Baby Birthday Party

Today Samantha's baby doll turned two and we celebrate by having a birthday party. I really planned the party because the kids are still on school break and it gave us something to do. We invited Yara, Senna, Romi and Maxi, who all brought their babies too. Samantha had more fun just setting up for the party. She set the table with plates, cups, hats and bottles for the babies. Then we brought all her baby furniture and clothes downstairs and made a big play area in the living room.

All the girls brought their own babies and they had more fun just changing their diapers (or nappies as they call them here), changing clothes, feeding, etc. Each baby got a present and then we decorated cup cakes. Lots of girl fun that is for sure. Emily watched and played equally as hard. You can see by the picture of Samantha taking her nap that she was worn out, but still holding baby and the bottle.

Zoo Pictures

Singapore

It was a holiday weekend in Malaysia to celebrate Hari Raya which when the Muslims break fasting for the month of Ramadan. So like everyone else in KL we headed out of town. We decided to drive to Singapore. We wanted to see the countryside, which ended up being rows of palm trees after rows of palm trees. It took us 6 hours to get there. Boy were we grouchy. We thought it would be 3-4 hours so once again we ate almost all the snacks and were famished upon arrival. There was a stalled car outside of KL that added an HOUR and then immigration into Singapore was probably another 30+ minutes.

The city/country looks very much like the US but nice all over, not just in areas. It reminded me of San Francisco. We stayed on Orchard Road which is a renowned shopping area, although the main purpose of our trip was to visit the Singapore Zoo. The first night we took a Duck Boat tour of the city. Of course Samantha liked the fact that it was a bus that could swim. The city itself was a little torn up because next week is a huge Formula One car race. But we still got the gist of the city including the famous Merlion. The next morning we got up early and went to the zoo. The zoo is "natural habitat" so it is beautiful. The downside is that you do a lot of walking to see the animals. Luckily we had two strollers. The highlights were - watching the elephants take a bath 5 feet in front of us, eating breakfast with the orangutans, and Samantha loved the kimono dragon and zebras. Most of the pictures here are not zoomed. It is a very interactive zoo with great access to the animals.

After a good rest at the hotel we ventured out to do some shopping. Little did I know that we would only conquer one floor of one store. We probably shopped 1/1,000,000th of the place. OMG you could spend a week there just shopping, easily. Many big name brand stores. There was actually a roped off line outside the Louis Vuitton store. I included the a picture looking down on center court of one of the shopping malls to display the sheer number of people. Holy cow they were like ants. It was mid-autumn festival for the Asians so they were all buying mooncakes. That night we had dinner on the water at Clarke Quay. Kyle enjoyed the famous Singapore Chili Crabs and I had seafood.

All in all a good time. We are so fortunate to have the opportunity to see and experience so many new things. We vowed to take advantage of all chances to travel.

Awwwwe...

I scored a new shirt today.

BBQ

Saturday night we went to a bbq at our neighbor's house a few houses up the street. We are very lucky that our neighborhood has many kids and other families just like us. The bbq was at our Dutch neighbors who have a daughter Samantha's age (Yara) and another that is 2 years old (Senna). They also invited our German neighbors that have a daughter Samantha's age (Romie) and another daughter that is almost 2 years (Maxi). So all six, blonde hair and blue eyed girls, got to play together. As you can see in the picture, dress up was the game of the night. They kept trading outfits and having a great time.

The food was delicious but probably what we would consider a dinner party. Mireille made pasta salad, green salad, pepper beef, bread, roasted potatoes and those were just the sides to sausage, chicken, steak and shrimp. Then we had a sit down dinner with the adults on china. Pretty fancy bbq. Everyone likes to eat and drink so it was right up our alley.

Separate but related subject, Kyle bought a used grill off one of our other neighbors for 50 ringit ($18 or so) so now we can grill again. We did not bring our gas grill and believe it or not the grills here are terribly expensive. For a small gas grill it is almost $600 and the larger ones are over $1500. Add grills to the expensive list, along with cars.

KL Gardens

This morning it was actually "cool" outside so we ventured to KL Gardens park. It is a huge city park that has beautiful landscaping, herb gardens, lakes and playgrounds. In the pictures is just one of the many play areas. They are huge! Samantha goes crazy and almost doesn't play because she can never decide where to go next. Emily just loves being outside doing stuff.

We let the girls play and then we loaded them in the strollers and Kyle and went for a nice long walk around the lake and then back through the gardens. It is a really beautiful area of KL. Another must see on things to do here. This afternoon...swimming for sure.

Family Tree

I think I might have out done myself with my recent arts and crafts project.  Samantha and I have erected a family tree on the wall in her room, and if I do say so myself, it is so cute.  She is always asking "who is your mommy" or "who is grandpa's daddy" etc. so we put it all to pictures.  I found the leaf and bird shapes online which we then used to make patterns. Samantha "helped" but needless to say mommy did most of the tracing and cutting.  I didn't know the tip of your middle finger could really go numb for two full days as a result of too much scissor use.  We then printed out all the family photos and yes, more cutting.  Luckily these didn't have to be exact so Samantha could help.  But of course Samantha's favorite part was the glue stick.  There is no chance any of the photos will be falling off the leaves.  

Keep in mind we started this on Monday so come Wednesday night I was begging Kyle to design the actual tree.  He finally agreed and helped me come up with the trunk and limbs.  It took us hours.  What a good Daddy and stellar Mommy.  On Friday we actually were able to assemble the tree.  Samantha took a ton of pictures and liked using her stool to reach the top branches.  No offense to anyone but Dylan and Annie took the cake for favorites.  

She is getting really good with her letters and writing.  She even wrote (traced, but still impressive) her sign.  Yeah Samantha!  Thank god she is back in school next week.  My fingers need a cutting break.