April brings Visitors!

At church last Friday we met Mike. Had been here about 10 days.  We took him with us to the Mesopotamia exhibit. Mike is from Kansas City. Graduated from KState the same year as my Mike!!

This month we also met a young performer from west Africa. He was here for WOMAD.  The World  of Music  Arts and Dance.  He came and did a workshop with the kids. Here he demonstrates the Kousa. or African harp. We got to see him perform at the beach as well.  The group is the African-Celt Sound System.  Irish and Afirican music. AMAZING!!  

Look closely. 3 tired young men. They spent the whole night watching Lord of the Rings. Finally at around 5 am they passed out. 

Our friend Katie Pritz popped into Abu Dhabi on her way home to US from visiting her hubby Kevin in Djakarta.  We had coffee on Pattie's porch and freinds popped in to see her.

So April has been a busy month so far. And Russell is coming on Friday. More pictures to come! 

Surprise!! Sallie is 16!!

Historically, I worked hard to give fun birthday parties for my kids. My friend Cindy and I talked about how we should start a birthday party business.  We never did, but we did have fun with our own kids' birthdays.   One year Russell had big Texas party..with an Alamo cake.  Another year he had a lego party and my friend Rhonda made big lego blocks for the cake.   Ryan had a superhero party and all the kids came as Batman, except his one friend, Josh.  He came as Robin. Made for great pictures. :)  Sallie had a bug party one year and we hid plastic bugs in the park. The kids were all given bug nets and had to hunt for them.   For Robert's first birthday we did a smiley face theme. His cake was big and yellow and happy. :) He also had a Buzz Lightyear Party one year.

So we just finished Sallie's 16th birthday. In her own words.."Best Party Ever, Mom...well, except for maybe my Moosie party when I turned 11."  (We played Dog Dog Moose, and our sweet dog Moose sat in the middle of the circle the whole time. We miss him. )  Anyway, this year Sallie's friends Nadia and Jerusha surprised her at the park.  They invited her friends and she had a blast. Mike and I are having trouble with the fact that our little girl is 16, but other than that we are glad it was a good day for her. Next month Robert turns 13 (NO WAY) and no, I don't have any idea what we will do for his big day. :)

On a side note, summer is here. Ugh. This week we have been hitting 100s. So glad Sallie's day was nice. This evening after I dropped Robert off at church for some teacher training, it started to sprinkle. I rolled down my window just to feel the drops. The  "rain" only managed to make my car filthier but there is hope for  more. Hah.

Been missing Ryan and Russell lately. Russell is coming for Easter but we won't see Ryan until July. The hardest part of living over here......

Off to clean up the kitchen.
More later.

Jason, Josh, Sallie, Emma, Laurie, Emery, Meghan, Nancy and  Kaityn-at Sallie's 5th birthday