Our Next Adventure

Will be back to our great countries capital - Washington DC. We found out in late October that Ryan was selected for the Air Force Intern Program - Strategic Policy Interns. It is a year long work and learn program emphasizing professional growth and active participation. Interns attend quarterly meetings and professional development seminars and tours. The program consists of two six month rotations, to include time in the Office of Secretary of Defense, Joint Staff, and Air Staff. At the completion of this program interns will be assigned to staff positions within the National Capital Region.

Basically, Ryan has been selected for a VERY competitive program. There are only 17 people in the program, 7 of which are pilots, and Ryan is the only one in his career field in the program. In theory this should put us in the DC area for about 3 years, but as we have learned, nothing is ever certain with the military. As my friends in Kuwait would say : "Inshallah" (God willing)

Some of you may remember that we have lived in Northern Virginia before. In fact, that is where both of the kids were born. Last time we lived very far south of the city, and the commute was very long. This time we are going to do things a little differently! We found a WELS church that also has a school, and we have decided to send the kids to school there. We are very excited about the opportunity to give our kids a Christian education, just like Ryan and I were blessed to have. The Church/School is in Falls Church inside the beltway. We are hoping to live close to there, and also close to a Metro for Ryan to be able to commute to work a little easier.

We will be leaving Kuwait in June, spending some time at our new cottage, and then settling in to our new home in August. We are already getting sad about leaving Kuwait, but we are also looking forward to this new adventure.

Halloween at the Embassy

For the 2nd year now we were able to celebrate Halloween at the Embassy. This year Calvin decided to be Darth Vader, and Alayna was Cinderella (big surprise)!

From 2009-11-09

Alayna instantly hooked up with her little girlfriends when we got there. Here she is with Ariel (aka Scarlet) and Ellie (aka Olivia).

From 2009-11-09

And of course her "best friend Delaney" the ballerina.

From 2009-11-09

How cute are they?

From 2009-11-09

This year we got to sit on the grass and watch a movie on a big projection screen and then it was Trick-or-Treating time.

From 2009-11-09

The kids had a blast and got lots of candy. When we got home we dumped it all out and let each kid pick one piece to eat before bed time.

From 2009-11-09

From 2009-11-09

What memories we have made....two years trick-or-treating at the US Embassy - Kuwait! How cool is that?

Alayna's First Day of School

So on October 29th it was FINALLY Alayna's first day of school. She was suppose to start on September 1st with her brother, but with the swine flu scare the government didn't allow the little ones back until the end of October.

I was very uncertain of how this day would go. As some of you may remember she had a very hard time at her school last year and cried A LOT! But this year she was so excited about school, and couldn't wait to go to "the big kids school" and wear her "school dress" that I was hopeful that things would be different this time. Finally the day of reckoning arrived.

She was so happy to put her uniform on. How cute is she?

From 2009-11-09

And her brother was so proud of her.

From 2009-11-09

I guess I should clarify a bit.....Last year Alayna went to a small nursery school, and this year she is going to The English School with her brother. It is a pretty big school with classes for children from ages 2 1/2 to 13. Last year she only went 2 days a week, and this year she goes 5 days a week. So this is truly like her first year of real school.

Once we got to the school she just ran right in; totally confident with her little princess backpack.

From 2009-11-09

And when we got over to her little play area (just for the kids in her grade level) she saw some familiar faces. Like her friend Olivia.

From 2009-11-09

And her friend Lewis, who is actually in her class with her as well.

From 2009-11-09

When it was time to go into the classroom she was as confident as ever. I had to ask for a kiss and hug which she barely had time to give me. And off she went into the classroom without giving me another thought.

From 2009-11-09

I was so proud of her! She was such a big girl. All my worrying about tears were for naught and I was the one left with tears in my eyes. My baby girl is growing up.

Barnaby Bear

Calvin was the Star of the Week already the 2nd week of school! Yay Calvin! Anyways, the Star of the Week gets to bring Barnaby Bear home with them for the weekend, and then you have to take pictures of him with you and put the pictures in Barnaby's journal. Calvin was so proud! First we took Barnaby to the Embassy for Happy Hour.

From blog

And of course he had to sleep with him too.

From blog

And on Saturday we took him swimming at the SAS with us.

From blog

On the way there Alayna wanted to have a bear too, so they both held their bears tight the whole way there.

From blog

From blog

And then we had a birthday party on Saturday night so Barnaby got to come to that too.

From blog

Calvin really enjoyed his weekend with Barnaby, and Mommy and Daddy were very proud of our little Star!

Play Dates

Since Calvin went off to school on September first and Alayna wasn't starting until the end of October, we had lots of play dates to help pass the time.

On Calvin's first day of school we had my friend Nena and her daughter Tiffany over to play. Tiffany and Alayna were both suppose to be in KG this year, but they seemed happy to be playing dress-up!

From blog

We spent several other mornings going to my friend Marcelle's house and swimming in their pool.

From blog

The embassy also offered some organized play dates for the little ones since the schools were not allowing them back.

From blog

Alayna has really made a lot of girl friends this year. For the first time really. It is so great to see her playing with other little girls. Here she is with her friend Tyra.

From blog

And here she is playing dress-up with her "Best Friend Delaney"!

From blog

Calvin didn't miss out on all the fun; we did do a few afternoon play dates too. This is my friends Sarah and Marcelle's kids with my kids watching a movie.

From blog

Look at the joy on their little faces! I guess it must have been a pretty funny movie!

No More Thumbs!

Once we got back to Kuwait and over the jet-lag we had decided it was time to break the kids habit of thumb sucking. They both have been thumb suckers since they were babies, and it was starting to really affect their teeth. We talked about it for a couple weeks with them so they new it was coming and offered them a reward if they could go 14 days with no thumb sucking. Then on a mid-September day we sent them to bed with a sock over their offending hand. It was amazing! Neither of them pulled the sock off! Ryan and I were ready for the first few nights to be wakeful and full of tears, but they didn't make a peep all night! It was amazing how easy it was.

After the 14 days they got their rewards!

From blog

Alayna wanted Barbie Mariposa,

From blog

and Calvin wanted Mario Party for the Wii.

From blog

They were both so happy and so proud. And so were Mommy and Daddy!

Update: It is now November 9th and both of them have completely stopped sucking their thumbs and no longer wear the sock on the their hand for bedtime. It was such an uneventful transition, and we couldn't be prouder of them both!

Gurgiyan

The children at Calvin's school celebrated Gurgiyan this year, which is kind of like a Kuwaiti version of Trick or Treating.

From blog

Here is a little explanation of what Gurgiyan is:

In the past Gurgiyan night was very important to children and they waited for this night with great anticipation. They would receive lots of nuts and sweets; more than they had ever dreamt of during normal days. Gurgiyan started on the 12th day of Ramadan and lasted for 3 nights. Children made bags out of material with a drawstring top which they hung around their necks to collect the sweets and nuts. In each area the children divided into groups, each with a leader holding a drum or an empty metal bottle which could be hit. They would then start to knock at house doors with a loud clapping and singing and would repeat the song over and over until the door was opened and hopefully the neighbours gave them some nuts and sweets. Girls and boys sang a different song. Today, Gurgiyan sweets and nuts or chocolates are sold by shops in fancy boxes. Children who do continue the tradition are often accompanied by their maids and, of course today sweets are an almost everyday occurrence and not a once a year treat. The children wore a traditional dress.

From blog

The kids were all so cute. Here is Calvin eating some of the candy he got.

From blog

And this is his friend Matthew.

From blog

The kids had a fun day and I feel so blessed to be able to be living here and exposing my kids to different traditions and celebrations. What a blessing!

Calvin's First Day of School

Calvin started school on September 1st as scheduled. But Alayna, who was also suppose to start school that day, did not due to the swine flu scare.

From blog

Calvin is in Year 1 this year at The English School of Kuwait. It was still very hot here (about 115*F) everyday so you can see he is a little sweaty.

From blog

On the first day they let the parents walk the kids all the way into their new classrooms.

From blog

Calvin did want a couple extra hugs, but for the most part he was very confident and excited about school.

From blog

Bye Mom, you can go now!

Our First Cottage Guests

Grandpa and Grama were nice enough to come up to the cottage with us for one night so that I could get a few little projects done before we went back to Kuwait. It wasn't all work though. We all had a nice time. They ate outside with the kids.

From Grandma and Grandpa first trip to the cottage

Went for a swim.

From Grandma and Grandpa first trip to the cottage

And of course,we had cocktail hour!

From Grandma and Grandpa first trip to the cottage

The next morning it was just so peaceful. When I first woke up there was fog over the lake.

From Grandma and Grandpa first trip to the cottage

And then by the time Grandpa and Grama were having their coffee the lake had turned to glass.

From Grandma and Grandpa first trip to the cottage

It is so beautiful!

From Grandma and Grandpa first trip to the cottage

Since we were leaving for Kuwait in just a couple days we had a few things that needed to be done, and one of them was haircuts for the kids. Grama was thinking ahead and brought up all her tools so she could cross that off the list while we were up north.

From Grama and Grandpa first trip to the cottage

From Grandma and Grandpa first trip to the cottage

And outside haircuts are much easier to clean up!

Thanks Grama and Grandpa for coming and being our very first Cottage guests!

Alayna's 4th Birthday

From Alayna's 4th Birthday

On August 17th Alayna turned 4! I can't believe my baby girl is already 4 years old. This year she was lucky enough to get 2 parties! The first one was on the 16th at my parents cottage. And yes, it was yet another princess party for the third time!

My Mom's side of the family all came up to help us celebrate.

From Alayna's 4th Birthday

And my sister flew in from upstate NY to be there as well.

From Alayna's 4th Birthday

Alayna got some really great gifts.

From Alayna's 4th Birthday

But her favorite thing was this card, when you open it Cinderella wishes you a Happy Birthday!

From Alayna's 4th Birthday

It was from Cousin Roz.

From Alayna's 4th Birthday

We had tacos for lunch and then a Dairy Queen princess cake.

From Alayna's 4th Birthday

It was a great day and a lot of fun. Thank you to all the family for coming up for it.

The next day was Alayna's actual birthday and we drove back in to Milwaukee for party #2.

From Alayna's 4th Birthday

Again we had family and some friends come over for the party, and lots of presents to open.

From Alayna's 4th Birthday

She got this great Tinker Bell dress and hair tie, but I couldn't get her to stand still long enough to get a good picture, so this is the best I could do.

From Alayna's 4th Birthday

She was so excited to play with all her new things she couldn't be bothered with pictures.

While I got the cake ready Grandpa entertained the kids with a good old fashioned tickle game.

From Alayna's 4th Birthday

And then we ended the party with another Dairy Queen princess cake!

From Alayna's 4th Birthday

Thank you to all the family and friends who were able to help us celebrate Alayna's birthday. My kids are so blessed to have so many people who love them.