Lantern Festival

This year we celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival in Stanley. We started off the night with a rather unconventional "chinese festival" dinner at a Spanish restaurant where we enjoyed some good food and drinks, and great company. However with four toddlers and two babies in tow, dinner soon went from being relaxing to slightly stressful and finally chaotic! So we quickly moved the party outdoors, along the esplanade where the kids had a fantastic time running around with their "old fashion" lanterns.

Lanterns, lanterns and more lanterns at Sheung Wan (not sure why I'm looking so stunned!)

Theme for the night - DRAGONS!

A rather unconventional Mid-Autumn dinner - tapas and sangria

Our two little Miss Baldies (almost 1 year old and still no sign of hair!)

The dragon keeper

Mia's first lantern

More fascinated with the wire rather than the fish

Walking the dragon

Mia and Zoe with their little fishes

An unavoidable accident - there's always one at every lantern festival!

Emeric, Ryan, Samuel and Fabian with their "pets"

Four boys and two little ladies

Ah, those lanterns sure bring back childhood memories

Who said only the kids can have fun? :)

Fascinated by the little light

Budding engineers at work

Perfectly done

Busy Weekends

The weekends come and go so quickly these days. Friday is usually a busy day for us, with Ryan's school in the morning and taekwondo lesson in the afternoon. By the time we get home, all of us are exhausted so it's nice to know that we can sleep in tomorrow, of course that is if both kids cooperate! A couple of weeks ago we spent a relaxing day at Peng Chau with some friends. After a leisurely lunch at tiny restaurant which serves surprisingly good pizzas and fish n' chips, the kids worked off their lunch running around madly on this vehicle-free island.

Deep in thought as we sail out into the open sea

Entry for "Mother and Daughter Lookalike Contest"

Our destination for the day

A local fisherman unloading his super big catch

A bit of exercise to work up their appetites

"Ryan Air"

Koh-koh's cheer squad!

Modern day lanterns, not quite the same as the ones we used to play with as kids

Little Miss 10-month old!

Shad's parents stopped over for a few days on their way home from Taiwan last week. We had a lovely visit and as always, Ryan and Mia loved all the attention they got from their grandparents. With reliable "babysitters" on hand, Shad and I managed to sneak out for a much needed body and foot massage session one night after the kids had gone to bed. Ahhh... two and a half hours of pure relaxation... priceless.

Kids getting reacquainted with Ah Kong

Mia and Ah Ma

Little Miss Big Eyes enjoying a night out

Cooling down at the AMC pool

Human merry-go-round

Playing catch with the baby

"Rock climbing"

Free floating

Hitting the showers

Oh so very glum...

Finally... a smile!

Hodgepotch of cuisines for lunch - laksa, hainanese chicken rice, nasi goreng, club sandwich, fries and spaghetti carbonara

Big Birthday Boy

For the past six months Shad has been constantly reminding me that I am 35 and he is only 34. Well, his time finally came last month and so now my dear husband is ALSO 35! We spent a relaxing day at home then the four of us went out for a cosy dinner at a neighbourhood Italian restaurant that night. These occasions have become all the more special now that we have two precious munchkins to share them with.

Earlier that morning Ryan bounded out of bed excitedly to get the birthday card he'd made, rushed into our room and threw himself on Shad. This year's card was very special because Ryan made it all by himself. I only provided the materials while he came up with the design and did all the drawing and pasting by himself. He gave it a lot of thought and knew exactly what he wanted to make, "a round spaceship with another circle on top and a big star in the middle". He also wrote the birthday message but ran out of space at the end so had to squeeze Mia's name in the tiny space above his own name.

Ryan's creation

A pair of cufflinks for Daddy - Ryan's pinky and Mia's thumb

Those little hands are so quick much to Daddy's and Koh-koh's amusement

And they went straight into the mouth (Daddy's head's cut off because Mama was not concentrating on the photo but rather wanting to get some tissues to clean Mia up asap!)

A very happy birthday boy

Stomach crunches - trying to get out to join in the fun

The lamb chops were delicious

Unfortunately the pasta didn't live up to its delectable description on the menu

"Smooth" Sailing

It's been a year since our last junk trip so a few weeks ago we chose a day with fine weather and hired a junk to enjoy a day out in the sunshine. Well, that's what we thought would happen anyway. How were we to know that a beautiful sunny day would later turn into one with fierce winds and heavy rain?!!

The day started off beautifully, clear skies, light breeze and plenty of sunshine. We boarded the junk at Central Pier then headed out to Sai Kung with my cousin's family. We stopped at High Island, a tiny island with one lone seafood restaurant for lunch. Initially we'd intended to go to Billionaire's beach (we were told that the sand there is super fine) which was just around the corner from where we were having lunch. But as we sailed past it on our way to lunch, there were already 18 junks anchored close to Billionaire's beach. And it was only 11am on a Monday! Don't people work??? I guess you could say the same about us then, har har. So we stopped at a smaller beach nearby instead.

Our "wheels" for the day

Enjoying the sea breeze on the upper deck

There's no such thing as personal space in Hong Kong!

A partially hidden Hong Kong skyline

An old coastal village

Rough seas as we sail into the open sea toward Sai Kung

The nausea starting to creep in

Thank goodness our pit stop wasn't too far away - Yau Ley restaurant on High Island

Digging into the fresh seafood

An ice treat to cool down

Is this a sign of things to come? ;)

Our sexy little girl with Wah Yee

Our transport to the beach

The trip back to Central was pretty rough. In less than an hour the weather went from sunny to overcast to stormy. Unbeknownst to us, the HK Observatory had issued the Typhoon 1 warning signal. The heavy rain made it extremely difficult for the skipper to read the waves and the strong wind made the sea horribly choppy. Poor Ryan who has never gotten seasick on all our previous boat trips was in tears telling us that his tummy was "pain pain", and Tania didn't fare much better either.

Chilling after our swim (and a nap for Mia)

The calm before the storm (right before we sailed into the tropical storm)

Sick as a dog, plastic bag all ready!

Hard to tell but it was raining cats and dogs by the time we got back to Central

It was one heck of a choppy ride, thanks to Typhoon Goni which swept by Hong Kong but thankfully we all made it back safely!