Popsicles with friends

We had some of our friends (and neighbors) over for western food. I made Julie's Stromboli recipe (basically a rolled up pizza), and we had them eat salad with ranch dressing. We have had people refuse salad before, but this family did not, even our friends who eat raw pork shy away from the raw lettuce/spinach. This family really seemed to like the food. The little girl actually ate it, which amazed me. She also ate the stir-fried rice I offered :). The mom loved the sauce (my pizza sauce) that you put on top/side of the Stromboli.  Then we had dessert. Our desserts these days are pineapple, plain yogurt, and a little vanilla flavoring, put in a blender and then into Popsicle trays and the freezer. Today I did the same but added very ripe bananas that I had. Because it is pineapple and mango season, our family eats about two of each of these a day! Our girls think these Popsicles are real dessert, though I often just say we are having Mango or Pineapple for dessert. These are beautifully natural, wonderfully sweet, refreshing dessert. Who needs cheesecake and chocolate chip pie (okay, I do sometimes).

 Popsicle fun outside in the rain. Rains have really cooled things off.

Back home: Stand up paper symphony

 Back home the rains are starting. These are another set of new dresses, I bought everything at the night marker for pretty cheap, we will see how long they last.

We started back up with CC. We are on week 20 but are a week behind on fine arts, so I introduced the orchestra this week, and made these paper doll 'stand up symphony' that I downloaded from the St.Louis Symphony site: here is the link. It did take me some time to make these, and most kids could probably make these themselves, and Soph helped a little. But we were so busy with other stuff all week that I just did it one night. I introduced the different types of instruments and then we placed the orchestra folks in their proper seats and let the girls conduct. They loved conducting! With a chopstick of course. My fave was the trumpet player, his hair was wild and curly. Don't you know David played the trumpet, with wild and curly hair? I had forgotten that fact actually and when I told him to look at that guy he laughed!

Penang Part 5: lizards and dresses

Our last few days in Malaysia were so much fun. We enjoyed the beach, the pool, Lebanese food, an incredible outdoor food court, night markets, monitor lizards, and new dresses.

 This guy was not shy like his beach-going friend, he wandered right under our feet at our table by the pool.

 

 He was actually only half the size of the one we saw at a local park, not kidding.

Look closely at how long his tongue is. Monitor lizards are supposedly not dangerous. Komodo dragons, on the other hand, have some kind of poisonous bacteria or something that makes their bite lethal at times, they are the largest kind of monitor lizard. The pool man said I need not worry, no komodos in these parts.

 Let's move on to more beautiful things....

Sophia. I love this pic. Pretty dress, thoughtful, fun.

Bella loved these dresses too and was so proud to have her very own (she gets some hand me downs).

Bella's charming picture. She is shy but she holds her own.

 These were my attempts at natural, real smiles...

Penang Part 4: Crazy Adventure Land

I know this looks pretty tame. This is the little kids area. But to go on the other slides you needed long sleeves, long pants, and socks. When the kids told us about this place (they had gone once on a field trip while we were in meetings), we couldn't quite picture it and didn't quite believe the exaggerated '35 foot red slide that drops you straight down'. Yeah right.

This 'Adventure Land' happened to be a part of the hotel where we were staying so we went.

Oh. My. Goodness. The slides were FAST, every one. The slides were TALL, they were crazy. They looked like so much fun, and were I not prego I would have participated in all the fun. Let's break it down a little.

 Sweet J helps Bella carry her carpet up the two flights of stairs to the only slide that Bella loved. I still thought she quite brave to go it all alone, but she did, a hundred times.

look at those curls.

Sophia took Tobin on the same slide. He loved it too, then all the kids (many families came) took turns with him on the slide. They had fun asking: 'Tobin do you want to go with me?'

Still they loved the baby slides too.

Let me introduce you to 'Big Red'. This slide is indeed super tall, super steep, and not for the faint of heart. Sophia, therefore hopped right up there and went right down. She is not faint of heart, this girl. In the pic it does not look as intimidating as it is in real life. For perspective, many of the adults took many many tries before mustering the courage to take the plunge. 

 No sweat mommy, it is so much fun!

Daddy tries the lower one (but still tall and steep, by lower, I mean by about 2.5 feet than the tall one).

 

 Go daddy!

Then he was ready for 'big red' and never looked back.

Here is more perspective. From the top.

Side view of the grade: pretty much straight down until near the ground.

On the other slide, Bella keeps on going.

 Then David takes Tobin on the blue slide, which was big and with big hills that you could catch some air on, if you tried. Tobin is turned here on his side. A day later we discovered a little burn on his back, I am sure it was from this slide.

Bella and her carpet up the stairs again.

 crazy fun...

Tobin enjoys the free ride with a friend.

Soph keeps going...

And finally Uncle J gets talked into it....David gives some pointers. And down he went. 

And surprisingly no injuries occurred during this whole big 'adventure'.

Penang part 3

 After our meetings were over we moved to a nice hotel on the beach for a few days with some friends. Our family still all shared a room but it was really nice. The pool areas were mostly covered and the beach was quite nice.

There was one slide...

We actually spent a bit of the mornings on the beach. 

 A grumpy shot of Tobin, he had a cold most of these days, he got it from me.

Funny grin from Bella. And if you are wondering what Muslim women wear while swimming, well I did too. This lady behind us was not too conservative in her head covering and jeans. At the pool many were in full Burka type swim suits. 

They loved 'catching' waves. They broke right on shore and got rough at times. Sophia skinned her knees once. But she still loved it.

The classic pout.

 Riding those waves.

 Enjoying sand and fun.

 This monitor lizard high tailed it out of there when David got close.

After Tobin woke up from a nap the girls climbed in for kisses.

 Such fun, these kids.