Last Day of School!

Aberly had a FANTASTIC first year of school and we were so thankful for her having such a wonderful teacher and two aides. 

Aberly grew so much during this past year, both physically and emotionally/mentally.  It's been a joy to watch her grow and change in front of her eyes.  I really noticed her physical growth when she could reach our neighbor's doorbell last week.  She was a good 4-5 inches away from it at the beginning of the year!

Here are a few snaps of Aberly on her last day of school for EC1.

 On her way in

 Hugs with her wonderful teacher, Mrs. Carla

 Classroom besties, Lizzie and Lara

Proud Mama

Aberly's teacher was also so wonderful to give us electronic copies of all the photos from Aberly in class this year.  Here are some highlights from her year.

 Teacher, teacher, what do you see?

 Reading to classmates

 Aberly loved giving and getting rides on the bike.

 Make believe worlds

 I had forgotten how much Aberly dressed herself up for her birthday at school!

 Sand fun

 Aberly LOVES painting and brought us home many lovely ones.

 Teddy Bear picnic

 Always loves a crown!

 Table projects

 Imagining ice skating

 Traditional Omani dress

 Aberly and Lara exploring

 Field trip to a local indoor jungle

 Presenting about herself as a baby

 Messy fun!

Celebrating Omani Day at school.  

What a wonderful year!

Summer is almost here!

It's that time of year.  Summer is so close, you can imagine it vividly.  You close your eyes and picture yourself in your summer "happy place".  Mine is my parents upper deck in the backyard, sitting in a patio chair, surrounded by beautiful, big green trees, wind slightly blowing, sun shining.

We all get a bit stir crazy here because it's so hot.  As a co-worker of mine said something to the effect of, "It feels like Satan is breathing on you".  So we stay inside a lot.  Cause not only are you surrounded by oven air, but any surface is on fire.  We work hard to keep Emalyn from sitting down or touching certain surfaces, but even she has learned quickly and knows what "hot" is.  The A/C's run most of the day and you try to entertain yourself and your kids without resorting to the TV too much.

The good thing is that our side of the unit gets shade till noon and then the sun goes down behind some other houses around 5:30.  We can sit tolerably outside while the girls play.   The pool is our friend.

But it's not all bad.  School is still going well and having fun with friends.

Mother's Day tea at EC 1

Writer's Open Mic night I organized which was super fun and we loved listening to each other's pieces.

It sure sounded far away when we were still in April, but it's amazing how quickly summer has approached and we are just two weeks away from flying out on the 15th.  We've started packing a few bags ahead of time with things to bring back (old clothes, gifts) and are thinking about what types of items to have for the plane ride.

THE PLANE RIDE.  Can't say we are really looking forward to it since it's almost 30 hours of total travel time.  About 2/3 of that is in a plane, and the rest is in airports.   Aberly is a fantastic traveler and only gets grumpy when tired.

Our main concern is Emalyn.

 In order to save money, we opted to have her as a lap infant.  We did upgrade to Economy Plus seats for a few legs of our trip which should help with space issues and moving around.  But Emalyn is still just 14 months and wants to move and be active.  Communication is limited (well, we can talk all we want, but her responses are "dat", nodding yes or no, waving hands for "all done", and yelling/screaching).  We are fairly certain that we'll be wandering the plane aisles often, struggling to keep her in our laps when the seatbelt sign is on (or hiding her on the floor), and praying she will stay asleep for more than a few hours at a time.

Our only bit of hope is that she LOVES books.  She will sit on our lap for quite awhile wanting us to read her books.  So we will.  We'll pack a lot of small books.  And we'll pray.  And maybe splurge for that on-flight beer or wine.

So send us your well wishes, prayers, thoughts, and love, and we'll be home soon, to our happy places and to see all of you, our dear friends and family!