Happy Birthday to my mom!!

I just wanted to tell my mom "happy birthday" from us all!! We are thinking of you today and hoping you have a GREAT day! Wish we could be there to help you celebrate! Miss and love you bunches :-)

Baseball and birthdays

Last Saturday I was finally able to get some pictures of KL playing baseball. There was a small amount of rain at the beginning of his game, but once that was over it was dry from there on out. KL's team won the game and KL pitched two innings (both of which I missed unfortunately, but a friend took some pictures for me, thankfully). He also had a couple of runs, if I remember correctly. Mostly he gets them by stealing his bases. At this age (mostly due to inexperience) it's pretty easy to do since the throwing and catching skills of most of the kids is pretty shakey. It's still fun to watch and the kids are learning and growing each week so that's what really counts.

On Sunday evening our friends, Robin and Khalie, brought over some cookies they had made for KL and KR's birthdays. I was so thoughtful of them to remember the kids and I just had to take a picture.

On Monday we didn't have school due to Hari Raya, which is the celebration here for end of Ramadan. Because that was the actual birthdays of both KL and KR, we ended up having a party for KR on that day. She had invited a couple of her friends to spend the previous night. The girls had a lot of fun playing and then staying up late. In the morning Greg took them to McDonald's for breakfast. They were very excited about there. Here they are just heading out the door.

KR had invited three other girls to come to the party starting at ten o'clock on Monday morning. Unfortunately two of them were not able to come, so it was just the four of them plus little sister. KR had decided she wanted a Nancy Drew party this year so I spent most of the weekend (with help from KD) planning a mystery for them to solve as well as trying to figure out what to do for a cake. Thank goodness for the internet because I was able to get lots of good ideas from many people who had BTDT before! It was great!

Here are the girls heading down the street. Most of the mystery took place on the school campus.

Figuring out the puzzle to review the next clue...

Cracking another code...

KJ holding the bag of sleuthing tools while sis was in the bathroom!

One clue on the playground...

This one was so small she needed a magnifying glass to read it.

The cake in the shape of a magnifying glass.

KJ loving the cake...
All the girls and KL's "big" gift...

We haven't done anything yet to specifically celebrate KL's birthday but are planning something for tomorrow night. Greg took him out to supper and some time playing games at an internet cafe tonight. I think they had a good time.

It's hard to believe they are 12 and 9 now...wow, they are growing up quickly!!

Hiking up Penang Hill

Today I went on a two hour hike with some friends up Penang Hill. The first part of the journey was on the trail called "1,000 stairs". I think it has to be more than one thousand! ha! The rest of the journey we just hiked up the paved road so it was much easier. Believe me, the road is STEEP. I would not want to drive (nor ride in) a car on that road unless I knew the brakes were well maintained. We were almost to the top when it started to rain. I was the only one in the group who had brought an umbrella along and I was thankful I did because when you wear glasses it can be annoying to have them all splattered up with water drops while you are trying to see where you are walking. Plus my camera was kept drier as well. The umbrella did not keep me completely dry, but it did help a lot. Right when we got to the top it began to pour. We were so glad we were finished with the hike and not still somewhere in the middle. We spent a few minutes under an awning out of the rain at the top before we purchased our tickets to ride the funicular train back down to the station where the husband of one of my fellow hikers was waiting for us in a van. Overall I think we all had a good time and agreed that it was worth getting up early for on a Saturday morning.

On the stairs...

The group minus me. The only picture I got of myself included was very blurry because a man passing by took it and must not have focused first. That or maybe it's blurry because my batter was almost dead even though I had plugged it in the night before (don't think it was making the connection when it was charging). It doesn't take long in this climate to get nice and sweaty!
There were a TON of bees buzzing around this but you can't see them in the picture even when you click on it to make it bigger...so weird.
A house pretty close to the top.
Waiting under the awning watching the rain pour down...

Waiting to ride the train back down. So glad we didn't decide to walk back down. The cost for the train is less than a $1.00.
View from the front window of the train. We were the only ones on it! That hasn't happened to me before.
Watering was rushing down the drainage ditches due to the heavy rain.
Meeting a training going up the hill. The ones going up had way more people in them.

In other news, KL has started Saturday morning baseball over the course of the next two months. We missed his game last week because Greg and I went away overnight for our anniversary. Greg went to his game today, but they got rained out after 1.5 innings...however, KL's team was winning when the game got called. He has been pitching and doing a pretty good job. He struck out the first batter this morning. He also stole home for a run. I wanted Greg to take some pictures, but forgot to tell him last night so I left him a note this morning before I left. He didn't see the note before the game. I guess it's a good thing because when the rain came it came hard, and the camera would have gotten wet had he taken it with him. Hopefully I can get some next weekend to share here.

Other than that we are just enjoying our relaxing weekend. This week is our annual Spiritual Emphasis week. This year we are having a local pastor come and share. I am looking forward to hearing what he has to say and to what the week will bring. On Friday we will be concluding the week with our annual PTO Food and Fun fair. I am supposed to bake something to sell at that. Hmmm....will have to think about what to make.

We also have parent teacher's conferences for the girls on Tuesday, which means no school for them. Fortunately our meetings are scheduled at a time this year where we both can attend. That often is not the case. The school has changed the standardized testing for our students this year (we have always done the Iowa Basics in the past). Grades 1-9 took the tests this past week. They are all done on the computer so the results are in quickly. KJ takes hers this week. I imagine the results may be one point of discussion at the conferences. I am a little afraid to find out the results...LOL!

KL and KR have their birthdays next Monday. We don't have school on that day so I guess that should be a great day for the parties....I still don't know what I am going to do about a party for them. Every year I say I am going to get more organized and every year I am don't...Ugh. Just today KR says she wants a Nancy Drew party. The two "little" boys are willing to help me get a "mystery" arranged for the girls to solve. Sounds like A LOT of work to me...am I up for the challenge??? Check back next week to find out!

Photos of Penang

A couple of my friends and I have decided to improve our photography skills by working together and doing some photography lessons over the next few weeks (on Tuesday afternoons between school reponsibilities and picking up our kids from school at 3- if possible). We all agreed we don't have enough photos of life here in Penang and once we leave here we will regret not having more pictures of things. This past Tuesday we took a couple of hours and went to a local market and the botanical gardens to take some pictures. The market was just about to close up for the day and the air was not real clear (and we also experienced a small rain storm) but we had fun and got some pictures. I'm not sure I really learned anything (or should I say not sure I was able to really do what I was supposed to be trying to do effectively) but I really enjoyed the time spent with friends and got some nice pictures as a bonus.

Market pictures:



Looking for photo opportunities...it really wasn't that easy!
This is the building where I sometimes get my hair cut which is located right next to the morning market:

Botanical Gardens:

This is a place right outside the botanical gardens where you can buy Penang souvenirs, drinks or other treats...such as ice cream cones. They must sell A LOT to have this many cones hanging around. (and we discovered more behind this store that were all covered up by a tarp...!!

I wasn't too impressed with the sanitation of the setup when I took a closer look...the ones under the tarp looked worse off...yuck! We all decided we wouldn't be eating ice cream from here in the near future!

Hope you enjoyed seeing a little bit more of my world. Who knows what next week will bring. :-)