Redecorating

Come December it will be seven years since we moved into our house and we have not done much redecorating since then - that is until this week. The kids bought their own little rollers and took part in the "fun". I'm just waiting for Donncha to come back and help me rearrange the furniture and once we do that I will post some pictures - dial 1-800.... to place bets whether they will appear before Iman's Paris snaps :)

She can run!

We have been talking about the Junior School cross country all week and Iman came second in the practice round for her class a few days ago. So we got to school earlier than usual all geared up to RUN! I was so geared up that I jumped at the idea of running myself when another Mum pulled my leg that there was a Mum's race!

Iman and Zar waiting for their races. Races were divided into boys and girls in their year groups. 1st, 2nd and 3rd places received ribbons and points for their respective "houses".

On your marks...

And they're off....with much jostling

Iman did not emerge well from the jostled start but did manage to overtake most of her peers to come in 4th. We are so proud of her but Iman was hugely disappointed not to come 1st, 2nd and 3rd. But that's the world of competition. Interestingly the 2nd and 3rd positions in Iman's group were both taken by the two girl triplets while the boy triplet romped it home in the boys race. And the girl who came in first has a young sister in Jack's year group who came in 1st well ahead of her peers in the Kindly race. Where's Professor Robert Winston when you need him?!

And Jack...he really enjoyed his morning. He came in about 5th or 6th in his year group and enjoyed the run around the Junior School playground and everyone got a ribbon.

Jack's first trip to the cinema

Last week Jack, Iman and cousins went to the cinema for his first movie! They watched "Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs"!. I couldn't tell you what is was about as I am not much of a cinema-goer myself but they all enjoyed it and I think we will be needing to make more cinema trips with Iman and Jack from now on. Volunteers most welcome!

Ayden's big day, the big 3!

Our little guy celebrated his third birthday yesterday. We started the day most appropriately for a Sunday at 7am with Ayden waking up and after I wished him a Happy Birthday whispered in my ear "Where's my cake?". He then proceeded to wake up Iman and came across his presents saying "Look, my presents!". He opened his presents and soon after the pool slide arrived. And from then on chaos reigned!

We had a little birthday party in the afternoon and Kitchen of Jasmine made this fabulous three tiered cake for their biggest fan. And he was most impressed with the fondant tennis racket. And the cake tasted superb too!

Of course the centerpiece for the afternoon was the pool slide. We went for a medium height slide so that Ayden would be able to enjoy it. It took him a while to actually go down and only when Fatin or Amin would take him. Love parties when kids are in their togs all afternoon (except when they don't think twice about coming indoors dripping wet!).

Probably no need to mention this but yes best buddies Hariz and Jack dominated the slide for most of the day!

Iman, Zahra, Hariz and Jack performed a short dance to Ayden's favorite "I like to move it...move it...." chereographed by none other than Fatin F. It was most entertaining and I will put it up as a video sometime. They were also joined by Nina.

The boys after too much cake, 7up, running around and still more excitement to come with opening of presents. Thanks to all our friends and family who made Ayden's birthday so special!

Farewell to Basil

We had some very sad news this week when we heard that Basil had passed away - he has been the constant companion of my parents for the past 15 years. As you can imagine, it's almost like loosing a family member but we were very happy to have seen him during our recent visit and he became a great friend to the kids - he has been poorly for some time so in the end it was time for him to pass onto 'Doggy Heaven'.

We will all miss him

Boys fun in Miri

I just realized that I still need to post some pictures of Iman in Paris - it would probably help if I actually acquired the pictures - noted and I will work on it! In the meantime thought I would post these photographs of Jack and Ayden at the pool in Miri two weeks ago. We all love the Marriott pools and only missing that weekend was Iman. Especially exciting for Jack was the "sea monster" inflatable which is less challenging than the old one and there was no stopping him!

Muddy scary kids

With halloween just round the corner, it was the kids hash halloween last sunday. Ayden's not big into dressing up yet and was happy in his usual hash clothes. We took the medium run which took about 30 minutes. It was a wet afternoon and was very slippery in the jungle and the kids loved it. The run was duly followed by usual round of hot dogs and refreshments while the kids got muddier!

All the kids with costumes were treated to sweets. The with with full back to the camera is Iman.

And here is our batman...

With a huge handful of sweets in his little hand

The next kids hash is going to be a big one for us. Not only is it the Christmas run but we are also laying the run and Iman will be getting her little pot to mark her 18th run. On...on...!

Pulau Berambang revisited

It's JIS half term all week and this morning we had our children join us for our Monday morning walk. Our excursion was to Pulau Berambang which I first went to and wrote about here. Now re-reading that post, it was actually my first Monday morning walk - little did I know then that the walks would make the permanent start to my week!

We have been back to the island once since then but today's group is the most we have had there - we would not have fitted another person onto the bus if we tried.

I'm very proud of the photos from today - probably because I didn't take any of them. Many thanks to Conor who took the camera off me ~ great photos Conor ~

And here are Iman's photographs

The 'summit' where we enjoyed our snacks and the view especially as it was an overcast day.