Bahrain

Heather and I truly think we have the cutest Pre K girls in Saudi!

We celebrated our friend, Shelly's birthday at Le Cafe. It's our favorite birthday spot!

The kids didn't have school on Tuesday because it was Saudi National Day. Josh sent me a picture of this cake they had at work to celebrate.

We had a very happy day at our house because we got all of these boxes delivered!! I was so happy to get the clothes and toys!!

Elise and Lauren love to play with "big Lauren." They think she is so cool! She is a sweetheart!

The Clark's came over so we could buy our tickets to go home! We are going to travel together so it's easier for both of us.

Elise requested to have Pippi hair one morning.

Josh and I were so thrilled to have a weekend away in Bahrain. Bebe watched the girls for us! We had so much fun, but were also so glad to get back to them.

They were both spoiled!

We celebrate Octoberfest in Bahrain. We had a great time. The gulf hotel puts this event on annually. They had a polka band, amazing food...including ham!!

Birthday parties

Claire has everyone wrapped around her finger! We were at Jeanette's house and she asked Jeanette to hold her. No one can tell her no!

We have move and groove class on Wednesdays. Claire loves it! She asks to go on this towel! It looks strange, but the kids enjoy it and it's something fun for us to do in the afternoon.

It is getting much more cool here now! This weekend the high was only 108! We have even been able to go to the playground in the evenings.

I promised Elise a movie night on Thursday ( which is our Friday). 

We had two birthday parties this weekend. The first one was a 'mine craft' party. Josh had to educate me on what mine craft was! The other party was helping celebrate Ellie's first birthday! It is fun to have parties on the weekend because it gives us all something to look forward to!

Elise needs a little batting practice....

We had an awesome group date night on Friday. Our playschool watched the kids for a parents night out. We took the kids in the bus to the school on the compound, and the bus took us to the restaurant. 

We ate at a Lebanese restaurant inside the Intercontinental. The food was yummy and the waiter told us we could take our abayas off! 

All of the restaurants here have curtains and partitions so the ladies can remove their headpiece to eat. I've always wanted to take my abaya off, but I've never been told it was ok. It was very freeing!!

At Ellie's party we all showed up with blue shirts! They wanted to take a picture of it. It was not planned! :)

My Stroller

So, in the rush of getting over jet lag and getting Elise to "big" school, I had forgotten to blog about our missing stroller. Now, to the average person this may not seem like a big deal. However, this isn't just your typical run of the mill, umbrella stroller. This stroller cost more than my prom dress, more than this computer I'm using right now!!  This is my BOB stroller which in my mommy world, is a necessity.

When we flew Qatar Airways--which I don't recommend--I gate checked my stroller just like I have every other time we have flown. When I say gate check, I mean I had the stroller all the way to the gate. The lady in Houston took it from me, tagged it and put it on the plane. However, when we landed in Dammam there was no stroller. So, what happened to it? It still remains a mystery.

Unfortunately, when you are dealing with language issues and something missing here in Saudi-it can fall on deaf ears. We tried for a month for them to locate it and unfortunately it has not been found. So, somewhere in the Arabian peninsula there is a very happy momma out there with a great, new stroller...and a brand new pack of birth control (that was left in the front pouch) with my name-and my phone number as well....So, not only are they happy they have the stroller-but they are also praying for me that I've been using birth control--which is really frowned on in this country.

Qatar is of course reimbursing us our money, but in their words "it will take awhile." So, we have already ordered one and it is on its way here.

We had a great Monday in dance class. I even have two boys in the class! I snapped this picture after class was over. The kids are really enjoying it!

We had our first beginner sewing class this week. Yes, we are all repeating this sewing class. Let's just say we could all use a refresher course!

We talked our friend, Katie into joining!

One of the other after school activities we have is kid yoga. Elise thinks this is the greatest thing in the world. She shows me how she does "down dog." She can do more than me!

They had open house at Elise's school also. It was so fun seeing all of the work the kids had been working on. I'm so impressed with what the school does with them. 

We thought this coloring page was funny because instead of a baseball bat it's a cricket bat.

Elise was very excited that the weekend was here!

We went to BeBe and PaPa's for dinner. 

Obviously, I'm raising a genius here...already reading books and all...

This is why we don't fly Saudi Arabia airlines...they take selfies out of the plane 

On Saturday we went shopping and out to lunch! The home centre is one of the most normal stores here. They have really cute decorative items.

We ate at a yummy, Indian restaurant, called Cooxon. 

We have two links going in Elise's room right now. One is a countdown for when Granny and PawPaw get here to visit and the other is a countdown to when we go back to see Marissa, Gregory, and Larkin.

Thanks for sending her this precious book. We have been listening and reading it every single night!

We also remembered 9/11 by wearing our patriotic dresses.

Dance class

We accompanied our friend, Amber to her OB appointment. 

The hospital in Khobar is amazing. It looks like a five star hotel. The spa we went to last week is on the eighth floor of this hospital.  I will take more pictures next time. I snapped this picture because I thought it was funny! 

I started teaching dance class this week....yes, I'm serious! Before you start to think I have gone too crazy, let me explain!  

I really wanted Elise to be in a dance class and they don't have anything like that in Saudi. So, I figured I could try and teach! Luckily you don't have to know too much to teach 3 and 4 year olds dance! Plus, they look adorable in their outfits!

These are the kids hanging out in the restaurant on the compound.

Claire loves wearing her sunglasses! They are a must here in the desert.

We watched Lainey one night so her parents could go out for their anniversary. We had a fun girls night!

Have I told you how much Claire loves sweets?? I can't imagine where she got this from...

This is the sunset from our pool on the compound.

It is still really hot here, but is getting more bearable. My sunglasses still fog up everytime I go outside.

Elise's friend, Jennah had an adorable birthday party. 

Claire has managed to charm all the boys on the compound!