I'll miss the kids ...

Our flight tomorrow to Oregon (6/5-6) means that we'll miss the kids -- first of all, Reeve, Gabi and Rania (until we see them back in KL) ... but also, I'll miss the children I've been working with regularly at RDA -- Riding for the Disabled. The picture below shows a very responsive and friendly Malaysian girl, Huey Shing, whom I have been partnered-with during the past couple weeks. (Tuesday, June 2nd was my last day with her for quite a while.)


Thanks to one of the instructors who just yesterday sent me pictures she had taken, I will always have some special memories of my times out at the Royal Selangor Polo Club. (The very gentle, older horse is Cochise.) - rw

Mission Accomplished!

No, this is not about some banner on an aircraft carrier ... or Obama's effort to stabilize the economy. It's about #5 in Nancy's series of labors to make quilts for each of the grandkids (this one is Micah's). - rw

With only 10 days before we head back to OR I spent most of the weekend working on Micah's quilt. Deadlines are good motivation for me - although I wanted to finish this quilt a year ago. Doug and Tracy have plans for one for Rania - so I still have some quilting to do. - Nancy

Mothers' Day at Chilis!

Yep, Chilis Restaurant at KLCC was the venue for eldest son Doug taking his Mom out to dinner on Mothers' Day. But that wasn't all. All three siblings, Doug, Mark and Tasha, teamed-up to buy Mom Nance a very spectacular bouquet of flowers that is now gracing our dining room table. (Sorry about Reeve being invisible in the picture above! He really was with us ...)

On Mothers' Day both Gabi and Rania were very proud of their new shoes -- sandals that had shiny sequins all over them!

Shortly before Mothers' Day on May 10th, the full moon was beautiful here in KL -- so I took the picture (below)early one morning from our laundry room while the moon was above the Petronas twin towers. - rw

P.S. on Mommy & Daddy Leaving Town

Leave it to "Mom Nance" to come up with projects to occupy the time for Reeve, Gabi and Rania while their parents were touring Angkor Wat ... This was a kit purchased at a local bookstore that involved making small plaster-of-paris dinosaurs, embedding a magnet in the back, and painting them so that they could be used as magnets on the fridge. Project successful! - rw

When Mommy and Daddy Leave Town ...

... guess who gets to keep the kids? (While Doug and Tracy were off on a long week-end to Siem Reap [Angkor Wat], we linked-up with Brian Inskeep and kids to visit the aquarium at KLCC.)

Could it actually be possible that one kid is tired? ...

Because of the timing of our visit (we got there at 11 a.m. when they opened), we were able to see two different fish-feeding times. In one of them, a diver enters the tank with a bucket of food and spends quite a bit of time feeding the huge turtles, manta rays and other fish.


One of the classic pictures we took was of "Rania and Nemo." (Click on picture to enlarge.)
Following the visit to the aquarium, we made our way to Chilis for lunch, right there in KLCC. A long wait for our food taxed the patience of all, but we enjoyed the food and made it home Friday afternoon in time for long naps.
Other events so far in the week-end involved times on the computer, a Friday night "movie night" at our place, Saturday morning T-ball for Reeve, and a visit to the Inskeeps for swimming and lunch at mid-day. - rw

A Cameron Highlands Week-end

We just rode off into the sunset ... Well, that's not exactly how it was, but as we drove the 4 1/2 hours on Friday afternoon (4/17) from KL to our hotel at Tanah Rata we were blown-away by how beautiful the sunset was! We obviously arrived after dark but had nice accommodations and finally were able to get kids to bed -- Reeve and Rania with Doug and Tracy, Gabi in our room. Since we really only had one full day, we drove first to a Boh Tea Plantation where we had tea and got some good views of acres and acres of tea! One of the highlights of Cameron Highlands, an old Colonial "hill station," is that it's cool at 5000'!

Also -- entirely by accident -- we learned that Saturday was an annual Hindu "New Year's Festival" just a couple miles on down the road. So, we drove down to check it out, but discovered that in order to see some of the men walking barefooted on hot coals we'd need to wait almost 2 hours (which we did).

It was definitely a fascinating experience. Of course, we didn't understand the full ritual, including the reason why "hot coal-walkers" first received three hard lashes across their raised forearms. But the pageantry was impressive. Since Tracy was still on crutches, unfortunately she missed it all since the experience required quite a walk after we'd parked our vehicles. (She stayed with the car which was kind of a bummer on a warm day.)

(Notice that the kids really "took" to Court Walters and Susan Stewart who were with us for the week-end.)Some of the other scenes at the festival are pictured below, including women with baskets of fruit which were part of the ritual.
(The bed of hot coals on which he's walking is barely visible at lower right of picture)

One of the other major events of the trip involved picking ripe strawberries -- all in plastic greenhouses -- at a couple of the hydrophonic strawberry farms. - rw

A Season for Cakes!

Sure, it was a long time ago ... but Reeve did have his 7th birthday on April 8th. As per-usual in the Woodward household, a chocolate cake did make an appearance. On the Saturday after Reeve's birthday a bunch of his friends from school met at KLCC for a tour through the Petrosains maze (Petronas Science hands-on exhibition for kids).

Unfortunately, in stepping off the "simulated helicopter ride," Tracy broke a bone in her foot, necessitating several hours waiting for x-rays, and ultimately, a pair of crutches (no problem yet at the time of the picture).



No cakes were present for Reeve's first T-ball game at the Melawati (Elementary) Campus, but it was fun for Nancy and me to be there to watch. Doug did a great job coaching. However, the traditional "Bunny Cake" made another appearance on Easter Sunday, thanks to Nancy's baking and artistic talent. We were delighted to have our good friends from Myanmar, Susan Stewart and Court Walters, with us for Easter Dinner, having arrived on a flight from Bangkok the previous day.



On the Thursday night after Easter we were blessed by a visit from Connie Buford who was in KL for meetings at ISKL in connection with her work with the State Department in regard to international schools. It was great to see her again! - rw