Fun In The Sun Too

Another warm Spring day in Vancouver. It's like back when we first arrived in Vancouver. The kids just LOVE playing at the park behind our house. Arman is as usual mostly by himself. Here, he's scaling the slide with a make-shift rope. He always finds something interesting to do, either with toys lying around the premises, or at the playground.

Melur, on the other hand, was admiring a rock collection with her friends. Melur's quite taken to this new hobby, and is trying to start a rock collection of her own. Unfortunately, most of Melur's rocks look like debris from a construction site. Maybe she can find some better looking stones at the beach. We'll have to take her there.

Melur and Friends

Fun In The Sun

What a sunny day it was today. The kids were out playing in the sun most of day. Melur and Arman now have quite a tan, and are looking more like 'Malays' than before. The summer can do that to you. Here are some pictures of the kids.

While Melur was showing off her Monkey Suit with her friends, Arman was running around. He has so much energy. And it's so infectious.

Run, Arman! Run!

Monkey Suit

Today I came home to a Monkey Suit... Or should I say, a Gorilla Suit...

The kids found the old gorilla outfit from Halloween, and were taking turns putting it on, and prancing around the house like a gorilla. They can't wait for their next Halloween. I told them it's a long way away. It'll be after Melur's Birthday, and after Melur starts school. Still... their excitement remained high.

So this is us goofing around on a Friday evening, while Mommy prepares dinner.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Melur's Park Friends

The weather's really been good lately. The kids have been going out to the playground behind our house almost every day. I took some time today to hang out with the kids and take some pictures of them at the park.

As usual, Melur is the more social. Here's a picture of Melur and her friends Owen and Elaine. Arman just happened to be close by, and decided to join in the picture. Otherwise, I think he'd be in the sand box playing with the trucks and tractors.

Melur makes friends very easily. We keep reminding her not to go into other peoples houses. She's a little too trusting. But we'll keep our eye on her.

So finally, here's Elaine and Melur (Picture Below). I think they're pretty close. Elaine has a bike which Melur adores. She wants one just like it. We'll get her one when the time comes. They've been playing with these Witch Dolls from the Wizard of Oz (Free from McDonald's Happy Meals). I think they do some role playing with make-belief characters. That's always fun.

See what I mean? Witch Dolls from the Wizard of OZ below:

Another Bus Ride

That's the only way to travel...

Since it's the weekend, we headed out to the Halal Store to get some meat. As always, the bus is our main mode of transportation. There was a bit of an argument at the Halal Store today. Here's the story: I had called the store earlier and ordered some meat for pickup. When I arrived, I indicated to the butcher (whom I called earlier) that I want to look around a little bit more before paying. Another gentlemen approached the butcher. When I was done looking around and ready to pay, I stepped forward to the counter. The butcher asked me if I was done and would like to pay. Incidentally, the other gentlemen was still at the counter asking the butcher for some hooves. He was furious that the butcher entertained me first and not him. In his anger, he asked why the butcher attended to me first and not him. The butcher said, in his own strange accent, that I was 'FARST'. The gentlemen thought that the butcher said I was 'FAST' which made him even MORE furious. You don't entertain customers based on who's fast. It's should be based on who's first! And the gentlemen continued to vent his frustration. The butcher just stayed silent, though visibly annoyed, frustrated and angry. After some extended period of squabbling, the gentlemen finally realized that the butcher had said 'FIRST' and not 'FAST'. It was the butcher's mid-eastern accent (What the hell is 'FARST'?) that was confusing. The gentlemen was so apologetic after that. Whew... I think Mommy was quite distressed with the 'altercation'

Well.. once that blew over, and I paid for my meat, we headed back on the bus and stopped by, you guessed it, Tim Horton's, for some Tim Bits and Hot Chocolate. That was our short trip to town on a Sunday afternoon.

Couch Potatoes

Without the COUCH...

This is our living room. We've been here over 7 months, and our living room is still 'couchless'. We spend our evenings relaxing in front of the TV, with a comforter. This is what our family looks like at night.

Here's a close up.

It's modest, but it's home. And the kids enjoy being at home with the family.

Mommy's so busy, she's actually working in front of the TV. (*Nope, she's not just surfing the internet).

Life in Vancouver has been good, despite having a tight budget. The important thing is we're together as a family. Anybody wanna come over and hang out in a 'couchless' living room, and be Couch Potatoes (without the couch)?

I think Melur enjoys taking pictures a little too much. But she's so adorable. Family First

Spring Is Here

And Flowers are blooming...

My walk to the office is now filled with flowers. I spent today taking pictures as I stroll to work.

Most of these flowers are in Acadia Park. It's a pristine housing area, fit for families. The flowers just add to the family atmosphere.

As I cross the street, this cherry tree (At least that's what Daddy says.. See below) is in full blossom with pink petals covering the branches.

People are planting flowers everywhere. I'm sure there'll be even more flowers come summer. I'm looking forward to more beautiful weather and flowers galore.

Lasagna Dinner

Lasagna for Dinner Today, Mommy made Lasagna for dinner! It wasn't much of a hit with the kids. The kids generally don't like beef, and prefer chicken, or even seafood. But Daddy had a BLAST!!!

Popcorn After Dinner After dinner, we settled down with some popcorn and watched a movie. The kids just LOVE popcorn. And so we just lazed around until bedtime, which is about 9:30 pm these days. Mommy and Daddy definitely need to re-schedule their bedtimes, especially when school starts.

Relax Before Bed

Good Friday, Fun Friday

The weather's getting much better. Today is 'Good Friday', which is a statutory holiday in Canada. So Daddy spent the day off with the kids. The kids naturally wanted to play outside and enjoy the sun. Here are some pictures of Melur and Arman at the Park!

Arman on his Toy Car All around Acadia Park, there are toys littered everywhere. I think the housing area buys these toys (or maybe receives them as donations) for the community. In any case, the kids always pick up something, play with it for a while, and then return it. I don't think you'll find places like this outside of campus. Acadia Park is really university housing for students with families. And it shows.

Melur Playing with Friends While Arman likes to play by himself, Melur will always look for a friend to play with. Here's a picture of Melur with one of her Korean friends, I forget his name. Melur has trouble remember the names of her friends too. I keep urging her to remember their names. It's really good practice.

Melur fixing her shoe

KinderClub

Daddy took the morning off today to take Melur to KinderClub with Mommy for an 'interview'.

KinderClub is a kindergarten daycare facility attached to the U-Hill Elementary School. We walked about 20 minutes along Acadia Road, not bad for a sunny Tuesday morning. We had a 9:30 am appointment, and the walk along suburban UBC was pleasant and quite nice. We were quite excited to check out the new school which Melur will be attending this September. Halfway through the walk, I carried Melur on my shoulders.

When we arrived, we were greeted warmly by the teacher who showed us around, and gave us an overview of the place. Melur's actual classes at U-Hill Elementary is about 2-3 hours. So she'll need day care for the remaining hours while Mommy and Daddy are working. That's where KinderClub comes in. They'll take care of Melur from 8 am to 5:30 pm, and send her to classes in between. KinderClub will have a separate curriculum involving art, drama and a bunch of other stuff. And all that costs about CAD $600 a month.

It's a little expensive, I know... especially since we have to pay for Arman's pre-school and day care as well. But hopefully this is just temporary. And I think Melur will have fun with friends at school, and learn more through a more structured environment.

Melur is Ready for School

Meet the Robinsons

This is our first day out at the movie theater since coming to Vancouver, and we went to SilverCity Metropolis Movie Theater located at the Metrotown Shopping Center.

We didn't take any pictures at the movie theater, but it was fun. Expensive... but fun. The tickets cost us CAD$40.00, and the pop-corn, another CAD$20.00. That's SIXTY BUCKS for a movie with the kids. But it was fun. Arman was finally able to sit still (relatively) for the entire show. In our last attempt, watching "Over the Hedge" back in Malaysia, Arman ran all over the movie theater screaming. He was just having run, being the boy that he is. Today, he sat (more like stood) at the edge of his seat, but other than that, he was quite still and excitedly watched the movie.

After the movie, we headed over to the food court to get some grub. We had some curly fries, mozzarella sticks and a bean burrito. Yummy...

The popcorn we got from the movies came with a bucket and 2 cups which we can use as souvenirs. It also came with these 2 chocolate eggs with toys inside. You can see Arman playing with the containers in the pictures above. Below is a picture of the pop corn containers (Nope, we didn't watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).

Fun Times at the Movies

Definitely a lot of fun, but we'll doing a lot more watching movies at home than at the theater. The kids want to watch "Shrek the Third" next. We'll see about that.