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.

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

Day 2 of School

Ali surprisingly woke up cheerful about school. Curt took them without me so I'm not sure how the drop off went but it was a better morning then I had anticipated. I was slightly worried about Ali being scared or emotional but she was quite a big girl! She even had input on her hair design. Often she is too tired or grumpy to let me even touch it but today we spent quite a bit of time fixing it up. I think in the heat she just wants it off her neck...

Back to School

Finally.... here are some back to school photos. Sorry that they are so dark but I have yet to unpack my Canon camera (or any others for that matter) so I've been using my iPhone.

Terence and Mia's first day of school was last week on Wednesday / Mercredi, September 15th. Curt got up extra early to make delicious buttermilk pancakes while I got the 2 up, showered, dressed and ready. Ali stayed behind with our babysitter.




Since it was our first time to visit the school since the one time we were driven there in May, we followed our friends. I took a few snaps along the way in case I needed to look back and be reminded. However, it's very easy and I haven't had to refer back and have found it perfectly every time since on my own. Just for you to see what the route looks like from our current location in the Dubai Marina, check out these 3 photos.

Mia just before entering her building. Terence getting ready to enter his building (behind him). He was so embarrassed of the photos. Could you imagine if I had actually pulled out my massive Canon camera? At least the iPhone isn't so obvious.

While Curt took Terence into his classroom, I went with Mia to scout out hers. It took us a while but finally managed to find her lovely, bright classroom with her incredible teacher, Anne-Sophie.

She was given a cubby for her lunch box and other belongings.

She had a minute of embarrassment too.

Below is Terence and Mia waiting for school to start (can you believe the Clements family was actually early??) Ali was with us as we needed to go visit her teacher with Curt.

My big girl, Ali. On the bottom right is us waiting outside her classroom. There were a few other parents there, too, so we had to wait our turn to meet her lovely teacher, Anne, and her assistant, Benedicte. I think it was such a great idea for them to have us come one-on-one to meet, visit the classroom, get to know each other, ask questions and familiarize ourselves.

Then we had weekend so she had 2 days before her official first day. Yesterday was Ali's first day when she joined Mia and Terence. She handled it perfectly. Do you notice that they are sitting on their little lunch cooler boxes? Mia taught Ali to do this. They serve a dual purpose!

BIENVENUE! WELCOME! We were the first ones into her class. I think that made it a little less overwhelming as there will be 28 children in her Moyenne Section class with her!

Ali's End of School Year Party

On Tuesday, the parents of the maternelle (5 kindergarten classes) were invited for an end of year party with the parents and students. We were asked to bring a snack or drink. I brought in apple cake and enjoyed chatting to the other moms and Ali's teachers. Here is a photo of Ali with her teacher, Isabelle (on the right), and the T.A. (teacher's assistant) Erzsebet. I found it interesting to learn that Isabelle is trained as a Biology teacher for high school kids, however, she enjoyed the short change of teaching the little ones. She was very good at it as well as she is very nurturing and sweet. Her teaching career at the Lycee Francais Budapest has quickly come to an end as her husband's job is taking them to Milan this summer. She is very excited.

Erzsebet has been at the Lycee for quite some time. She was the T.A. for Mia 4 years ago and is really lovely. She especially bonded with Ali - and vice versa. Thanks to Erzsebet, Ali actually had a really good year. She had trouble at the beginning of the year but once her and Erzsebet bonded (mostly in Hungarian), it all improved. After the photo is a short video that I took while we were on the playground of the maternelle.

My Magyar Mia

Magyar, for those of you that don't know, means 'Hungarian' in Hungarian. Mia is a Magyar girl through and through. She loves the food, culture, language and now that she's been introduced to the folk dancing, she is at home!

Earlier this week, we had the pleasure of watching her and her class on stage dancing in true traditional Hungarian style folk dance. She was so great (I thought)! The teacher did a great job and all the kids on stage seemed to be perfectly in sync and with smiles on their faces. It was so fun to watch and I can tell that they also enjoyed performing!

In the short video below, she is the 3rd girl to come out.

Ali's Olympic Day at School

Every year at the end of the year at French school, they have a special Olympic day for the kids. They are grouped together by classes. So, this year I have 3 Tuesdays where I have to attend as all 3 kids are in different groups. Today, Ali's class, the Petite Section was with the Moyenne Section for their Olympic games. It's such a fun, yet chaotic, morning that the kids really get into... Here are some snaps of our little Ali....

'Number 1' and waiting for the relay race baton

Below she is doing a shot put underhand toss and kicking a ball into a goal.



Below: all the kids liked the trampoline jump. On the below right she is with her little BFF, Molly, and their good friend, Tyler.

Here she is in ACTION

And 2 videos:

The Girls' Dance Recital at School

All year, or at least since about October, Ali was in a young dance group with her grade (3 and 4 year olds) and the class one year above her. Mia was also in a similar dance group with her age group. What I didn't realize was that they shared the same dance instructor and over the last month have been practicing together and combining their routines... I felt so lucky to have 2 little beauties in this year's dance performance at school. Mia and Ali were in the same show and it was great fun! They both were so happy to perform together and both did very well. Here are some photos and videos of their performance on Monday afternoon.

I adore these costumes! We had to pay for them but we keep them. They are just gorgeous!

Ali is in the middle in the above left as well as in the shots below, when they changed costumes.

Love her face in the above right and below left as she looks completely confused and slightly embarrassed. They were all so adorable together that it didn't matter!

These next 2 are my favorite shots of each of them. I got to try out my newest zoom lens which worked out incredible!! Terence was next to me and we were getting really excited about the shots I captured. Mia was a bit more of a challenge to get good snaps of as she was often behind other girls.

If you can't tell, Ali is right in front of Mia in this shot above.

In this next one, Mia and Ali are in the back row next to each other (towards the right of the screen).



Here Mia is in the 2nd row (right side of screen) and Ali is in the back row (towards the left). Ali looks completely confused as to what she is supposed to be doing.



This one was super short but cute. Ali starts in the front middle of the screen. You can catch a glimpse of Mia as she walks off stage in the 2nd row. She told me she was put in back most of the time as she is one of the tallest girls in her class. There was one very tall girl in the front but she was older and there helping her mother, the teacher, with the younger kids.