Go for Gold!

The last two weeks have just flown by!  It was the last two weeks of Year 4 for Brenna and they were packed with events.  After weeks of practice, the Year 4 "production", Go for Gold, was held on Tuesday July 3rd.  The play depicted the origins of the Olympic games and Brenna played one of the heralds who announced the entrance of the Greek Gods.  Every child in year 4 had a speaking part, large or small, and they all did a fantastic job.  It was great fun and the kids were very proud of their performance.  Here's our girl...

The next night we celebrated our second "Independence Day" here in Penang.  Last year was pretty much a non-event, but this year, we joined some friends at the Hard Rock Cafe's 4th of July celebration.  We enjoyed a variety of American favorites such as burgers, hot dogs, wings, potato salad and of course, apple pie!  There was a live band playing and a slide show of all sorts of Americana.  It was a lot of fun...

The weekend was full with Chris heading down to Singapore for a 10K, Brenna attending a going away party for one of her classmates and Rox getting a little "me" time shopping for furniture.  Found a nice wood bench to place near our door and a small table for the powder room.  Both solid wood, hand carved pieces for about $225 US - can't beat it!

Last week it was Rox's turn to head to Singapore for work.  She ended up going down only for a day and was so sick when she got home, she spent most of the next day in bed.  Headache, sore throat, low fever.....thought she had dengue or some other mosquito-borne disease after her weekend shopping excursion (furniture place is outdoors), but was pretty much over it with a couple of day's rest and is back to normal now.   Brenna had her last day of school and was genuinely sad to leave her teacher, Mr. Watson, as he is heading back to the UK and won't be there next year.   A couple of her friends are leaving Penang as well, so it was bittersweet.  We're really hoping this summer is more exciting for her than last year (although what can be more exciting than having your dad plunge off a mountain and end up in the hospital for a week?).

This weekend was another (unplanned) furniture shopping event as one of the antique furniture dealers from KL had a show in Penang and was offering discounts and free delivery.  Our intent was to "look", but of course, we found a beautiful console table that will serve well as a TV stand when we return home (our old entertainment center is not made for flat screen TV's, so will likely be "re-purposed" as a computer armoire).  This one was quite a bit more expensive than last weekend, but when you find something you like, you'd better grab it.  We're gonna have some decisions to make when we get back home...bigger house or let some of our older things go...

So that's the last couple of weeks in a nutshell...

SCIPS Parade of Nations

Last week, St. Christopher's held a parade of olympians to celebrate the international flavor of its student body.  Parents were invited to view the parade (with many kids dressed in national costume or as athletes from their home country) and then join their kids for a tour of the world.  Each class adopted a particular country and created informative displays to share their knowledge of another country.  Brenna's class did Australia and did a bang-up job of portraying all the fabulous wildlife, aboriginal art and history of Australia.  Our contribution to the display was a "3D" model of a kangaroo....apparently not as hard as it sounded as most parents just sent in a stuffed animal.  Our loving daughter insisted it be a "model", so we came up with a toilet paper tube kangaroo on Sunday afternoon!  It wasn't pretty, but it did resemble a kangaroo and it was creative!

The kids did a great job and at least 30 nations were represented by either students or staff...

Here's the American contingent.

Our favorite American girl...

And my favorite shot of all....Uncle Sam giving the Statue of Liberty a "noogie"!  This was after the Statue whacked Sam with her torch - classic...

It was a fun morning and we're looking forward to the Year 4 end of year "production" this week.  Stay tuned...