Thanksgiving and a visit from GeeGee

My first official Thanksgiving was a success!  Well, I would like to think so :-)   After years of always being hosted, it was my turn to host and cook.  A bit nervous but confident in my abilities after learning how to be a pretty darn good cook, thanks to my mom, my mother in law, and the Food Network.

Nancy made the quick trip over from India and joined us for the holiday, and we invited our nanny Eunice, and her boyfriend, to partake in our Thanksgiving meal. 

The rest of the weekend was full of fun with GeeGee and preparing already for Christmas!  Once Aberly helped our neighbors (the Rauks) get out their fake tree, of course she wanted ours out too!  We took an evening to decorate the house and the tree, much to Aberly's delight.

Aberly's Fairy and Princess Picnic

One birthday girl, nine friends ages 3-7, one baby, and eight parents, all in our house!  The picnic was supposed to happen outside, but with the storm, things were still a bit damp so we moved things inside. 

It was a whirlwind but wonderful.  Aberly was thrilled to have so many old and new friends celebrate her birthday with her. 

 Mommy and Daddy's last present for Aberly.  New dress up heels!

 Emalyn in the play tent outside is all smiles

 Abelry with Isla, Amber, Marin, and Lizzie

 Dancing to "fancy princess music"

 Girl playtime!

 Happy Birthday to you!

 Make a wish!

 Present time!

Friends excited to give their gifts and see what she got!

Aberly turns 4 and get her wish for rain

We now have a four year old.  She began counting down in the summer, I think, for this day to come.   She and I made an official countdown two weeks ago to put on the fridge and she was so excited the day it was finally zero! 

By coincidence, Aberly's birthday fell on the same day as "Rainbow Day" at TAISM for the elementary school.  Although they didn't get to participate in it as preschoolers, they did a special picnic and Aberly shared homemade cookies (by Eunice, sadly, I have been swamped mom lately!) with her class.  She even handed out a cookie to a boy in her class with egg/milk allergies, which she knows about and knows he has "special treats" at school, and he promptly ate it before the teachers noticed.  THANKFULLY he had no reaction so maybe a blessing in disguise that the parents know now that maybe his allergy is less severe.  Or we are lucky it was a small cookie and the serving size was minimal enough.  Colin told Aberly he heard she tried to kill Felix at school that day, which of course, was over her head.  Silly daddy.

Anyways, because it was rainbow day, Aberly decided to dress like a rainbow fairy.  Neither Colin nor I were aware she was doing this as we rushed to get ourselves ready and head downstairs to make her French toast for birthday breakfast.  She entered my bathroom (I heard her jingling as she came) and asked me how she looked.  What else could I say?  It was her birthday and she was so proud to have gotten all dressed up and "beautiful".  I put on a little makeup and glitter for her.  She was thrilled and of course, got lots of compliments at school.

One of Aberly's wishes is that it would rain on her birthday this year.  Well, the birthday gods, all of them apparently, were listening and we got hit dead on by a serious storm.  Lightening cracked just over heard when she, Izzy, and Colin just got in the door.  Scared her bad and she cried for a bit, but soon was laughing about it.  Then it got crazy.  Hail started hitting and they were the size of marbles.  The wind was howling and Eunice and I could barely pull the upper patio door closed together.  After the hail, the rain started dumping and was coming in through the edges of our windows.  Colin and I ran around cleaning water and putting towels down.  The girls were great and played in Aberly's room, patiently waiting for Aberly's birthday dinner (sitting, waiting on the stove). 

We thought we were okay but soon realized we could be in for a serious mess as the ventilation/drain chutes outside our living and dining room bathroom windows were filling with water, and fast.  The drains could not keep up with all that water coming so fast.  We shut and locked them, and hoped they would stay shut and not leak.  To play it safe, we got everything off the floors and rolled up the carpets.  Thankfully, the windows didn't leak and we didn't have the mess we dreaded might happen. 

The storm finally passed and I got this lucky shot of it from our upper patio.

Damage to our house was minimal.  One screen (older) got shredded by the hail, plants leaves were torn up, things outside toppled over, and some decorative trim got knocked off the side of our house.  Our neighbor's trampoline got picked up by the wind and blown over their 7-foot high gate.  We all wished we would've seen it!  At the school, the one gym floor was covered in water, trees uprooted, and the playground shade cover toppled.  There is serious fixing to do there. 

Around town, some areas experience a lot of water (like the souk and you can see the video here:  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=770337682993325&set=vb.199846260042473&type=2&theater  ) and there is still some standing water in the streets and small waterfalls coming off hillsides.  Luckily, Muscat has really improved its drainage system in the last few years and things are much better when serious rain hits.  There are only a few places it gets bad.  Well, and of course, the wadis around the mountains will fill up and rage!  They are very dangerous.

So, there is Aberly's 4th birthday!  She had a great day at school, got more than she bargained for with her rain wish, had dinner with her friend Izzy (chili and corn bread by request), talked to Nana and Papa briefly on Skype (internet was very intermittent) and opened presents before bed.

Her Princess and Fairy Picnic birthday party is tomorrow and she cannot wait to celebrate with her friends. 

Happy Halloween!

Here are a few pictures from our fun Halloween here in Oman.  We are so blessed by a school that throws a wonderful Fall Festival party and Aberly got to have a Halloween parade and party at school!

 Starting the parade through the upper ES classes

 Showing off her fairy wings

 Mommy, they clapped for me when I spread my wings (they clapped for everyone, of course)

 Class party time!

 Third Halloween with her best friend, Isla

 Em was a bit overwhelmed with all the kids. 

 Watching the classic Halloween kids movie

 Trick-or-treating through the school

 Games in the gym

Happy Halloween!

Germany, Germany!

Our trip this past week to Germany was over a year in the making. 

It all started when Connor, Colin's brother, announced he planned to go to Germany his 4th year of college for a study abroad.  Colin was like, that would be awesome if we could visit him, AND I think Eid will fall during October that year, so we could go during the beautiful fall time!  However, all of this was just a wish and dream, since days off a school/work for Muslim holidays like Eid, are never officially called (dated) until near the estimated date (and it would be a few days for a long weekend or a whole week, you never know).  Always leaves us guessing! 

Well, we were so excited last October when we received the draft of this year's school calendar and saw that because Eid would fall mid-week, the school had decided to play it safe and just gave the whole week off as "Fall Break".  We realized that we could plan ahead now, which we never expected, and book flights and lodging as soon as Connor confirmed a study abroad placement and location.

We learned over the summer that Connor would be in Mosbach, Germany, which is about 2 hours south of Frankfurt and a beautiful, quaint town.  It offered a wonderful taste of typical German life, beautiful scenery, and the Fall experience we hadn't had in two years.  It was amazing how similar the area of Germany we were in was just like the valley in Oregon.  We felt so at home (well, me more since Colin grew up in Bend). 

The girls were fantastic.  Despite a super rocky start at the Muscat Airport at 10:30 at night due to a mix up in booking for Emalyn's lap-infant seat, we got to Frankfurt on an overnight flight by 6:30 in the morning, got our rental car, and headed down the A6 to Mosbach.  The girls slept, we enjoyed the scenery, and found our hotel in Mosbach by 10:00 AM.

The next three days were filled with wonderful sightseeing and adventures.  We took in each moment whether walking around the old town near our hotel, eating out, seeing Connor, driving to destinations, eating breakfast in the hotel, buying groceries, whatever!  We also LOVED being able to get to wear on cold-weather clothes, bundle up, and enjoy the cold!  It was so great and it was such the respite we needed and family trip to remember.  Here are some photos from out trip highlighting events and sights:

  In the alley outside our hotel and then in the hotel room.  We stayed at Hotel Lamm and were accommodated by a wonderful staff in a cozy room.

 Touring old-town with Connor.  We loved the opportunity to see him!

 Fresh cider!  Aberly had never had apple juice so good.  She chugged it so fast that I got only a couple sips myself.

 While Connor was in school, we toured two castles.  The first day we went to Castle Hornberg which was very old and it's own vineyard/winery.  The castle offered our first stunning view of the area.

 Peeking out a wall window

 Loving it!

 Aberly and Colin head towards the castle's newest wing and staircase.  There was also a church with a coffin inside, as well as a room that housed all kinds of weathered wood carvings that used to adorn the castle.

 Aberly took this nice picture of us in front of the dining hall fireplace. (Emalyn was konked out on me)

 While playing on the viking boat in town, I heard this gal, Michelle, talking with an American accent.  I joked it was nice to hear someone speaking English and she laughed and said she noticed ours too.  We got talking and they are in Mosbach working with the local church but are Oregonians as well and are actually related to friends of ours we used to work with in Young Life in Bend.  Small world!

 The second day, we headed to Playmobile Funpark, which was, seriously, the funnest park ever.  All exploring, pretending, climbing, running, balancing, imagining.... No rides, just fun!  And I loved the fact that it was NOT like the US where everything would be overly safe and less fun.  It was challenging and risky in some ways (ropes courses, bridges with rope railings or no railings, steep stairs) and allowed a kid to have a great sense of adventure (side note, there is a Playmobile park in Florida and I'm curious how different the two may be).   Colin and I loved it too!  Aberly loved seeing her favorite toys in life-size and doing all the fun things it had to offer.  (This, of course, was the rainy day of the trip, so we were glad to have our rain jackets and umbrellas!)

 Colin and the girls meet the king and queen.

 Aberly and I pull ourselves across the pond.

 

Milking (yes, water actually came out of them) and washing the cows.

 

We board the pirate ship.  She and Colin climbed the netting to the crows nest.

 We take a break inside where there are the every theme's "ultimate" toy sets for kids to play with.  Aberly's favorite, of course, the princess castle.

 Emalyn loved chewing and leaving her spit on these toys.  I'm sure she picked up the same amount of germs she left.

 

One angle view of the inside playarea.  It was huge, bright, and wonderful!

New best friends

 Attacking the monster indoor park play area

 So happy to watch all the kids playing

 

One of Aberly's favorite parts of the trip was seeing Fall.  She has been learning about Autumn in school so was enchanted by fall trees, corn fields, pumpkins, apples, and everything else she just saw in pictures at school.  We collected special leaves and acorns for her to take back for show and tell at school.

 Our last day, we went to one more castle (Castle Guttenberg) across the valley from the first castle we saw.  The 1st castle can just barely be seen on the shaded part of the hill behind Colin just right of the center of the photo.

 Aberly was a fabulous tourist.  She LOVED climbing the tower to the top of the castle.  P.S.  It's a good thing Nana (my mom) was not with us in either of these castles, especially the first one.   She would've been having a heart attack.

 Looking down at the castle from the tower.

 Our final trip treat was that Papa Skip came to visit Connor too, and he arrived the evening before we left.  It was a short visit, but we had a lovely dinner and he got some special time with his granddaughters.  Aberly loved trying to avoid getting caught by him and Connor.

 

Poor Emalyn, she was so tired by the time we finally got a picture and could muster any of the beautiful smiles she had given all evening.  Three generations together!

There are so many more memories of the trip that I wish I could share but it would take too long.  We can't wait to go to Germany again this Christmas where we'll meet my parents in Bavaria and experience a true, white Christmas!