Kodak Moments

I've been struggling a lot lately with some challenges in my life. The youngest two members of my family have seemed to take this as a personal challenge to completely destroy my sanity by putting more effort into doing the usual things a 3 year old and 18 month old do i.e. things involving rolls of toilet paper, chocolate milk powder, water, markers, and so forth :) It is nice when I come across pictures like these, and I'm reminded of the reasons why I love this thing called motherhood!

My children always look most angelic when they are sleeping!

We planted beans in preschool a few weeks ago. Here is Owen, reading to his beloved bean plant so it will grow bigger.

So, despite their best efforts, I'm going to see this all through - the move, the sadness at leaving friends, and everything else going on at the moment. Besides, I'm determined to wear them down - see, its already working!

Sharjah Sights

April 2: We decided to spend another Saturday exploring more of the sights in Sharjah. We stopped at the aquarium first.

"Sharks, huh? They don't look THAT scary.."

I think one of the requirements to truly enjoying fish in a tank is to make sure your hands and face are pressed right up to the glass :)

Fish tunnel!

This fish was excited to say hi to Ken and Colby.

One cool part of the exhibit at the maritime museum showed this early baby bottle - imagine using this!

Tyler tried his hand at getting a picture of us.

We found a McDonalds drive thru!!! Those are not to be found closer to where we live.

We decided to get lunch there.

We also went to the science museum, which turned out to be a lot of fun for both the children AND the adults :)

Professor Colbs

Learning how a hot air balloon works

Testing your reflex time while driving - Colby won't be driving us around anytime soon, his score was awful :)

Magic!

Pedaling to produce electricity!

We stopped at a grocery store to buy food for a picnic, and came across this donation box. I thought some of the categories were pretty fascinating.

Our picnic site had lots of REAL grass! It called for a race.

Look at all these boys! I am one lucky mom. (thank heavens for my girl! I believe we were having our 17th bathroom run when this picture was taken…)

On our way home we stopped at the Blue Souq, which was filled with all kinds of interesting shops and merchandise. I was surprised at how much the kids got into it and seemed to enjoy it. (Mostly that means they kept trying to buy every sword and dagger in sight with money they didn't have)

Happy Birthday Hailey!

Hailey turned 5! She wanted to have a water trampoline party with her friends, and that is exactly what we did :)

 Hailey also wanted to have a water balloon fight. Early that morning, she told me her whole goal was to get me wet with a water balloon. Somehow, all the water balloons kept bouncing, so even when the kids hit me with them, they would bounce off and pop in the grass. Imagine Hailey's happiness when she got me with the VERY LAST water balloon :)

The crew :)

We had pink cupcakes (strawberry flavor?) since she wanted to save her birthday cake for her actual birthday.

Good friends always help you open your presents :)

We finished off with a dance party - those kids sure have some sweet moves!

On her birthday, Ken brought her flowers when he got home from work. Hailey was so excited to have her very own flowers.

The request this year - a crown cake. Here is my valiant effort

Ready for cake!

This girl is the sweetest, happiest five year old girl you will ever meet. She takes care of everyone, is a loyal friend, has a great sense of humor, and loves to cuddle up in my lap. It's hard to believe how fast the time has flown by, and I'm so happy she brings some spunky pink into our boy filled family :)

March Madness

Prepare yourself for a bunch of random pictures from the rest of March:  

One week for playgroup we took a trip to the stables - Colby was fascinated with all the horses.

We had to say good bye to Genevieve, who was off to a new post. The kids will miss climbing all over her!

Will's favorite way to unwind. And Tyler, photobombing.

Some mornings you just need ice-cream at 10 am!

We had our annual pi day celebration with the Garricks - Abby and I made the chicken pot pies, Abby made the chocolate pie, and Ken made his famous blueberry apple pie.

The perfect weather meant lots of opportunities for beach days - my favorite. This particular day, none of the kids trusted me enough to go out on the paddle board with me - they all wanted to go with Jess instead!

Jesper was brave enough to go with me - and we didn't even end up falling in :)

These two kept pretending they were going to take a nap...

Hailey, perfecting her technique!

I was finally able to convince my kids to go out with me.

With a move looming in the near future, I catch myself appreciating even more our after school days, playing with the neighbors, building lego creations, and any given day, having about 9 kids bouncing on the trampoline in the backyard and tearing through the house :)

This little ham is 18 months old and able to go to nursery during the last 2 hours of church. Unfortunately for us, he's decided he'd rather not go, and screams until someone brings him to us.

We had a 2 week long spring break which we spent in paradise - here! The weather was amazing, and our days were full with long days at the beach and the water park, playing with huge groups of neighborhood kids and other friends, and long afternoons at the park. Spring break has made it hard to even want to finish out the school year - we're ready for summer!

We also did some intensive swim lessons every day for the first part of spring break - every kid except Colby. Owen was so excited to start taking lessons - he still asks to take them almost every day!

Ken and the boys and some friends went to a car show and loved it. They got to see some crazy driving, lots of fun cars, and write on a Ferrari.

We kicked off spring break with a kite beach BBQ. Look at all those kites attached to brave people (Jess and Dan are out there somewhere!)

Crab hunting is an important pastime for those who are not kiting.

Ken was the BBQ master

Someone had to keep the little people from touching the BBQ. Good job Whit!

Marshmallow roasting - this activity is always more exciting than you think it will be - some small child is always about to step in/fall in/sit in/touch the fire. We all escaped unscathed (unless you're counting the mini heart attacks the adults had trying to prevent the before-mentioned activities...)

No fire? No problem! I'll just put this roasting stick through my foot! 

How old do you think the kids will be before they realize it is a bad idea to take a marshmallow out of the fire and immediately try to take it off the roasting stick with their mouth? We'll let you know when we find out!