Happy Days

The last 6 weeks have been busy for our little family. Here's an attempt to condense it all into a photo journey, beginning from where we last left off ...

You might remember Hannah's obsession with the airport, or more accurately, her little pink princess trolley bag. Since it would be quite a few months before we did take a real flight, we decided to repeat an outing to the airport.

Despite doing exactly the same thing previously, Hannah enjoyed herself tremendously. We caught sight of 2 air stewardesses enjoying a break in the cafeteria, and they were sufficiently charmed by our 4-year-old to oblige to an impromptu photo session.

Next, we were off to Port Dickson, a little beach resort just over an hour from Kuala Lumpur, also Cindy's hometown. We met and thanked all our friends who had sent gifts to Isabel and had a lovely time catching up with them.

Hannah spent the weekend building sand castles and getting sandfly bites! Thankfully only the adults succumbed to a week-long of agonising itchy spots, while Hannah miraculously escaped with mere red spots.

The following weekend marked another "first" for Hannah - her first speech in front of a crowd in a hotel ballroom! It was her kindergarten's annual concert and Hannah was given the task to deliver an introductory spiel for her class' performance.

A born performer, Hannah delivered her little speech flawlessly and proceeded to participate in 2 dances with the rest of her classmates. Snapshots of the day can be seen here.

Later in the week, Cindy and the girls had to sort out their passports. Despite capacity crowds at the immigration department, we were pleasantly surprised to sort out all 3 passports in about 3 hours, including queuing time!

However, 3 hours is still a long time for a little baby. Isabel decided to shut out all the noise around her and dozed off when nap time came. With her impressive ability to sleep anywhere, almost anytime, in any position, Isabel has all the makings of an efficient junior doctor.

And then, finally, the EVENT OF THE YEAR...

JOHN AND KAREN'S WEDDING!!!

wedding pictures

The final week leading up to the wedding was packed with last minute shopping trips, errands and rehearsals for the special day. Hannah worked herself into a state of excitement, anticipating the day she would be the flower girl for her Uncle John.

Hannah thoroughly enjoyed her day as a "princess", and even enjoyed a costume change to her "golden gown" for the evening's celebrations. Isabel still managed to sleep through much of the day's fanfare, but handled the evening less well.

Anyone familiar with a Chinese wedding dinner knows what a long drawn affair the 8-course-meal is. The meal started past 8pm and went on to 11pm. Amazingly, Hannah kept up her dazzling smile throughout the evening and has received tentative requests for future flower girl duties, pending parental approval.

Our Cinderellas were home and tucked into bed before midnight, while the parents thankfully collapsed in bed shortly after, in an exhausted post-adrenaline state.

We are looking forward to the next few weekends spent quietly at home, although events and outings have a habit of springing on us unexpectedly.

We leave you now with a few snapshots of how much Isabel has grown over the weeks ...