Cross-dresser?

Recently Hayden has taken to dressing like his sister. He hasn't wanted to wear pjs for the last month, but 2 nights ago, he decided to wear "lyss's jammies" ~ a white short/shirt set with little ladybugs, gathered sleeves and a ribbon at the neck. While it was cute, it didn't warrent photos. BUT!!! last night, Alyssa put on a nightgown and Hayden said "me too!" He proceded to rifle through Alyssa's drawers until he found this little polka dot number, which he brought to me and said "Hayden on too". He would not remove it and tried to get Alyssa to follow him everywhere. It was even difficult to get off him when it was time to get dressed in the morning. He can also often be seen wearing his mom's high-heeled shoes around the house. Absolutely priceless in my mind!

MKIS Road Rally

Ready to Rally??? The MKIS Road Rally is a pretty exciting event! Hannah (purple, drama teacher) organized our team ~ the Bigwigs ~ (the theme this year was "Rockin Road Rally" so you had to come as a band ~ real or make believe)~ I had asked Steve if he wanted to go and he balked at the fact we would be wearing costumes and running around KL looking for answers to clues, so I went with Hannah. We had a great team with our secret weapon being Fay (blue). Hannah and I are both new to KL this year and Hannah's husband (also Steve, also Canadian) works at another school and is not familiar with our end of town. We had discussed if we were competetive and if we were going to have fun or going to win...consensus was fun until we stepped out of the car...then we only wanted to win. We were the first ones to finish the race, but unfortunately came in 1 point behind the winning team (who finished last in the time category I might add). Not a bad finish for a bunch of newbies ~ plus it was a riot to see people looking at us as we ran through neighborhoods and malls in our wigs, ambitiously looking for answers to the questions. Maybe I'll convince Steve to do it next year...I wonder what the theme will be...

An Evening Out

Out for drinks after the session on Friday. This was a great little wine shop/bar, the previous photo was taken in a little pub which was also cool! Most of these teacher's are from my school, with the exception of 2.

Vietnam ~ Feb 2009

In February I travelled to Vietnam all by myself for a weekend workshop. The workshop was great, although it meant I didn't see much of Ho Chi Minh City. We skipped out a little early one day and headed down to Binh Tan Market~ which was an experience in itself. I really didn't get any photos except for these, taken from the terrace restaurant at breakfast. Notice how empty the streets are...seriously, this is empty. Even though there was a huge amount of noise and bustle, I want to go back to Vietnam to see more! It is absolutely a cool country. We may head there for Xmas Holidays after New Year's.

Fraser's hill

Back in February we went up to Fraser's Hill to catch some fresh air and cooler temperatures. Many things were closed as they are doing renovations, but we did get in about 25 rounds (Alyssa style) of mini-golf and there was a great park. The kids loved mini-golfing even though they had to use adult clubs.

Look at that air time! She's lucky her dad didn't launch her into next week!

Chinese New Year ~ Jan. 09

I still haven't figured out how to post a video, but thought I'd post this picture of the kids in their CNY outfits cause it's so cute.

We were at Ikea (yes, it's just as good here) around CNY and there was a World Champion Lion Dance Team performing. Hayden thought he would check out the head while the performers took a break. But, he was not too keen to try the head on. He loved watching the dance ~ it was phenomenal!!!

Bathing Beauties

Here they are...snug as bugs in a rug...We have 4 bathrooms in our current place, but alas, not one of them has a bathtub. As Hayden is still too small to shower most of the time, we use a "rubbermaid-like" tub for a bathtub. Although most of the time these days you wouldn't have time to catch one of them in it let alone two!

Spring Break 2009 ~ Bali, Indonesia

Beautiful Balinese flowers

For Spring Break we went to Bali for 6 nights. It was only a 3 hour flights and the kids both did very well ~ cross our fingers that it's the same for our 9 hour flight to Australia in June. Bali was beautiful and hot. We had a really nice hotel and got to see a fair amount of the island. Reading through the next few posts will give you some idea of all the cool things we saw. Steve also had the opportunity to go diving for a day on a shipwreck, which he enjoyed. That's when the kids and I went to the Bali Zoo. It was outrageously expensive (for an Asian zoo trip), but it was the best zoo experience ever! Alyssa got to hold a baby crocodile, pet a lion cub and feed the camels. We really loved Bali and hope to go back again soon!

Our Hotel ~ Bali

Alyssa and her dad hanging out in the restuarant waiting for breakfast.

The pool where we spent most of our afternoons.

Our room ~ view from the restaurant.

Sisterly love.

Javanese Dance

Hayden intently reads the dance program and storyline as we wait for the performance to begin. Notice the sweat on Steve's shirt. Seriously, it is 9:30 a.m. and we are in the shade after riding in an a/c van. It was hot.

The beautiful dancers. The costumes were so amazing. Alyssa was a little scared and Hayden was a little bored, so we didn't stay for the whole thing. But, it made such an impression on Alyssa the she frequently does the "Japanese" Dancing like the girl and asks "what did she do with her fingers again mommy?"

Ubud Monkey Forest

We went to Ubud to do some shopping (which didn't really happen), but thought we should visit the Monkey Forest while we were up there. We made the mistake of buying bananas to feed the monkeys, but once they know you have them, you better get rid of them pronto because they swarm you. Being swarmed by monkeys is not high on my priority list. At one point, Steve had a monkey on his head because the monkey thought he had something he wanted ~ not sure what it was since the bananas were long gone.

Ahhhhh...this is the life. Lounging around, having the bugs picked off of me while people bring me bananas and walk around me.

Hanging out with the dragon at the bottom of the forest by one of the temples.

Tanah Lot

Sunset at Tanah Lot...or what we had hoped would be sunset at Tanah Lot. This is the temple by the sea and, as you can see by the amount of people, it is quite popular. We went there on the recommendation of a few different people. Unfortunately, shortly before sunset time, the clouds moved in and we missed the gorgeous sunset we had hoped to see. Oh well, there's always next time.

An offering at Tanah Lot

We were so lucky to see this (I think). It is very common to see people carrying all kinds of things on their heads here, as people walk a lot and it seems to be the easiest way to transport things. However, this offering was absolutely stunning AND she walked down what must have been over 100 stairs to the temple with this huge thing on her head in a tight sarong and flip flops ~ an absolute feat!

Hotsprings from the volcano

Ok, we were too cheap to go into the actual hotsprings because it was on the verge of being WAY past nap time, and we had no swimsuits, so we settled for the local hotsprings. Now, even though the locals actually go in the water pools, the amound to garbage (sad but true) floating around was a definate deterrant for us. Instead we opted to let Alyssa and Hayden feel the hot water coming out and left. They thought it was pretty cool.

One of my all time favourite photos of the kids, sharing a soda at a small market as we drove back to Senur. Believe me, sharing is not always done so willingly and calmly.