Flying in the trees

That's exactly what today felt like.
We had another early day (but we were late (but so were everybody else!)).

Uncle Alvin took us to Skytrex and it was awesome fun!

We saw this really cool tree (this is for Gilly):

 We were loaded up into harnesses and given a quick tutorial and then we were ready to go. Tater stuck to Uncle Alvin:

She got on the line and got stranded because she wasn't heavy enough:

She wasn't scared. She still laughed and smiled and giggled. And she was saved:

Girl-chick thought it was awesome fun!

Sungai!

Today an old friend from school took us to Kiara for a picnic and a paddle in the little stream.

We played here, paddling in the stream:

Da Man went for a wander and saw these cute little monkeys (silver-tailed macaques) up in the trees. Not so cute when the dropped down out of the trees en masse and looked like they were poised to attack:

He came back to where we were to muck about with camera settings instead:

 Here are some of the more unusual things we saw:

See the 'No Kissing' sign?

We saw a little tree decorated for Christmas. We're not quite sure who did it because it was the lone tree done amongst a stand of trees.

We also fed a pond full of red-eared sliders:

Thank you Aunty Michelle for a wonderful day!

Another quiet day

We took the kids to the mall again today. Late-ish. Because we were going to keep it quiet but still wanted to give them something to do. We took the bus again because that is an experience in and of itself.
We stopped at the Christmas trees at the Gardens Mall to get the obligatory shot:

But really all they wanted to do was run around the gazebo:

We dropped them off at Kid's eWorld, an indoor park with lots of kids on school holidays. Reports have it that they built with giant blocks:

And slid into a ball pit:

Later on that night, Da Man and the mothers went off to Petaling Street to have a look at the local sights, sounds and smells:

Lots of "genuine, imitation" going on here:

The chicks stayed home with me and then Uncle Alvin had to go to the shop for a special appointment with a customer so we went with him and the girls were allowed to pick out a soft toy each.

Sans enfants

Today we ditched the kids, Da Man and I, to wander the city and run errands. The kids hung out with Nanny and UncleKev in front of an electronic device:

We went to yet another mall, with the typical fountain in the front:

They had the UN Buddy Bears on display out front too. This is the Canadian bear (we're still not sure how it is representative of Canada):

 It was a kind of typical mall experience, lots of stores with things people really didn't need, at shockingly exorbitant prices people couldn't afford (and yet like sheep, they emerged with bags full of stuff). The giant Christmas tree display had a carousel and a Hello Kitty ride in it which I am certain Girl-chick will love when she spots it, if we ever take her there:

Then, we stumbled upon Tokyo Street:

I wasn't going to go in but I got convinced and lookit all the fun things we saw!
Cute little shops with Japanese things in it, a dollar store called Daiso where I bought a lot of neat little things.

We also saw pastries in the shape of animals!

And little Christmas signs:

The kids were glad to see us at home later that evening; they were well-rested and ready for the evening.
We met up with cousins to use training chopsticks:

Meet up one last time with our Aussie cousins:

Lick the mango off the dessert dish:

Run around on the bridge outside:

And get photographs taken by Chinese tourists who'd never seen white kids before:

AuntyElaine took us on a car ride to take AuntyRufina home and we had two giggly girls riding in the back of the SUV, to be followed by two giggly little girls dressed in pyjamas, being tickled close to midnight.

Fishies!

The day started early again with a bit of a rush:

To get to a train!

And we ended up at a giant mall!

With an aquarium! We looked at fishes,

Animals (this is a coatimundi):

And a diving Santa:

Girl-chick counted shark's teeth:

At the end of the day, we got lost and ended up at a Korean BBQ place:

Stay-at-home day

Monday was a quiet stay-at-home day for most of us. Girl-chick was fighting off a virus all weekend and we wanted to give her a day to just get over it. Da Man and his Mudder went off to the mall for pretty much the whole day for Operation Ho-ho-ho, my mum and brother went off to do some admin stuff while he was back in the country - that pretty much left me to wrangle the two cats. By noon, Tater had dissovled into a puddle of tears and begged to skip lunch and go to bed. Off to bed she did go and she snoozed until 1500. Girl-chick picked at some lunch and then I popped her in bed for a nap too with the promise of a reward if she did snooze. She drifted off around 1300 and woke up 3 hours later well rested. Both kiddoes were famished so I fed them whatever they wanted. People started trickling back to my brother's house around 1600 and we did Leftover Roundup to clear the fridge.
The surprise?
We went to the night market!
No pictures. Hard enough to hang on to the children as we bust our way through the narrow crowded aisles. Adding a camera to the mix would have been hard. Da Man and I will head back another night sans enfants to take pictures.
We sampled interesting things including fish balls, sweet potato balls and rambutans. Portable food.
Girl-chick was bummed because she was promised a Hello Kitty t-shirt but we couldn't find any in her size that didn't look like it belonged on a HosRUs employee (read: spangly and tarty). Uncle Alvin did spy a Cut the Rope t-shirt which we picked up for 10RM - about 3CAD. Noice! Now we need to find something tacky for the Tater too.
Once again, no pics. More today...

The day after the wedding

Also known as 'Free Day' as sagely reminded by Girl-chick...

We woke up late and enjoyed the hotel room a little longer until the first grumbles of "I'm hungry..." and then made our way down to the cafe for breakfast. There was a furrow on Girl-chick's brow as we reminded her that she was '4' if anyone asked. We tucked into a lot of fruits and some sort of Asian style 'bacon' made with beef and Da Man wolfed down a lot of hashbrowns with ketchup - it being free day and all...

We waited for my brother to come and collect us and while we waited, the vidiots went 'camping'. That is, they fashioned tents out of pillows to block out the light.

We went to the other pool to swim at the clubhouse where the bride and groom spent the night. They lollygaggled some more while we splashed in the pool.

At the end of the afternoon, the girls were a little worse for wear but I hope they had a nice day.

Wedding day

The family was up very early once again today (and since some of us didn't get to sleep, it was just an extended day for them!)

The car was ready to go overnight, decorated with flowers:

We were all ready to go by 0800:

My brother was nervous:

I think my mum was too:

At the bride's house, we were met with a barricade:

My brother's 'hengtai' did a lot of cajoling, bargaining and jumping through hoops to gain access to the bride. Through it all, my brother sweated and smiled.
The girls whined a bit because it was very warm (and rather boring for them without a context) so Adrian, my brother's chief 'hengtai' turned the car on and ran the AC for them. In appreciation, they made silly faces:

Eventually, after several entertaining games involving bananas and bunny ears, my brother and his posse got through the first hurdle (yes, there's more!)
There were games after that and challenges that the 'hengtai' had to do,  like drinking nasty stuff out of baby bottles sticking out of bras (too busy keeping kiddoes entertained to grab pictures).
Really, the morning was a blur:

Even Adrian crashed as soon as the morning's challenges were done and the bride was whisked back to my brother's house:

Here's another picture of the pretty flowers on the car:

After another busy lunch, we were dropped off at the hotel to check into our rooms and then we took the kids to the pool to swim.

We got kicked out after 30  minutes. Did you know that in Asia, they don't allow folks to swim in the pool if it's raining? How silly! It was the best time to swim.
The older girls cuddled up on the bed to be vidiots:

While the younger two clustered around a bag of goldfish like little mice:

Girl-chick and Tater were the flower girls but I don't have pictures of those yet.