My Birthday!!

When I suspect Jamie is planning a surprise party for me, I immediately call him to call it off. Well, he denied at first but finally admitted and told me he would cancel the surprise party as it's not a surprise anymore.
He said we will celebrate my birthday for the whole weekend. So my birthday celebration started on Friday evening. We went to Ameristar Casino for my favorite crab leg buffet. Saturday, I picked a Korean BBQ restaurant for dinner. We had never been to this place so I asked him to look for the address which is posted at a Korean grocery store. So we drove to the store, bought some instant noodles and checked out the address. Then we drove to the restaurant. When we were at the restaurant, our friends came in to surprise me... Apparently, Jamie already knew the address of that place and informed our friends to join us there to give me a big birthday "SURPRISE"! After the dinner we went to WS & KW's house for cake cutting. I was really touched and of course happy to have friends and family joined me to celebrate this mile-stone. Thanks to all!

See the pictures here:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AatWjJw2cM2WB

Memorial Day Weekend at the Lake

8 adults and 2 kids spent a Malaysian style Memorial Weekend at Lake of Ozarks.

Why is it Malaysian style? Because we had Malaysian food everyday..:)

First day we arried at Osage Beach and shopped at the Outlet Malls. At night we enjoyed BBQ "Ayam Percik" and "Ayam Tandoori" together with Ghee Rce, Pineapple Acar and Yogurt Salad for dinner..... hmm just thought about it makes me hungry..:P

2nd day we had Roti Canai with Sambal and Dhal for breakfast. Angela even made me a special Roti Telur...:) Then we went on the pontoon and drove around the lake enjoying the scenery and trying to spot *#@ at Party Cove..:) We also rented a jet-ski and highlights was that Yew Wee was ditched by Patricia (How can I not mention that?). KFC for lunch and Nasi Lemak with Curry Ayam for dinner.

3rd day morning we celebrated Athena's birthday and have yummy caramel pecan custard ice-cream cake for breakfast. Then we had leftovers - Acar, KFC, Roti Canai, Curry Ayam, Sambal & more for brunch. After checked out from the resort, we went to the outlet malls again before heading home. Everyone found something(or lots of things?) at the mall.

For pictures: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AatWjJw2cM2UJ

That's was a really fun trip!!

Athena's Graduation (5/18)

Hi all!! Athena graduated from Pre-K and I am a proud mom..:) This August she will attend Kindergarten at Clear Creek Elementary. Here are some of her graduation pictures to share with you.....

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AatWjJw2cM2T3

B&V Cultures Day 5/18

Believe It or Not? Zurin, Patricia, Kay and I danced "Joget Pahang" at the B&V Cultures Day event.
I remembered the last time I did Malay dance was in Secondary School (Kwee Eng, I am sure you remember). I wasn't so great at that time and this time it's the same. I couldn't remember what drove me to participate in that dance. Anyway, it's over and most people said it was good (Mat Saleh don't know if we did wrong..:P). Thanks to all the friends and family that showed up to support us..:))
Want a peek of the dance? It's a chance of a lifetime to see 4 wives "shake their hips"...Ha ha HA :))

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5391664125603079501&pr=goog-sl

I took Athena and Nelia to the event to expose them to cultures of other countries as well as ours. Athena dressed in Malay Baju Kurung and Nelia in Chinese Cheongsam.

See all the items and poster that we displayed? Yeah, a lot of work and coordination to set up such a nice display booth. Thanks to all that helped so that we can show the Mat Saleh our cultures!!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AatWjJw2cM2Tm

Dinner at M&S on the Plaza (3/24)

The weather was nice, the wind was breezy. We brought the kids to the Plaza. We made a reservation at McCormick & Schmicks at 7pm and we were early. So, we did some window shopping along 47th St. All of a sudden, Nelia wet her skirt!!! Yeah, unexpected things like that do happen and ruin our wonderful moods....:( (Since she has been potty trained over 5 months, I didn't prepare any change of clothes in the car anymore). So we went to Baby Gap to buy her a new skirt, then went to M&S for our dinner. The evening turned out to be a pleasant one. The food was delicious, the service was good, the kids behaved themselves, and the bill was $25 less.

For a free $25 Gift Cert to M&S or M&S Grill, just print out the coupon below and make an online reservation by 3/31.

Print this coupon:
http://www.fishbowl.com/clt/mccrmck/pc/200702/2/jmp/jmp.htm

Make online reservation:
http://www.mccormickandschmicks.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=content.display&pageID=2

Have fun...:)

Our 1st Movie Night Out (3/18)

Jamie and I went out for a movie for the first time after Athena was born....yeah, almost 5 years since we last went for a movie ...just the two of us!
Jamie picked the Box Office top movie for that week - 300. We watched it at AMC IMAX, the sound effects were extremely heart pounding. I really enjoyed the movie and deeply touched by the story - a true story of how Spartan king Leonidas led an extremely small army of Greek Soldiers (300 of them his personal body guards from Sparta) to hold off an invading Persian army more than one million as large.
According to Jamie the ticket to see IMAX version costs $12 per person and he got the tickets from Costco for $14.99 for two. So, if you want to save some money, get the tickets from Costco then....:P

Jamie's New Toy!!

Ever see a man so obsessed of something?

I finally got to see it when Jamie got his new car, a 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid. He has been reading the specs and reviews of the car every night for the past week. Then he checked and compared all the financing options. I know nothing about cars, so I suggested him to get advice from Gary as he just bought a Hybrid car - Prius (I am glad he did). Both of them went car testing and since then he "fell in love" with that car (the most appropriate description I can think of...:P).
I was sold on the fact that we only need to pump gas about every 3 weeks compares to every week now on our Kia Amanti. We owned the Kia Amanti for about 9 months and it's been a very nice car, so luxurious that it's fully loaded with everything. I have no complains about it except its fuel consumption...:(
Well, we said goodbye to our Amanti on Thursday and welcomed home the Camry Hybrid. Jamie took us out for a car ride and we were all excited. It's really a beauty!! (I just love black car..:P) That night, Jamie hardly slept because he was so excited about the car, if I didn't ask him to stop talking, I believe he will talk till the next morning. The next morning, he drove my car to work instead because it was raining and he didn't want the new car to get dirty (Luckily I was off so he can use my car, otherwise he might call in sick.....imagine that!).
He spent most of his time with his new toy - the car and we all know where he is going to be for the many weekends to come.....all the guys may understand his behavior but all girls may be shaking their heads like me...:P
Did I mention that the car was purchased at Lawrence? Other car dealerships in KC area were not really helpful in looking for us a black one (my only requirement!). It was a little far but the salesmen there were extremely helpful and managed to find it from Nebraska. Most importantly we had saved some sales tax buying our car there.....