Happy Anniversary

Okay, so this entry is not really about the kids, but I wanna put it in anyway. Today is Mommy and Daddy's 8-year Wedding Anniversary. That's a long time to be married, but Al-hamdulillah, things are going well. I wanted to spend a private evening with the wife, so we had Kakak Jehan babysit the kids for the evening. Mommy and Daddy enjoyed a Seafood Dinner at The Sand Bar, followed by an evening of Theatre at The Granville Island Stage. We watched a Canadian musical called The Back Kitchen Release Party. I'm quite partial to music, and this was a really good show. Anyway...

Happy Annivesary "Mommy".

Hair Cut Day

Another Saturday, another day with the family. Daddy took the kids out today after swimming classes at the UBC Aquatic Centre. The kids have swimming class every Saturday morning.

The kids needed a haircut (and so did I), so we headed to Point Grey (which we call "The Near Safeway") by bike and had our haircut at Great Clips. It's always a hoot going out with the kids.

After the haircut, we headed a couple short blocks north to a nearby playground. It's a pretty big playground, and the kids had fun. I took this chance to relax a little bit.

But we couldn't stay long. It looked like it was gonna start raining soon, so we made our way back. Melur and Arman couldn't agree on a bike route, and threw a tantrum. But we made it through.

Check out the video from after we got back from our trip:

You'll notice from the video, one of the first things that Arman says is "But we didn't buy some tape". The kids love arts and craft, and they go through rolls and rolls of cellophane tape monthly (I would say weekly, but that would be exaggerating). And I mean rolls and rolls. We had to ration it out. They like drawing and then taping them up on the wall. You can see it in the video. Anyway, this was my fun Saturday with the kids...

Imax 3D - Dinosaurs

We made our second trip to Imax 3D today - Dinosaurs. We watched Deep Sea just last weekend. And we had so much fun last time, we just had to go again.

There was nothing really different about this trip compared to our last. We made our way by bus to IMAX. We made it just in the nick of time (like we usually do). The movie wasn't as good as the last one though. I really liked the narration by Johnny Depp in Deep Sea. And that movie was more like a documentary with a message for the younger generation - Take Care Of Our Oceans. This one was filled with CGI. The kids were also a little scared, but not too scared.

Anyway... you can watch this kids' reaction in the video below:

Summer is ending soon. 2 more movies to go.

Play at Kerrisdale

Today was a special day for the kids... Arman's school had a field trip to Kerrisdale Play Place at Kerrisdale Arena. Mommy decided to volunteer and bring Melur along, since Melur's summer holidays already started.

We took a bus with the rest of the kids from Arman's pre-school class, and had snacks outside before going into the play place. We took some pictures... See how happy and excited Melur and Arman look during the snack time.

The Kerrisdale Place has lots of toys...an inflatable castle, an obstacle course, a giant slide, and car rides. Melur and Arman cannot stop running around, trying out, and playing with everything. I think they went on the giant slide a couple of times. Melur's favourite is the slide, while Arman really likes the two-wheeler thingy (see picture... not sure what those things are called). Definitely a fun day!

Summer Friends

Seeing as it’s summer, a Melur and Arman spend quite a good deal outside with friends, I thought I’d take a few pictures, just to remind them how summer is when fall and winter come along. And since we live in university housing, this is the time families come and go as they enrol and graduate from UBC. We’ll be saying good-bye to some friends and hello to some new faces this summer. Here are some new faces, at least to me. Melur has been playing with Budoor and Salim quite often these past few days. I think they just arrived from Saudi Arabia recent. And hanging around with Melur also is Yan-Lin (pictured separately on the right). We see her often. She lives just across the playground. They’ll both be attending Grade 1 at University Hill Elementary this fall.

Arman, Budoor, Melur and Salim

Summer months are always fun. It’s been quite sunny. I love the weather. I hope it holds, and Melur and Arman can enjoy many afternoons with friends at Acadia Park.

Imax 3D: Deep Sea

Daddy found a deal on IMAX movies in the local paper a few days ago – 4 movies for CDN$25. So we set out today to watch our first IMAX 3D movie in Vancouver. Melur has seen one IMAX 3D movie back in Malaysia, called Polar Express. That was a pretty good movie, but I think Melur was too young to remember.

The IMAX theatre is located at Canada Place, which is by the sea. It’s sort of a harbour for huge vacation cruisers. The theatre is actually way at the back, so we made our way up some stairs, and saw the docked cruiser. What a sight!

On the way to IMAX

Today we watched Deep Sea 3D. The movie was AWESOME!!! Very educational, which is always a plus for the kids (or the parents). Arman couldn’t stay in his seat. He’s actually very easily excited when watching intense situations. Both Melur and Arman reached out toward the screen, thinking that they could touch the 3D animals they saw in the movie. How funny is that?

After the Movie

Well… that was our first trip to IMAX. We have coupons for 3 more IMAX 3D movies. I wonder which one we’ll watch next. It expires at the end of summer, so we’ll be watching quite often for the next few weeks. Oh well…

Summer Fun

Daddy’s getting ready for another BBQ. We’ve had a few since we got the grill last month. Anywho… Arman is in his shorts, anxious to get wet again in these warm summer days.

BBQ Fun and Arman in his Shorts

Care to join us for some Summer Fun?

Arman is Wet Again

Well… after getting new Water Guns yesterday, the kids are at it. And Arman is all wet again, just like Last Time. Melur managed to stay dry, but she seems to be playing by herself. What about Tamara and Jaden? Everybody’s dry except for Arman. He’s having too much fun with the water.

Arman Gets Wet

Water Guns

After watching Arman’s Water Gun Encounter, we decided that today would be the day we got the kids their water guns for the summer. Mommy promised them anyway. Daddy took the kids to Toys R Us to make a selection.

We were in and out of Toys R Us in about 5 minutes. The water guns were displayed in the front, and the kids immediately knew what the wanted – a pair of really large water guns. They came packaged together. I guess nobody really ever wants ONE water gun. You’ll always want someone else to play with.

And with no further delays, we made our way back home. And that was that. I wonder what kind of trouble the kids will get into with the new water guns. Watch how excited they are:

Armed and Dangerous

Day at Magdalena’s

With KinderClub over, Melur has some free time. And so today, she’s invited to hangout at Magdalena’s place with Arshia. Magdalena’s parents by the way run KinderClub. This is Melur’s first day at a friend’s house, for virtually the entire day. Jamie (Magdalena’s dad) picked up Melur and Arshia in the morning around 11 am. Daddy and Arshia’s mom picked the kids after work at around 5:30 pm.

We had a chance to hang around a little while, and enjoy the evening with the kids. Magdalena has a really large back yard. How nice. It was getting quite late, so we didn’t stay long. Magdalena’s house is way in Burnaby, near the Edmonds SkyTrain station. We had to take the train back to Broadway, and take the 99 back to campus. I think the kids were quite spent. But they had lots of fun nonetheless.

Thank you Magdalena for having us over. Hope we can come again soon.

Out with Arman on Canada Day

Today is Canada Day, a statutory holiday in BC (and the rest of Canada, I presume). For some odd reason, Melur doesn’t want to play with Arman today and established a “Boys and Girls” Club without any boys. Only Tamara and Yan-Lin are in the club with Melur. Poor Arman. He's pretty bummed about that…

Melur's Boys and Girls Club

I guess we’ll have to make our own little “Boys” Club. And so Arman and Daddy made our way out to run some errands, namely to get some Halal meat. Haha… We had a chance to bond as father and son. Arman was so well behaved today. I couldn’t help treating him with a smoothie from Booster Juice, here at the UBC Village.

We made a short stop at Safeway for some groceries, before going to Shapla Meat Market, over on Broadway and Frasier. The butcher there knows us well, and was wondering why Melur didn’t come along. Oh well… We can have fun without her. And after all that was done, we made our way back by bus. And that was my afternoon with Arman. He’s so much fun. Happy Canada Day everyone!