I cannot believe it's already been ten days since I last updated this. There has been so much going on and so many events happening that I hardly know where to begin with the update. It's possible this post could take me hours to do and I'm not sure if I am up to that task right now. I will start and see how it goes...if I don't get them all in today I can try again tomorrow...or soon.

And because trying to get the format right on a post that covers so many different days and events, can take a long time I am just going to write about the photos and not worry about the order. Reality is you probably could care less about which days we did what! lol!

This past Monday, KL, and his classmates went to a place of charity downtown where the homeless people can go to get a meal, some clothes and some of their other needs met. The class went there to sing Christmas songs and to play the angklungs (the instruments you see in the pictures), but since it ended up being too crowded in the room, they only were able to do the singing while there. Fortunately on Thursday, they did their performance again during the elementary chapel time. I think they all did a fantastic job...and KL looked so handsome:-0
Each student had a small speaking part in the program.

Here KJ and her friends are playing with the water table on the second to last day of school before the Christmas holiday. I think that most of them really need the next few weeks to relax and rest and take a break.

KJ and her friend, Lana.

Tuesday night was the elementary Christmas concert. Although KR didn't have any major parts in the play, she did make a beautiful angel.

On Wednesday of this past week was the annual elementary sports day. I was unable to attend the whole morning because I had to give my final exams in my Spanish classes, but did manage to see a few events of the morning. The rest of the pictures are courtesy of my friend, Jackie, who actually has a better camera anyway.

Christmas party on Saturday night, December 13th....

Greg chatting away with his friend, Clay (and unknown other).

The lady on the left is the middle school art teacher and on the right is the middle school social studies teacher so they have taught (and still do teach) the two older boys.

Athy, (the hostess) with Vicky, Jacki and myself...enjoying ourselves :-)

Some michief maker decided to "match" up everyone's shoes while they were inside at the party! lol!These friends all have their birthdays in December so we decided to celebrate them collectively since this is such a busy time of the year for everyone. We had a great time doing a little shopping at the mall and then enjoyed lunch at a pasta place with donuts for dessert! This Big Apple Donut shop just opened up this fall in the mall and the donuts are pretty good...not as good as Krispy Kreme but that is to be expected. We are just glad for a decent donut place in town. KL has had a Dunkin Donuts since we have been here but it has never made it to Penang.

Great dessert, huh?

This was the cutest face at the celebration:-)

A party, a concert and more sickness...

Tuesday after preschool KJ had a Christmas party at her friend's house. She invited all nine of the kids in her class to come for some food, games, a story, and some presents. The kids all had a great time. The party was only for an hour, but with that many kids in an apartment, the hour was just about right. Thanks to the mom who was brave enough to put this on for the kids! :-) Here are some pictures of the event:

Praying for the food.

Reading the Christmas story.

Getting ready to open the gifts.

Getting a little help here...See what I got!

Then that evening KD had his end-of-the-semester band concert. Because every middle school student in grades 6-8 is required to take band, these concerts are PACKED. We got there a bit late and it was standing-room only. They ended up adding more chairs so we had some place to sit clear in the back. When it came time for KD's grade to play, I went up towards the front and stood on a chair to the side of the room (that had been vacated by one of the band students) so that I could get a better view of him this time around. In the video you will see that the view is much better than last time, where I only managed to get the very tip top of his head! It's amazing just how far the class has come since last year at this time. I was reminded of this when the beginning band grade 6 played their pieces! It's a lot of fun to see their progess over the year.

KJ and her friend enjoying the show.

Aren't they cute together? They are such pals and whenever they see each other they hug and laugh like it's been years since they have seen each other, instead of hours! Too cute!

Last night was the Boy Scout's court of honor, where one of the students from our school received his Eagle Scout rank. I was planning to attend, because it was a special evening, but KR came down sick during the night Wednesday night. It was NOT a fun night for her or I as she threw up 8-10 times before morning. Of course, the first time is always the worst and that was all over the bedroom floor! I know, I know, too much information for some of you, but that has been my reality three times these over the past three weeks! I am getting extremely tired of middle-of-the-night clean up sessions! Just when I thought we were safe from anyone else coming down with it! Ugh... KR is home again today from school because, even though she has not vomitted for over 24 hours, and she has no fever, she just wasn't feeling 100% this morning. I think it's better to be safe than sorry, and besides it's Friday so she can have the weekend to rest and recover. Anyway, since I was unable to attend the court of honor I didn't get any pictures of it. KD had a small part to play, but he didn't earn any badges so didn't receive anything other than taking part in the ceremony.

And speaking of the weekend, this one promises to be a busy one, once again, so stay tuned for updates about that sometime next week! Have a great weekend!

Saturday

On Saturday we had some special visitors who came to see us from KL. If you read this post I wrote in the spring, you will remember that we went to the island of Perhentian for our spring break. While there we met another adoptive family who also had a daughter close to KR's age. The two of them really hit it off and had a great time playing together. Her dad was the varsity boys bball coach of their school in KL, and had been to our school for a tournament a couple of years ago. He mentioned they might be attending again this year. He thought perhaps he could bring his daughter up with him when they came so that the girls could play together again. KR has been asking for the past several weeks if indeed they were going to come, but upon contacting them, he mentioned he was no longer coaching but that they would still like to come up as a family since they had never done that before. They arrived late Friday night and we got met them on campus Saturday morning. KR had a great time playing with her friend and I very much enjoyed my visit with her mom. We spent much of the afternoon together, then they took the girls to some spice gardens nearby here, and then we were back together for supper later in the evening. We are hoping it might work out to go to KL to visit with them sometime this coming spring.

During the evening Saturday, KR and KJ did do their singing at the student council Christmas banquet as I mentioned in my last post. KJ had fallen asleep right before it was time to go, so in the end she didn't end up singing, but she made a cute picture anyway. All the kids were cute in their hats and did a pretty good job considering they didn't really practice at all beforehand.

More weekly happenings...

So Tuesday night KR and I baked cookies for her first ever Girl Scout cookie sale, which took place Wednesday after school during her regular scout time. Although I didn't get any pictures of her helping me bake (dumb) I did get some of all the girls selling the cookies the next day. They were really into it and did a fantastic job of taking money and giving out change. It's at times like this when you realize just how grown up they are getting to be!

While the KR and her friends were selling the cookies, KJ was invited to the library for a story time, singing and a visit from Santa along with the other preschoolers on campus. All the kids were very attentive to the stories, tried really hard to sing the songs (even though they weren't familiar with the words) and LOVED the visit (and story) from Santa. He even had a little present for each of them when he was done reading. It was all very cute and very sweet of the librarian (in green below) and another mom who put it all together (as well as Mr. and Mrs Claus).

Here comes Santa Claus...

...look at the fascination (and trepidation) on (some 0f) their faces while they check him out! Way too cute!!

Then this morning KR and her class put on the elementary chapel. They have been practicing it for weeks and I thought they did a very nice job. When her teacher first started planning it she approached me and asked me if I thought KR would be up to playing the part of Mary, which included a little solo. Just a few short years ago I would have said "no way" as she had such horrible stage fright she would not even get up in front of anyone for any amount of coaxing. But she has come a long way in the past year or so, so I talked with her about it, and she agreed she would like to do it. She has been faithfully practicing her part these past few weeks and I must say I was very proud of the job she did this morning. She told me she thought she would be nervous but she wasn't. She has definitely come a long way, if she can say that! I am including the video I took of her song. I'm sorry the color and lighting are not very good, but it's the best my little camera will do. At the beginning of her solo part the mic was not loud enough so you can't hear the first part, but after that it's not too bad. It's a little hard to pick out the words on the video, but I hope you can get the gist of it. I know grandma and grandpa will enjoy it anyway! :-)

Tomorrow begins the first day of our school's varsity boys basketball tournament so we will be busy with that for the next couple of days. Also tomorrow night is the second performance (the first performance was tonight) by the drama department, which I am hoping to take the kids to (Greg will be coaching so will be unable to attend this time...bummer). We have some special visitors coming to see us this weekend from Kuala Lumpur (more on that in another post) and KR and KJ are singing with a small group of staff kids at the student council sponsored Christmas banquet being held on Saturday night at the hotel next door. I'm not sure how good the singing will be, but I'm sure they will all be very cute to look at! So as you can see, we have a busy, but fun, weekend ahead of us.

Piano Recital

Monday night was KL's piano recital for the semester. It is the beginning of a busy season for us here...which might make for lots of updates for you all! I will post more about the other things we have been doing this week in a different post, so check back in a day or two... in the meantime, Grandma and Grandpa, here is the video! lol!

Thanksgiving...take 2

Last night we celebrated Thanksgiving for the second time this week. This time we were privileged to be able to have four dorm students from our school over for dinner and some visiting. We also had three extra kids over all well, since their parents are out of town (Hong Kong) at a teacher's conference. Whenever the dorm students go to staff family homes (every other year) the school cafeteria supplies the turkey/chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, rolls, gravy, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie to the host families. Although it's not quite as good as "mom makes" it is nice to have some of it taken care of for me, so that I don't have to spend so much time in the kitchen preparing food. The kids only had half a day of school while the teachers had a curriculem work day in the afternoon. We were finished up around 3:30 so I was able to get home and get a few other things prepared for dinner. It's amazing how many dishes you dirty when you prepare a meal like this (I really should have taken a picture of my kitchen afterwards...it was a HUGE mess!), but with good drying help from our friend's daughter, we were able to get the kitchen back in shape in no time. At the end of the evening we enjoyed some pumpking pie (mine as they didn't care for what the cafeteria provided) and the students all went back home. I always look forward to these evenings and am glad to spend the extra time with the students.

The whole group minus KL (except I just noticed I cut off one boy in the picture...ugh!!).
KJ and KR loved hanging with these two (this was the boy I cut off in the above picture). Notice KR's toothless gaps? She just lost another one the night before and the tooth fairy had to come for a visit.

KJ and her friend, Riley. She loves this young man!

And this is what you look like on Thanksgiving day in the tropics after you have eaten dinner and cleared the table...doesn't it look nasty??? What to come to our house next year for Thanksgiving?? :-)
The only damper on the evening was the fact that KL was sick. He started not feeling well the evening before and by yesterday was on the couch and not up to going to school. He spent most of this morning sick as well, but is feeling somewhat better this eveing so hopefully he is now on the mend.

Today we have had a really relaxing day here at home. The two older boys did go to a friend's birthday party this afternoon at school, and KR went next door to a friends to play, but other than that we haven't done much around here. I am waiting excitedly for the Black Friday specials to begin in the Digital Scrapbooking world...since I can't go anywhere in the US to shop! Hope you all are having a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend. We truly have SO much to be thankful for this year (and always).