Butterflies and Bugs

by Buster

A long time ago I went to this butterfly park!!!!:) ;)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Art class

by Child 2

 Well, one day, we wanted to do art. So Mom signed us up for an art class- and that's what this article's about.

    We walked into the door of the art class and looked around. It was a small room, but somehow a lot of paintings fit on the walls. That day the project was blow art, and I'll tell you what that is here:

Paint watered down colors at the bottom of your page in big, wet blobs. Then take out a straw and blow on the blobs. The paint should streak up across the page and look awesome. Use different colors to make it beautiful.

Child 1, Buster, and I had all based ours off of the ocean waves. We have black rocks at the bottom and waves splashing up off of them. Here is Buster's picture:

Buster's looks a little bit more like a garden, with those green and yellow streaks, but it is still awesome. Here is Child 1's picture:

I think that instead of ocean waves it looks a bit like purple coral growing up from the rocky ocean floor. It makes me feel calm and cool. It's really pretty.

Before I show you my picture, I need to tell you this:
It was mostly light blues and dark blues and I think it looked the most like waves, but here's the thing: I dropped a GIGANTIC EXTREMELY OPAQUE blob of deep blue paint on my lovely scene. I poured water all over the blob to water it down, and then blew it out, but it's still extremely noticeable- and kind of cool. It is a one-of-a-kind picture. And here it is:

Cool, right?

    The second time we went to art class with our friends. Their names are Noah, a boy who is a little bit younger than me, and Erin, a girl who is a little bit younger than Buster. Noah, Erin, and I would be doing cherry blossom blow art, Child 1 would be doing still life, (flowers and an apple) and Buster would be drawing some snowmen. We got to work.

After blowing up green, brown, gold, and black, and after painting bright pink blossoms, our friends and I were done. Here is a picture of my cherry blossom blow art:

It took me some time, and was more difficult than the first blow are I did, but it turned out beautiful. Next, here is Buster's snowman picture:

I think this picture is super cute!! Right? Last, but DEFINITELY not least, there's Child 1's picture:

IT'S SOOOOOOO PRETTY!!!! RIGHT? The coloring just looks so good, and it just touches me... It's still life and still awesomeness.

   We haven't had any more classes, but I'll update you if we do. Thanks for reading!!!

-IceCreamRain

High Tea

by Child 1

On Saturday, Jan 19, we went to High Tea at the Majestic Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia was a British colony for around a hundred years, so there are many places around to have high tea. Also, they call it "Afternoon Tea" instead of "High Tea". The British call it "Afternoon Tea", and since it's a British custom, that is the proper way to say it. There seemed to be a wedding going on while we were there.

The tea service had small sandwiches, scones with jam and clotted cream, and small cakes. The hotel and the tea were very fancy, and the other people there were wearing fancier clothes. We felt very underdressed. There was someone playing a piano while we ate.

The overall experience was much more pleasant than any high tea I have had in the U.S. In the U.S, it was loud and crowded and the tea did not taste very good. I look forward to having more tea!

You can see the piano in the background.

Malaysia's Government

by Becky

The Malaysian coat of arms

As promised, this week I am going to tell you a little about the government in Malaysia.  Malaysia is type of representative democracy known as a constitutional monarchy, meaning there is a King but the King's power is limited by the constitution.  They have a Prime Minister and parliamentary system much like the parliamentary system in the United Kingdom.

The Monkey Mountain

by Buster

Today I will tell you about Monkey Mountain!  By the way, the monkeys are sort of greedy!  This picture is one of the greedy monkeys.  He is eating a sweet potato leaf, and I gave it to him!

Daddy has monkey on his shoulder, as you can see, and he is feeding it sweet potato leaves!

This is Child 2 feeding a monkey!  The monkeys like sweet potato leaves, sweet potatoes, and bananas best.  But they do not like green beans as much!

This is me with a monkey on my shoulder, as you can see!

This is also me with a monkey on my shoulder, but I am now wearing Daddy's hat!

This is a huge swarm of monkeys and the little orangish monkeys are the babies!

And that is the end of this article!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PALM TREES & MONKEYS!!!!!!!

by Child 2

Are you ready to go on a wild MONKEY RIDE? Then buckle up, because I'm going to take you through this amaaaaazing adventure!

-IceCreamRain

    Hop into this car, and your adventure will begin!!

You drive for a while until finally you hop out of the car. You are pulled up on the side of a dirt road. Trees stand before you. Strange, purple, sphere-shaped fruits.

You ask, "What are they?" They are oily fruits. You try to climb the tree and pick one, but they are stuck fast.

You pick one of them off the ground and break it open. Orange oozes out of it. You rub it on your hand-- it definitely feels oily!

You get back in the car and drive for a little longer. Soon it's time to get out again at a bottom of a mountain. You do, and gasp. A little stand with stuffed animal stands before you, but that's not the amazing part-- about ten silvery-colored monkeys are scurrying around on top of the shop! You get in a bus and it drives you up to the top of the mountain. You stand out at the edge of the mountain with bags of monkey food in your hands.

You look around. A street, which at the moment is covered in adorable monkeys, stands before you, and behind it is a little grassy area with a couple trees in it. You walk up to a monkey and try to feed it some food, but a lot of people are offering it food at once and it's already eating. You imagine it feels a little overwhelmed.

Next thing you know you're feeding monkeys by the dozen. They reach out and take it from you; it's almost like they're human!!! You soon figure out that if you hold the food out over your shoulder, the monkey will climb you and sit on your shoulder. Then you can just hand the food to the monkey real easily!

Myself, I was trying to get a tiny, adorable monkey to climb me, when suddenly I feel something extremely heavy jump up my back from behind me and grab my food! After I see the picture that my Dad took I realize why the monkey felt so heavy...

AND I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS WIIIIIILD MONKEY RIDE!!!!!!!!!

-Icecreamrain

Fireflies

by Child 1

On Saturday, Jan 12, we went to see the fireflies in Kuala Selangor. These fireflies live on the Selangor river and live on the kind of mangrove trees called berembang. We boarded the boat a few minutes before sunset, when it was still light out. The sky in Malaysia goes from light to dark in only a couple minutes, so even though it was a short boat ride, by the time we reached our destination it was pitch black.

Along the way we passed some trees where white birds decorated the branches like flowers. They sat on the floating branches on the water, too.

When we reached the part of the river with fireflies, the boat steered close to the edge of the river and the trees seemed to sparkle. At first, they all flashed on their own time, but soon larger and larger groups began to flash in unison. At one point, the driver climbed out on the front of the boat and caught a firefly. He showed it to everyone before he let it go.

I hope you have enjoyed this article about the twinkling fireflies of the Selangor river. Until next time, Bye!