A Great Long Sunday Lunch at our Friends' Home

We had a great long lunch with our friends up the road. They actually have 7 (SEVEN) children! 3 out of their 4 eldest are away in England at either university or working. Their 3rd eldest has just moved back as she is doing an internship at KPMG and living back at home during it. They have a son who is nearly done with high school then a HUGE gap followed by Keira (8 years old) and Eliana (nearly 4 years old). Great family and Ali and Keira adore each other.

The adults

Mia with Keira and Eliana

Their house as we looked back to wave good-bye

These next photos are of the four girls who were fighting a sugar high from all the beautiful desserts that Amanda prepared: Sticky Toffee Pudding, Chocolate Brownies, Blackberry Crumble and Orange Poppy Seed Cake. All soooo good!

 

 

Budapest Sofa vs Floor

Maybe this is why Curt moves onto the floor all the time. Not sure who took the one of me sleeping on the sofa last night. It was after a great long lunch at the Majlath's home. Friends of ours for ages. 

I love Ali with our cat, Mickey, and Mia sound asleep next to her. It's still early but we are full on with lots of hiking and reunions with friends and brains having to work things out in Hungarian again.

PS Mickey must be about 17 years old now! He says he misses Papa.

  

Some Things Will Never Change

Some things just never change. My hubster is nearly 50 and he still prefers lying on the floor to work, watch TV, etc. Must remember to get some bean bags for our home in Budapest. It simply doesn't matter how comfortable our sofas are, he just prefers the floor. Love this photo of him with our dog, Blue (9 years old) and the roaring fire. Temps outside in Budapest now are high teens / low 20s celsius but we do love (and miss) our fires...

Terence - Football

I don't ever get many photos of Terence. The girls are a bit better about the camera. However, I got this one of T last week after dropping him off for football training. Doesn't he look like a man? He is so big (nearly 6 feet tall) and only 13 years old. His shoe size is 45 - 46 EU!

Mia's Pre-Teen Friday

So our Mia (12 in January; going on 16 1/2) and I organized a little girlie weekend fun on Friday. She's actually pretty good about the weekend hang outs. She is at school for such long hours and we all seem to run around all week long as we are all full on with activities * that our weekend time is really reserved for family-time. I love our family time and have actually steered away from weekend adult activities as I really just, plain and simple, love hanging with my hubby and kids on the weekends. 

You may or may not know but we never had an 11th birthday party for our MiMi. We started a birthday tradition with our kids ages ago that every birthday they have a choice of:

A. Birthday party with friends. 

We set the limit of friends and budget (which we almost always seem to go over in expensive Dubai).

B. Dinner alone with mom and dad at a restaurant of their choosing. 

Terence always picks B since his 8th birthday.

Mia knew she wanted a party but couldn't decide where, with who, when. Our weekends were always packed and every time we detected a reasonable weekend, she seemed to get an invite to another friend's birthday at that exact time. 

Long story short, it eventually became too late. To make up for it, I asked her if she'd like a girlie afternoon with some of her best mates. She jumped at the opportunity.

We started with a lovely late lunch with her group and then walked over to this amazing newish hot spot called BOUNCE. It's an indoor trampoline park and the children all love it. Especially in this Dubai heat. The evening ended just after 8pm and the girls all had an amazing time. Mission accomplished. 

Walking from lunch to Bounce.

Getting their wrist bands which allows them entry.

6 of them (and 2 others) awaiting the start of a game of dodge ball.

Mia and her besties (2 couldn't make it) and sister, Ali.

And a video of some of their dodge ball fun.

Friday Night

We were out on Thursday night at a friend's and didn't get home until quite late. I think our entire family finally made it to bed just before midnight. Therefore, this is what the girls looked like on Friday evening during family movie night (in).

PS our weekend in Dubai is Friday and Saturday.

Fun Weekend Stuff

The best parts of the weekend were on Thursday night and Saturday (all day).

On Thursday, our family hit one of our favorites spots for dinner: Ruth's Chris. I only have a few photos of the girls from this evening as we were so busy chatting, eating, enjoying the evening that I didn't take any other snaps. I had to take the first one of them, on the escalator after dinner, as I looked up and suddenly saw two young ladies. Where are my little girlies? At the top of the escalator, I took the 2nd photo of our gorgeous girls.

 

On Saturday, I surprised our family with a trip to the Wild Wadi water park. It was a fantastic day and a great way to stay cool in the 40+ degree Celsius desert heat.

Chilling in the shade in between water slides.

Our little cabana tucked away.  It was perfect. 

Terence napping after about 5 or 6 hours of water slide fun.

 

 And a few more of the girls. The first is of them watching the surfing which they later took turns on (photos coming) and temporary tattoo time! The fun was non-stop. We spent our entire day from 10:30 until about 7:30 enjoy the water park and our family time.

Fulfilling Weekend

Today is Saturday, 9:03pm and tomorrow is the start of a new week. Our work / school week here is Sunday - Thursday. 1 of 2 of the children are asleep. That would be Ali who a. needs the most sleep (probably because she is the youngest), and b. gets collected by her bus an hour earlier than the other two. Her bus actually comes at 6:40am so if she is not asleep by 8pm then she is a wreck in the morning.

Mia has just finished her homework, via Face Chat and Skype with a friend and T is chilling (on his laptop so probably watching Netflix) as his homework was done earlier today while we were out and about running errands.

Here are a few photos that encompass our weekend. 

Thursday I surprised little Ali by picking her up from school. I received a call earlier in the day that her 2 school books were in stock and ready for pick up. I had to order 2 out of the 5 from the book store. The other 3 were found amongst Mia's (or T's) stack of old school books from the French school. Sadly, I always leave this annual task to the last minute and she always has to start the new year with some or none of her school books as these French school books take about 4 weeks to ship into Dubai. Terence and Mia used to go through the same fun, challenge every start to each new school year but now they are at a school where the books are provided.

Anyhow, she was so excited for my surprise pick up and then our surprise book collection. She didn't like starting the school year not being 100% prepared even though it is an understanding situation.

My happy book worm gets all her books at last! PS Notice her new school uniform.

Then, we paid a visit to ACE Hardware to start our hunt for paints for the new house. This was the first, but not last over the weekend.

We visited again today. Ali is asking her dada which color paint sample he likes the best. 

Our helpful girls at our new house.

  

   

Lots of measuring, paint samples and my new electric measuring unit! 

We Have a New Soccer Player in the House

Guess who has joined a soccer (a.k.a. 'football' as it's known outside of America) league in Dubai? Our little Alexandra.

After a week at a summer 'soccer' camp before the new school year started (along with her brother and sister), Ali developed a passion for the sport. So much that she begged for me to enroll her into the league regularly. Last night was her first hour lesson at the indoor facility in Al Quoz. I took her (early) and upon arriving discovered she was the only GIRL in the group. I didn't mention it as I didn't want to draw extra attention to this fact and decided to let Ali form her own opinion about the group dynamics. Fortunately, she never mentioned it so it apparently didn't seem to faze her at all. Phew!

Unfortunately, I couldn't stay to watch her for more than 15 mins as I had child #2 (Mia) to collect from her swim squad try outs. However, I did manage to capture a few (not so clear) snaps and a very short video clip. 

Dad collected her at 6pm and she arrived home so excited and so pumped about her new beloved sport. She kicked the ball around the house and practiced tricks and drills with Curt until bedtime. Then, she took her new (part of her new kit from the league) mini-soccer ball to bed and introduced it to her bed full of cuddly animals (photos of this scene coming soon) where it remained all night. Now that is what I call DEDICATION!

PS Dad is so happy to finally have a passionate soccer player in our home!

  

PS She now needs new shoes for soccer. 

Terence and his Samsung Galaxy's Reunion in Dubai

Thanks Papa for sending Terence's smart phone that he left in Wichita in August. Silly boy. He is obviously far too confident that his mom and dad will look out for his things as he's still slightly forgetful about where he keeps / puts his personal possessions.

Regardless, the phone made it in the post to our office on Sunday and didn't get stolen in transit. He tore into it in the car park at (GWA) school when I collected him on Sunday afternoon.  As soon as he got home he charged it up and is now a very happy camper. He even called me 3 times from it yesterday and none of the calls were accidental (i.e he often butt-dials us while he is playing football or soccer at recess with his friends).

More Extra-Curricular Activities

Today from 4-5pm (after school) Emilia will be at the U14 (grades 6, 7 and 8) swim squad try outs. Last year she made the team for the Elementary (Primary) school and we were so excited for her. This year she is trying out again. Then, on Wednesday, she will try out for the U14 Girls Volleyball team. Keep your fingers crossed! 

Here is a short clip of her trying out last year. She is so strong!

More Ice Dumping

I forgot to include Ali's ice bucket challenge. She was the first to do it. Isn't she great? I think her leg itch was due to be nervous...

Activities Resume this week

Terence has resumed (American) Football Training. Four hours today! He plays on the Barracuda team with EAFL (Emirates American Football League) and loves every minute of it... 

The amazing field house

Lots of space for training

Moving slowly after a tough, long practice. Time now for homework.

And this is what the girls do as we wait for him to finish up.

Ice Bucket Challenge

For those of you who are on social media, you will recognize these ALS ice bucket challenges. To raise awareness (and, of course, donations) ALS started this ice bucket challenge which went viral on social media such as Facebook and Instagram. Once nominated, the nominee has 24 hours to take the ice bucket challenge (and hopefully donate to the organization as well). Every member in our family of five was nominated. Here are our videos.

We created this with a new software that has just come out called, Hyperlapse.

Loving the Office

Ali (and Mia) both love coming to our office any time they have the chance. Today, after Ali's first day at school, we brought her back to the office as we still had about 4 more hours of work to finish up. Love that she makes herself so comfortable.

In the CEO's office.

She made this sign and posted it on the wall of my office. It got a lot of attention from all the staff passing by. 

Back to School

It's been ages since I have posted anything and have made a commitment to resume blogging. Not only is it great for our family to have a collection of memories in one location and for me to make note of all the cool places we visit; amazing things we do; funny things that happen or just plain ordinary stuff about our family dynamics, but it's also a fantastic tool for keeping friends and family (far and near) up to date on our day to day activities.

So, instead of trying to play catch up from where we left off (over a year ago - yikes!), I am going to start with now / this week.

Excuse the fact that some of our upcoming posts maybe short and sweet but my free time is M.I.N.I.M.A.L. Honestly, I know I am older and I tire more frequently but at the end of each day, when we finally get meals, activities, homework, bedtime, work stuff, home stuff, etc all completed, I can barely stay awake for much else. It's embarrassing as I have been reading the same book since the beginning of summer! Ok, the book probably wasn't the best choice for summer reading as it's nearly 900 pages and more of a 'winter' read.  Still, I highly recommend the book I am reading which is titled Pillars of the Earth. They are even making a film (or TV mini-series) based on the story so I am more eager to complete it before watching it.

So, the subject of my post is BACK TO SCHOOL, which, the kids did this week. After an amazing summer in the US, all three children are back to school. The poor little (except Terence who is now taller than me) things are so exhausted trying to get back into the swing of things. Not only are the early morning alarms and starts to the day a challenge but getting into the rhythm of thinking again is tough for all three. I feel for little Ali the most who has to adjust to a full day in French which we know must be hard as she barely spoke / heard it this summer.

The kids now are in the following grades:

Terence - age 13, grade 8 (middle school)
Emilia - age 11, grade 6 (middle school)
Alexandra - age 8, grade CE2g (equivalent to grade 3 in elementaire)

All of them went to school via the school bus but here are a few snaps I managed to capture of their mornings.

Ali's first day at AFLEC (French School) was today

This is what T often does if he has a few spare minutes before his (and Mia's) but arrives.