Happy Birthday Girl

Elena is 8 years old! How did that happen??  The past year of her life has had some serious disruptions, but she has come through it all even more impressive and sure of herself than she was before.  We are having so much fun watching her turn into her own person.

The Goerss grandparents had sent a present quite early, and it was too big to really hide it, so I had left it in our room, and Elena had been counting down the days until she was allowed to open it.  I was proud of her for starting with the card though, which turned out to be a lot of fun just on its own.

Upon finally opening the present, she was thrilled to find her very own dog.  She has been asking for a real dog for years, and we've told her no because of how often we move, but this was the next best thing.

She also got lots of great workbooks and board games.  I got some fun pictures of her reaction to her new Jenga game, and the subsequent match with Vivian.

The birthday queen triumphed!

She had also used her Christmas Disney gift cards from my parents to buy a Beauty and the Beast tea cart, and it showed up just in time to be opened for her birthday.

Jeff and I then spent a large portion of the morning wrestling it into the proper configuration.

We're not big birthday party people, but Elena, like the rest of her family, loves a good meal in a restaurant, so we took her to our local favorite, Alexis.  The girls decided that lunch out meant dressing up, so they put on lovely dresses.

Vivian had just bought a new dress with her cat sitting money, so she changed into yet another dress for cupcakes.  We had invited a few friends over to help sing and eat the cupcakes, so the girls worked on training Elena's new dog while we waited for the guests to arrive.

I had gotten Elena some fun birthday balloons the day before,

so she had those and a couple more presents framing her birthday seat.

Of course, the most important part was the cupcake.

The next day my big eight year old was up bright and early for her first swim lesson with a new teacher.

She's such a big girl.  She's working on learning proper swim strokes, and she's graduated to regular size Lego instead of Duplo.

One of her friends had a party with animals, and she was front and center to check them all out.  She loves all kinds of animals.

I'm so proud of her that I even let her try out my brand new chair.

It's reassuring to see that it's still a bit too big for her, but it won't be for long.  She's growing up fast, and she never ceases to amaze us.

KidZania Malaysia Style

Vivian LOVED KidZania when we were in Bangkok, and when we found out there was one here in KL as well, she really wanted to show it off to Elena.  I told her we could go once it was two weeks after Elena's second vaccination shot, and so our last "winter" break activity was a trip to KidZania, which, of course, is clear on the other side of KL.  I decided that in order to be a better mother, I would not stress myself out by driving, and we got lucky with very friendly Grab drivers both there and back.

The tickets had to be purchased online and everything set up on my phone before we could go in, which was a REAL hassle, so I was extra grateful that I hadn't driven.  Getting lost in KL and dealing with filling in all that information on my phone only to have it erased so that I had to reenter it would probably have done me in.

But finally, we were all set, and the girls could enter the land where kids rule.

Our first stop was the bank, because we had learned in the Bangkok one to do everything with the debit card, so that the kids don't lose the paper money.  It also seemed more hygienic.

It should have tipped me off that the bank wasn't affiliated with a real bank.  As a point of comparison, this was Vivian at the one in Bangkok many moons ago.

It turned out that this KidZania had a cash based economy, but that didn't stop the girls from having a great time trying out all different kinds of jobs.  Elena had seen the ambulance, and went right for the doctor training.

They both wanted to do the grocery store, so they took turns being the customer and the cashier.

They also had a lot of fun doing the news together.

I was so impressed with Elena.  She read the new from a teleprompter, and I think it was the ACTUAL news, full of big words about politics and economics.

Viv had fun with the weather, but Elena couldn't resist making a cameo appearance.

After that, they both got medical at the hostpital.

Viv was ready for a break then, but Elena wanted to try out remote controlled robots and vitamin pill chemistry.

The last thing Elena wanted to do before we left was the car driving, but before you can drive a car, you have to get a driver's license.  In a great representation of the adult bureaucratic system, there were multiple steps to this process, which had to be completed in order.  First, you had to go to the optometrist and pass an eye exam.  Then, you had to go to the DMV to take a simulated driving test.  Most of the kids seemed to have failed the driving test, but were given the license anyway.  I feel like this explains a lot about the driving we have seen in Malaysia.

Elena proudly took her paperwork to the driving area and got in a car. 

She then proceeded to drive the wrong way down one way streets at every possible opportunity.

Vivian and I were off to the side waving our arms and screaming, no! no! The other way!  Luckily, she didn't have any major collisions, and it was a fun way to end the day.

That was the last Friday of their "winter" break.  Over the weekend, Vivian went one more time to check in on the cats she was cat sitting for.

We played a few more games.

And then Monday morning, bright and early, the girls got on the bus to go back to school.

While the vacation was fun, it's definitely nice to be back in our routines.

Let's Celebrate Some More!

Malaysia has lots of holidays.  There are three main cultures that make up Malaysia: Muslim Malay, Chinese, and Indian, so we get an assortment of all of those holidays.  Added to that, Jeff gets U.S. holidays off from the embassy, so this week he ended up with Monday off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Tuesday off for Thaipusam, which is a Tamil Indian festival celebrated on a full moon and when a certain star, called Poosam, is high in the sky.  They usually have an elaborate celebration for this holiday at the Batu Caves. 

Jeff was excited about his four day weekend, but the girls still had school both days, so we couldn't do a family vacation without pulling them out of school, which I don't want to do after all the in school time they've missed.  Instead, I planned a staycation for me and Jeff.  A lot of the hotels in the city have fun package deals to help get local business, so I picked the celebration package at The W which is right next to the Petronas Towers, and we were not disappointed.

One of the things the hotel is known for is its bar which is on the pool level and has great views.

The celebration package included a "cocktails master class" at 6pm, so we had that to look forward to when we checked in at 3pm.  The hotel is only about 10 minutes drive from our house, so we've driven by it before and noticed the decor which is quite something.  We weren't sure if it was really our style, but it grew on us, and we ultimately decided that we liked it.  

Some of the lobby art gives a good idea of the style.  This is a sculpture of the Petronas Towers that has different colored lights projected onto it.

The celebration package also included room decor, in room dinner, and buffet breakfast the next morning.  We walked into the room to find a balloon explosion.

They had also moved some of the regular furniture to set up a table for us for dinner.

And to cap it all off, we had a view of the towers.

It's a five star hotel, and we found some nice touches in the little bar area.  They gave us nice wine glasses which we used for dinner with our wine that we brought from home, and they had the same Nespresso machine we have for morning coffee.

The hotel is located right near a busy intersection, across the street from towers and the Suria KLCC mall which is one we like to wander around.

One of my favorite things about KL is that they really try to green it up as much as possible with trees and bushes.  I know there are scientific benefits to that, but it also just sets a great mood which I really like.  Along those lines, there was an empty lot next to the hotel, but when we went to walk to the mall, we saw that they had made an effort to paint it and tie it into the sidewalk around it, so that what could have been an ugly metal fence became a fun art feature.

Jeff had really wanted to buy me a new watch for Christmas, but I didn't want to buy it online without trying it on to see if I liked it or not, so he had found a store at the mall that sold it.  The Lunar New Year (also known as Chinese New Year) is coming up, so all the Christmas decorations have been replaced with new year ones, lots of red and gold and lanterns.

It was fun to walk around, and I ended up liking the watch, so we bought it.  Jeff was very pleased that his selection met with my approval.  It's bigger than I'm used to, but it can do hundreds of things, so I'm sure I will love it once I get through learning how to use everything.

On the walk back to the hotel, we also found a great spot for a selfie with the towers.

When we got up to the bar for our cocktails, we were trying to do selfies again, but one of the people who works there offered to help us out by taking our picture.  He obviously had it down, because he got the great shot I used at the beginning of this post.

The bartender wasn't quite ready to start the "class" yet, so he got us each a drink to enjoy while we waited.

We had seats facing the towers, but the bar has windows on both sides, and a fabulous cross breeze, so the other direction we could see the singular KL Tower.

The class was definitely more beginner than master level.  He wanted to focus on what all the pieces of equipment are called and the six ways you can mix a drink, but he was a really nice young guy, so we ended up hearing a lot of his life's story which was fun, and he made sure that the drinks kept coming.  There were 6 included in the package, but he let us try some other things too.

We stayed until the sun set and the towers lit up.  This was my favorite drink of the night that he made for me after I told him I liked gin.  It's a gin and tonic with Tanqueray 10 and grapefruit, yum!

We said goodbye to our new friend and went upstairs for dinner.  He said he would send us along a couple more drinks in a bit.  We didn't need cocktails for dinner though.  The red wine we brought was perfect.

We didn't really care for the appetizers, but the main course was delicious, and we had a fabulous view of the lit up towers and the full moon.

For dessert, we had our cocktails with a cheese platter which was also delicious.

The next morning I wasn't sure if I could eat again, but breakfast was included, so we went downstairs to check it out.  We got a lovely table outside with our favorite view.

They also had the best buffet set up I've seen since the pandemic started.  Everything was laid out behind plexiglass, and there were people there to make up a plate of whatever you pointed to.

They brought coffee and juice to the table for you, and there was a menu for ordering hot dishes which they prepped and brought to you.  It was pretty and delicious, so we managed to find space for more food.  I would definitely want to come back when I was hungrier though, because there were lots of yummy looking things I didn't try.

We were a little sad to leave, but feel like this is a staycation that's worth repeating.  The hotel decor is definitely out there, but they have all kinds of little touches that really tickled me.  For example, there are big mats in front of the elevators.

And they switch them out throughout the day, so they say Good Afternoon and Good Evening.  It's a small thing, but I really liked it.  Jeff and I both got a chuckle out of the extra toilet paper roll in the bathroom being in a bag labelled in the same kind of bold font "Backup Plan".  The lights in the room were also high tech with a panel for turning them on and off, but also picking mood combinations with names like "Hello You" and "Flirty".  Again, all small things, but it added up to make for a really fun experience.

We brought a few of the balloons home for the girls, so that they can have their own piece of the fun.

After almost two years of feeling like we don't have much to celebrate, I thought this was a great way to get 2022 started, and I hope we can have more fun celebrations throughout the year.