Nature: Ants'hillvania

What we did today: Watch ants painstakingly build their forts grain by grain. Girl has declared that part of the garden protected territory, a mini Ants'hillvania.

Close-up of ants

Unfortunately, the rains came and watered down the hills. Poor ants had to start all over again.

Shows: Les Misérables

Watching Les Misérables' 25th Anniversary concert on DVD over dinner. 

We had watched the musical live in London that summer and wanted to share it with the kiddos.

Had to explain a lot of adult themes and why everyone was dying one by one :-p 

"I'm too sad to eat," Girl said.
 

Art: Merdeka

The Girl seems to see opportunity for art in everything.

She took a used packaging sleeve from a box and decided it'd make a good Malaysian flag.

I helped to mark the lines for her and she took it from there, Sharpies and all.

Just in time for National Day.

Visits: Ramadan Bazaars

Rain or shine ... We were determined to make it for possibly the last Ramadan bazaar of the year ...

 

Enjoying part of Malaysian life and culture

Our favourite stall ... Apam Balik

Dance: A Miraculous Favour

Girl has been learning ballet since she was 3+. She was the youngest in her class as she wanted to join her friends, who were a year older.

Although she enjoyed music and dance, she was not particularly graceful. In fact, because she had a tendency to turn in her toes, she'd often end up tripping over herself while walking, running or dancing.

As her classmates transformed into little swans, my little duckling still waddled around. Still cute, but clumsy.

Her Grade 2 progress report had encouraging remarks by the teacher, but her footwork and technique were obviously wanting.

Mommy, personally, was taken out of ballet class after scoring a measly "pass plus" in her first exam. But I loved dancing, and I knew my Girl did too.

So I got a copy of the music and scoured Youtube videos of Grade 2 steps. Every day before (and sometimes after) school, Girl would have to practice and practice and practice. It wasn't easy. There were tears. But she improved noticeably and passed her exam with a Merit.

Fast forward to 2012. We changed school to one closer to home — less rush and ferrying up and down for Mommy. The new classroom didn't have a big glass window. So Mommy couldn't monitor what happened in class. Ignorance was bliss.

Her teacher did comment that she had to practice. We did run through some routines with music found online. And she went for a couple of personal classes during the holidays. But overall, things were less strenuous than the year before.

Mommy was resigned. If she didn't do well in her Grade 3 exam, without extraordinary measures as before, it was a sign that it was time to hang up those ballet shoes. And honestly, a part of me expected her to fail or just barely pass, especially since I was unimpressed with what I saw during her last-minute practice right before the exam.

But somehow, Someone up there must have really favoured her.

We got her results today. And thanks be to God, beyond our wildest expectations, she was one of three girls in her class to score a Distinction!

My lil' duckling was becoming a swan!

Art: Bird or ... ?

The beauty of my Girl is that she always finds something encouraging to say. 

After I failed miserably in adding a recognisable bird to her artwork (paint blowing is definitely not my forte), she just told me, "It's quite good, mum. It may not look like a bird, but it sure looks like bird shit." :-p

Tractors: Climb aboard!

Guess who popped by our neighbourhood these past few days? They were just hanging around on the roadside for days. So we decided to pop over to say "Hi!"