Alexandra's birthday

This is a recent video from Alexandra's 6th birthday. We had a small family gathering / celebration at home. I'll include photos from her birthday (as well as from Mia's on the 22nd) in another blog post.

PS Today is Curt's birthday.

Clements Have Been Busy

Good morning from Dubai, UAE. We have been a very, very busy family lately. Just realized that Ali has been going to bed most nights in her clothes (usually comfy beach clothes) as we are out and about all the time. Staying out late and often falling asleep while at a restaurant or during the taxi ride home. Luckily, the kids are on a 1 1/2 week school break due to Eid Al Adha (marking the end of Hajj). Curt and I also have 2 days off of work giving us a 4 day weekend! We decided to just hang out in Dubai and chill out. We never have any down time so it has been (today is day 3) more than enjoyable... Wild Wadi 1 day, dinner at friends, fireworks last night, hanging by the pool (we don't seem to even have time for this anymore), breakfast out, etc.

As most of you have heard, on October 5th, 6th and 7th, we moved out of our Arabian Ranches home. It was a year of ups and downs with that house including a flood, high water bills, a non-helpful landlord, broken A/C units, 1 broken hot water heater, a leak under the house's foundation, limited water pressure, and more. We did have many visitors, great dinner parties, BBQs and fun with friends in that house over the course of the year. But, we couldn't stay on longer as the house had too many major issues and the landlord could not (nor was he willing to) repair these while we were taking up residence.

Here are a few snaps from my iPhone from our move out day. Check out our fantastically stickered moving trucks. I love our new design.

The entire family helped out tremendously with the pack out.



Since we have moved out, we have been staying in a 3 bedroom apartment in the Dubai Marina. We love this area and stayed here when we first arrive to Dubai last Sept 2010. We walk everywhere and are only 5 minutes from school. The kids also get on their (new) bus at 7:15 as opposed to 7am so that too is a benefit.

This is a temporary solution while we pursue finding a new home. We have tinkered back and forth with buying or renting. We have now decided to rent for a year and see what the housing market does. As many of you know that have been here, there are 100s and 100s of homes that are just about to be released (for sale / rent) and this will have a huge impact on the housing market. We want to wait for these to be released and see the prices drop even more - or so we hope...

As of now, we haven't found any decent homes for a reasonable price. We have looked a lot in many different areas. We are happy to hang in our new neighborhood and temporary apartment for another month or so until we find a good solution.

I'll update with some photos since my last post soon. In the meantime, here is a photo of Halloween. There isn't a lot of trick-or-treaters or homes celebrating in our new neighborhood so we went to a friend's home back up in Arabian Ranches to join them on Halloween. We had 8 children amongst all of us as Terence's best mate from Budapest was visiting at the time. It was a successful Halloween and we still have lots of candy left over...

Last night we went with the Bicknell family, Peter and about 990 other Dubai expats to watch the fireworks at the Arabian Ranches golf course in honor of Guy Fawkes. The fireworks were fantastic but a very short show. We have been spoiled with great fireworks this year - 3 sets in Kiawah Island, South Carolina for 4th of July and 1 set in Budapest for St Istvan Day. Compared to those, these were not that great. Still a fun night... Plus, being on that lovely green grass (on the driving range) was a huge treat!

Update on Ali

It has been a very, very long time since I have spent any time on this blog. It is for no reason other than the fact that I have almost no free time. Work is very challenging and rewarding at the moment and if I am not working, I am trying to spend any spare minute I get with our children. Additionally, we have a few new computers so until I feel comfortable with them - they are all imacs - and get any free time on them (as the kids often like to get on and play) you just have to be patient.

This year I scored on mother's days. Back in Budapest, I was applicable for the American, British and Hungarian mother's days. Now, in the UAE, I have been given recognition on the UAE mother's day as well as the French mother's day so I am not at all complaining... Actually, I'm a bit embarrassed and hope Curt get's in a father's day soon even though America seems to be the only place where they may recognize this non-international holiday.

On Sunday (a school day in the UAE), I - and all the other school children's mothers - was invited to school for a little mother's day celebration with the kindergarten. I was so happy to visit and spend time with Ali's classroom. I took a 1/2 day off of work and skipped down knowing it would be great as she has been hinting about the event and practicing her songs for weeks. She is finally settled in nicely into school and finally getting a grasp on the language. It has taken her much longer than Terence and Mia but suddenly it has all CLICKED! I'm so pleased and relieved...

The little show was lovely. Ali's teacher, Anne, and the teacher's assistant, Benedicte, are both wonderful. We couldn't have been luckier with teachers for Ali. They are both gentle, sweet and nurturing. The perfect combination for a scared little kindergartener!

Unfortunately in all my excitement, I got the on / off record button reversed and didn't manage to get the entire show like I had hoped. I did manage to get a short clip which is below. However, first, I put up my 'interview' with Ali from yesterday evening. She is sooo cute!

Now a short clip from her class. Look at how anxious she is while waiting for the signal to hand over my gift. She is watching her teacher and waiting for her to say something about it. I was lucky to be front row on one of her classroom's tiny little chairs... It was a proud moment...

Kids' School Carnaval

On Tuesday, the kids only had a short day as their morning consisted of a Carnaval celebration and all parents were invited to come and watch. It was a gorgeous day and we all filled up their outdoor football field while they paraded around in big circles in full costume, music and style. The theme seemed to be eras in time and our three represented: African tribe (T), Caesar (Mia), and Flowers (Ali). Ok - Ali's was probably a take off of hippies... I didn't think about it until now as I was overwhelmed by how cute she and her entire class looked.

Also, all the costumes were made by the students in school. No stress on the mom's who cannot sew or are creative. It was fantastic!

The two above photos were of Terence - look how much taller he is then all his classmates. He gets mistaken for being older ALL the time.

My Mia, a very happy Caesar! With, by the way, a new hair style that she chose and is slightly struggling with as she wanted lots of layers, bangs, etc. She can no longer pull it back and she is starting to have regrets but I am biting my tongue and not at all doing the 'I told you so' as I am in full support of her decisions and know she will probably remember this experience for a very long time.

Mr. Tribesman

Gorgeous little flower - matched with a boy who was more like a tree / bush.

Listening to Ali's class sing. She actually seemed to know all the words!

Below is Ali with one of her sweet little classmate / friends and me in Mia's classroom.

Enjoy all the videos from the day below.

Move One Dubai billboards - brand new

Our newest ad campaign on the popular street of Umm Sequim near the Burj al Arab hotel. We have at least 30 billboards that look fantastic! Each sign has to have English and Arabic so most advertisers have Eng on one side and Arabic on the other. This is why you'll see a combination of signs... I'll post more photos soon. Or, you can see them on my Facebook page. We are very proud and drove up and down the road yesterday evening many times with the children ooohing and aaahing!!!

South Africa Butterfly World visit

Okay - while in South Africa we hired a driver and a van one day to take us up the Stellenbosch wine route to go wine tasting. In order to also satisfy the kids, we stopped at this amazing place called Butterfly World. Our driver suggested it and it was magnificent! It is a 1000 sqm green house filled with butterflies. There are a few other animals as well but there are 10,000+ butterflies just flying all over the place. It is magical. If you sat still for long enough (which our kids couldn't do) they would land on you. I just read on their site that they bring in 500-800 butterfly pupae every week all year around. This is how they have so many. I have thousands of photos of our amazing South Africa trip over x-mas so I'll slowly play catch up. First, here are our photos from our visit to Butterfly World - a must stop for anyone in the Stellenbosch, Western Cape (just north of Cape Town) area.

they also had these adorably tiny and friendly monkeys climbing all over the place. we loved them. you could pet them and our guide even managed to get one on his shoulder. they are mischievous (like the one in Night at the Museum) as they try to pick pockets.

hand feeding the birds

and, now the reason we went. check out a few of these snaps of the main attraction.

on the right is the famous Owl Butterfly - meant to be the largest butterfly around.

The video below is all the Pupae hanging and the butterflies actually being born. We could sit there and watch them. Incredible! We were most surprised to find out how short their life spans are - only about 1 week. After all this work they go through to hatch, they only live about a week long... shame.

Birthday Marathon week

Hello. I'm BACK! After a very long break from blogging, I have returned and am happy to be back journaling our family's life and where-abouts...

The long break has not been at all intentional. Life has kept all of us busier than ever. Curt and I are working many, many hours but, at the same time, loving it. The kids are busy with school, making new friends, exploring this incredible city and taking part in many new, fun activities.

On top of all of this, we have visitor after visitor after visitor after... I think you get my point. It's been a great pleasure and many of my Dubai friends have told me that this is a very popular destination for friends and family to visit. Especially at this time of year as the weather is perfect!

Our visitors have so far included: Julie (Curt's cousin), friends Sue and Peter, my dear, dear friend Kim and her family and then Curt's parents and 2 sisters. We have only 1 week in our home alone. But, if you know my personality, I love playing hostess of the mostest. Last night was our first night with no visitors and we ended up having company for dinner! So, I'm not one to ever rest...

Next visitors on the agenda for February and March are: Curt's fantastic Uncle Tim, our Hungarian friend and tennis coach (for kids) Bea - she's coming for 10 days for the Dubai Open, my sista (like a sister because I love her SO much) Nicola and her family, the kids' French tutor and our friend Rafael and his cousin. After that I am hoping we'll get a visit from my kind, handsome brothers and our dear, dear friend (and Ali's godmother) Margaret. The best part about Bea and Rafael visiting over the next month is the kids will have to be practicing their Hungarian (with Bea) and French (with Rafael)!

Okay - so the birthday weekend has just come to an end. For those of you that know us well, know that this week in January is crazy with 3 Clements' birthdays. Mia was on Jan 22 (8), Ali was on Jan 24 (5) and Curt just turned 46 on Jan 26. It was a busy, fun-filled weekend and we were oh so pleased to have Curt's parents and 2 sisters here to help us celebrate each one.

Here is a photo of each during their special days:

Mia's birthday - per her request - was to the Old Souk in old Dubai and then on an Abra on the Dubai Creek followed by the movies. There was a big group of us that took up nearly 2 rows in the movie theater. Here she is at the front of our 50 dirham private Abra (there were 10 of us).

2 carloads of family went to pick Ali up from school on Monday, Jan 24th. Curt surprised her with these 2 helium balloons. At first, I thought he got the letter S but then realized it was the number 5! She was so thrilled and I got a snap of her in front of her school holding them. More on her birthday afternoon as that has to be a blog post all to it's own!

Then, last but not least, was my very handsome husband on Wed, Jan 26th. We both worked until about 7ish and came home to Curt's mom's famous homemade mac n cheese! It was delicious and flavorful with hidden peppers and other yummy ingredients. I hope to have the recipe soon. We tossed a huge salad, some broccoli and lots of delicious Australian red shiraz vino. We filled up our table with friends and family and had a lovely, chilled evening. Here he is with little Ali (and her balloon) waiting on the birthday cake.

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.