permai rainforest resort

The 2 1/2 week mid-year break has ended! The kids have gone back to school today. The holiday was awesome, especially since Cousin Hughie came to stay over.

The highlight of the holidays was of course the 2-night trip to Permai Rainforest Resort. It is a beach resort nestled in the rainforest, right at the foot of Mt. Santubong. It is a more rough and tumble resort compared to the hotel ones which the kids are more used to. They were initially appalled to learn that the cabins did not have tv's! Lol!

However, despite (or perhaps because of?) no electronic stimulation, the kids has a fantastic time! Other than the usual swimming and sand play, we went kayaking and Annie and Hubby tried stand-up paddling (SUP) for the first time. Hubby's friend who manages the place also kindly arranged for a huge bonfire on both nights. It was complete with marshmallows for roasting and a fire-eater for entertainment!!

The kids were astounded and the boys were shouting, "No!! Don't do it!!!" Lol!

Well here are the photos...

Cold drinks at the cafeteria.

This is the jungle pool, filled with cold, fresh water from the mountain. 

This was the reaction from my city kids;

"Is the water clean?!!"
"There's fish!!!"
"Big fish!!!"
"SOMEBODY KILL THE FISH!!"

Suffice to say, nobody went in and we headed to the beach instead...

Annie enjoyed the stand-up padding.

The rest of the kids had fun kayaking.

When Hubby said the two boys could go kayaking on their own without an adult, Hughie was the first to literally jump ship! Lol!

They even set up a darts corner at the bonfire.

Roasting marshmallows...

... telling campfire stories...

... and releasing flying lanterns. 

It's always fun at the beach!!

spiky & pokey

So the other day Solomon was telling me how he wanted to catch a bird that kept coming to their window. I told him how we used to do it with those food cover baskets propped up with a stick. 

We'd tie a string to the stick and put food under the basket then waited, peeping, but out of sight. When the birds came, we would quickly pull the string and the stick would be pulled out from under the basket and the basket would come down over the bird, trapping them.

After that, he told me he wanted to catch a bird on the balcony to keep as a pet. I told him that a hamster would be a better pet and I would go and buy one for him. So then he kept asking me when I was going to go buy him the 'lobster'! Lol!

Anyway, two days later we went to the pet store and got a male and a female. The boys named them Spiky and Pokey! So now we had two 'lobsters' with porcupine names! What confused hamsters! 

So the kids are happy with these two little guys. Let's see if they can care for them.

play doh session

It's the mid-year holidays now and cousin Hughie is over for around two weeks. So we got another two little friends to come over for a play date. K and J came for a play doh session while the big girls, Annie and cousins Allyson and Michelle had a cooking lesson.

I had the big girls chop up bacon and taught them how to cook white sauce for pasta, using roux, a cooked mixture of butter and flour.

For the small kids, we made our own play doh using a very good recipe given by Hughie's school. It incorporates cream of tartar to make a very soft and pliable dough, unlike the tough and elastic dough of just water and flour.

Anyways, the kids had lots of fun getting messy with flour, then rolling out and cutting shapes to create their masterpieces.