THE Pirate Birthday Party

Seriously, it looked like a Pirate got sick in my house. We had pirate stuff ALL over the place. all.over. In the midst of all the preparations and preparing the K-man for his party, he asked me: "Why is my birthday going on for so long?" :) I aswered, well it's probably because I'm trying to make up for last year, when you had your birthday mostly in the hospital, because that was the day we brought Darius home. To which he answered: "I liked that birthday".

Shows you doesn't it, my year long mini-guilt trip, not necessary. I love the perspective he has on things. And he's grown into such a big boy almost over night, it's as if the "big boy" button got pressed and we don't have to deal with temper tantrums anymore (well not so often at least) and he understands about "no" and even tells me, while he's asking for something, that if the answer is "no", he won't get upset. One morning, recently, he woke up and said "Mom, I forgot how to be naughty". Well that my boy, is pretty darn fantastic in my book.

right, back to THE party.

I was asked what the invites looked like, so here goes:

So on Wednesday evening I baked the birthday cake, ready to be assembled on Thursday evening. This time round I cheated and used cake mix instead of reading a recipe and making it from scratch, I figured the kids would be more interested in playing anyway.

So by the time the Kaydin was in bed and the drinks poured, I had Gideon assemble and carve the cake, I figured, he's in the construction industry, he can build a cake ;) And he most certainly can.

Gotta love the audience:

 

some reinforcing was needed:

 

The brown stuff in the front was supposed to be a treasure chest, obviously it looked better as rocks, after I realised that cutting the lid off was probably not the best idea.

The next morning we added the sails and the very cool pirate candles. Et voila! One cool pirate ship cake!

The cake, plus the millions of other stuff was then transported to our local park, here where we live. I figured all those kids, plus their assorted family members were a wee bit much for our tiny little house. Plus it gave them a chance to run around and play, which they did. the.whole.time.

They were having such fun, I had the hardest time getting them round up for the all important blowing of the candles, in fact, they were in such a hurry to get back to playing, we didn't even have time to sing for the birthday boy, neither was there any time for a photo, before I could get it, they were off again. Gotta love their priorities, and I'm not being sarcastic either, I really do love that it was more important to run around and play than worry about some stupid candles that had to be blown out. Kids just know, don't they? What's really important in life, run around with your friends and explore every little thing you see. It's awesome.

The rest of us, were more stationary:

And by the time everybody left and we were cleaning up, this is what Darius thought of everything:

The rest of the day was spent quietly at home, recovering from all of that :)

In local news:

Dhs300 fine for parking car with engine on:

Brigadier General Khalil Ibrahim Al Mansouri, Director General Department of Criminal Investigation said, "There are lots of reasons behind the car theft, neglect is the most important reasons where owners leave the car in operation, which makes it easier for thieves robbing them without trouble."

The good Brigadier's insight is just astounding. A sign of the times I guess, crime is on the up here in the UAE, lots more reports about cars being stolen recently than when we arrived.

In more local traffic news:

As statistics show, the most common case of aggressive driving reported was 'the sudden change of lanes', which was reported 6,690 times. 'Driving in a way that poses a threat to the public' was reported 2430 times, 'reckless driving' 1741 times and 'overtaking on the hard shoulder' 1364 times.

I can totally relate to those numbers. I've been driving here for almost 7 years now, you tend to see a lot. a.lot. Just this morning, I was fortunate enough to experience a truck "driving in a way that poses a threat to the public". Waiting at the robot, on my way home, I was in the left lane, which is either a turn left or go straight lane. He was in the lane to my right, next to me, a lane that's clearly marked for only going straight. No problem, obviously, he needed to turn left and proceeded to do just that, cutting me off completely. Good thing I wasn't in much of a hurry otherwise he would totally have crashed right into me. You get kinda blasé about it after a while, which is a good thing really, I don't suffer from road rage at all.

We send much love

ps. The littlest boy, is almost walking, he takes 5 to 6 steps between us now.

Pirates, Pirates everywhere

Yip, it's skull and bones print on everything it seems. The K-mans birthday was on Saturday, before school started, so I arranged to do his class party on Tuesday. Luckily I got organised in early December and bought the stuff for the party bags. The cupcakes as previously mentioned, happened on Monday evening.

To start, here are the ingredients:

 

Butter - from Denmark

Cocoa - from the US

Sugar - from Japan

Baking powder and Soda from the UK

Flour - from the UAE

Eggs - from the UAE

Sour cream - from the US

I always think it's so interesting where everything comes from that we buy here, because they have to import most of it. So hey, thought I'd show you guys.

Anyway, so while the cupcakes were baking, operation "Party Bags" commenced:

16 Loot bags, inside: gold dubloons, a pirate map, an eye patch, a funky look-through thingy that would be loads of fun after a glass of wine, some choccies and sweeties, I threw the whistles away that came with the bargain-pack DIY, make up your own loot bags, set. I'm sure the parents will thank me, if they only knew ;)

And back to the cupcakes:

and frosted:

oh yes I DID THAT :)

So on Tuesday morning I carted two kids and all the party stuff to school. I believe it was a success :)

Tonight, I'm baking his birthday cake for the party on Friday, packing yet more party favour bags and getting ready for Friday morning. Twelve kids and their parents, you may wish us luck.

We send much love to all.

Plan A? and hunting a mouse ...

So when plan A doesn't work, you still have 25 more letters left in the alphabet, yes? Well, today we started at A, made a stop at J, a u-turn at W and we're back to A. Today I had to buy all the stuff for the cupcakes, for Kaydin's class party tomorrow. I wanted to be ready for tonight, so that I can bake when Gideon is home and he can help with the kids. I was going to go shopping after dropping K-man at school, be all ready and stuff. Hmmmm. That didn't happen. The shopping bit that is. Kaydin woke up with a sore throat. Deep sigh. Ok then, I'll finish up the invites, get them emailed and just give them to the parents on Tuesday morning then. So, it turned into a rather busy, busy day. Cupcakes still to be baked, iced and toppers put on. I'm making little pirate flags to be glued to toothpicks, to go on top of the cupcakes. Madness, I know. Party packs will be packed tonight and everything will be carted to school in the morning. This birthday thing is a production! Oh and the shopping? That's going to happen when Gideon gets home tonight.

Hunting dogs

We have two. They don't hunt so much these days, unless you count staring the cookie out of Darius's hands. Actually that probably totally counts as hunting, you know, honing their stalking skills and all that.

So anyway, yesterday I noticed Jackie getting all excited about something in the kitchen, in the way she does, when she's on the hunt.

I sorta filed it away "to-do-later" and got caught up in the rest of the day, work, Darius, fetching the K-man from school. That's until Gideon came home from work, and Jackie got all excited and sniffing in the corner in the living room and then doing a mad dash to the kitchen, sticking her nose under the oven.

Lara promptly took up the watch and this is where she stayed, for quite a bit:

Yip, hunting dogs, it's in their blood.

The mouse, is still on the loose. And that's in his blood, to not get caught.

In regional news, the Kingdom next door is taking some baby steps to give more rights to their female citizens. The headline reads:

Saudi women to run for office, vote, without male approval — in 2015

 They still can't drive though, or travel without the approval of a male guardian .... and like a friend of mine duly noted, that date is so far in the future, who knows if it will actually happen.

I say "thank you" every day, for being born a western woman. Every.day.

we send much love

A year long hiatus ...

What happened? Oh yes, Darius decided to arrive at 32 weeks on the 23rd of December 2010. Life turned the hectic corner and most of it was dominated by a fun size mini-human that wouldn't sleep for more than 2 hours at a time.

If you're interested, here's the story of his birth, { http://bit.ly/iSTSpW } I wrote it once, I can't bare doing it again.

Life after Darius arrived home were beyond busy. My in-laws arrived shortly after and thank goodness they did. I'm not sure how I would have coped if it wasn't for them. After they left, Gideon took over Darius-duty every second week-end, every Thursday and Friday night so that I could sleep. Not enough words in the dictionary to say how thankful I am.

So a year later, he now weighs 10kg's (!!!!!) and is a happy, happy baby.

Last night, I stumbled upon this blog: Momastry. Like so many others, her most recent post resonated with me, like a big giant ghong going. She so beautifully verbalised what I've been thinking the past year. It may have been magnified by previously mentioned traumatic arrival of a certain baby, maybe also because living here, some things just feel as if they take on bigger proportions than they might do normally? Maybe its because I'm just really, really tired of doing this on my own. Whatever the reason, she inspired me to take a long look at myself, my life and I'm happy to say there'll be some interesting changes coming.

Firstly, reviving of my beloved blog, that just fell so far off the wagon, I couldn't even remember my log in! A total shame.

Secondly, some honest blogging, about what I see, feel and experience here, because after all, it IS quite the experience.

And thirdly, to balance my time between the boys, Digiridoo and Nowthenhabibi, so that I feel there's still time for me, in there somewhere. This I learnt, I absolutely must make time for me and spend time with me. If I don't, I'm not happy and if I'm not happy, well then life sucks and that's just boring.

So here's to a new year open with possibilites, a blank slate to decorate on, journal on, to live.

A quick recap of other stuff that happened: we had a brilliant vacation in South Africa and some days I still can't believe we're back here. My homesickness threatens to reach epic proportions every now and then, it helps to know that this too shall pass.

In other news, Kaydin's at his new school, happiness personified, his teacher is an absolute darling and wicked talented at keeping a class of 4 / 5 year olds in tow.

Darius had a very quiet birthday, with a cake and a candle, we'll do a party when Ouma Hettis is here in February.

Kaydin had a very quiet birthday yesterday, he'll have a party at school on Tuesday and a big bash on Friday. Which reminds me I really need to do those invites!! yikes.

And some birthday pics: {You can click on the photos for a larger view}

 

And do you see the Lego in the last photo? That's like and 8th of all the Lego he got for his brithday, I think all the Lego in the world came to him yesterday. Ok, not quite, but you get the picture.

So that is it for now. More on the imminent birthday parties and associated chaos, soon.

we send much love to all.

Good things

Some random stuff that either made me giggle or laugh out loud or just smiled happily (or left me shaking my head in disbelief):

Local Darwin Award Candidate (though he has yet to remove himself from the gene-pool):

WHERE did you save it? ON the desktop?!

Because they were going to melt? Or wash away? Love that there seems to be no gratitude for the rain. That's nice.

Shaking my head at weird Russian dude, acting like a real jerk at the ISP payment counter. Kaydin and I walked away before he punched someone.

More head shaking at rude person in Carrefour pushing in front of pregnant fairy and toddler. I know I should really not be surprised, which I'm not, it's more a "really?, we're still acting like this?"-moment.

Beating a Land Cruiser at the robot-challenge with my zooty pink Suzuki Swift. That was neato.

The support of the staff at DigiridooScraps - you guys are THE best!!!!

Making my first sale! <- that was surreal actually :)

Meeting an online friend for coffee, it's nice when the conversation is so EASY :)

Having our internet speed upgraded at no extra charge ... can you say 24Mbs? :D

Going to Spur for supper!!! Nothing beats good old-fashioned South African restaurant food! oh AND hearing two waiters speaking Zulu, now that REALLY made me smile!

Kaydin's new thing - to see Daddy off in the mornings and giving him a pep-talk. Things for dad to remember:

• Drive safely
• Enjoy work
• I Luf you
• See you later

And then he stands on the curb and watches Gideon drive off until he goes around the bend. Then he'll come in and tell me that he watched Daddy until he was "all the way gone".

Kaydin asking for the translation of a word into English, and in stead of just repeating it, using it in a sentence. *Proud Mommy Moment*

Kaydin saying that he'll share his toys with the baby, giving said baby a hug and asking me if the baby can hear him. :)

Oh and apparently we're raising a rebel child. Have no idea where that would come from? His dad and I are both such conformists. We hardly ever do anything that's out of the ordinary, we're not at all what some people would call "weird" and mostly lead a quiet life and well, I just have no idea where this would come from? Why am I so distraught? Well ... his teacher, Miss Shelley, had something to tell me about his behaviour at school one day. Apparently, they were all outside playing, when Mr. Huyser Jr. and two of his friends decided to go back upstairs and play in the classroom instead! Clearly outside play is waayyy over-rated. She proceeded to tell me quite ernestly that it's not acceptable and that the principal had a chat with all three kids and then they had to play inside the next day when all the other kids were playing outside. {insert mental picture here of me biting my tongue SO hard it almost bled, just so that I don't burst out laughing, poor Miss Shelley was really upset}

-- shall we just pause for a moment here to gain some perspective?

1. HOW did they manage to "sneak" upstairs? WHERE were the teachers and the gazillion assistants they employ when this act of delinquency happened? I mean really, next thing they'll be sneaking into the gym and we all know what that could lead to!

2. HOW is punishing them with the very act they commited, punishment?

3. It is clear to me that there's not a whole lot of understanding of how the brain of a 3 1/2 year old works ... do you REALLY think he's going to remember tomorrow morning why he needs to play inside, while the rest of the class is outside? ... hmmm, ok.

4. But apart from all the above, can we please focus on the positive fact that the three of them demonstrated enough independance to actually go upstairs, all by themseleves, find their classroom - without falling on the stairs or breaking a bone, and play there quietly without breaking down the school? nope, let's not do that. Let's focus on all the negative things and try to steer the parents attention away from the fact that the school was grossly negligent in their duty. It's ok, I'll do that for them.

Right ... taking tongue out of cheeck. I really am hugely amused at whole thing. I disgaree with how the school handled it, but really, in the greater scheme of things, no one got hurt, nothing bad happened and what will it matter in six month's time?

back to my list:

Feeling the baby kick

Speaking of PeanutToo, here are more scans, and we need to find a boy name :) Yip, a brother is on the way! I also really need to sort through Kaydin's baby clothes to see what's still useable.

SO busy, we only got a hand:

a few weeks later:

and the 3-D version:

And reluctantly, here's a belly shot (MUCH nicer ones are in the pipeline)

And the boy in his Halloween costume:

And that's it :) We're all good, the weather's improving, old friends are moving into the neighbourhood, this winter is going to be just great :)

we send much love