My Sister came to visit us in KL

This is a long overdue post, but I didn't have time to do it before we left for our "summer" holiday and I want to get it up so I can start blogging about our New Zealand holiday!!

My sister came at the end of May for a two week holiday with us.  She hadn't been to KL before, so was very exciting for me :-)  (and her I think!) ;-)

She came bearing gifts from her and Grandma and Grandad (early birthday presents for some!  hope they remember that when it is their birthday haha)

She came with me to school one morning to watch Aaron's school sports day.

Was a fantastic blue sky and that little white speck was actually the moon.

Saturday morning was Aaron's last soccer game before school ended, so we all went along to that.

Maddison and Samuel enjoyed the swings.

Nothing like sitting on the steps waving a "sword" about!! ;-)

Aaron's team won gold medals ... he was sooooo excited and happy about that :-)

That afternoon Maddison went to a class mates birthday party - it was a cooking party and they each made their own mini pizza.

Sunday we went to Dragon Eye for lunch.  Was delicious.

Maddison and another little New Zealander in her class performed a poi dance in their music class (they were also supposed to sing).  My sister, Samuel and I went along to watch ... Samuel got into trouble playing with the instruments!!

Aaron lost ANOTHER tooth!  He decided he wanted to have New Zealand money, so he wrote a letter to the tooth fairy asking for that :-)

The tooth fairy was very obliging and gave him a $2 coin!!  Very extravagant! hehee

Samuel and I took my sister to Batu Caves one morning.  I tell you ... it was hard work lugging that 3yr old monkey on my back up and down those stairs!!!  My legs were trembling like jelly when I got to the bottom again!

And then you just would credit it ... after making me carry him up and down the stairs he suddenly had all the energy in the world to chase the pigeons!!  haha

She went swimming with the kids in the infinity pool.

She looked after Samuel for me while I went to school with Aaron and Maddison for their Student Lead Conferences.

On the last Saturday she was with us we went to Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary in Pahang.

We arrived before the elephants were out, so they said we could do a guided jungle walk to a waterfall!  Huh!  We didn't really know what we were in for!

I wasn't expecting to treck through ankle deep mud when I set out that morning!  (and Crocs are not good tramping shoes!!)

I hope my disgust wasn't evident when I saw the waterfall!  Lyndon told them "that's not a waterfall, it's a water slide"!  hahaa  The water was very refreshing on my muddy muddy toes though!!

Then I realised what else was in the mud ... leeches!  My sister had 3, I had 7!!!  You don't actually notice they are there until you see them.  Hard things to pull off!

Hot sweaty family photo haha

Then we started back.

Note Samuel's perch!!  ;-)

We ate our lunch when we got back and then went to see the elephants.

Feeding them sugar cane.

Aaron and Samuel watching some of the elephants being scrubbed and washed in the river.

After their bath, they all lined up in a row and introduced themselves to the crowd.

Taking a selfie of Aaron and I while watching the elephants :-)

Then the kids got a chance to feed papaya to some of the smaller elephants.

Back to the heat of the car!  Very thankful for air conditioning!

We also got to visit Deerland.  Every other time we have been to the Elephant Sanctuary, Deerland has been closed.  This day we were lucky :-)

Kids got given containers of raw sweet potato chips to feed the deer.

Samuel stood up on a pot to get a better view :-)

Aaron and Maddison also got to feed the ostrich.

There were beautiful flowers at Deerland.

And cute baby hedgehogs!!  (Can I take one home mummy??????)

You know Maddison loves animals don't you?  Well she does ... of pretty much any variety.  She asked to touch the snake and then came back to me with a sad face because she wanted to hold it!

So she asked the man if she could and was all smiles again!!  haha

My sister also helped them hold this big python ... it was really heavy.

On the way home we saw water buffalo (I think that's what they were).

And goats just grazing on the side of the road.

And big trucks of course!

Love the colour of this frangipani by the swimming pool at our condo.

One night Lyndon and I took my sister to Central Market and China Town.  Her and I were snapping pictures out the car window of different buildings on the way there :-)

At Central Market Lyndon told her to have a fish spa heheee

Wish I could share her facial expressions with you LOL ;-)

And the final photo ... Master 3's new hiding place!!

Well done if you made it through that lot without falling asleep!  ;-)
Thanks for visiting.  Will try and be back soon with an update on our holiday here in New Zealand.

Scrap Around the World - June challenge

Popping in with my take on the sketch challenge from Scrap Around the World.for June!  You can check the challenge details out here.

Here's the mood board and sketch.

Here's my take ...  took the colours as inspiration from the mood board.

Using Mum's photos and scrapbook stash ... and I kept thinking of the little linen banners in my stash back home that would have made this LO so much quicker!  And if I was home I would have edged every single piece of patterned paper with antique linen distress ink.  But I'm not at home so this is how it is :-)  Couldn't even use my sizzix dies ... had to hand cut things myself! Such hardship!  ;-)

Photo is of Maddison one or two days old in hospital.  Hard to believe she's going to be 6 next month!

Thanks for visiting.

May Photo A Day pics

I know I still have a blog ... been very slack at updating it sorry.  Doing a bit of a catch-up now.  Here's my pics from May photo a day.  Again I used the prompts from the FMS blog for this month most days.  

Day 1 - I bought this.  Maddison bought this My Little Pony with money from her money box and had great fun colouring it and adding the stickers :-)

Day 2 - Morning Ritual.  I actually read this as morning routine so took a self timer pic of me making sandwiches for the kids lunches.

Day 3 - This is Really Good!  Aaron & Maddison's school concert today.  Was quite neat to see their performances.

2nd pic of the day :-)  Maddison's class at the top (she's on the far left).  Aaron's class on the bottom, he's 2nd from the left.

Day 4 - In My Cup.  Well that would be ice peach tea in my bottle of course :-)

Maddison went to a school friends birthday party this day as well.  

And I couldn't resist taking a photo of the sunset reflected in the clouds in the east that night.

Day 5 - Malaysian General Election 2013, so took a photo of some of the MANY party flags around the city.

Day 6 - Broken.  Finally got a replacement cover for my ironing board!  Long over due.

Day 7 - Something beginning with F ... fragrant frangipani flower.

Day 8 - Shape.   Took a pic of this painted wall as we were driving past.  Looks quite effective ... much more exciting that boring grey concrete colour!

Day 9 - school field trip with Aaron's G2 class to Kidzania. I looked after these 3 young men.

A very noisy, messy end to the day!  Maddison cut her finger on a metal tape measure.  She got 3 stitches in her right middle finger. Good job she's left handed! The Dr said the tendons were okay thankfully, (and it's healed really good).

Day 11 - A Smile ... Samuel with the icing beater.  I was making his birthday cake.

We celebrated his birthday 2 days early as Lyndon was away for work on the actual day.  I made him a dinosaur cake with a little volcano on it :-)

Day 12 - Mother.  Mothers Day with my 3 little cherubs!

Day 13 - Maddison's teacher organised a mothers day morning tea.  The kids had all made their Mum's a very cool mothers day book.  It's a real keepsake :-)

 Day 13- The prompt today was Sunrise/Sunset.  I actually remembered to get both today!

Day 14 - I missed taking a photo for Day 14 photo but Lyndon sent me this drawing he did in a text message so that's going in my PL album too :-)

Day 15 - Aaron started Kumon.

Day 16 - much needed tidy up of my craft area ... still a lot to do, but I can see my desk better now!

Day 17 - sports day for both Samuel and Aaron.  Samuel didn't participate in his at all!  Aaron did well in his duathlon and came in third in his heat.

Day 18 - using prompt "mailbox" from day 16.

Day 21 - Had to get a pic of Samuel swimming with his lion and tiger while waiting for his swim instructor to arrive.

Day 22 - Homework time.

Day 23 - both Aaron and Maddison had a playdate today, so Samuel and I had some special time together :-)  Yummy frozen yoghurt.

Day 24 - Painting a picture of Daddy to hang on the wall.  Maddison drew him wearing "gloobes" (gloves!) hehehe

Day 25 - Skateboard ramp at our condo has started to be pulled down.  The safety measures are non-existent.  There was lots of exposed cut metal which was really dangerous.

Day 26 - Beautiful sunrise at 7.15am.

Still Day 26 - first time I have ever seen a full rainbow in Malaysia.  Kids were excited about seeing one too.

 Day 27 - Someone drove their Ferrari into Tom's tank!!

Day 28 - Aaron finished his Diorama on the Horned Lizard.

Day 29 - Transportation Project with Maddison's class.  She made the rocket at home with Daddy, and her and I made the "cruise liner" in class :-)   

Day 30 - Maddison's school field day (pre kindy and kindy classes)

Day 31- Aaron's school field day (grades 1 and 2)

Will try and get back with some other updates in the next couple of days.

Thanks again for visiting.

Scrap Around the World

There's a new challenge blog called Scrap Around The World :-)  You can check it out here.

This month's challenge is the sketch below and the moodboard.  See here for this month's challenge details.

I stuck pretty much to the sketch, except I used an oval instead of a circle, and although I love teal, it's not my "go-to" colour ... brown is hehee  So my eyes were automatically drawn to the bottom right picture on the moodboard.  I decided it was rustic look and pulled out a pad of Tim Holtz's papers and went from there.  Actually, apart from the tissue tape, oval shape, linen thread and photos, everything else is from Tim (papers, inks, cogs, clocks, spinners and the Sizzix dies as well).

Aaron at 4 years old :-)  Yep ... still working my way through that mighty pile of photos from our 2009 holiday!  (nearly there!)

It took me 3 days of 5-10 minutes here and there to finish this LO!  Help me, I haven't scrapped in so long I am rusty!!  

Love the sketch for this challenge.  Might even use it again :-)  Is anyone else out there reading my blog that's playing along?

Thanks for visiting.