End of First Semester School Break

The first term break was just a week and so it is back to school for Nicole tomorrow. We had wanted to visit Melaka (Malacca) - the historical sites like the remains of the Portuguese fort dating back to the 1500s but had to postpone due to mom's (Susan) poor health.

We watched Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son  on Friday and it was hilarious. Yesterday was Nic's fifth taekwondo lesson and she will be taking the yellow belt test next month. I showed her some YouTube clips on the test to get her familiarized.

A Tangled Tale

I took Nic to the Tropicana City mall to catch "Rapunzel - A Tangled Tale". Animated movies are so cool, the graphics are awesome. Of course the story has detoured a lot from way back when I was a kid but entertaining no doubt.

Karate Kid Movie

Nicole was on stage at church to present a Father's Day song with the other children. We left early for Pavilion for lunch and the 2010 version of Karate Kid. I remember the 1984 flick starring Ralph Macchio and this version boasts mega star Jackie Chan as the master. Actually there isn't any karate in the show as it was filmed in Beijing and Jackie is a kung fu master. Little Jaden Smith was great too and we totally enjoyed the movie.

Alice In Wonderland

It is movie day and this time grandma joined us - her first movie in over 40 years. We could not get tickets for the 3D version so had to catch the 'regular' show. I had expected tickets to be scarce as it is the first semester school break and majority of the patrons were teenagers.

The movie was good as with most Johnny Depp shows. The original story did not have Alice slaying monsters, did it?

Movie Day - The Princess And The Frog

Nic and I went over to TGV 1U to watch the movie and it was good! As always I do not check out about the show I wanna watch. I only do so after watching it as I find it to be less distracting as I may end up "looking out" for clues.

The show is fairy tale set in Jazz Age-era New Orleans and centered on a young girl named Princess Tiana and her fateful kiss with a frog prince who desperately wants to be human again. The jazz theme is a breath of fresh air versus the common operatic or Broadway kinda songs, et cetera.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Sammie and I surprised Nic today by taking her to watch the movie at Tropicana City. I finished a showing at around 1.30 pm and by the time I got to the daycare the children were all asleep. Nic walked out of the room in a daze but 'woke' up when I mentioned we were meeting Sammie for the show. I brought clothes for her to change into and her new Crocs (first time using).

Thanks Sammie for the movie and bearing with Nic throughout especially the two occasions she had to go to the bathroom.

I always enjoy 'watching' Nic at the movies as she has an infectious laughter. She seemed to already know most of the 'Bots' names by heart. She must have learned them from her kindy pals.

The show ended around 5.40 pm and after Nic had her fun on the 'slides' (pic) we rendezvoused for dinner at Wong Poh to celebrate Aunty Irene's (more pics) birthday. We had not been there for a while now and the place is as packed as ever. The food was good especially the butter crabs.

Hannah Montana

As part three of Nic's planned movie escapade we watched Hannah Montana at 1U today. Nic was a little confused at first that Hannah and Miley were one and the same.

As I did not do any check on the movie I was pleasantly surprised that her step dad Billy Ray Cyrus of Achy Breaky Heart fame in 1992 played the role of her dad in the movie. Miley's The Climb was also a hit just a few months ago. Oh yeah, her kid sister Noah (what a cutie) was in the show too!

Monsters vs Aliens

I took Nic to the TGV cineplex at 1U to watch Monsters vs Aliens today seeing that it was school break and it is okay to miss one day of daycare. First up we headed to Jusco to find her a swimsuit. She picked a cute pink (naturally) one-piece Ogival suit.


We bought tickets for the 12.30pm show and just managed to get our seats as the feature started. I gotta say it was good fun and the animation was super. Nic laughed the loudest in the cineplex. In fact there was a funny scene where we were the only ones laughing. Two of my favorite stars lent their voices to the movie; Hugh Laurie (that's Dr. House for those who are not familiar with the name) as Dr Cockroach and Kiefer Sutherland (Jack Bauer in 24 ) as General Monger. The lead role of Susan Murphy was played by Reese Witherspoon. Personally I thought the President was hilarious!

After the show we headed back to Jusco's toy section for Nic to have her fun.

Madagascar "Crack-A-Lacking" Escape 2 Africa

Nicole has been reminding us to take her to the movie and we finally did. The 1 Utama crowd was light due to the fact that we have two holidays this week (Monday and Thursday). A lot of folks must be out of town by now.

That's fine by me cos we arrived at 7pm and immediately got tickets for the next show at 7.45pm. To kill time we hung around the Jusco store where Nic got her hands on a tv game console. Things almost got ugly when a girl (about age 6) tried to fiddle with the controls to which Nic yelled "Get away!".

We went into the cineplex at 7.30pm and met three sets of familiar faces. First seated right behind us was Susan's business associate, Ms Ng, her hubby and their 4-year old boy. Three rows further back was Nic's kindy principal Serena and her two daughters. Third set were Martin Sng (church friends) and family who were about three rows in front.

The show was good fun and Nic and the other kid spent the last half hour walking up and down the aisle.

Smell it, smell it, smell it, now take it!

Nicole has been watching this zany Adam Sandler movie, You Don't Mess with the Zohan almost every other day for weeks now. Yeah it is not exactly suitable for kids and Nic is good when it comes to mimicking the Zohan especially the "smell it" part.

Mamma Mia mania still going strong

Nicole finally got to watch the Mamma Mia movie while we were in Penang last weekend. The whole lot watched the dvd at uncle Ah Fatt's home and it was good fun too. Nic already liked Abba music when she heard them while surfing You Tube with me so she enjoyed the movie as well. She has been singing Mamma Mia, Dancing Queen and Money, Money, Money every day since Sunday.

Playhouse Disney & Braveheart

Nicole has been watching Braveheart everyday for the past three weeks. It is an amazing streak as even her previous favorites like Barbie's Mermaidia and 12 Dancing Princesses never caught her attention for so long.

I think she likes swords a lot and it is beginning to scare me. Today I thought I'd divert her attention to something more productive, kid's activity games on Playhouse Disney's website. She really enjoyed all the games and refused to stop playing at 11pm.

I'll have to see if she goes for Playhouse Disney or Braveheart tomorrow.

Jumper - The Movie

Our first family movie outing went so well we decided to go for another. As before, after filtering out the 18+ rated movies we were left with two HK shows, CJ7 and Kung Fu Dunk and Jumper. So Jumper was the obvious choice. I didn't check up on what this show was all about and wasn't expecting much. So it was a pleasant surprise that it was an action sci-fi movie with big names like Samuel L. Jackson and Diane Lane.

We left home for 1 Utama around six in the evening and first stop was to buy tickets. Being a Sunday, it wasn't crowded so the queue moved along quite fast. Next we had pizza for dinner at Shakey's. That left us with another hour to kill so we proceeded to the bowling center next to the GSC cineplexes.

Well Nicole was in her element, distracting two young guys bowling. They rather took to her and didn't mind her nuisance, err I meant presence. Nicole ended up cheering them on! After maybe 20 minutes we took her to the video arcade upstairs. This is kinda new to her as she was not old enough to play the first time we took her to one back when she was a year old. I got a couple of tokens and she played the old Daytona racing game. It went pretty well considering her age. Er, she couldn't reach the pedal so I had to help.

Nicole thoroughly enjoyed the show and there was a scene where she laughed the loudest. Well if you know what her laughter is like, you'd know what I mean.

Nic's First Movie

We decided it was time to take Nicole to her first movie. So off we drove to 1 Utama and with no idea what movie to watch. And as we had not made reservations it was hardly surprising that the queue was long.

As there weren't any cartoons available we, or I gotta say, I chose the movie "Dan In Real Life" as it had a "U" rating (In Malaysia, this means General, from the Bahasa word umum).

We went in fifteen minutes early and there were like only four persons in the cineplex. Nic started asking why the show hasn't started yet. At last the trailers and ads started, thank god!

The first 30 minutes was the hardest as she started to get restless. After that she kinda caught on and actually had fun.

As for the movie, I have to say we enjoyed it a lot. It's one of those shows minus the mega stars (Steve Carrell, for me is a good actor) but really hits home about family and all it's laughter, tears and oh yeah, the word I was searching for, heartwarming!

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