Tumbling to the End of the School Year

April and May flew by this year. There was so much going on both in and out of school. We started April off with the new Dungeons and Dragons movie, which we were really excited about. It ended up being a lot of fun.

Of course, pretty much any trip to Pavilion is essentially a photo op. The Hari Raya decorations were still up, so we got some good pictures.

Coach was sponsoring the outdoor display, but we still don't understand why they have chosen to involve dinosaurs in their ad campaigns. 

Easter was pretty low key, because I didn't have time to try and hunt down a proper ham in this Muslim country. I was able to find some nice chocolate bunnies though, so the girls were happy.

For my birthday, I figured, if it ain't broke, go for it, so I booked us the same hotel package as last year, and we went to the hotel restaurant at Le Meridien for some delicious steak. They even put fancy decorations on the table and brought me a special birthday cake.

Elena is not a big steak eater, but she has discovered that she loves bisque with a puff pastry topper. She was very pleased.

A lot of our outings involve trying out new restaurants and food. We did some shopping at KLCC and then tried out a restaurant called, appropriately, Burger and Lobster. We were drawn in by the live lobsters in the tank at the front of the restaurant.  Vivian was our burger representative. Elena tried the lobster mac and cheese, Jeff tried the lobster laksa, and I tried the lobster "roll".

There was a LOT of lobster inside a carved out, butter fried brioche with butter sauce to pour on it. It was delicious, but SO rich. We also took home half the burger and half the soup. The only thing that got completely finished was the lobster mac and cheese, and that was an appetizer portion. 

The following week at school, my homegroup started up being book buddies with a first grade class, and I went with my 8th grade class to an amusement park for the day as part of their physics unit.  The following weekend was a housewarming party for a friend who just moved into our building.  The week after that was a triumph for Elena. She graduated from yellow belt to green belt!

She has been working super hard on her karate, and she now has her sights set on the next goal, a blue belt. I'm sure she'll get there if she keeps up the hard work.

On that Saturday, we went as a family to see the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie. They had a cool display outside the mall, but it was really bright, so we had a hard time getting Elena to take her hand away from her face.

I was glad to have a family Saturday, because that Sunday, I left early in the morning for a week long school trip. I went with two other teachers and we took about 30 students to a place called Gopeng, which is out in the Malaysian countryside. The last time I did a school trip like this was in March of 2020 when the whole world shut down, so I was a bit nervous, but it turned out to be an absolutely fabulous trip. Malaysia is an incredible country, and within just a few miles of where we were staying we were able to go hiking, caving, and white water rafting. 

The rafting was definitely my favorite.  We started out with a day of water safety training. The first thing we did was learn how to "safety swim", which basically means float feet first until someone tells you to swim towards them. Then, swim upstream as fast as you can until someone grabs you and pulls you to safety. Our main instructor definitely got a kick out of watching all of us start out afraid and finish confident.

We did some other team building and safety activities in the water. Then, we took a nice lunch break along the river. After lunch, they loaded us all the back of two trucks and drove us quite a ways upriver, so that we could spend the next couple hours rafting back down. This river is great for beginners, because, while there are some rapids, there are breaks in between them, so that you can regroup and re-boat anyone who fell out.

Our main instructor took me and two of the other chaperones in his boat. All of the guides train and qualify on the river with weighted bags in the front of the boat, so even though they gave us all paddles, they weren't expecting much from us. Most of the ride was lovely and peaceful.

But the instructor couldn't resist tipping two of us out of the boat.

We got back in, but we gave him a hard time for doing it on purpose. They were very careful with the kids though, and only one fell out, and, again, they popped him right back in. It was a fantastic day.  

My other favorite part was our sunrise hike. We got up really early and starting hiking in the dark with our headlamps on, but then when we got to the top, we got to watch the sun rise over the valley and have some banana bread for breakfast. Then we meandered back down. It was great.

It's a really beautiful part of Malaysia, and I've already told the person who organizes the activity, that I would love to go to the same place again next year.

After I got back, it felt like a full on race to the end of the year. There was tons to do at school, and our weekends were full too. The school had a "meet the instruments" Saturday morning session for elementary students to see which instruments they might be interested in learning.  Elena's favorites were percussion, the tuba, and the bass.

The music teacher told us that being a good bass player pretty much guarantees you a college scholarship, because there's a shortage of bass players. Jeff and I found this fascinating, and we're working on a plan for Elena to try the bass out more next year to see if she likes it.

There was a lot of music in our lives that weekend, because it was also the Eurovision final, and my friend had a Eurovision party at his house, which was a lot of fun.

None of our favorite songs won, but, as a family, we've all discovered some fun new songs to have on around the house.

The pace did not slow down the following weekend. On Saturday, Elena had a birthday party at the Splatter Factory, which is a cool art place, but it's on entirely the other side of town. It wouldn't have made any sense to take her over there and then come home before picking her up, so instead, Jeff, Vivian, and I spent the time exploring Sunway Pyramid Mall. It is an over the top, Egyptian themed mall with, of all things, an ice rink in the middle of it.

We had a lot of fun exploring, and we grabbed lunch in a Thai restaurant before going back and getting Elena who had had a blast at the birthday party. Once we got home, we had to dash to the mall next door to find batik clothes, because we were supposed to go to the Batik Bash that night (the school's party for all employees), and we had none to wear.  We managed to pull it off though, and we were actually one of the few couples with coordinating outfits, so we felt pretty proud of ourselves.

The end of May and beginning of June were a whirlwind. During the week, Viv had her final orthodontist check up before the summer (the waiting area there is trippy).

She also was one of the stars of the drama and choir mash up performance.

We had to make an emergency trip to H&M to buy her a pair of jeans, because that was the costume requirement, and my little tropical baby didn't own jeans, but now she does, and they're a great pair.

I felt like I spent most of the last week of school in the theater. We started off the week with a farewell assembly for the students who are leaving, but the principal and assistant principal couldn't let us leave on a sad note, so they had a contest cracking eggs against their heads. This is quite a school.

The next couple days were rehearsals for the 8th grade "moving on" ceremony, and then the ceremony itself. It's actually a really nice one, because the kids participate both by sharing 6-word memoirs about middle school, and with musical performances.

The next day I was back in the theater to celebrate as a mom. Vivian got achievement awards for both performing arts and English. We are so proud of her.

I have this week to clean up my classroom and get us packed and ready for our summer adventures. Jeff has to work, but he left early today so that we could try out a fancy restaurant right on the KLCC park. It's the steak house at the Mandarin Oriental hotel.

We were fascinated by the sculpted heads as flower vases concept. The breadsticks were also a huge hit.

I had brought our standard paper and crayons for Elena, but the staff quickly upgraded her to coloring sheets and fancy pencils.

She enjoyed her food, but she spent most of the meal sitting on the floor, looking out the window, and coloring.  The "business lunch" had a tomato soup appetizer and pasta main course, so that's what she opted for. It was well priced, and we got a kick out of it.

They had an assortment of different tonic water flavors, and so I decided to try a gin and tonic with grapefruit tonic water. Yum :-)

They also had a Wagyu set menu. Big surprise, Jeff went for the multi-course steak meal. His appetizer was delicious.

I wanted to try the scallops, but when they wheeled a cart up for table side preparation, I realized we were in for something special. Apparently, they were going to be topped with whiskey flambé. It was quite something to watch her scooping flaming liquid onto our little scallop shells.

They tasted good too.

For his main course, Jeff got some lovely cuts of beef.

Vivia had agreed to try the beef wellington with me. It was a chef's special, and I couldn't resist. Again, they rolled up the cart for table side presentation. This time it was just cutting it and serving it between the two plates, but I'm glad we got a look at the full pastry before they cut it.

The green layer is pastry dyed with parsley. Vivian was "glad she tried it", but ate the beef and left most of the pastry. I enjoyed it. I don't know that I would get it again, but it was fun and yummy.

The dessert menu had lots of options, so we ordered a few things. I got Elena the chocolate tart, which was hands down the best dessert.

I'm not sure what made the top gold, but just one touch revealed the warm chocolate underneath. It was delicious, and Elena had to fend off tasters with her fork and spoon.

It was a great way to celebrate the end of a hectic school year and the start of a busy summer.