I got this fun craft from US. It is a few pieces of wood with a picture of a girl and her clothes. In the set, they provide color pens to color the girl and clothes. I got it for US$2.99 and Emily love coloring it. After that she can play pretend with her other dolls. I bought a few packs. Another set has small picture frames where you can insert your photo after completing it. I love coloring it with her too.

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I believed New York Times Square has the biggest Toys R US store. I stepped in and I saw this huge Ferris wheel in front of me. I wanted to ride but I need a kid to get on, I presumed. Too bad my children were not with me. After I showed them the picture, they are persuading me to take them to New York.

Besides that, there were staffs giving demo to the toys sold there. Lots of activities inside the store. I like the Lego section because they have a lot of big Lego displayed. Two famous attractions were there, the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty.

If I bring my kids there, I can assure you that they will spend the whole day there. One thing lacking, they should have a cafeteria in there too. I am sure this Christimas, lots of people will be contributing to the store.

View Larger Map

We went back to Teluk Bahang Penang National Park on Hari Raya Haji public holiday for hiking again. This time, we picked another destination called Sungai Tukun. I picked this place because it has most of the facilities and the hike is about 15minutes. It is not so taxing for the children. The place has both river and sea.

At first when my kids heard about hiking, they were not keen after the last trip of 90 minutes hike. Emily gave me a sad face. I encouraged her by saying, it will be a very short hike and you can play with water and sand. Both my kids love playing with water.

Yes, I would recommend this place for anyone who wants to hike with children. The place is beautiful. The river water is clean. In the middle of the stream, someone build a pool and my children had a good swim there.

The annoying part is the monkey. They are eying on our food and definitely cannot eat there. It will attract a bunch of them and they will start to surround you. Imagine, I threw some rubbish into the bin. Next minute, my hubby told me that the monkey just grabbed it from the bin and ran.

My children gave thumbs up and they want me to bring them back again! Definitely will go again.

Up The Track & Down The Track

After that, we headed for a delicious seafood lunch with sea view.

Attacking The CLAW!

I am glad my children seldom hog over my computer, iPhone or my hubby’s iPad. My hubby and I only allowed them to play when they get rewarded for good behavior, doing good things or getting good results. They also have schedule time, 1-2 hours a day in a week for computer games. Tim picked Saturday and Emily picked Friday.

If I ever need to punish them for bad behavior, I just take away their computer time. I am glad to say that I don’t always punish them. I also believed that some computer games improved their problem solving skills. However we should limit our children spending too much time on electronic gadgets.

By the way, they are still not allowed to play with the iPad because the screen protector has not arrived yet. It is a good training for them to refrain themselves from touching it. I don’t hide any of these gadgets, they are on my work table all the time. They have been thought to ask permission before using it.

Today was the Deepavali Holiday and my family went hiking. We hiked to Pantai Kerachut, one of Penang National Park in Teluk Bahang. I have heard so much about it and finally I can see it for myself.

My hubby and Tim went there before and told us it will be at least a 90 minutes hike. I am all prepared for it but not sure if Emily can do it. However we made it. Tim wanted to ride the boat instead of hiking there but it was too costly. A boat rental is RM200 per boat, round trip.

Entrance & Trail Map

We decided to hike there and come back by boat. It was not a difficult trail. Most of the trail has steps. One or two that was difficult to cross but there was rope tied by the side to help us.

First stop was a stream of water, my children decided to go for a feet dip. Well, they just like to play with water. Emily asked why no fish to come and eat off her dirt. As we journey along, we looked at the plants, the trees and listen to the sound of the jungle. Emily & I sang some Sunday School songs as we hike, just to distract her from asking me when it will all end.

After more than 90 minutes, I believed it was longer than that, they finally saw the bridge that leads to a beautiful beach. By the way, the place here has full facilities such as toilets, a place for shower, camping site and the beautiful beach.

My children just cannot wait to get themselves wet and they had a good swim with papa. We took the boat back that cost RM50 for my family. You can negotiate with the boat driver. It was really an experience and prepared to get wet. The waves were very rough and it went up & down. Thank God we arrived safely. Here are some pictures of the place…

Once I was in a little argument with Emily. She was at the table playing Lego or her toys, the fan was on. I was at the study room working. Papa was fetching Tim from school. She was the only one in the living room.

Later after dinner, I saw the fan still switched on. I asked her and she insisted she didn’t switch it on. I asked her who did it. She said, “Not her”. I asked her to go switch it off. I guess her stubborn gens kicked in and insisted she didn’t switch it on. She refused to switch it off. I was all steam up and she was crying.

Guess who saves the day? Tim came walking from his dinner table and went to the remote to switch it off. He said, “Simple”. And it resolved the matter.