Goodbye Party - James & Malia

Erik and Kim hosted an absolutely delightful evening meal to say goodbye to James and Malia.  It was a small group, but the food was aptly described as, "There's a party going on in my mouth."  Indeed, the Indian food that Kim prepared was absolutely amazing.  We had fun reminiscing about our past memories, or first impressions of KL, and the great times with James and Malia.

Erik and Kim live high up in Ukay Heights with a commanding view of the KL skyline.  It was tremendously beautiful view with great friends.  We sure wish James and Malia well as they move to Switzerland.

Prom

One of the duties of a high school teacher is chaperoning events.  Tracy was voted by the students as one of the teachers whom they requested to be a chaperone for prom.  So Tracy dressed up and had a fancy night at the Marriott Hotel enjoying the food and watching the students enjoy prom.

Rania was a bit sad to see her mommy go, she is insisting on hugs and kisses -- a thousand times before bed or before we go anywhere, but she managed to get a picture with her photogenic mommy.

Dinner Party

We had a delightful evening with James and Malia.  Some amazing food, and James' insane chocolate mousse.  It was incredibly delicious and great conversation.  What will we do without James and Malia? It will be a big adjustment for ISKL.

End of Year ISKL Party

Photo credit: John Thomas, ISKL

On Saturday night, ISKL hosted the annual staff party.  It was delicious food and fun times.  Unfortunately Tracy was feeling quite ill and had to stay home.

But it was nice -- and a first ever visit to the Marriott Hotel in KL.

Early Birthday Presents!

On Friday the 13th, Tracy and Doug took medical leave to get first-ever physicals.  Well, at least in that detail.  We were very happy to get clean bills of health (with the reminders that more exercise will always help!) so it was an interesting experience to get the "Executive Health Screening" at Prince Court.  It is such a nice new hospital that it does have a bit of a spa feel -- at least as you are leisurely waiting in the waiting room and when they provide you with your ordered snack/lunch.

Afterwards, compliments of Doug's parents, we had a wonderful night at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.  We had a nice view over KL from the 23rd floor.  The kids got to have sleepovers with grandpa and grandma, and Tracy and I got to spend time together, three meals out, a movie (Thor) and hours of uninterrupted sleep in a quiet hotel room.  What a great early birthday present!

Mother's Day

We continued our annual tradition (the second year now) of taking the moms out for brunch at the Renaissance Hotel.  Nothing quite like returning to our first memories of Kuala Lumpur to enjoy and celebrate a delicious breakfast.

It is always fun to return to the Renaissance.  The school frequently has functions there, and we will always have such great memories of our first few days in Kuala Lumpur.  It was a time of incredible stress, but what an amazing respite to have the delicious breakfasts and the soft sheets of the Renaissance, complete with the pool for our enjoyment.

Flowers, cards and chocolates were also part of the celebrations, so it was all good fun.

Swimming at Hampstead Rise

We had an enjoyable Saturday evening swimming with grandparents. What a delight to have access to the swimming pool and on the clear evening, it was really wonderful. It has been quite hot and so the water feels amazing. How refreshing -- and we almost always have the pool all to ourselves!

The kids enjoyed swimming before we had some dinner and some games.

Included are some pictures of Hampstead Rise in Taman Sri Ukay - of my parents' place. We sure have enjoyed the respite of being able to visit them. Nice views of the jungle and the hills from their balcony. We don't use the tennis court, but the pool is sure wonderful. Located between Melawati and Ampang, it is super easy for us to get there. There is a nearby mosque that is a disadvantage for early morning call to prayers (see the speakers), but we don't have to deal with that.

Parker's Party

A friend of Reeve's invited Reeve to a birthday party.  It was in their condo, complete with water balloons cake and plenty of fun in the pool.

Right near the Petronas Towers, it had quite a view.  Reeve had lots of fun with his friends.  With mini-squirt guns and an arsenal of water balloons, they had quite a mini war amongst themselves.

Chocolate, The Dog

Well, we have been quite remiss.  The Woodwards got a dog.  We've had Chocolate for a bit more than a month, now.  Chocolate is a stray dog that we rescued from a nearby construction site.


On Rania's birthday, Tracy got a call saying "Juvy got a dog for Rania's birthday."  We'll, that was not quite the entire story.  A stray dog was sitting under Awa's van which delivers our groceries twice a week. Juvy felt sorry for the dog and gave it a little bit of food.  When Rania came home, she said, "Is this dog for my birthday?" Well. . . .

We quickly decided that the dog really wasn't for us -- that it was too difficult to manage with holidays and such.  But then a couple of days later, the dog had a collar and we discovered our that our neighbors, the Caseys, had adopted the dog - named Brownie.  But the Caseys pronounced that they were going to adopt the dog, Brownie, but that Brownie had a sister -- Chocolate and we should adopt her.

They had already called the vet, who was coming tomorrow -- having a vet who makes house calls is pretty nice!  We figured we weren't sure if we were up for a dog at that point, but might as well get the shots if the dog was going to be hanging around our kids.  So. . . .gradually the shots turned into a collar, a food bowl, dog food. . . and now we have Chocolate.

We've obviously been quite bad at getting pictures of chocolate. In fact, still these are some of the few pictures that we have of chocolate that are not totally out of focus.

Chocolate is rather docile compared to her older sister.  But we still don't know much about training, and are trying to teach Chocolate about not jumping up.  Chocolate is entirely an outside dog, which makes it nice that our house doesn't smell like dog. . .and we don't have to worry as much about carpet cleaning as such.

Choir Concert

Gabi has been in the after school choir all semester as part of an after-school activity.  The culmination of all the work came at the concert.  The Beginning Band was very impressive and then it was time for the choir to shine.  They sang Teachers Pet/Top Cat (a bit of a mash-up, perhaps?) and YMCA.  How fun to watch Gabi having so much fun singing with the choir.

Before the concert, we got to take a tour of the Melawati Art Exhibition.  The kids art work was on display.  We got to see Reeve's snake he made from wire, paper and tape, paper mache, kite paper, glue,  paint and extra craft items like buttons for the eyes, wood for the fangs and paper for the tongue.  How cool!

Rania wanted to point at every painting in the exhibit, which would give the illusion (false) that they were hers :)