Cuti-cuti Sekolah

When the year-end school holidays came round, I cracked my head for activities to keep Nat occupied and am pleased to say I fared quite well.

On the penultimate day of school, we let her celebrate her birthday with her classmates as she was going to a new school in 2011. Nothing big - just brought some cupcakes and light snacks. Her teachers organised some musical games and allowed us to show the kids a photo slideshow I had prepared on the Smartboard. Finally, Nat happily gave out the party packs that she had helped to pack and label to her friends.

Watching the slideshow

She enjoyed the party immensely as these were the kids she interacted with on a daily basis. We could see she was very comfortable with them indeed. It saddened me a little to think that she would have to start making friends all over again soon. Moreover, Hubby and I had some concerns about removing her from an environment where she was doing so well (I’m proud to say she was the top achiever amongst her peers) but we also had some reservations about continuing to send her to the current school.

That weekend, we had the full moon party of our new nephew, Ivan Toh Tik Quan, and also the party of Christabelle, one of Nat's schoolmates held at Flykidz Gym.

The new addition to the Toh clan

Kiddos

Gym bootcamp

The following week, she went for two days of trial classes at her new kindy, took an overnight trip to Ipoh to visit Kong Kong who just had an operation and attended Brandon's birthday party at Kidz Sports.

Happy Birthday Brandon

After that, she had 2 days of Christmas craft classes at Caterpillar after which she would hang out at my office the rest of the day; got scared at the cinema watching Mother Gothel in Rapunzel - A Tangled Tale; and had a full dress rehearsal followed by school concert.

The third week, we brought the kids to Aquaria KLCC as Tuesday was a public holiday. Bad timing, though. There were just too many people and it was so warm inside. On Wednesday, we went to Sunway Lagoon to watch Peter Pan The Musical (and got thoroughly wet getting to the amphitheatre as it was raining heavily). She also attended another Caterpillar Christmas craft class and also a Little Cooks cooking class at Dish Deli where she learnt to make scones, mini pizza, chocolate cookies and crackle cakes. The results were quite yummy too!

With the cast of Peter Pan. Can you spot her?

My Little Cook

Crackle cakes, mini pizza and scones

The weekend saw us take a trip up North to Ipoh for a night and then to Pangkor on Sunday. I had been debating whether or not to bring Adam. As much as I enjoyed having him with us, I also knew it would not be much of a relaxing holiday for me. So as a compromise, we booked 2 x 3D/2N packages at Pangkor Island Beach Resort.

For the first 2 nights, we brought both kids then headed back to Ipoh on the 3^rd day to leave them with the grandparents while Hubby and I returned to Pangkor for another 2 nights of bliss! Of course Hubby complained about the irrationality of travelling back and forth (it was a good 6 hours by the time we got back to the resort) but for me, it was worth it!

It was actually our first family holiday since Adam came along, not counting the trips to Penang for Bu Keat’s and Val’s weddings. The weather at Pangkor was perfect. Not too hot, loads of cool breeze and waves were as high as 3 feet at times. Hubby enjoyed jumping the waves while I was content just lying on a deckchair being lulled by the seabreeze.

After being at the resort for 5 days, I was quite happy to leave and our timing couldn’t have been better. It started pouring heavily the moment we checked out and rained the rest of the journey back to Ipoh and subsequently, KL. Nat stayed behind in Ipoh with the grandparents continuing her fun holiday at the same time, giving me some respite before the start of a new hectic year.

On Christmas week, Nat returned to KL on her maiden trip on the train with her grandparents. Celebrated Christmas Eve at Val's house and opened presents even before midnight as we were all exhausted and had to head back to bed. Christmas morning saw us celebrating mass together and after lunch, we left for Genting to watch Arrival, an Abba tribute band. We all enjoyed that but I swear never to go to Genting during school holidays ever again! It took us 1.5 hours to go on 3 indoor rides!

The last item on her busy agenda was the NY's eve party at her Mak & Ng Kong's house. Again, she was too pooped to see it through to midnight and missed out on the dazzling fireworks. And with that, ended another express year in our lives. Sigh….