Friendships

For the second time within a week, both Rania and Reeve had parties at Mega Mall for laser tag.  Rania, of course, was thrilled to be invited to a friend's birthday party and she enjoyed times with her good friends.  Amazingly, Doug managed to go to a movie (Tom Cruise fighting aliens in Edge of Tomorrow) by himself - for the first time in a long, long time - while the party was going on. 

Swim Carnival

A great Melawati tradition is the Swim Carnival.  Though neither Tracy nor Doug could make it, we were so thankful for the wonderful ISKL community as many surrogate moms helped out, including sending us some pictures of our daughters during the event.  What fun, as both came home with bracelet awards for finishing in the top three in their heat.

Wrapping Up

As we get toward the end of the year, it is time to wrap-up and reflect on another amazing year for our family.  The 2013-14 school year saw Rania really flourish as a reader, diving into chapter books and developing some great friendships.  As the year comes to an end, Rania is a non-stop cartwheel girl as she and her friend, Natasha, are practicing cartwheels all the time!  Rania is definitely improving. 

Gabi flourished as a writer and communicator in both oral and written tasks.  Her mathematical abilities and confidence have soared, largely due to the Common Core type emphasis on explaining your reasoning and expressing multiple solutions to the same problem.  She has continued as a violin player and is improving rapidly, thanks to our amazing violin teacher, Daniella who has lived in our neighborhood for the past several years (and sad for us that she is moving to Singapore!).

Reeve had an amazing year and was a perfect fit for middle school.  He flourished with more independence and has improved as a communicator.  His strong math and science skills have shown through.  In sports, he has really been a star, making his first international sports trip to Phuket in the fall before diving into rugby in the spring and earning high praise from his coaches for his knack for picking up the game. 

Tracy has greatly enjoyed teaching seniors this year - a first in a number of years.  The focus on the International Baccalaureate exams has created higher stakes but has been an encouraging move as a result of the increased and dedication of older students.  She continues to dive into writing at home with impressive results, and had a great GAP trip to Vietnam in October.

Doug enjoyed his 7th year in the ISKL middle school and the second year of helping with the 1:1 laptop initiative in the middle school.  A professional highlight was his fifth accreditation trip in the fall to Singapore.  He also enjoyed coaching water polo, soccer and basketball throughout the year. 

As a family, we've dived into memorization Mondays, trying to increase our amount of Scripture that we have memorized.  We've also enjoyed amazing experiences with family vacations to Myanmar, Penang and Reeve getting certified in SCUBA during a recent trip to Tioman. 

Birthday Circuit

As we near the end of school, there is often a rush of birthday parties and saying "goodbye" parties.  With the high turnover that ISKL experiences as a result of our transient population, it is sad to say goodbye.  Ironically, within a week, both Rania and Reeve had two laser tag parties at Mega Mall.  For Rania, this was her first time doing laser tag, and she had a blast!  While we were waiting for Reeve's party, Rania got to spend some daddy time at . . .McDonalds!  Surprise!

More Swimming

Some more fun lessons to explore and improve.

Band Concert

Reeve had his final band concert of the year.  Lassis Trombone was one of the big finales, where a number of high school trombone players were brought in, and the trombones were featured.  It was a lot of fun to see Reeve performing and hear all of the progress made by the Grade 6 band.

Teacher Perk!

It is a well known fact that secondary school teachers do not get quite the same level of gifts as elementary school teachers, but Tracy got one of the great all time gifts when one of her students generously gave a box of Godiva chocolates!  Wow! Thanks to sharing, we all got a little taste of this luxury gift.

Swimming Lessons

Rania had the chance to take some swimming lessons and join her friend, Aisha.  Check out the videos of how they did.

Reeve - Underwater Treadmill

Here is Reeve on the underwater treadmill.  Congratulations on getting certified!

SCUBA Certified!

Reeve got scuba certified!  What a great day with the final two dives before heading back to KL.   There were a few final tests they had to do and practice routines - like taking off the mask, and some other parts.

Between the dives, we had the chance to jump off the boat a few times, which was good fun.  During this time, I got one of the all time great pictures of all time, with Reeve doing a backflip off the top of the boat.

On the second dive, we saw some sharks, a turtle and some beautiful coral formations.  It is a perfect dive since it is pretty shallow; there was great visibility today, too.  What a nice way to finish the weekend before the ferry and long bus ride back to KL.

Tioman Arrival

Reeve and Doug arrived in Tioman for Reeve's certification for SCUBA.  He needed to do his four open water dives, so we went with the middle school SCUBA group and made our way to Tioman.  We left Friday after school, got up crazy early (pre-5 am!) on Saturday morning for the 6 am ferry.  While the students were doing their first dives, Doug had the chance to do three dives.   It was so wonderful to be diving again - and what an absolutely picturesque and magical location with the huge rainforest and the beautiful water all around.

Choir Concert

Unfortunately, Gabi was sick for the music concert and missed her chance to being the choir, as well as her role in playing the tamborine.  Rania, however, was healthy and we got to visit the always crowded and always pleasant music concert at Melawati.  Never will you see such a (large!) and accomplished beginning band as what Ross Jones gets in one year.  Next year we get to look forward to Gabi being in band. 

Muppets Movie

The girls had a chance to go with daddy to see the Muppets Most Wanted, which was a fun movie, and a chance to spend some daddy / daughter time.  It wasn't quite the epic wonderment of the first Muppets movie, but it was still good fun. 

Visiting Friends

Reeve had a fun time with a visit to a friend's house.  His parents, as always, were gracious hosts, even taking Reeve downtown in the hopes of going to the science museum (a bit ambitious on a national holiday, they discovered).  There was lots of soccer played, the Walton's old TV show discovered, epic ping-pong matches and good fun for a sleepover as a result of the May 1 Labor Day holiday.