternoon chilling out and scrapping a little. The boys enjoyed their DS games. Well, not long before they go back to school on Tuesday. Gosh, can't believe that their 2 weeks hols is almost gone! Time sure as hell is flying past! TTFN!

>>> On Display! <<<

Here's what I did with BackPorch Memories April's kit:

Papers from Imaginisce, Cosmo Cricket and SEI.As usual, the kit is packed full of goodies. The rest of the LOs will be revealed on the 10th!

I' m currently hosting an A-Z Book of Me (BOM) challenge at the BackPorch Memories forum. Instead of a sentence prompt, I'm giving word prompts and participants choose which word appeals to them and create a LO. For me, I chose 'artistic endeavours' for the letter A and came up with this! I was influenced by the mixed media style and wanted to incorporate a little of that art into scrapbooking.

A - Artistic Endeavours
I decided to use 8x8" size for my BOM. Once done, this will be binded using my BIA. Just hope the 1.25" wire is big enough at the end of letter Z!

TTFN!

>>> Birthday Planner! <<<

Created this planner for my MIL! Saw she was scribbling all her relatives/friends' birthdays on a calendar so decided to make a planner where she can keep the important dates in one place. Saw there was an altered item challenge on the Rusty Pickle blog and hey, killed two birds with one stone!

RP blog challenge stipulated you needed to use papers from 4 different collections. Not a problem as I do possess a fair number of their paper collections. The difficult part was mixing them so that the colours didn't clashed. Think I succeeded. Made use of papers from Mayflower, Guenivere, Island Summer and French Market. Here's the result:

Here's the close-up. Gotta luv my BIA tool.

Played with a few stamps and created a collage to cover the pockets.

Tags were coloured using Tim Holtz distressed inkpad and stamped using one of his stamps.

TTFN!

>>> Easter Weekend! <<<

A last minute decision but we spent Easter weekend at the Chessington World of Adventure theme park. We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Sutton, which is near London. MIL, SIL and her boys came along with us too.

Friday

Reached the hotel at noon and luckily we were allowed to check in (check-in time supposedly at 2pm).
Immediately headed for London on the train/tube to the Natural History Museum.
It was crowded but entry was free. Had a snoop around dinosaurs and other creatures in there.

It was 6ish when we came out and decided to go back to the hotel. We had dinner in the hotel. Can't say it was good, the usual fried-up stuff... yuks! Thank goodness for the salad area which wasn't British as it had an array of very interesting dishes!

Saturday

Headed off to Chessington World of Adventure. Thank goodness for satnav! Gosh the weather was horrible! It was flippin' cold and it snowed! Not surprising that there weren't many people about. The boys had a whale of a time going on rides, not once but twice and sometimes thrice! There wasn't much queuing unlike last year at Legoland where we had to queue for a good 45mins - 1hr for a ride!

Easter weekend and noticed how empty the Park is!!! We couldn't have chosen the coldest day to come!

Zac on the carousel. We were the only ones on there.

The boys on this roundabout thingy. They enjoyed it so much they went for 2nd round.

On a boat ride.

Meeting Spongebob Squarepants.

We left at 4ish to go back to the hotel as the boys wanted to swim in the pool.
We failed to booked a table for dinner and therefore had to have it delivered. I was beginning to get sick of eating fried stuff and therefore ordered myself a Thai prawn red curry! Fab!

Sunday

Checked out of the hotel after breakfast and headed off to Chessington again at the request of the boys. It was snowing! I've been avoiding some rough rides but decided to go for the Pirate ship which swing from right to left. Big mistake! OMG! The motion of swing from left to right was horrible and I had my eyes shut throughout for fear of puking! Never again! I did try the bumper cars and had fun with them. At 3ish, we called it quits and left for Birmingham.

There is a zoo in the park and we took time to visit it. We happened to catch the seals performing.

Pirate ship - yuks! One of the worst ride I took and regreted it tremendously! Had my eyes shut the whole time.The boys went on this.

And this!

Posing with Dennis the Menace and his gang of friends.

Monday

The boys reminded us about the Easter Egg hunt so we had them making their baskets and then hubby went out into the garden to hide the Easter eggs. Each had a big egg clearly labelled and several little ones to find. Oliver found the most. The boys did enjoy it and that's most important.

The traditional pose with their handmade baskets... before the start of the hunt.

Ready Set Go!

The brothers with their prize possessions

The hunt is over and the showing off!

Or is it? Oops, how did they forget that egg?

TTFN!

>>> Oops! Been Busy.... Serious! <<<

Whoa! Long time no post! Just been so busy with the boys' schedules... I swear their schedules are far more busier than mine!

Anyway, some stuff to share! My LOs/projects that I did with BackPorch Memories Mar kit featuring CDG Studios papers.

A 12x12 LO!

My 'Happiness is...' mini album. Tried out the maze album where I got the instructions off the net. The inner pages are construction using a single sheet of 12x12 cardstock. I did the album very simply and made use of stamps to complete it.

This LO is for a challenge I set on BPM forum. Based on the theme 'Power of 3', you have to use an item 3 times on the LO. Challenge is still ongoing and any challenge attempted gain you an draw ticket where if you're lucky you can get some goodies off Paula! She does amazing prizes!

This was done for the newsletter. A tic tac toe gameboard.

I'm also more involved in Zac's school as well, helping out and come April, will be working as a lunchtime assistant there. Again, a slow tease before I embarked into the working society. Having been a SAHM for 5 years, it can be a shock to the system to go back to work suddenly. Beside, since I'll be off for 6 weeks in Singapore during the summer period, seriously doubt if any company will let me off for that length of time unless you're working in schools!

Anyway, the boys now have an extra activity to occupy them. Signed them up for martial arts class, well, more a self-defence class. It's on every Mon and Thur evening although you don't need to go for the 2 days and best of all, they aren't subjected to term times. Most activities seem to die off when it's the holidays. So the boys do have their swimming and martial arts activites to occupy them.

Rite, I'm off to Chessington Park later for the weekend. Didn't feel like going to Legoland again so chose another theme park for the boys. They will be going with their cousins and their mom! MIL is coming along as well. Oh the joy of having 4 boys this weekend! Found out that the weather will be an absolute crap! That's the Brit weather for you! Anyway, more photo opportunities..... TTFN!

>>> Happy Mother's Day! <<<

My boys are lovely. Woke me up with a box of choccies (yup again!) and some handmade cards! So adorable they are!

Ollie and Zac actually painted their cards! Check out the box of choccies in the background... mmm! All mine!

TTFN!

>>> Happy Leap Day! <<<

Just had to blog this day! TTFN!

>>> Earthquake! <<<

OMG! I felt it! It happened just before 1am. Just lying in bed, waiting to doze off when suddenly I felt the bed shaking, then the room, accompanied by a low rumbling sound. I immediately guess it was earthquake as I had experienced something similar in 2000. One cannot ever forget the feeling of earthquake. It leaves you rooted to the ground (in my case, the bed), feeling extremely scared and totally helpless. Thankfully the tremors lasted about 10 sec. The boys were fast asleep and didn't feel a thing. I woke hubby up when I said 'What's that' when the tremors occured. Obviously he didn't feel it and when I told him, he asked me if I were dreaming?!!! Eh hello, why on earth would I dream of an earthquake or even the feeling of things shaking about me?

Anyway, the next morning, he called me on my mobile to confirm I was right about the earthquake. He heard it over the radio. It measured 5.2 on the Ritcher scale. Apparently the biggest in England but seriously I think the quake in Dudley in 2000 lasted far longer than this one. Ohhh, I can't never ever forget that experience.

BackPorch Memories March kit is awesome. Check out the sneak peek. My DT kit will be late this month as Paula is awaiting stuff that she ordered from CHA. They are all the latest products. So cool and how nice to play with new stuff.

Oh, just been asked to be guest designer for a cool product! More news to come later...... TTFN!

>>> Happy Anniversary! <<<

to hubby and moi! Sheesh, has it been 8 years? I'm amazed I've lasted that long seeing that I do get bored easily and have never lasted more than a year with any ex's!!! Oh well, as long as he doesn't interfere with my scrapping and leave me to it, that's fine.

I got a box of choccies from hubby! I don't do flowers and have asked hubby never ever to give me any as I'm not thoroughly impressed by them. The mere thought of cleaning them when they wilt is enough to put a damper to it! It just stinks and I absolutely hate any chore that smells.

Choccies are fine but I'm seriously trying to reduce the inches off my waistline and am constantly getting choccies as presents. Doesn't help does it? Don't ever think of saying 'don't eat it'. If it's there it will get eaten. Even more so when I'm scrapping as I find choccies kinda give me the creative juices. Oh well, I shall have to put aside my abstinence to choccies for the time being! TTFN!

>>> Another Weekend Gone! <<<

Gosh, this month is sure passing fast! Another weekend gone again. It was back to routine on Sat, with Oliver having swimming lessons in the morning and Mandarin classes in the afternoon. Then at nite, I scrapped as there was a cybercrop at Homegrown Scrapbooks and managed 2 12x6" LOs.

The challenge was to use thickers and I had no problem accomplishing that task. I've got loads of them!!! Broke into my Feb Scarlet Lime kit and made use of other stuff from previous kits too. It's nice to be able to create without restraint (those on DTs will know what I mean).

This challenge was based on BOM. I chose to title it in French (I love the sea), just to make a change from using English all the time! Anyway, it records my longing for the sea. Having brought up in a tropical island, I really do miss being near the sea! LO created using Scarlet Lime Feb kit (apart from the bird). Paper is from Prima and such a lovely paper that I chose to create in 12x6 so that I can use both sides!

Managed only 2 LOs before succumbing to sleep!

Sunday was basically a chill-out day for us! The boys and moi spent the day watching Ben10, in between supervising their homework. It was a Ben 10 marathon weekend and I kinda like watching that cartoon. TTFN!

Zac's school celebrates the children's birthdays and it was Zac's turn to be standing around the birthday table. I think it's good that the school does it as it makes the kids feels like they really belonged there. Anyway, managed to snap a few photos. Yup, parents are invited to the birthday ceremony!

Well, they blow the candles and get a birthday pencil!

Joined Zac's school PTA and tonite was the 2nd meeting. Incidentally it's called Friends of Lynden Green Infant School (FOLGIS). I ended up being nominated as Secretary. How interesting!!! Basic role is to take minutes and do tons of paperwork! Oh well, might slowly ease my lazy arse out of the house and hopefully into the working society again. Been meaning to get a job but haven't given much thought to it! Ha!

TTFN!

>>> Music Week! <<<

It was music week at Zac's school and he had to perform for the school! Oh well, he merely played on the E string of his violin.

Gosh, doesn't he look serious but what an absolute cutie!

TTFN!