Disney

For months I have been planning a surprise trip to Disneyland in Hong Kong for the kids, my parents and us. My mom has been dying to take the kids and with us moving over here it has not worked out so well. We have had several friends go to Hong Kong and they said it is a much smaller park but for the little kids it is great.

To execute the surprise I wrapped up little mickey and minnie characters and tied a note around their necks that said "See you at Disneyland in Hong Kong". Then we gave them on Christmas Eve. The attached video is the reaction. My mom is priceless. The girls are excited but don't really know what they are in for. Anyway not much time to pack and finalize plans because we leave tomorrow morning!

In order to balance out all the kid mania we are going to the island of Macau first which is the Las Vegas of Asia. Kyle and I are excited about this part. We will stay at the Venetian for two nights and then go the Disney Hotel for three nights. We thought it would be a good time to get some gambling and drinking done while we have baby sitters. :)

Post pictures soon.

Emily's Birthday Part 2

Here are some more photos from Emily's birthday party (after our camera died).

The Skinny Santa

Samantha shined in her first Christmas production, as the Easter Bunny. Yes, that is correct, the Easter Bunny in the Christmas play. I wasn't sure the connection either until after the performance. One of the teachers wrote this cute play about the skinny Santa. He just wasn't hungry and Mrs. Clause was worried because all the children were expecting a fat Santa. Anyway they did the first number "Eat It" to the Michael Jackson song Beat It. Then Santa got a little fatter. Then they decided he needed some "Gingerbread" hence the second dance. Once again he got fatter. Then he need something healthy so the next dance was all about "Healthy Foods". Then enters the Easter Bunny to fatten Santa even more. There were 5 kids in the production that were one offs with lines. I have to say I was really worried about Samantha memorizing her lines but she mastered them perfectly. They also prerecorded their voices that they played live just in case anyone froze.

She had to say:

I can see the problem here

I know just what to do

Don't you worry Santa

I can fix this hullabaloo

I eat Easter eggs at Easter

At Christmas I eat Turkey

Get yourself a plate of it

And soon you will be feeling perky.

Quite ambitious lines for a 4 year old I thought but she did fine. So the last dance was all the "Turkeys" to fatten Santa even more. By the end he was all set. It was really cute and all the kids did a great job.

Enjoy the photos.

First Trophy

Well soccer has come to an end. Just when Samantha was starting to get into it. Well last week she was playing goalie and pretty much got her head stuck in the net playing around. But besides that she was doing good. Nonetheless all the kids had fun and best of all...they got trophies at the end of the season party. Samantha just loves hers. A few pics from the party. Samantha and her coach, Chris. Her good friend Karan and her friend Annabel. Both in her class and also on her team.

Chinese Wedding

Saturday night Kyle and I attended our first Chinese wedding reception. Eu Jin, works for Kyle and graciously invited us to be part of the celebration. Evidently the wedding activities go on for well over a week. Last weekend the bride's family hosted a party for her side and this weekend was hosted by his family. It was at a local hotel ballroom and probably had 250+ people in attendance. The invitation stated there was a cocktail reception starting at 6:30 and dinner at 7:00 SHARP. We arrived a few minutes after 7:00 because our GPS gave us a few wrong turns. We were running in so we would not be late. Yeah right. They invited us to our seats in the ballroom at 7:15 and it was not until 8:00 that most other people rolled in. They started a slide show presentation with all their engagement photos around 8:15 and the bride and groom were announced at 8:30 or so. So much for "sharp".

The main event is the food. They serve a 8-10 course meal (see menu) and between some of the courses were some toasts from the groom's parents, another slide show and champagne toast in Chinese. Then the bride and groom, plus family, travel to each table to toast with guests. It is traditional to toast "Yom Seng". Which is like cheers. We sat with some of Kyle's other collogues so it was nice.

By the time the food came I was starving. I first had some chicken with cashews. Pretty safe. Then I took a BIG bite of "noodles". It looked like a clear,rice fettucini noodle with a chili sauce. Not exactly. Once in my mouth I knew I was in big trouble. The crunchy, yet jelly consistency was bad enough but the overpowering fish taste was enough to make we gag on the spot. So bite number two politely went into the cloth napkin. Thai Style Jellyfish. Yuck, yuck, yuck.

Considering I only indulged in maybe three of the courses I would have done ANYTHING to stop at Taco Cabana on the way home!

Overall a great experience. Eu Jin and his wife are such a lovely couple and it was fun to experience something so different than a typical American wedding.

Kyle's Birthday

After all the fanfare with the splash party, Kyle's birthday was pretty low key. The girls made him a card and I baked a pumpkin cheesecake (by request). We opened presents and ate chili. Some hoopla huh? He is going out with the guys tomorrow night and then next weekend we have a nice couples dinner to celebrate a few other birthdays as well.

Now that Emily is at a bigger school she gets lots of practice singing Happy Birthday and is so cute doing it. I couldn't get the video to load so a picture will have to do.

Emily's Birthday Party

Here are a few pictures from Emily's 2nd Birthday party. We could not have picked a better theme for her...Splish, Splash! She LOVES playing in the water and her friends did too. We sent out beach ball invites, had a sprinkler, two water tables, a baby pool, and a beach ball cake. It was perfect for this age too. No games, just playing.

Our camera died right at cake time so these are just pictures of the outside party. I will post cake cutting and candles later.

I can't believe she is two!

Birthday Walk Times Two

Today we celebrated Emily's second birthday at school. How can she already be two?? The preschool here does such a good job with birthdays. The parents answer a few questions from the school and they turn it into a birthday walk. They light a candle and put it in the middle of a circle and then the birthday girl/boy walks one lap for every year. So the first lap they talk about when and where they were born and other details of when they were a baby. The second lap is all about being one and their favorite toys, foods, etc. Emily didn't "walk" too well but she loved the attention nonetheless. Then we sang, ate cupcakes and looked at her picture board. The other children loved the photos, especially the one with Emily and the kangaroo.

Friday (her real birthday) is a public holiday for deepavali so Kyle has the day off too. Hope to do something fun as a family. Then Saturday we are having a splash party at our house. Emily loves nothing more than playing in the water. So we are setting up a baby pool, two water tables and a sprinkler. I invited her baby play group and two other friends. EVERYONE said yes so with mommies, daddies, and siblings it will be 30+ people. Yikes. Wish us luck!

She is Coming Around

Believe it or not, Samantha is coming around and enjoying soccer now. Here are some action shots.

Halloween

On Friday morning there was a costume parade around Samantha's school. I posted a picture of her class. Mr. Balfour let his beard grow to add to his pirate costume. Then on Friday night Samantha's school hosted a Halloween Trick or Treat Trail around the school. I saw a sign in the school a few months ago asking for volunteers with this event. So I emailed that I would help. I attended the first meeting and there were 5 or 6 of us. This then became the committee to plan the whole thing. I got suckered! Anyway it was a great turn out. My guess is well over 1000 kids and parents came. I worked the entire time so Kyle played Mr. Dad and did a great job getting the girls dressed and took them all around to the games and on the trail.

Then on Sunday we had an organized trick or treat in the neighborhood. We had SO many kids this year. It was great! It is really only the Americans that do Halloween so many of the parents/kids had no idea what to do. We had to explain that you go door to door (only the ones with their lights on) and say trick or treat. Someone asked me if it was a day we honored our dead relatives. "Not exactly" was my reply. It is really just about the costumes and the candy.

KL is coming around to the holiday because there were many more decorations available this year. However, any guess on the cost of a pumpkin here...$60+ for a small to medium one. Yeah, we didn't carve any this year.

Kota Kinabalu

Last week Samantha had a one week holiday from school so we headed to the beach. We fley 2.5 hours to east Malaysia which is also Borneo. We had heard great things about the Shangri La Resort there, and it did not disappoint. It was perfect for our kids. The room was set up with a daybed and extra room for Emily's pack and play, a huge plus. One pool had three water slides and two of the pools were "walk in" for Emily. Just beyond the pool was a huge beach that was virtually all to our selves. And lastly the food was good.

The girls had a great time. Samantha really enjoyed the kids club. She got to make a kite, get her face painted, ride a horse, do painting, braid her hair and attend a jungle party one night. It made it easy for Kyle and I too.

Family fun all around. Enjoy the photos.