Have you happened to see this AMAZING book in the book stores lately???

If you skittered along to your nearest MPH, you could probably find it. It is a GREAT book for ideas on things to do with your kids. The book says it is for ages 5-8 but I reckon your child would still have a lot of fun between the ages of 4-10. Seriously……

These days, kids are born into the world of technology (not their fault) and the competitive Asian raising children influences are rife. Take a look around you. Most kids are busy studying and preparing for exams, going for extra-curricular classes, tuition classes and having their lunches in the car. Why? Because there isn’t enough time to get it all done properly. If they’re not doing that, they are attending some event or meal with or without their parents or playing with some electronic device. Only a small fraction of kids are actually out there having a balanced lifestyle of playing outdoor sports, games and just purely having simple relaxed fun. It is actually their entitlement, you know, to have fun and to play as a kid. Learning through play, something we learnt from my cousin who pioneered the Julia Gabriel Centre. How glad I am to have learnt this very early on………

Back to the book – Buddy & Vernon’s Adventures, it is essentially a children’s activity scrap book that they can learn from, perform activities (all ideas, instructions are spelt out step by step in a fun way) and then record their findings and results. A real KEEPSAKE. I love it. T1 loves it. One day, T2 will love it too. Actually, T2 already loves it now but for all the wrong reasons. The girls actually fought over the book till T1 cried. T2 wanted the book and T1 said it was hers and it was very personalised so T2 couldn’t have it and the war began!!!

After the tussle of screams, I instructed T2 to return the book to T1, who really was in tears as you can see below…….bulging eyes after a cry. Bless her.

On the front page, T1 has added her name and photo and it starts with a little comic about who Buddy and Vernon are. See below left? Those are Mung Beans! The book comes with beans for you to grow so you don’t have to buy a whole large bag from the grocers. Way cool. I mean, of course if you were a bean hoarder, this coolness wouldn’t appear so cool to you……….but it was cool for us.

There are tons of little adventures within the book that Mommy or Daddy can do together with child and it is really such a fantastic way to spend quality time with your kids rather than taking them to the shopping mall, indoor play gym or worse, watch TV.

So the first adventure T1 chose to go on was to go on a bug hunt. EWE!!! Of all things!!! I told her I hated bugs and was not interested in participating in bug activities but would provide her with the necessary support to do her little project. As we live in an apartment, we couldn’t find many bugs indoors so this project took a few days. At every opportunity, she would look out for bugs and take a photo. She even invited her friends to help her in her bug hunt……

Here are the bugs she found:

Bug 1 – I don’t know anything about bugs

Bug 2 – I still don’t know anything about bugs

Bug 3 – Where is the bug??? She claims it is in there somewhere!

Bug 4 – mosquito larvae that she found in a cafe…..

Bug 5 – A bug that had entered from the jungle

Bug 6 – What a pretty bug……

She had compiled like a dozen bug shots and then was suddenly faced with a problem.

“But the book only has space for 2 bug photos, Mom. What should I do?”

I told her to think. What COULD she do? What SHOULD she do? I never solve my children’s problems. I was waiting to see if she would cross boundaries, break the rules and just paste all her dozen bugs into the book somehow or learn how to prioritise and choose only the two best bugs. She did the latter.

She is still on the look out for a red and black lady bug. When we aren’t searching for it, it is everywhere and when we want it, we cannot find it.

We’re still in the process of completing the bug project but meanwhile, T1 has proceeded to grow her Mung Beans as she just read the instructions herself and did it all by herself. I am merely the judge of her activities, participating in the background.

But the INCREDIBLE thing that she’s gotten out of that exercise??? She’s developed a love for planting…….

See below? She made her own plant pot, decorated it and everything and even found a chopstick to use, all completely done on her own. I didn’t even throw her ideas on how she could make her plant stand or ANYTHING!! I don’t know if she googled or if she asked her green-fingered Nana or what, but I must say I was pretty impressed that she actually had a plant growing. See the bottle of water on the window pane? That’s the water she uses to water her plant daily……

T1’s plant close up.

And suddenly when I was taking photos of her plant, I noticed this! What!!!

My little trouble maker who’s all out to kill her sister’s plants…..actually, her sister’s anything. Her one mission in life is to cause trouble for her sister.

I was comforted when I saw the other side of the plant that had an angel that said BE GOOD. Phew.

Back view of her plant

I thought it was so cute that she drew the back side of the little girl on the back side of the whatever it is – hands? flaps?

Is she trying to tell us something??? That everyone has good and naughty perhaps??? Or was this merely a representation of her and her sister?? I must ask her later where it came from.

And even more amazingly, she has now started growing her own onions!!! She has started a marketing campaign in selling these ORGANIC onions to anyone who is interested to buy them for RM1 each!!!

I said, “Who will buy them? It’s so expensive!!” – She has no concept of money still (haha). Recently, she tried selling them to her Ama from Kota Bharu and Ama said, “…Hahaha….the only one who will buy them at this price would be your Nana!” Well, there is a very good reason why she is THE Nana, isn’t it???

I’m really so proud of my little girl. She plucked some spring onions out yesterday and made me taste them and then we used them for dinner. It tasted FANTASTIC and she was plenty thrilled to see something she’d cultivated entirely on her own come to fruition and into our yummy tummies.

That isn’t it yet! T1 ALSO had to make her egg mayo mix this morning following Buddy & Vernon’s instructions, but we haven’t had a chance to take photos for that yet.

Here’s T1’s egg mayo…..with added red onions for kick. She loves onions and garlic and all sorts of weird things. She used to eat loads of garlic as a kid and when we asked her why she loved garlic so much, she said, “…..to ensure the Dracula doesn’t come get me.” I laughed till I cried as she was serious.

If you like what you see in the book, Buddy & Vernon’s adventures, and I guarantee you that it is great quality time spent with your child, very cleverly written and a lot of thought and passionate love gone into the activities, go get it. It is worth every penny.

However, over the next 2 weeks, I have three books to give away to the person who can get Mamapumpkin’s Facebook page the most LIKES. All you need to do is to get all your friends to LIKE Mamapumpkin’s Facebook page and I will deliver the book (by hand, by freight, by car, by post) to you. Send me a list of your facebook friends or a print screen and a winner will be selected by the end of September, hopefully earlier!

Easy peasy……Bye now! We’re off to continue our Buddy & Vernon Adventures!!!

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Who is Mamapumpkin?
Mamapumpkin spent 7 years in London committing crimes to gain her Bartlett degree in Architecture. She then spent 7 years as a Stay At Home Mom raising her children as documented in this blog of over 15 years thereafter returning to the Corporate World stronger than ever as the Country Director of a British Multinational. She sets out to prove to all, that you can have anything and everything that you want; if you have that fire of desire burning within and the drive to work hard. Even better with much love.

Mamapumpkin has not only grown corporate businesses successfully in the past but has grown not one but TWO network marketing businesses in the notorious MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) industry, achieving success in under 2 years. She believes in the MLM business model but realises the DRASTIC PITFALLS and great stigma attached to it, understanding EXACTLY WHY the majority would shy away (or RUN for their lives) from ANY MLM business. But open your eyes and take time to understand it intellectually, remove your hang-ups, confirm your research, and you may just want to seize an opportunity. She did. And no, she never went about chasing people for sales. She had a sophisticated system work for her through technology and a smartphone.

She now impacts lives authentically with proven strategies amassed through the last decade of her own transformation offering online coaching programmes and always supports the underprivileged. She believes that we can all have a life of our own desires to enable real contribution into the world. But first, one needs to understand what this all means.

A beautiful life without limits.

If you wish to learn some tools to propel your life forward guaranteed, be brave enough to make contact as her life's purpose is to build people. She operates through a discovery call after which she will commit to helping you. Or not.

Most lose out on an opportunity because they are afraid they would be sold to, conned or whatever fear resides in their brain without even trying. And that's on them.

Mamapumpkin is a living testimony that women really can have a lot. Being financially and time free has enabled her to travel the world anytime, anywhere, doing anything, and she spends most of her days with her children, having fun, and supporting others wherever she can. Also having fun.