Easter Egg Hunt 2009

Today was our church's Easter Egg hunt.  The girls had a fun time scrambling for eggs and eating the candy inside.  We had a beautiful morning for it, for which we are thankful. It's been SO rainy here lately.

Later in the afternoon the kids and I decorated eggs.  I boiled 26 eggs and 8 of them cracked.  It seems like I try everything, but that always happens to me. Anyone have any tips to share on how to do better?  I would love to hear them!  



Playing the memory game with some cards that came with the dye kit while waiting for the eggs to get nice and dark.
The finished project turned out nice, I thought.

Tomorrow at 7 a.m. is the Easter sunrise service at the school and beach. Several students are being baptized with breakfast to follow in the cafeteria.  I always enjoy these services so much and this one will be especially memorable as some of my closer friends' children are choosing to be baptized.  Some years we don't make the kids get out of bed to attend, but this year we are making them go.  I think it will be easier than in years past because the kids are getting older. 

Then later in the morning we will have our church service.  I bought the girls new dresses a few weeks back and spent several hours fixing KJ's hair yesterday just so I can get pictures of them to share tomorrow.  :-) I am looking forward to a great day of remembering exactly what Jesus did for me by dying on the cross and conquering the grave.  I am SO grateful and so often feel I don't deserve it.  But then I remind myself that none of us do and it's not by our works but His lest no man should boast...what a gift! 

Have a blessed Easter!!

Another fish spa adventure

Really quickly wanted to share the pics from another adventure we did with the kids over spring break.  As I shared on here before, there is a fish spa in the local mall we most often frequent.  We decided to take all the kids to see how they would enjoy having the fish nibble at their toes.  Here are some pics (and the stories) from that adventure.

The boys got the giggles right away...

All the gang except Mom, who was the photographer (since I had already done it two times this year)...notice KR does not have her feet in the water...
KJ and Daddy enjoying the fishies...
KR was scared and wouldn't put her feet in the tank...even though she had "promised" she would do it if we paid for her...As you can see she's a little emotional about the whole thing.
Daddy giving her a little talk...
We FINALLY convinced her to put her fingers in to start...
Then the heal of her foot...
FINALLY the whole foot for about two seconds at a time!  And she found out it didn't hurt, but tickled.  But by this time, our 1/2 hour was basically up... $5 and not much to show for it :-)
KJ sat right down and stuck her feet in without a hesitation.

Towards the end she got tired and decided to wait for us on the bench in the waiting area.

After the fish spa we took the kids to a movie and ate supper at Chili's.  Overall it was a fun afternoon and evening spent as a family.

More later!!

Spring Break

Here are some pictures of our spring break week. Instead of getting away this year we decided to stay around the area and do some things we either haven't ever done or haven't done for a while. We also ended up spending a lot of money eating out at places we don't normall eat at because they are pretty expensive for our family.  We spent a lot of "family time" together, which we both think went pretty well.  :-0

The first thing we did was visit the zoo in a town a couple of hours from here.  The pens are pretty small, but the animals all look healthy and well cared for.  KB had a good time using the new camera to zoom in and get some nice shots.  Most of these pictures were taken by him (which is why he's not in any of them!)

This was one FAT orangutan!!  I doubt it would be so obese in the wild...

This monkey was not actually part of the zoo...it was just a wild one hanging out.  These are quite common here and I often see them when I take my walks in the mornings. They are a type of leaf monkey and I like them since they tend to stay in the trees and not try to threaten me while I'm walking (unlike some other monkeys here...I dislike them intently!).
This is a Malaysian tapir.  Kind of funny looking creatures, don't you think?
I can't remember the name of this animal but it sure is amazing looking...very strong.  I would hate to get in its way if it went on a rampage!
Malaysian sun bear.
KB actually zoomed in quite a ways through some trees to get this picture.  I thought it turned out neat.
This was also zoomed in quite far...she looks like she's looking right at the camera.
After we left the zoo we travelled to another town called Ipoh, which is even farther south.  We were hoping to take the kids swimming at the hotel pool, but by the time we got there it was storming and unsafe to swim.  It stopped raining about 7 and with the pool closing at 7:30, the kids only got to swim for about half an hour.  We went out for supper afterwards, driving around and around trying to find an Indian restaurant to eat at.  We didn't have any success and ended up at a mall at Kenny Roger's Roasters (any of you heard of this restaurant?  I never had until I came here.).  We then returned to the hotel and watched a movie on our dvd player before heading to bed.

This was the view from our room the next morning. We were glad to see the sun was shining because we had a day at the waterpark planned and we didn't want it to storm again and ruin that.
Water park entrance.  It was in a beautiful area of town.
View...


Reticulated python...
The back of the park.

They had about six tigers in their care and had a feeding later in the afternoon we attended.

Dad and kids in the lazy river.
Feeding the fish...there were tons of them.
Riding the carousel...they had a VERY small "dry" park for the kids.  
KD and KL (sorta) enjoying their ride...
We returned to Penang Monday night and then Tuesday we went out to a nearby hotel (we had a free night's stay there given to us by our last year's senior class parents..we hadn't gotten around to using it yet).  This particular hotel has a great pool and slide.  KJ really enjoyed going down it many, many times.  What fun to watch her face :-)




That takes care of the first part of the week.  I will share about the second part in my next post!