Happy Fifth Birthday, Melur!

Today, we surprised Melur with ice-cream cake on her birthday. Melur is usually very good at remembering things, but we made sure not to remind her (or give her any hints) of her upcoming birthday. Haha… is that cruel and unusual? She seemed pleasantly surprised with the occasion. You can be the judge. We took a video of the unveiling:

After blowing out the cake, it was time to open presents. Melur only got one present from all of us. We got Melur a tutu (ballet outfit). She really likes this book about ballet, which we read to her at night. The outfit also includes authentic ballet slippers, though I think Melur thinks it’s a little weird without much foot support (it feels kind of like a sock).

Then it was on to enjoying the cake. Soon after, we had Melur try on the tutu. We’re planning to enroll Melur for Ballet classes later this semester. The semester hasn’t officially started yet, so we’ll see how that pans out.

So this is Melur’s birthday. Next one is Mommy in October. What shall we get her then?

Melur in her Tutu

Melur Takes Off!

Melur has done it. Only 2 days after taking her training wheels off permanently, Melur can now ride her bike comfortably, just before her fifth birthday. This video was taken by Mommy, just outside our front door. Catch a glimpse of Melfa Lane!

CONGRATULATIONS MELUR!!!

Training Wheels Off

Today, I saw Melur ride her friend’s bicycle… a two-wheeler without training wheels. I was so surprised. Just a few days ago, I tried to get Melur to ride her own bike without training wheels, but she kept falling. Today, she rode her friend’s bike, all by herself. But the friend’s bike was a lot smaller.

So today, we took the training wheels off Melur’s bike. Melur was a lot more confident on the bike. The trouble is just that her bike is a little large for her. We took some videos of her on the bike.

Arman on the other hand was content playing with the training wheels. He fiddled around with the screwdriver like an expert mechanic. I think we need to get a bike for Arman soon. Next spring, when the weather gets warmer, we’ll get one for Arman as well.

Flying at Jericho Beach

We made it to Jericho beach! After our first try at flying kites last Monday, we thought we’d try it out again some place windier. We took the bus and made our way to the beach. The kids were very excited.

From out last trip, one of the kites wasn’t working too well. So Arman was the first to get his kite up. The wind was good, and I managed to bring the kite up before handing it over to Arman. He was pretty good at it. The wind was fair, and keeping the kite up was kind of like holding the string to a helium balloon. We took some videos.

As I was helping Melur with her kite, Arman released the string, which I tied to the handle he was holding. And so the kite kept going up and up and up. I guess I should’ve just let it go higher in the first place. Here you see the kite flying even higher than before.

We stopped for lunch. I brought some sandwiches, and we enjoyed some grub on the grass. After that, it was back to kite flying.

Melur was very persistent. Despite the kite being not so optimal, she kept at it, and we managed to get the kite up in the air. I brought the kite up in the air, tide up string so that it would fly off, and handed it off to Melur. And the kids took it from there.

We were at the beach for quite a while. We had some errands to run that day, so after the beach, we walked back to 10th Street, stopped by a playground, had a “Slurpee” (from Mac’s, not from 7 Eleven), and then did some grocery shopping at Safeway. And this was our day out on Saturday.

Flying Kites

Today is BC Day, a Canadian Statutory holiday. We decided to go out and buy a kite from the Dollar Store. The kids seem excited to try something new. We bought one kite first, but then lost of the pieces while we were walking. We bought another, and then found the missing piece. So as it turns out, we ended up with 2 kites, one for Melur and one for Arman.

We went to the park just outside the Dollar Store. It wasn’t very windy, and so the kids ended up running a lot to get the kite up in the air. They had so much fun, I felt compelled to offer that we’d go to the beach to fly the kites some day soon. They seem so happy. Hopefully, we’ll get that chance soon.

Dinner And A Movie

Another weekend, another movie. Mommy and Daddy collected enough Airmiles reward points to redeem free movie tickets at Empire Theatres, and so we headed over to Oakridge Mall to watch the latest Harry Potter installment, “Order of the Phoenix”. It was a good show. And the theatre was acceptable. It’s actually a lot cheaper than SilverCity in Metrotown, but not as large (only 3 cinemas with 3 show times after noon).

After the movie, we had some New York Fries at the food court, before exploring the mall a little bit. We spent quite a bit of time at Zeller’s before heading over to Fraser St to try out the new Malaysian Restaurant called “Malaysian House”. Before heading home, we stocked up on Halal meat from the Halal meat market just a block down the road. And that was the end our Dinner and a Movie (more like Movie and then Dinner) Saturday.