Mia's Kabaret

I have been the ultra worst blogger ever. Work, kids, life, etc are all keeping me so busy that I have no spare minutes to do the things I enjoy... like blogging. C'est la vie... Here are some photos and videos I had to post from Mia's weekend Kabaret. She was incredible! The entire show was so incredibly professional and well done. Curt and I were proud of our confident daughter who seems to have fell right into a very comfortable place in this group. Here is an overview of her show on Saturday. (by the way, she had 2 performances on Friday and 2 on Saturday).

her young fans waiting to go into the theatre

She performed 3 song / dances - all were from famous shows... I'll put down what they are in my next post.

LOVE THIS NEXT ONE. It summarizes her confident stage presence!

2 videos

Halloween in Dubai

Had a fantastic Halloween in Dubai! Our neighborhood actually participates in Trick or Treating! Can you believe that? Here we are, all the way on the other side of the world in an Arab country and our kids are trick or treating. They were so excited. They started their Sunday, October 31st with school as the work / school week here is Sun - Thurs (it used to be Sat - Wed, so I am not complaining). T was bummed about Halloween at school and even more so about not having a day off on Monday, Nov 1st. I tried explaining that it is not a recognized public holiday and even if we lived in the US, he'd still have school the day after Halloween... funny guy.

Since our neighborhood is full of trick-or-treating participants, we invited our good friends the Bicknells (4 children) to join in on the fun. It worked out perfectly. We started with Spaghetti Bolognese. It's funny cooking with a new stove / oven and only a few of my kitchen gadgets. I've slowly been collecting new ones here but forgot the can opener. Did you know that you can open a tin of tomatoes with a screw driver??

The spagh-bol was great as we get minced everything here and I added beef, veal and pork! The kids gobbled it up, threw on their costumes, paused for a minute for me to snap a few shots and then hit the streets with the dads. Luanna and I stayed behind to hand out candy. It was so fun and we seemed to get 100s of kids. Some came alone (poor things), some came with maids, some came in groups of 10, others came with both their parents (maids must have been left behind to hand out the sweets). It was quite a smorgasbord of characters. We asked each child where they lived assuming they were neighbors and potential new friends for our bunch. However, many were driven in from other non-Halloween-participating areas to take part in the festivities.

All in all, it was a great evening filled with lots of sweets, warm weather, flip flops, fun costumes, great friends and a bit of red wine. Ali keeps asking when we can go trick-or-treating again. Poor thing has to wait a YEAR! Next year we are going to try and get more into as I have yet to unpack ALL my Halloween gear. I told the visiting kids to watch out as I will try and make a haunted house next year. Aunt Lisa and Nana - look out for any post-Halloween sales on decorations for us please!! Excluding cobwebs as I have plenty!

Ali had a wardrobe malfunction on her first costume so had to return with Curt for a quick change! They sped back on the electric scooter to catch up with the gang...

Ali's friend, Alberta, was dressed as a jack o lantern so had to get her next to Curt's fab carving job...



Moms handing out candies...

Eid Weekend

Shortly after our arrival to Dubai, the end of Ramadan arrived and we had a 4 day Eid weekend. It was lovely. One of the things we did was join some friends with all our kids and go to the Atlantis' hotels Aquaventure park for a 6-11pm evening adventure ending with fireworks. It was fantastic. The kids all had so much fun and Mia got to experience the Leap of Faith water slide for the first time! We were all shocked when she asked to join the big boys and daddies up to the top. We thought for sure she'd chicken out after waiting in line and climbing up to the top but my little dare devil went through with it!!

It was a great way to spend a very hot evening.

Trick-or-Treat

Just a few photos from this morning and yesterday evening. I love how Mia went to school today. We put a strip of orange into her hair and she wore this fantastic shirt that our friends Tammy and Craig sent over. Terence also had one (minus the pink heart and butterfly) but he chose not to wear it. Ali opted for a ballerina costume as her grade was dressing up in costume today. Tonight, we will have trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. We have some friends coming over to join us as our neighborhood is supposed to be one of the most active trick-or-treating areas in Dubai.

Pumpkin carving time.

The kids always leave the parents to finish up the work. Finished product will be posted later today or tomorrow. Curt did a fab job!

Pizza Making Ali

I now have a spare moment and thought I would try and give you an update on life so far in Dubai. First up is a recent photo of Ali (on 10/27) when she went with her class on a field trip to Pizzeria Uno in the Dubai Mall. They learned how to make pizza! What a fantastic outing for 20+ 4 year olds! Ali absolutely loved it and could not stop talking about making pizza. She has helped me at home make home made pizza but, as you can imagine, it's (unfortunately) not an event that we have regularly. Now that she has learned by the pros, maybe we need have a pizza making evening in the near future.

She was funny as she has told me a little bit about it every day. Probably because she remembers another small part of it each day. She made her own pizza, got her own hat (which she still has at home), and brought home a few slices to share. The thing she liked best was the fact that the pizza Uno team spoke to them in English and the teacher had to translate into French. In Hungary, it was obviously Hungarian. She understands Hungarian just as well as English but it's the first time she has ever been in a school atmosphere with English spoken so she thought it was fun.

One of the mom chaperons took this photo of Ali and sent it to me. I thought it was adorable. She looks very happy and comfortable. I have lots of school photos of Ali (from last year) where she maybe looking at the camera and smiling but she has an unsure look about her. Or, maybe it's just a bit of a scared or not so confident look. I'm pleased that she is settling into her new school and making friends quickly. It helped that she new a handful of friends already but none are in her class. This is actually a blessing in disguise as she is making friends on her own in her own class as well. The teacher always reassures me that she is very happy and socially active.

Life in Dubai, in general, is fantastic. The only disadvantage is that we are all SO busy. The kids are in school Sunday - Thursday from 8am - 1:45pm. I have only picked them all up once since they started about 6 weeks ago. We have our Hungarian babysitter here helping us as we are both working full time. She is not living with us but in a small studio apartment in town. I have managed to spend one afternoon alone with each child since the beginning of the school term. We try and organize a fun afternoon just the two of us. Ali went first and wanted to pick out new sheets for her new bed then have ice cream. It was so fun and we had a great time walking hand in hand together. We then popped into a great toy store called Hamleys (I've seen it in the UK so believe it is British owned) in the Dubai Mall and bought her some food for her play kitchen. While in there, she insisted on getting something for Terence and Mia. She is thoughtful like that and always wanting to get gifts for others.

On Mia's afternoon-with-mom, we went to get our toes and nails (manicure / pedicure) done together. It was fantastic. We sat next to each other and talked and giggled. She felt like such a little lady - something she strives for a bit too much. We took a walk and just enjoyed holding hands and talking about everything. She always has SO many growing-up questions and she really took advantage of this time and asked me 100s of questions. I was so happy to have the one-on-one time with her as she needed it so much.

Unfortunately, I had a 2 week period when I couldn't leave work early so Terence had to very patiently wait. Due to a conference and lots of trainings, meetings, I couldn't get out to have my afternoon with him until last week. It upset him so much but he stayed strong and waiting as patiently as he could. Unplanned, I managed to surprise him at school last week. It was so great to see his face. He tries to act so grown up and will not jump up and down or hug and kiss but he puts on a 'I'm too cool to have emotions' face. Once we got in the car, he just chatted away and was so happy! I felt guilty that he had to wait so long but thrilled to finally have the alone time with him. He is so incredibly mature and when I am alone with him I sometimes forget he is only 9 years old. He teaches me so much and is so smart. He reads and watches the news and absorbs so many facts that he is so interesting to listen to. When he asks questions, I cannot BS him at all. Maybe it's because he is the oldest, however, I think it is just who he is as well.

He was very uncertain about what he wanted to do alone with me. I think he was just happy to spend time together. He couldn't decide, however, he had been begging us to get a home computer as Curt and I only have our laptops which are always with us at the office. He misses having a computer at the house to play on.

Since it was on my to-do list, I asked him if he wanted to pick one out with me. He was so excited as he is a complete techie! I knew he'd been hoping for an iMac so off to the Apple store we went. He was so great in asking the store rep questions. Most of them went over my head. We asked her to hold the computer we wanted (last in stock!) while we thought it over and walked around. He wanted to get lunch (he didn't eat what I had packed him in his lunch box) so we went to one of his favorite spots: Yo Sushi. They send out the sushi on a revolving conveyor belt. As it goes by our table we pick out what we want to eat and pay for each plate piled up on our table. After lunch, he was STILL hungry. He eats so much these days! We went to see what other restaurants were around and he spotted his favorite: Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. So off to Krispy Kreme's we went for his doughnut fix. From there we visited some video game spots, then to pick out a birthday present for a friend's birthday party he is going to next weekend and then back to pick up our iMac that Curt agreed (over the phone) to get.

Terence, in true Terence-style, commented about how much money we had spent. He is very money conscious and always converting the dirhams into dollars and working out how expensive things are. He sometimes makes us feel guilty when we spend but we explain that we both work hard so we can buy these nice things. We also tell him we are lucky as we had opportunities to have educations and careers that many people from different parts of the world never have.

Curt and I are also doing well. We are slowly settling into our new home which we really like. We are almost unpacked and once we get one more dresser, should be just about there. We only brought about 1/2 hours things so were in need of lots (ie beds, TV, fridge, stove, washer / dryer, rugs, lamps, etc). The items we did bring, fit in really well.

I will slowly start to post photos of our home soon.

More photos and videos are coming. I promise. x o x o

Our Move One Dubai office

Just a few photos of our lovely office in the Greens area of Dubai. We moved in over the summer and it's so nice being in a new, modern office. Curt and I are both working Sunday - Thursday every week. Long hours and new challenges but loving every minute of it.

More soon.... just been so incredibly busy.

T sailing videos

Finally - the 2 videos showing Terence sailing! He's so sweet as he is so excited to be learning sailing and told me that he cannot wait until he can sail a large boat and sail our entire family all over the sea! I too look forward to that time...

In the meantime, it looks like he'll be stuck with this much smaller sail boat while he learns.

T's First Sailing Course

I will write about our weekend, sailing class, etc and include videos tomorrow. Just wanted to post these quickly...

School Daze

It is week 2 for Ali, 3 for Terence and Mia at their new French school in Dubai. We are slowly getting in the rhythm and used to 5 day school weeks. However, they tire much quicker and earlier then usual.

Our day starts with Curt's alarm going off at 5:30am (or earlier). He has been starting his morning by either going down to the gym in our serviced apartment to run on the treadmill or out to the sea for a swim. He's training for the open sea swim around the Burj Al Arab hotel. It's for a great cause as we, Move One, have met with the Medicine Sans Frontier and are doing it in conjunction with their organization. I'll probably do it too as it is only 1 km but I will not be in it for the race part. It's been a while since I have swam a fast, straight 1km but since it's for charity, anything goes.

While he is exercising, I start getting the kids up at about 6:20am (ouch). It is hard work as they all love their sleep and want to sleep in later. Terence and Mia shower every morning while Ali baths the night before. The shower definitely helps them wake up...

They have breakfast, get dressed and 4 out of 5 days a week they get dropped off at school by Curt. The other morning of the week I accompany them as it's good for me to go in, meet / see their teachers, see their new friends and chat with the other parents. However, in Dubai, about half the kids travel to / from school on the school bus and several are dropped off by drivers and / or maids. Still, I have met quite a few nice moms and find this French school a lot more international then the one in Budapest.

I have been trying to take photos of Ali almost every morning holding up her fingers with the number day she is on at school. Below I have her on 6 (thumb) and 8. The SIX is out on our balcony of our apartment in the Dubai Marina. I love the area and find it so central and easy to get around. However, unfortunately, there are very few houses in this area and the neighborhoods nearby that we have found are hugely outside of our housing budget. Otherwise, I would love to be down here, in the action and near the beach!

Speaking of the beach, it's where I have been spending most of my time these days. I have joined (actually it was involuntarily as a friend recruited me) the Dubai Sea Dragons dragon boating team. We are out training 3 days a week and after 3 practices, I have just been recruited for the competing team. These woman, even though they do not look like it, are power houses! It is the hardest sport I have ever done in my life! It's not my arms that ache for days afterwards but the rest of my body - including my legs. Next week we are traveling to Abu Dhabi for a competition. I will be on the pro team as well as the Move One company team that we just started. Curt will be on that team with me! I am scared senseless but also excited. It'll be fun to go and stay in Abu Dhabi (about an hour away) for the weekend with all my teammates and their families. The kids have been cheering us on from the beach during several of our practices. The photos will be uploaded soon!

In the meantime, here are my gorgeous babes...

notice the lunch boxes?

This is Terence the other day after a sleep over at a friends. The girls were on the Palm to play at a friend's home so we had him all to ourselves for a great lunch at an Italian restaurant in one of the hotels. He was so pooped after a long school week, golf, skiing, sleep over, etc that he actually fell asleep in the back of the car. It is SO UNLIKE T to ever snooze during the day so I had to snap it when I saw it.

By the way, he's in one of our new cars. We just had to buy 2 new ones as we didn't bring our car over. This photo is in Curt's new Toyota Sequoia which I have been driving a lot as it is huge and I love it!


More soon... Promise. xxx