Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia!
This week Claire started going to playschool.  The playschool is on the compound and is just a short walk from our villa. It was time for her and me! I can get so much more done in the morning now! The school only lasts from 8 to 12. However, they will stay later if we ask them ahead of time.

Claire did well, she just won't nap at school-so she is exhausted when we get home!

This week we had our first session of "Toddlers and Test Tubes" at Josie's house. We (Jeanette) made up the name for our fun science group we are going to have once a week! Because we can't take the kids to the zoo, museum, music class, etc...we try to create activities for them to do! Josie is going to have science activities at her house once a week!
The kids had a blast dying Easter eggs.

The ladies and I had a really fun, interesting outing this week! Since, it's hard to get out with the kids and working around prayer time is a pain, we went out at night. We had a blast, but needless to say we were actually hit on by Saudi men two times that night! In fact, we were even given a phone number! Now, I'm not bragging,  but those abayas must have been tighter that night or something! Ha! Honestly, the men here are not used to seeing women without their head coverings--so they get a little excited! I can't imagine what the Saudi men would do in the States.

Found these planters in our local Saco which is like a Wal-Mart. I have no idea what they mean.

It was so strange celebrating Easter on Friday here. Since Friday is our group day, we all agreed it made sense for the Easter bunny to come on that morning. Elise and Claire have been spoiled here--not only did she receive gifts from the bunny, but lots of people in Texas sent her presents too! Thank you the cards and gifts! We loved receiving them!

My parents went back to the states this weekend. I can't complain about this because I am so lucky they are here. I can still be sad about it though!! My Dad will be back in about a month and I will see my mom this summer. I really needed her decorating skills for when my shipment came in!!

Shopping and Wine

This last week was so busy! It's a good thing to be busy around here, otherwise I think you could go crazy living in the "bubble" compound. What have I been doing? Working out, grocery shopping, changing diapers, taking a 3 year old to the potty, dealing with tantrums, trying to talk on the phone while dealing with children, doing laundry, sweeping, changing diapers, mopping, dealing with tantrums,wishing that putting your hair in a ponytail was enough, trying to explain something to someone in English that only speaks Arabic...--still trying to get over the "press 2 for English" thing...., finding out our sea shipment is delayed yet again... etc...never a dull moment!

Since we arrived in Saudi, Elise has had trouble falling asleep.  We have finally resorted to letting her leave her lamp on to help her. Then, we go back in there later in the night to turn it off. I snapped this picture of her because I thought it was so funny the way she was sleeping. I know that this is a phase--or I hope it is!

Below is more proof that I really am actually learning to sew! We had a really cool day in sewing because our teacher, Nora let us go inside her house. If I hadn't thought it would be rude, I would have snapped some pictures! Her house has doors throughout to close rooms off. There is a men's room and a lady's room. One of the rooms was like a typical living room like my mom used to have. It had an amazing chandelier in it and furniture that looked like it had never been sat in. It was very neat. 

We also found out that Nora has some very talented children. Her oldest daughter and son live in the United States and the daughter is a well known Saudi artist and is invited to Fashion Week regularly in New York City. http://www.psychomagic.net/

 Some of her other daughters run this Saudi blog about fashion. http://www.theitmag.com/

Grocery Shopping is still quite the challenge over here. All of the US products are extremely expensive. I have been spending an obscene amount of money at the grocery store because when I find stuff I want, I grab several! I was happy to find this Betty Crocker find. Also, the Cadbury cookies are delicious...or the kids tell me that anyway=)...who am I kidding?!! 

Another biggie is toilet paper!! I never thought that I would need to hoard Charmin as much as I do now. It is so hard to find it though!! You can only find it in these small rolls, so I found some and got as many as I could put in my cart! There's nothing worse than school toilet paper--which is basically all they have here!

The Best part of our week was our little getaway to Bahrain. If you aren't familiar with the Middle East like I am--HAHA--Bahrain is a small island country about an hour from where we live. You have to go through customs to get there, which is a long process. However, in Bahrain--they serve ALCOHOL and NO ABABYAS!! Most westerners visit Bahrain once a month to get out for some freedom. 

The picture above was the kids enjoying their last saved GoGo applesauce! I pulled it out for this long journey! It can take several hours to go through customs. The car comes to the compound at 6 AM because that way we arrive in customs around 7 AM and the lines aren't as long. In Mommy world a 6 AM departure means a 5 AM wake up and a crazy night before packing!! 

We got through customs in about an hour, which our driver said was good.  I threw the abaya (gently) at my husband when we crossed over!

We were all able to stay in the car, but Muslim women have to get out to show their faces through their hijab. The picture below is one of the places they get out with their passports to prove they are the person on their picture. They lift up their hijab and put it back down after they have proven their identity. The ironic and hypocritical part of this, is after we got out of customs the majority of these women took their hijab off and got in the drivers seat!! It was quite comical. A lot of the Saudis believe that Allah can not see them in Bahrain. You know the saying, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas...well, they really believe, what happens in Bahrain-no one can see, so therefore anything goes!

We stayed at the Gulf Hotel in Bahrain. We chose it because it had a great pool area for the kids. There are lots of cool shops and food around the hotel too.

We ate at a fantastic French restaurant by our hotel called, Cafe Lilou. It was similar to a La Madeline's at home. The food was really good and the girls had fun being grown ups at their own tables. There were no high chairs, so I will have to remember that next time!

The kid area was awesome--the water was only a foot deep so the kids could slide and play by themselves.

My parents watched the girls for us so we could go have a dinner out! It was nice to get a couple of hours away! We ate at a Sushi place inside the hotel.

The next morning we shopped until the car came to get us at 6 PM. I was so happy because I found lots of Easter candy in the city centre in Bahrain. They also have dressing rooms, so I was able to find some clothes for myself too! 

They have a huge Kemah type play area inside the mall. It was a "bug" carousel.

We got home at 9:30 and needless to say we were exhausted! The things we will do for freedom and wine!