Kuala Lumpur: ISKL End of School Parties for the kids

Griffin's class celebrated the end of their in-depth study of Egypt.

Some tasty Egyptian mummies

1ST is Alice's class - end of year party cake

Griffin donned a toga to describe his Egyptian artifact he made -
a clay sculpture of an Egyptian man pushing an ox to plow his field

Alice's best buddy Valeria, from Venezuela, with her brother Carlos

Each child made scrapbooks with photos and a place for their friends to sign

Sammy, Alice's other good friend, from Nigeria.
His mom is a Nigerian oil engineer, the first female oil engineer I met in KL,
the land of expat oil engineers

Ms. Grace, Alice's assistant teacher receiving her end-of-year gift

One of Ms. Thompson's, Alice's teacher, end-of-year gifts -
A scrapbook with a page from each child to her with drawings, photos, etc.
Alice and I bought and started the creative process

Ms. Grace, me, Adela (daughter: Valeria), Margareth (son: Jeffrey), and Ms. Thompson -
Alice's teachers with our team of 3 great room moms!
Being a room mom was yet another way for me to make deeper connections
with my children's school community of parents, who are really open and friendly people.
I'll really miss these great ladies.

Margareth got a discounted 3 hour spa treatment for Ms. Thompson,
from her husband the GM of the KL Marriott

Alice SOBBED when she had to say her final goodbye to Ms. Thompson
Alice ran into my arms and couldn't stop crying afterwards.
Ms. Thompson is one sparkly, magical, warm, enthusiastic teacher
who knew Alice's strengths and insecurities very well.

Ms. Thompson was happy to get her gifts and cards,

surrounded by all the kids enjoying seeing what they gave her

Abraham's "Wet and Wild" end-of-year party:
His first time racing with eggs

Alaa is in Abraham's class and only spoke Arabic at the beginning of the school year
Now, she's pretty much fluent in English.

This is Alice's poem about her hair,
with her idol Lady Gaga's photo

Arthur, Abraham's other good buddy from his class, is from Brazil
He and Abraham did weekly swim classes and playdates at his house

Aden doing the water balance

Paige, the little mermaid from Abraham's class.
She may be the youngest but she is the most forceful with Abraham
She insisted on his marrying her.

Abraham got a certificate from Ms. Wu at his end of year class ceremony.
Click HERE for a video of his class singing at the end of year parent appreciation lunch.

Abraham's self-portrait

Nick, Bryce, and Griffin, friends
but Bryce and Griffin were fiercely competitive against each other on the soccer pitch,
culminating in a couple nasty verbal fights
However, their prickly year together ended with a sleepover at Bryce's,
and an important lesson for Griffin -- you can still be friends with your enemy

End of year swim party for Griffin --
He and his friends would stand, count, then jump in gleefully together

Swim party fun with Nick

Griffin proudly displaying his award for Best all-around physical education student in his class

Griffin with his best friend, Nick, saying a sad goodbye

Griffin with his teacher, Ms. Grigor on his last day.

Abraham with his assistant teacher, Ms. Mas

June 6, 2011

ISKL has a couple weeks of end-of-year events for the kids -- pool parties, in-class crafts and food parties, and a "Wet and Wild" party for Abraham's crowd of little ones. I was able to take off most of the last week from work since I'm Alice's class mom, most of the parents would be there, and I didn't want to miss out on being there for the kids during their highs and lows of saying goodbye to their beloved friends and teachers at ISKL. I was also emotional about saying goodbye to my good friends and the excellent ISKL teachers.