Thanks mom (=

 
 


It goes without saying that my mom is a HUGE help. Even across the miles, she is helpful in a million little ways. Both Tom and I are deeply grateful for her presence and help during both really difficult deliveries and recoveries. In the top photo she is with Ryan and in the bottom is dear Layla. Thanks mom!!

Loooong Day

There is a group of local friends I have who get together on a regular basis. They are so different from one another and each evening we hang out there are so many cultural things I would just love to sit down and write about and share. Buuuuut, then the rest of life comes in and I just get too tired to try and explain all the fun cultural things (=

A couple of days ago one of the gals asked me if I would like to drive to a town about 2 hours away to see some of her family and to go shopping! I couldn't resist the offer and even though I was NERVOUS about taking both kids with me (she is single and without kids) I said yes.

We left about 11am and returned about 1am. So it really was a very.long.day. But it was SO great to meet so many of her family members. There are about 9 kids in her family and the oldest 3 have citizenship in the country next door and the others are all citizens of our country though their tribe is from both parts.

One visit was super traditional with the fruit and dates and coffee and loads of perfume at the end, the others were truly just swinging by to see a new house or meeting in a park or shopping in the mall together (=

Layla was able to ride a horse AND ride in a little carriage pulled by a miniature horse when we were in the park. It was about $3 a ride and of course they paid for everything while we were with them. I protested at one point and one of the gals (who speaks VERY good English and is basically like any Post-Modern 19 year old) said "that's okay. you are visiting me here and I'll pay. When I visit you then you'll pay "(= So that is clear isn't it!

Layla was given SO much candy and junk food and juice boxes and whatnot. They love to give kids toys and gifts and food. It is wonderful to have kids so loved by the general population.

And I was most grateful for the fact that when we FINALLY got in the car to go home, both kids just dropped off to sleep in their carseats. Getting the carseats in that morning was a chore....she had shoved the seatbelts ALL the way down and we couldn't hardly get to them. Anyway (=

I must go and take a nap (=

Easter 2011

Just a few fun pictures (= It was pretty low-key though we enjoyed ourselves! I had a nice big roast planned for dinner but we were invited to eat with some friends so I am cooking that big meal tonight instead.

Jeje and her cool gifts

My sister Jen buys THE coolest things for the kids (=

Here is one thing my mom managed to fit in the suitcase. Jen, thanks for this! I am REALLY trying to help Layla learn the RULES.

For those of you who don't know my dear girl, she is quite a free spirit and helping her grasp that sometimes there are RULES is a wee bit of a challenge (= If she doesn't like the rules she just ups and walks away. That is okay for 3.5 years of age, but not something I want to foster much longer.

So anyway - we are trying to find good ways to help her learn to play with a little more structure. Anyway - here's the video.

Easter with kids

My mom is always on the hunt for good games and resources for kids. It was REALLY fun to see all that she pulled out of her suitcase on their recent trip! This was one of them

I HIGHLY recommend this. Layla has loved playing it multiple times a day and we've passed it around to other families this week in anticipation of Easter. She can walk you through the whole Easter story as a result.

If you can't lay your hands on this particular one, you can make your own using these ideas

We haven't decided what we are doing for Easter - it is the first day of the week here so it has a bit of a different feel. We used to go out to the desert for a sunrise service but we would be sitting in the middle of a construction project if we went back to the same spot. So much building going on here!

I hope it is a meaningful Easter for you all.

 
Something about the look on her face makes me feel like this is a real glimpse into what Layla will look like as she gets older (minus the tongue sticking out....hopefully!) I just think she is so beautiful and so SMART.

 

Nana bought some fun clothes commemorating The University of Georgia (= I had to separate the two kids to get a decent picture......see below!!

 


 

I LOVED her pose here - I rarely get pics of me on here but we were being goofy and taking pictures of ourselves. Pretty funny.

Some pics of our time.....

I still have some photos to post, but I wanted to get these up (= It was a great time....of course.

Happy Birthday Jen!

Layla's photos of our day at the mosque!

Just couldn't resist putting together a quick album of Lj's shots. She did WAY better than I thought she would!

Out and about on the town (=

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

We took some time this morning to drive mom and dad around town to see the "local" sites. It doesn't take too much to see the town and the part with all the palm trees is, I think, sort of like a town dump for dead palm trees. I'm sure the local were wondering what on EARTH we were taking picture of it for! If you didn't look too far down, the tops of the trees that were still living are still quite lovely.

Layla was actually in the mood to pose which is rare and since it followed a HUGE fight about leaving the house in that dress, I was grateful. Hence we took all sorts of picture!