Photos from our visit to Brussels and later at home playing..

We went to see the carpet of flowers that is made every two years in Brussels. The kids were happy because they got to have a very special hot chocolate where you can melt a big hunk of chocolate on a stick into a mug of warm milk. Thank you Oma and Bompi!!

Summertime

A picture of Marc and me taken at a wedding anniversary party in Germany last weekend. It is the first picture of us taken together, alone, in a very very long time. Hope everyone is having a great summer. We are in Belgium now after being in Texas for five great weeks. Still super homesick for my family! What a great summer it has been. Can't believe we are already heading home to Dubai in ten days.
The wind of change is blowing towards us, as we are seriously thinking of leaving Dubai in the coming year. We'll see what God has in store for us.

Happy 5th Birthday Gabriella!

 

On the same day as her 5th birthday, she had her first karate test, to be promoted to Yellow Belt. I told her she had to really pay attention and not goof around in class. It was her first "real" test and she didn't quite understand what the big fuss was all about. Personally, I think the sensai was a bit lenient on Gabi, only because she spent the whole term as a white belt while all her friends were promoted to yellow. She had missed one class a week all term due to it being on the same day as her music class. I baked her a chocolate cake with coconut frosting. Only two more weeks to go before we are on American shores!Summer vacation, YAY!! I am excited to see my family and nervous too, because I will be flying home with the kids alone and they are at an age that is (to say the least) challenging.Phew! They have tapless amounts of energy!!

Yellow belt

 

Here's to hoping she doesn't karate chop her little brother any time soon. High-5!

Getting her yellow belt

 

Mosaic ghekko!

 

Class art project

 

Lucas and his green dog, GOOD JOB LUKY!!

 

Art Exhibition at school

 

Towards the end of the school year, an art exhibition is held, exhibiting one great piece of art work by each child attending the school. Gabi's was a group project, ducks in a pond, part of the topic of Small Creatures, and Lucas had a green dog with ears made with balloons as ears. There were quite a few children that you could clearly see have a lot of talent. All classes also made one major piece of art, letting a famous artist be their influence. One class made a sculpture of a ghekko (papier mache) which was awesome!

Gabi making a rug out of strips of plastic shopping bags

 

Lucas has a go..

 

recycled materials art fair for Gabi's class.

 

When you take your son to a ladies' hair salon...

 

Singing Gabi...

BTW

Yes, the only nose-picker in the class photo IS my sweet Lucas. Give him a break, he was digging for gold. :)

At least one for April

I at least have to get in one blog for the month. I can't believe how fast time goes. Gabi and Lucas are now doing the last topic of the school year, The Tale of Three. We are in the midst of arranging our Summer leave. This time we will fly straight through Amsterdam to Houston, onto Midland to see the American family. Yay! Then on our way back, stay in Belgium to see the Belgian grandparents. Double yay! I've attached Lucas's class photos. His pre-nursery class is ages 2-3yrs old. They are from all over the world. Germany, Canada, Belgium, England, Thailand, Egypt, Italy, the good ole USofA. Some have mixed parents, from places like France, Tunisia, Switzerland. The grandmotherly teacher, Brenda, is from Kenya and the younger dark-haired one Jenny, is German. Gabi's class photo is tomorrow. I'll post again.

one more..

We spent Easter at a fellow American's home. It was great fun for the kids. The Easter bunny hid over 200 eggs in the garden. And yes, that IS Marc taking a swing at the pinata!

Happy Spring!

Update

HELLO! We had some friends who have repatriated to their home country(Switzerland)visit us for the day. Pascal was one of Gabi's first friends here in the neighborhood. Sammy is the other first friend. They came together (along with their younger siblings) for a one year reunion and ran around like maniacs, just like the good old days. It's been 21 days since I've torn the ligaments in my left ankle. It looks a lot better but it is taking an incredibly long time to heal. I am still walking around with a huge removable air cast. I look like I can climb on to a ski slope or snowboard any time!! I'm thankful that it wasn't worse - but I am so happy not to be walking around with a plaster cast and crutches anymore. I still go and support my soccer team from the sidelines. Gabi had a very successful sports day at school. She had all her friends with her and it was fun to see how well some kids are already doing at certain sports. Our community has started a book club. The first book we've chosen is March by Geraldine Brooks. I am excited to participate but nervous I won't have anything really intelligent to say. We're heading into Spring Break and Easter holidays here. Today is the Prophet's birthday so today was a day off from school and work. We took the kids bowling for the first time and they really loved it. Although, Lucas kept dropping the ball at his feet with such a loud thud! I think one of us in a foot cast in this family is enough! HAPPY EASTER!!

 

 

 

 

HANGING OUT WITH FRIENDS, Sports Day at school

 

International Day at The Children's Garden

Gabriella's class,- Arabian Oryx - sat patiently waiting for the parade of other classes to come by and show their home country outfits. They are quite an international mix. We dressed Gabi up as a Mexican dancing girl. Her teachers gave her a Belgian flag and face painted a Belgian flag on her cheek.Her closest buddy, Noor, was an Egyptian pharoah. Lucas refused to wear the cowboy hat we put on him and we ended up also face painting flags on his cheeks, which he promptly smudged faster than Gabi asking us to take the woolen Mexican poncho off of her immediately. Afterwards all the parents were invited to share an international pot-luck buffet. Instead of the usual tex-mex dish I make, (nachos, haha) I made Belgian waffles.

more pics

The picture of Sheik Ha-Jo, is Hans-Jochen. He is the husband of Marc's cousin Petra, part of the German family who came to visit us. He and his son Sebastian both bought full male Emirati outfitsas souvenirs. AH, what good visitors they were. They didn't even complain about how cold it was. The weather was actually no warmer than 60 degrees. But the morning they left the weather changed to 85 degrees and has remained warm. ...Gabi and Lucas helping Oma and Bompa set up for dinner.