Birthday Week

Well I have been a bit neglectful in the blog department. It feels like life has just managed to get away from me. We have been busy with all sorts of fun stuff. We have been to puppet shows, Carley attended her first Orchestra. We have tickets to the children's series that the Malaysian Philharmonic does it was wonderful. We have celebrated a birthday, mourned the passing of Brian's Granny Head. I am now the Vice Chair of IBU a mother's organization I belong to here in KL and I managed to throw a Halloween party at IBU and Carley's Birthday Princess Party on back to back days with Brian out of town. SO that is the short version and now I will expand and add pictures.

The Story begins with Carley's first Orchestra. We have a season tickets to the Children's series done by the national orchestra. You have to be four to attend and Carley loved it. Here is a picture of her outside after it was over. Pictures are strictly NOT allowed inside even 20 minutes before the performance starts. Trust Me I tried. We saw a performance of the Buskers. These two men were amazing. One played the accordion while doing several other things and the other man played most the recorder, at one point two at once. But he also played the pan pipe, a rubber fish and a clog. He was great. We clapped along galloped in our seats and had a great time. We have four tickets so that we can invite friends since James is to little you have to be four to attend. Carley can not wait until the next time we get to go.

That night we went out for dinner, I have been wanting fired shrimp and not Asian style so we went to Bubba Gumps Shrimp Restaurant. The whole place was like a seen out of the movie. We had a great time. The kids had their meals served to them in boats. The shrimp hit the spot, but they were frozen and they do not hold a candle to the ones at But beggars can not be choosers.

On Tuesday the 28th Carley celebrated her 4th Birthday. I can not believe she is four already. She started her day with Birthday pancakes.

in case you did not know if you stick birthday candles into hot pancakes they will melt. But don't worry Carley ate around the wax. Carley did not have school on the 28th so we headed over to the Science Center. We were disappointed to see once we got there that the rabbit enclosure is shut for remodeling and so is the Aviary, but we did find the water features and don't worry the kids had a great time. It was a little scary for me as they were running back and forth I was waiting for one of them to slip in to this lake. Safety standards are very different here.

After the Science center we dashed home for a quick change of clothes and then it was off for lunch. We had roti cani which is Indian food. We really like it even James. Just before we left for dinner Burt Burt called and he got to watch Carley open her birthday presents. She loved her new princess outfit from Granny and Bert Bert. That night we went to Carley's favorite restaurant Chili's and met some of our favorite people Robin, Tim and Ruth Vaughan. I am not sure if I have talked about them before but by the grace of God they came into our lives. They have adopted us as their Malaysian children and grandchildren. Ruth is 12, but Robin and Tim have four adult children and 8 almost nine grandchildren. My children love them and we are blessed to call them family. Carley ordered chicken crispers and we had cupcakes, yellow cake and chocolate icing. She had a blast got lots of fun stuff from the Vaughans and even James got a new car which he was soooo excited about. Here is Mr. Tim having some fun with James. They were coloring.

And this is Miss Robin getting some "Birthday Sugar" as she calls it from Carley after Carley had opened her presents. Miss Robin has gone home to be with her real daughter Paige who is expecting her second child. She will not be back until the 8th of January she will be dearly missed in my house. We get to hang with Tim and Ruth until the middle of December because Ruth is still in school.

Wednesday Carley went to school and she got to celebrate her birthday with all of her classmates. We made her a cookie cake and I made a sad attempt at making icing and decorating. But Carley thought it was great so that is all that matters. The school does a great job of making the kids feel special. Here are all her classmates singing to her. She wore her new princess outfit and got her own sign and goodie bag. She had a blast and not a bite of cookie was left.

Unfortunately we got the call from Brian's mom on Thursday morning that Granny Head had passed away. She had been very sick and really it was God's grace to take her home. She was diagnosed with cancer just days before we arrived in Tennessee for out visit and we were glad we got to see her then. She lived a very full life she left two children, six grand children and nine great grand children. She will be remembered for her smile, her delicious country cooking my favorite was her corn bread, her sweet southern drawl and a kind heart that loved so many. Brian was on a plane Friday morning just 24 short hours later.

Well I am really tired and you will just have to wait until tomorrow for the second installment of the birthday week. Love all around.