Bak 4 More

St Nick

2011-12-07T04:32:00.001+02:00

We celebrate St Nick night. St Nick comes and fills the kids stockings on the night of December 5th. Both Ryan and I grew up with this tradition and so we continue it with our kids. The twist we have added is that we put our letters to Santa in the stocking so that St Nick can take it with him. Calvin was so sweet in helping his sister write her letter.

Calvin got a cool Angry Birds pen.

And they both got a new Christmas movie. Alayna's is a Barbie Christmas Carol.

And Nana sends them ornaments every year that we give to them that morning as well. This year Calvin got a soccer ball,

and Alayna got ballet slippers.

Rainy Morning

2011-11-30T01:21:00.003+02:00

Well. It is a cold and rainy day here in South Korea. The perfect day to stay in and get caught up with things, you know, things like a blog I have been ignoring for about 6 months.

Sorry. :(

Life has gotten away from me, and things like facebook have made it too easy to communicate. Things I have learned: I don't really enjoy writing as a craft, but I love to talk! So this blog may be a little less wordy than it used to be, but at least you will get to see some pictures of our adventures here in Korea. Oh, and we really haven't had very many adventures yet so you haven't missed much. Again with the life getting away from us.

So here it goes! I am going to do my best to get caught up this month.

No promises.

ps. make sure you go back to June to see all the updates.

Gobble till you Wobble!

2011-11-27T04:23:00.000+02:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year! It started with the Squadron Thanksgiving feast on Wednesday.

Ryan said a few words to start everything off.

And then everyone ate. They had a ton of good food and it was nice to be able to chat with a lot of our young airman and thank them for all they do.

Then we hosted Thanksgiving at our house for a few of our friends.

We had 3 other families come over so there was a total of 16 people. Our apartment is tiny so it was a very cozy gathering!

It was fun, we had an adult table and a kids table. The kids had a blast sitting together.

The guys enjoyed some Scotch after dinner.

And I had lots of help in the kitchen getting things cleaned up.

It was a wonderful day, and we are so thankful the Lord has provided an Air Force family for us yet again.

A moment.....

2011-11-21T04:40:00.000+02:00

I love that my kids are best friends. But this year they have begun fighting and just in general trying to bother each other. This is new for us and we are still figuring out how to deal with this.

BUT, they still love each other and can be so sweet together. I managed to capture one of those moments.

Activities!

2011-11-17T04:04:00.000+02:00

These kids are keeping me running! Calvin did Soccer,

And then Basketball.

He loved them both, but showed real talent in basketball. He is quite the flashy little point guard!

And Alayna is doing ballet

and cheerleading.

She is loving both! I guess the apple didn't fall too far there. :)

Trick or Treat

2011-11-07T04:14:00.001+02:00

Halloween was fun this year. At school they were able to dress up as a storybook character and then did a parade for all the parents.

Alayna was Aurora. (Sleeping Beauty for those who don't have little princesses at home)

And Calvin was Superman.

Then when it was time for trick or treating that evening Calvin changed his costume to Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers.

It was different trick or treating in a apartment tower instead of a neighborhood, but the kids got a lot of candy in a short amount of time!

(See how the pink cast matches the pink dress!)

Broken Arm

2011-10-18T03:31:00.000+02:00

It was a wonderful Friday afternoon. The kids only had a half day of school, so I picked up some lunch for them and we met friends at the park. The weather was beautiful and we had a 3 day weekend ahead of us. Happiness.

Just as we were getting ready to leave the park and I was throwing away the last of the trash; screams.

My heart stopped.

It was Alayna and she is VERY tough and I knew from the sounds of her cries that something was VERY wrong. I asked her to tell me where it hurt and she instantly said "I broke my arm!".

If you know me, I am not very good with trauma. The other mom's there tried to calm us both down and determine if it was really that serious. We asked her to move her arm and she was able to do that. So I decided to put them in the car and head home first. Several times in the car she screamed in pain and it is only a 2 minute ride home! We got home and she ran to her bed and laid down in pain. I knew at this point that if she was still crying about it something was definitely very wrong. I called Ryan and told him he needed to come home and take her to the ER. He came home as fast as he could and took her. The ER is only across the street so they just walked over. The blessings of living on a small base.

After a little while he called me and told me I needed to bring her a new shirt and that it was a "probable broken elbow". They splinted her arm and told us to come back after the long weekend and they would have the Ortho look at it to determine if it was in fact broken.

Once it was splinted she was doing much better and was happy and wanting to play. Relief. And ice cream for the brave girl!

Well. I wish the story ended there, but oh it does not. Ryan's phone rang later that evening and it was one of our friends who also happens to be the Doctor in charge of the Emergency Room here. His wife had seen on facebook that Alayna had been in the ER earlier that day so he went in, on his off day, to look at the x-rays. We are so very glad he did! He looked at them along with another Doc that had lots of experience reading x-rays and they both determined that it was in fact broken and not just that.....but was going to require surgery preferably within 24 hours of the accident!

He was amazing! He coordinated with the Army hospital up in Seoul and arranged the surgery for the next day as well as spoke to his wife and offered to keep Calvin for the day so we wouldn't have to bring him with us. We are so blessed to have this family in our life!

So the next morning at 0600 we were on the road to Seoul. Alayna was not doing so well now. She was in pain and the pain meds were making her sick to the stomach. Then when we got there she of course needed an IV and they needed to remove the splint and re x-ray her arm. Not good. Poor baby.

After surgery the staff was wonderful and she pretty much got whatever she asked for.

Unfortunately the anesthesia made her sick. And sick for a couple days.

Poor girl was not herself for quite a while.

We made it home from Seoul that day right around dinner time. When we came home dinner was cooking in our oven, dessert was in the fridge, another friend had picked up some gatorade for Alayna and that was also in the fridge. And Calvin was brought home shortly after we arrived. We are truly blessed to be surrounded by such amazing friends to do all of that for us.

Hiking Buraksan

2011-10-17T05:08:00.000+02:00

Hiking is a very serious activity here in Korea. It is a very hilly and mountainous country and the Koreans spend a lot of time outdoors. We have a nice hiking trail only about 5 minutes from base so we decided to try it on a beautiful fall day.

I wasn't sure how it was going to go over with the kids. To be honest I thought there was a good possibility they would whine the whole time. Well I was wrong! They had a great time! Partly because of all the cool exercise equipment along the trail.

Like I said Koreans take this very seriously. As if walking uphill isn't enough exercise they have tons of other ways to get your heart pumping and your muscles burning along the trail.

It was a nice little hike that took us about an hour and the kids can't wait till we can do it again.

Adult Fun!

2011-10-14T03:11:00.001+02:00

Ryan and I are definitely enjoying our time here. On October 1st we went to the Air Force Ball and had a wonderful time with the Squadron and our friends.

It was at an amazing hotel in Seoul and they did a great job with the venue. It was the best Air Force Ball I have ever been to.

Here are my Hawaii sisters! We all went to the commanders course in Hawaii together and will be here together for these 2 years. So thankful to have them in my life!

Then a couple weeks later I hosted a Retro Cocktail Party. It was the most fun I have ever had planning a party.

Here is the drink menu for the night

The drink of the night was the side car. And I even enlisted Ryan to be the bartender for me. What a great guy!!!

That is my Mom's apron and my Great Grandmother's glass!

Lots of people came dressed for the occasion. Very fun!

First Day of School

2011-09-16T06:44:00.002+02:00

Another year, another new school! For Alayna this is the 4th school in 4 years! Poor girl!

Both kids were pretty excited for their first days. Calvin started the 2nd grade the end of August

and Alayna started Kindergarten after Labor Day.

Everland

2011-09-12T04:57:00.000+02:00

Everland is Korea's version of Disney World. It is NOT Disney, or even close, but it is a ton of fun for the kids. We went ahead and bought season passes so we can go whenever we want.

One of the kids favorite things is this Nerf Ball area where they have tons of different 'shooters' where you can shoot out the nerf balls.

But the big story of the day was that Calvin was just tall enough to ride his first real roller coaster! It's called the Rolling X. It has two upside-down loops! Here Calvin will tell you all about it!

As you can see he LOVED it!

And what day at an amusement park is complete without ice cream?

Exercise Exercise Exercise

2011-09-12T04:34:00.001+02:00

Since we are in fact in South Korea only about an hour away from North Korea, the military has 'exercises' quite often. They work long hours and spend a lot of time in their Chem gear. It is no fun for them at all. We experienced our first exercise in September shortly after school began. Here is Ryan coming home from day 1.

And the kids were very interested in all his gear and took turns trying it all on!

Since all the military members of the families were going to be working long hours the spouses and children decided to do a kid friendly progressive dinner. It was a ton of fun for all of us.

We all live in 2 towers on base. Here we are treking up the hill from one to the other.

At the last house we put on a movie for the kids while we got to enjoy a quick glass of wine before heading home to get the kids in bed.

It was a school night after all!

Alayna's Birthday

2011-08-19T06:27:00.002+02:00

My little princess turned 6 this year!

She loves being in the kitchen with me, so she really wanted to help bake her cake.

We decided to not do a big party since we had just arrived and she didn't have a ton of friends yet. So we decided to have her best friend Elaina Paige over and go for pedicures

and then have a sleepover.

She picked to have lunch at Popeye's because she loves their Mac'n'Cheese and then chose frozen pizza for dinner. I offered to cook all kinds of things, but that is what she wanted. And the princess gets, what the princess requests.

She had a great birthday and lots of wonderful presents.

But I will say that what I said earlier about sleepovers still holds true......not a lot of sleeping!

Hello Korea!

2011-08-10T03:20:00.001+02:00

Guess what? We actually have left the base a few times! Imagine that?! We have tried Korean food. It's just ok in my opinion, but some people love it.

Every Squadron on base has a Korean Honorary Commander and several Good Neighbors assigned to their squadron. We have been out to dinner a few times with ours.

Koreans like to drink. They like to drink a lot. And they like you to drink with them. Their drink of choice here is called Soju and you drink it as a shot often with a beer chaser. I am NOT a Soju fan and always elect to be the DD on these evenings out so I can avoid drinking without offending them.

Right off base is a little village set up for all the military members to shop and drink and spend money. Here are the kids on one of our visits to the "ville" as they call it here.

Aren't they cute??!!

Proud Momma

2011-07-30T10:57:00.001+02:00

We went to Splish 'n Splash water park at Camp Humphreys here in Korea twice this week. It is about a 30 min drive from here. The first time we went Calvin was so excited to go off the high dive, but I really thought he would chicken out when he got up there. Boy was I wrong! The boy didn't even hesitate!

Then we went back this weekend with Daddy and then Alayna decided she wanted to try the low dive. She did hesitate, but did great and went back for more.

Calvin also worked on his dives off the low board and did amazing!

And then the most amazing thing happened.....Alayna wanted to try the high dive! And it took her two try's but she did it!

They both spent the rest of the day going off the boards. I couldn't be prouder of my two little swimmers!

Sleepover!

2011-07-25T03:03:00.001+02:00

My kids had their very first sleepover the end of July. We have been blessed with fantastic neighbors here. After we had been here about a week, and were reaching our breaking point, there was a knock at the door. It was our neighbors here to introduce themselves, and guess what? They had a son who is the same age as Calvin and a daughter a little younger than Alayna and her name is Elaina!!! So they have all become best friends and the girls have to use their first and middle names so we know who is who; we have our Alayna Jane and then Elaina Paige. It is so adorable! What an answered prayer!

Ok, back to the sleepover. The girls were here at our house. They got to have pizza and brownies a la mode.

Then they watched a movie and had popcorn.
Meanwhile the boys were next door doing boy things. Which of course includes playing Wii.

Now let me tell you something about a sleepover......not a lot of sleeping happens! Lets just say it took DAYS for us to recover from the lack of sleeping that night. Oh well, the kids had a blast and that's what summer days are all about.

And so it begins....

2011-07-20T02:49:00.002+02:00

The season of our lives where sitting in bleachers will consume hours upon hours of my week. It starts so much earlier than it did when I was a kid! I am predicting that this season of our lives is going to be much longer than it was for my parents.

Although my rear end is not happy about it, the kids are loving it and it really is a blessing for them to have things to do. Apartment living would be very rough otherwise!

It all began with soccer camp.

They had a professional soccer player come in and teach the kids. He did a great job and Calvin loved him.

My sweaty little jock!

And then it was Alayna's turn. Cheer Camp.

Here she is doing one of the cheers she learned.

At the end of the week they had a little performance for all the parents and then had cake.

There was also basketball camp, but I didn't seem to get any pictures of that. Bad Mommy!

First week in Korea

2011-07-05T02:32:00.001+02:00

In our first week in Korea we learned a few things. We learned that in order to get your groceries home it really helps to have a car! Pushing the cart uphill in the rain is NOT fun! And that grocery carts in your kitchen will be a weekly occurrence.

We also learned that it is hot and VERY humid here in the summer.

I was able to visit the Seoul flower market with a friend we had met at the Commander's Conference in Hawaii. It is amazing to see so many flowers in one place and they are so cheap!

The 4th of July was fun, but not as fun as being at the cottage would have been. There was a nice family festival the kids enjoyed.

And Calvin was already making friends! This is Tyler one of his best buds.

And there you have it! That was our first week in Korea.

Change of Command

2011-06-30T01:29:00.002+02:00

We arrived in Korea on June 27th and Ryan's Change of Command was the very next day. Needless to say after the LONG journey here we were still in the jet lag fog for this major event. And as a result we have exactly ZERO pictures of our family from that day! I can't believe we forgot to get pictures, but Ryan was focused on his speech and meeting all his folks and I was focused on getting the kids through the ceremony without being utterly embarrassed. I did manage to get a picture of the kids before we left our apartment. So this picture is taken on our 12th floor balcony.

The Change of Command went really well and the kids made it through without causing a scene!

For the benefit of the parental units here are some pictures of the event. I know they would have loved to see it in person. Here is the cover of the program.
Many of the LRS Airman standing in formation.
Ryan sitting on the stage with his boss all the way on the left and his predecessor in the middle.
This is their First Sergeant with the Guidon for the Squadron.
The passing of the guidon from the old commander to the new one is the pinnacle of the ceremony. It is the moment when the old commander relinquishes command and the new commander assumes command.

After that Ryan gave a short speech.
And then received his first salute from his squadron.
It was a great day, but unfortunately we were so in the "fog" that we barely experienced it. We were there in body, but not really in mind. Glad there was someone taking these great pictures so that we know it really happened!

The Beginning of the End

2011-05-09T18:55:00.002+02:00

This year in the DC area has been wonderful. Ryan has thoroughly enjoyed this internship and as always the people is what it is really all about. The other 18 interns are all amazing people that we feel blessed to have gotten to know and Ryan would certainly call them all friends. I have become good friends with several of the spouses as well and will definitely miss them. Back in April one of the families had a big family party at their house as one last hurrah before we all start going our separate ways. We decided to turn it into a big sleepover since they live quite a ways from us and we wanted to be able to partake in the liquid festivities! This was the kids first friends sleepover and they had a blast! The hosts have 5 kids and the other family that spent the night has 4 so add in our 2 kids and that makes 11 kids!! Talk about fun!

There was a bouncy castle for the kids!

From Spring 2011

Did I mention the liquid fun??

From Spring 2011

The shots were called Diamond Backs because the host is going to be the commander of a squadron with that name.

Once we got all the kids in their PJs we let them watch a movie or play their games for awhile before we sent them off to bed. It was so cute to watch all the boys lined up with their DS's!

From Spring 2011

We managed to get all 11 kids to sleep in one room!

From Spring 2011

After the kids were in bed the guys played poker. And then they presented Ryan with a flight suit!

From Spring 2011

Ryan was so excited! He has loved getting to know a lot of the pilots this year since we normally only have contact with the support folks. Here he is sporting his new zipper suit with Vasco, an F-22 pilot.

From Spring 2011

Amazingly all the kids fell asleep, but our kids didn't make it the whole night and ended up in our bed later that night and Ryan ended up on the couch! Oh well, it sure was fun though. Thanks to Dan and Joy for an amazing party!!

Surprise!!

2011-05-09T18:24:00.002+02:00

My Mom turned 60 this year and my sister Brooke and I wanted to do something special for her. After a lot of thought we decided that we would both fly in to Wisconsin and surprise her. And then we actually pulled it off!

Dad picked us up from the airport and after we dropped off everything at home we went and surprised her at work right before she was done for the day.

From Spring 2011

She was beyond shocked! And so happy to see Brooke's little baby bump in person!

From Spring 2011

We took her out to lunch and kicked Dad out of the house for the weekend so we could have a girls only weekend! It was wonderful; we shopped and cooked together and watched movies and generally just chatted and laughed until our faces hurt. Memories for a lifetime!

From Spring 2011

We love you Mom and I hope you had as much fun as we did. Happy Birthday!!!!

Birthday NYC Trip

2011-03-03T16:40:00.002+02:00

When Alayna had her birthday in August she got to go spend a weekend with Auntie in New York City, so now that it was Calvin's birthday it was also his turn for an NYC trip. He was very excited about it,and Auntie Brooke and Uncle Macharia did an amazing job making it special for him.

We got there on Saturday and had pizza for lunch and then we went to Manhattan to the Intrepid Air Sea and Space Museum. It is actually a huge Navy Aircraft Carrier that has been turned into a museum and it is truly amazing!

From February 2010

There was so much for the kids to actually touch and see, and Calvin loved it!

From February 2010

It was also Kids Week so they had some special things going on. They had some clowns from Barnum & Bailey's Circus who performed and then had an area for the kids to learn some clown stuff afterwords.

From February 2010

He learned how to juggle and how to spin a plate!
This was by far his favorite part! And after a little practice he could even pop the plate up off the stick and catch it again! He loved it!

It was super cold and windy that day, but we did make it up to the flight deck to see some of the planes up there.

From February 2010

And what an amazing view of the city!

That night we of course had Tacos for dinner and then birthday cake!

From February 2010

The next day it was back into Manhattan and first on the list was ice skating at Rockefeller Center!

From February 2010

It was AMAZING!! Definitely Mommy's favorite part :)

From February 2010

We skated for probably an hour and it was so nice. Calvin tried so hard and never gave up!

From February 2010

And thankfully he was the only one to fall!

It was pretty cold, so we took a taxi to Rockefeller Center and Calvin thought that was pretty cool. Once we were done skating the wind had died down so we walked to our next stop.....FAO Schwartz!

From February 2010

Calvin wasn't nearly as outwardly excited about this as Alayna was, but by the end of the day he said it was one of his favorite parts. He ended up with a cool Nerf basketball hoop as his gift from Auntie and Uncle Macharia.

After that Calvin really wanted a Hot Dog from one of the street vendors.

From February 2010

He thought that was so cool! We ate and walked to our next stop....Dylan's Candy Bar.

They have 2 floors of nothing but candy! And they also had a chocolate fondue fountain so we got Calvin a chocolate covered Rice Krispie Treat for dessert!

From February 2010

What a mess! But it was so good it was worth it!

That afternoon Macharia and Calvin played some football right along the water outside of their apartment.

From February 2010

It was such a great weekend! Before we went home we asked Calvin what his favorite part of the weekend was, and he thought about it for a minute and then just said "All of it"! How awesome is that?

Thanks again Auntie and Uncle Macharia for giving Calvin such an amazing weekend! You guys are the best and my kids are so very lucky to have you in their lives.

Ballerina

2011-03-03T16:30:00.002+02:00

From February 2010

Alayna has finally started Ballet!!! She has been wanting to start for over a year, but with the move to VA and getting settled we told her she had to wait till after Christmas.

Well her time has finally come!

February 5th was her first class, and she was soooooooo excited! And then all the following week she kept asking me when she could go back. It was so sweet. She just loves it and has been dancing around the house even more than normal now. We even had to turn down a birthday party invitation to go to class one Saturday and she didn't even mind! We are so thankful that there are ballet lessons in Korea, so she should be able to continue when we get there.

Birthday Boy

2011-03-03T16:18:00.002+02:00

I can't believe it, but my baby boy turned 7 in February!

From February 2010

Where does the time go?

We had a quite family birthday at home this year since he had a huge party last year. He is completely obsessed with football at the moment and since his birthday is the same week as the Super Bowl we had a football theme.

From February 2010

He requested Tacos for dinner so that is what we had. Then it was cake time! We started a new tradition this year on Alayna's birthday that I make a homemade Chocolate Angel Food cake for birthdays. My Granny used to make it for us growing up, and I decided to start it again with our family. To make it extra special it is only baked for birthdays so they only get it a few times a year. And since no one has had a birthday since Alayna in August, Calvin was very excited about it!

From February 2010

And one of those moments you treasure.....

From February 2010

He was so happy!
After cake we opened some presents that people had sent.

From February 2010

And please don't even ask why Alayna is wearing that hat.....I have NO idea! She wore it all the time for about a week.

From February 2010

He loved all his presents, especially the new games he got for his DS. Overall I think he had a great birthday.

Korea or Bust!

2011-01-23T18:18:00.002+02:00

From 2011-01-23

Yup, you read that right. Ryan has been selected to be the Squadron Commander at Osan AB, Korea and we will be moving there as a family this summer. Overall we are very excited about this. Of course it takes us far away from family and friends again, but it is a fantastic opportunity for Ryan and another 2 years of keeping our family of 4 together. Just another adventure for the Bak4More clan!

To celebrate Ryan's selection for this job I surprised him with a night out.

From 2011-01-23

Special thanks to Calvin for taking the picture!

It was so nice to have a night out to talk about this new job and the move without having to stop and play referee with the kids! After dinner I had a couple more surprises up my sleeve....dessert and champagne!

From 2011-01-23

It was a so much fun to surprise him and to do something special. We really don't do it enough. But being selected to be a Squadron Commander is a big deal, and I just couldn't let it go without a little celebration.

Congratulations Honey!!! You are going to be the best Squadron Commander the Air Force has ever seen!! I Love you and I am so very proud of you!

It's a New Dawn....

2011-01-23T18:02:00.003+02:00

a new day, a new life, and I'm feeling GOOD!!! That's my theme song right now!

From 2011-01-23

After 5 months on Weight Watchers I have lost over 25 lbs and 3 jean sizes, and I am not done yet! I am healthier now than I have ever been in my life; I am running 2.5 miles 3 to 4 times a week and actually enjoying it!

In case you have forgotten what I even looked like before check this out!

From December 2010

It is my new year's resolution to NEVER gain that weight back!

Cause it's a NEW DAWN!!!!

Happy New Year!!

2011-01-23T17:35:00.002+02:00

Hello 2011! This New Year's Eve we started a new tradition. We had a fun family night at home with the kids. Everyone got to pick ANYTHING they wanted for dinner, snack and dessert. Calvin picked Cheeseburger and Doritos.

From December 2010

Alayna picked macaroni and chese and Doritos.

From December 2010

And they both got to have sparkling grape juice! For dessert they picked Hot Fudge Sundaes. Ryan and I ate Prime Rib....YUM!

We played games as a family and watched a movie together. One of the games we played was Just Dance 2, which Alayna got from Santa. Calvin is quite the little dancer!

We had hats and blowers and confetti and the kids actually made it till midnight! It was a fun night and certainly a tradition we are looking forward to keeping for years to come.

Christmas 2010 - part 2

2011-01-23T17:07:00.001+02:00

This is part 2 of our Christmas in Wisconsin. We arrived at the Bakazan's mid-day on Christmas day, and again we were so blessed to have the entire family together for the first time in ages.

From December 2010

And the best part was that we got to meet baby Darren for the first time! He is such a sweet little baby!

From December 2010

And the kids just loved him.

From December 2010

But Calvin was especially fond of him and wanted to always be wherever Darren was and talked about all the fun things he was going to teach him someday. It was so sweet!

From December 2010

We decorated our Happy Birthday Jesus cake with Grandma and then sang happy birthday and blew out the candles after dinner.

From December 2010

It was a very nice and relaxed Christmas. Then the next day was baby Darren's baptism, and Ryan was the Godfather. I don't know what happened, but it seems I didn't take any pictures that day :( But Darren was so good and never cried once, it was a very nice service and a great party.

That afternoon we were all just hanging out in the house and when I looked up there were 2 dear walking around in the back yard!

From December 2010

It was the craziest thing!

The very last stop on our whirlwind Christmas tour was stopping in to see Uncle Mike and Aunt Cindy.

From December 2010

And we got to meet another new baby....baby Sophia! She was so happy and smiley! What a little cutie! And I am so honored that they have asked me to be her Godmother.

From December 2010

I can't wait to spoil her rotten!

Calvin and Jake are buddies and played so well together.

From December 2010

Our trip back to Wisconsin was short but sweet and it was so nice to spend time with the ENTIRE family. With everyone living this military life it doesn't happen very often, but it is so wonderful when it does.

Christmas 2010 - part 1

2011-01-18T17:41:00.003+02:00

Oh my Goodness! What a wonderful Christmas we had back in Wisconsin with ALL of our family together for the first time in ages.

From December 2010

I am going to try and keep this post short, but it will be difficult since there were so many awesome things. We were at my parents house first, and there was a ton of snow on the ground. There were snowball fights,

From December 2010

and Jabba the Snowman,

From December 2010

oh and there was LOTS of sledding on the kids new snow tubes!

From December 2010

Even Nana went down!

From December 2010

And Uncle Macharia, my sister's husband, went sledding for the first time in his WHOLE LIFE!!!

From December 2010

And the big event was that Calvin got a Red Rider BB Gun from Papa!

From December 2010

He was soooo excited and did a really good job shooting it,and being very responsible with it. And to be honest I don't know who liked that present more, Calvin or all the adults! We all took our turn shooting it and even had some friendly competition!

From December 2010

Christmas Eve was the Ninmann Christmas, which is my Mom's side of the family. It is always a good time and one of our favorite things every year. Again it was the first time that whole side of the family had been together in years as well.

On Christmas morning we opened tons of gifts. Calvin's favorite was his new DS.

From December 2010

And Alayna LOVED her new talking Jessie doll.

From December 2010

Mid-morning on Christmas day we headed to the Bakazan's for the rest of our vacation. I think I will put that in a separate post since I have not succeeded in keeping this very short!

Snow Day!!

2011-01-17T23:42:00.003+02:00

So back in December my kids had their very first EVER snow day! They haven't even seen snow since the winter of 2007, so they were VERY excited. We of course made some snow angels in the back yard.

From December 2010

And then a neighbor kid was nice enough to share his sleds with us so they could go sledding.

From December 2010

To say they had fun is a complete understatement!

From December 2010

Calvin even got pretty brave and stood up on the sled!

From December 2010

And quickly fell down!

From December 2010

But my little Alayna.....her favorite part was eating the snow!

From December 2010

Don't worry we have talked about the importance of only eating white snow!

After more than an hour of fun we came in for a little hot chocolate.

From December 2010

And Alayna about 5 seconds before she spilled the entire cup!

From December 2010

Thanks to Nana and Papa we now have sleds are are anxiously awaiting the next snow day!

Grandma and Grandpa Visit

2011-01-01T19:10:00.002+02:00

The first weekend of December Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit. We had a great time and the kids loved having them around. Alayna was attached to Grandma like glue the whole time!

From December 2010

The first night they were here Ryan treated us all to an amazing Prime Rib dinner.

From December 2010

And we test drove our Candy Cane Martini recipe that we were planning to use for our big Christmas party a couple weeks later.

From December 2010

The martinis were a huge success and we have been giving out the recipe ever since.

The next night Grandpa took us all out for Mexican food and everyone loved it and ate way too much!

From December 2010

Thanks Grandpa!

On Sunday the boys went to a local Sports Bar to watch the Packer game. Calvin thought it was the greatest thing ever!

From December 2010

He LOVES football right now and he also LOVES spending time with his Grandpa so it was win - win for him.

From December 2010

And of course Grandma always brings some little gifts for the kids.....here is Alayna modeling her new outfit!

From December 2010

We had a great long weekend with them and we are so happy they came. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa, we love you!

Halloween

2010-11-22T23:52:00.002+02:00

We had so much fun this year for Halloween. It was so nice to be back in the states where we could celebrate in all the traditional ways. We actually got to carve pumpkins this year!

From Sep-Nov

Both kids truly designed their own "faces" this year. Here is the finished products with the kids making matching faces.

From Sep-Nov

And we actually got to go trick or treating in our neighborhood! At Dark! It was so much fun. Calvin was Superman,

From Sep-Nov

and Alayna was Princess Peach from the Mario games.

From Sep-Nov

And all ready to go!

From Sep-Nov

They were so excited that they literally RAN from house to house. It was all we could do to keep up with them! When their buckets were full and we headed back home, Calvin took over the Candy duties while Ryan and I got Alayna off to bed and chili heating on the stove. As you can see he took his job VERY seriously!

From Sep-Nov

After Alayna was in bed Ryan sat out with Calvin a bit longer before it was time to call it a night.

From Sep-Nov

It was a great Halloween!

Dress-up day at School

2010-11-22T23:46:00.002+02:00

The week before Halloween the school had a dress-up day to celebrate the Lutheran Reformation. The kids could dress-up as anything from the Bible except Jesus or the Devil.
Alayna was an Angel.

From Sep-Nov

And Calvin was Matthew, one of Jesus disciples who was a Tax Collector before he went to follow Jesus.

From Sep-Nov

I think Calvin had the most 'authentic' costume there thanks to our time in Kuwait!

On another note, while we were brushing Calvin's teeth that morning one of his teeth just came right out! He now has 3 missing teeth!

From Sep-Nov

The Joys of Fall

2010-11-22T23:36:00.004+02:00

My kids have no memory of what fall really is since we spent the last couple years in Kuwait and they don't really remember a lot before then. So when the leaves started falling this year they were so excited to get to jump in the leaf piles. Calvin even helped with the raking.

From Sep-Nov

And then the real fun began. It was so amazing watching them experience this for the first time really. The joy was exuding from them! See for yourself!

I also got some great pictures.

From Sep-Nov

It was one of those times you just want to freeze the moment and never forget it. I love fall!!

Science can be fun!

2010-11-22T23:29:00.002+02:00

In October there was a huge Science and Engineering Festival in downtown DC. It was geared toward kids and attracting more students to those fields. There was some really cool stuff there, and everything was FREE so Ryan was happy ;)

The kids got to pet a turtle,

From Sep-Nov

and talk to a robot.

From Sep-Nov

But the coolest thing we got to do was fly in an F-35 flight simulator.

From Sep-Nov

Even Ryan took a turn.

From Sep-Nov

Again we only hit about 10% of what was there, but we had fun and finished the morning with a picnic lunch

From Sep-Nov

and still made it home in time for naps.

Chocolatey Reward

2010-11-22T23:18:00.002+02:00

Let's just say that Calvin is not exactly 'challenged' by school right now, and the effect of that is that he speeds through his homework a little too fast sometimes making silly errors along the way. So after seeing lots of homework come home with silly mistakes, or just plain sloppy work we decided it was time for some good old fashioned bribery. IF he could bring home PERFECT homework for 4 out of the 5 school days we would take him to IHOP for breakfast on Saturday morning. And Alayna had to get good behavior reports all week if she wanted to go along.

It took several weeks, but they finally did it, and we all went to IHOP bright and early one Saturday morning in October. They both ordered Chocolate Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Chocolate milk. That's a LOT of Chocolate!!

From Sep-Nov

They LOVED them! We couldn't believe it, but they both even finished every last bite.

From Sep-Nov

As I am sure you can imagine they required some outdoor play later that morning to get through the sugar high!

Great Country Farms

2010-11-22T23:12:00.002+02:00

The very next week we went to Great Country Farms for a school field trip. The kids thought it was pretty boring after their trip to Cox Farms, but they still had fun. They actually got to pick tiny pumpkins out of a big field here.

From Sep-Nov

As you can see it was a bit muddy that day.

Here they got to feed lots of animals including a little pony,

From Sep-Nov

and a goat.

From Sep-Nov

There were some slides and things here too, but not even close to as cool as Cox Farms. By the time we were ready to leave the kids were actually wet with mud! We went right into the bath when we got home. No pictures because the camera battery died on me :(

Cox Farms

2010-11-22T23:01:00.002+02:00

In October we took a Saturday afternoon to go out to Cox Farms with the kids. They had so much fun! I can not overstate how amazing this place is. They had an awesome corn maze,

From Sep-Nov

several big slides,

From Sep-Nov

rope swings,

From Sep-Nov

and most impressive was the hayride.

From Sep-Nov

It went through water, got stuck in the mud, and even had dueling aliens with light sabers!

From Sep-Nov

It was a great time! As we were walking out after a long day of fun the kids picked up some leaves and I caught this picture. I think it perfectly captures their personalities!

From Sep-Nov

First Day of School

2010-11-22T22:50:00.002+02:00

All the way back in August the kids had their first day of school. They were both very excited about it. They looked so cute in their little uniforms!

From Sep-Nov

They each have a little locker to keep their backpacks and jackets in.

From Sep-Nov

Calvin was so proud sitting at his little desk! I can't believe he is in first grade already!

From Sep-Nov

Alayna was so excited to find her name at the yellow table. My little girl is in Kindergarten!

From Sep-Nov

They both had great first days, and now that it is already December I can confidently say they have settled in nicely.

Girls weekend in NYC

2010-11-22T21:40:00.003+02:00

Alayna and I went up to visit my sister in New York City the weekend after her birthday. It was a short trip, but we fit in a lot. Saturday morning we went to the Bronx Zoo.

From Alayna birthday

We didn't even really scratch the surface of all the things to see but we hit Alayna's highlights, which included the pink flamingos

From Alayna birthday

the butterflies

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and riding the carousel.

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In the afternoon we went into the city to FAO Schwartz.

From Alayna birthday

Oh My Gosh! I thought her head was going to explode when we walked in and she saw all those toys! Auntie told her she could pick out one thing for her birthday. One of the first things we saw was a stuffed animal dog, and she claimed that was what she wanted, but Auntie and I convinced her that she should really look at everything in the store first. So we proceeded to check out all 3 floors! Alayna was in heaven!!

From Alayna birthday

And she even got to dance on the big piano!

From Alayna birthday

We couldn't believe it, but the one thing she wanted after looking at ALL those toys was that little stuffed dog we saw when we first came in! It was so cheap that Auntie even let her pick a second thing and that really made Alayna happy.

That night we had Tacos again and a little ice cream cake.

From Alayna birthday

The next morning we went out for breakfast and then Auntie gave Alayna a Mani-Pedi!

From Alayna birthday

It was a great weekend, and Brooke and Macharia were perfect hosts and they have a beautiful place with an amazing view.

From Alayna birthday

Thanks for the great weekend!!

Birthday Girl

2010-11-06T14:27:00.002+02:00

In August my baby girl turned 5. Can you believe it, 5?! Where has the time gone? Since we had just moved into our new house in Virginia it was just the 4 of us for her celebration. Ryan didn't think he would be able to be home for dinner on her actual birthday so we did her birthday dinner the night before. She requested tacos for dinner and then I made a homemade Chocolate Angel Food Cake for dessert. (My Granny used to always make that for us growing up)

From Alayna birthday

Both kids LOVED the cake, so I think we are going to make it a tradition.

Alayna got some wonderful gifts

From Alayna birthday

How hilarious is this?!

From Alayna birthday

And she LOVED this Barbie.

From Alayna birthday

Then on her actual birthday she requested Blueberry Muffins for breakfast.

From Alayna birthday

and then I took the kids to go see Toy Story 3 in the morning and to a park in the afternoon. Overall I think she had a pretty nice birthday.

Feeding the Horses

2010-11-06T14:19:00.002+02:00

Just a couple miles from the cottage is a farm where you can stop and feed the horses for a quarter a cup.

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Papa had been collecting his quarters for a while so the kids could feed the horses till they ran out of cups!

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Both of the kids had a blast

From horses

but Alayna LOVED it!

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She can't wait till next year when she can feed them again.

Look how far we've come

2010-11-06T14:03:00.002+02:00

By the end of the summer both kids were swimming like fish! Even Alayna who was NOT swimming at all in the beginning was doggy paddling her way around. Here is a little video from the end of the summer. I have no idea what stroke Calvin is doing, but he is staying afloat I guess.

Can't wait to see how they do next year!

Back to the City

2010-11-04T14:56:00.002+02:00

We did head back to the great city of Milwuakee a few times over the summer. We fit in quite a bit in our little time there. Calvin showed Grandpa how he can ride a 2-wheeler now.

From big city

The boys went to a Brewer's game.

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And us girls got pampered

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and then went shopping to buy Alayna a few new things.

From big city

We also had Auntie Keri's baby shower.

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And Ryan got to have a night out with his Dad and his best friend Mike and Mike's Dad.

From big city

We didn't spend a lot of time in the city, but we sure fit a lot into the little time we were there.

Stuck

2010-11-04T14:37:00.002+02:00

One of the fun things Calvin likes to do at the cottage is go 4-wheelin' with Papa in the back 40. Calvin gets to steer and they drive around in the woods, a boys dream really! Well this year we were running out of time to fit this in, but planned for them to go one Saturday afternoon. Well, when it was time for them to go, we were also in the middle of a Thunderstorm Warning! But can anyone tell my Dad what to do? Of course not! He said "We're Going!" So I got Calvin all ready to go and sent him off with some final words of advice:

"One rule Calvin......Don't get Stuck!"

Now I was just teasing him and thought I was being funny, but as it turns out it was not so funny!

Just after they left it started to hail, and we thought they would come right back. But they didn't. And it kept on storming!

A while later they come walking in the door and they are all soaking wet! "What happened?" They got STUCK and couldn't get out so they had to run home in the rain! Oh and that is not the worst of it; while trying to get unstuck they smashed up my Dad's truck as well. They had to have a friend come out and cut down a tree and pull him out!

Here is where they got stuck

From stuck

And here is the damage to the truck

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check out the mud and the scratches down the side

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That storm was the first of several that dropped a ton of rain in short amounts of time. The lake rose at least 7 inches, higher than anyone can remember it ever being. Our pier was actually under water!

From stuck

And here is what my parents shoreline looked like

From stuck

It was a crazy summer! But man we had fun!

July 4th

2010-10-29T16:25:00.002+02:00

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend at the cottage this year. It started with the parade 'in town'. This was my kids first ever parade so they were pretty excited.

From July 4th

And we were pretty excited to be back in the good old USA standing proud for the stars and stripes.

From July 4th

The kids got a TON of candy

From July 4th

and got pretty good and grabbing it up.

The adults favorite part of the parade was that the "B-team" of the UW marching band came complete with all their high stepping.

From July 4th

But the kids favorite part was this....

From July 4th

What is it about poop that is so funny when you are 6???

The next day brought us yet another parade, but this was just the small one in the little town on our lake.

From July 4th

It was so nice to just walk there and walk home when it was done. And the kids got LOTS more candy!

From July 4th

Then of course there were fireworks that night! Again this was my kids first year to stay up late and see all the fireworks. We weren't sure if Alayna was going to make it!

From July 4th

But she did, and I am so glad she did. We took the boat out on the lake and anchored along with about 40 other boats so that we could watch the show that one of the guys who lives on the lake puts on. He and his son do it all on their own, and it is just as good as some small town's fireworks that I have been to. Here is a little video of the action. Calvin was SOOOOO excited and screamed and jumped up and down for the first several minutes. He Loved it!

We Had Guests, Guests, and More Guests

2010-09-24T21:28:00.002+03:00

That is how Calvin described our time at the cottage when he was asked what we did there this summer. And he's right! I think we had 13 entries in our guest book this summer! We LOVED every minute of it and hope to have everyone back again, and add a few who didn't make it this year. Here is some of the fun we had with all our visitors.

Grandma and Grandpa were our very first guests this year. And were able to make a few return trips after that.

From Guests

My sister Brooke came for the 4th of July weekend.

From Guests

Then on the 4th my Mom's whole side of the family was able to come up for what was hopefully our first annual family reunion.

From Guests

The cousins had to pose for a quick picture before we did our big sychronized dive. HA!

From Guests

The next guests were my Friend Sarah and her 3 boys, unfortunately her husband was deployed to Afghanistan and wasn't able to come up. Sarah and I became friends while we were stationed in Illinois together and it was so nice to see her and her boys.

From Guests

Our kids enjoyed playing together again as well. Here is Calvin and William being goofy!

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And the 4 big kids enjoying their marshmallows.

From Guests

The next guests were Uncle Mike, Aunt Cindy, and baby Jake.

From Guests

Mike and Ryan have been friends forever and are really more like brothers.

From Guests

Jake had a great time this year and enjoyed the water and loved playing with my kids.

From Guests

Mike and Cindy have been coming up north with us for I think 7 years now and we always make sure to get a photo of all of us together. This is the first one at the new cottage!

From Guests

The next guests we had were the Storch Seven. We met Steve and Michelle in Turkey when we were all childless, but now we have 2 kids and they have 5! They were only able to stay for one night, but we sure made the most of it and the kids had a blast. Here are the 6 big kids all on our raft.

From Guests

(their youngest was under one at the time so she just hung out on shore)
And of course we had to do marshmallows!

From Guests

This is what 11 people having fun at the lake looks like at the end of the day.

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Then my girlfriend from High School Erika and her son Zion came. My kids adored Zion.

From Guests

And our final visitor was Aunt Keri.

From Guests

Unfortunately Uncle Brent couldn't come, but hopefully next year they will visit with new baby Darren.

For some reason I don't have a picture, but Aunt Louise and Great-Grandma Elda also came up for an afternoon.

And I think that is it! To all who came, thank you so much for coming and we hope you will come again soon. And to all those who couldn't make it this year we sure hope to see you next summer!

Play Hard

2010-09-24T21:10:00.002+03:00

Oh yes, we definitely played hard! We were in the lake every day but one the whole time we were there,

From play hard

and lots of days we were in the lake twice.

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But there are tons of other fun things to do besides swimming. So here is a list of the top ten other things to do at the cottage when we are not swimming in the lake. (in no particular order)

1. Fishing

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2. Tubing

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3. Playing in the sand at the beach

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4. Rowboat rides

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5. Play in the yard and get dirty!

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Check out those dirty feet!

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6. Fly a kite

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7. Fast boat rides

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8. Go get ice cream

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9. Play board games (Calvin became a Monopoly freak this summer)

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10. Hang out by the fire

From play hard

and roast marshmallows

From play hard

Oh and our other favorite thing to do is have family and friends come to visit us. Just wait till you see all the guests we had this year!

Work Hard.......

2010-09-24T20:55:00.002+03:00

During our time at the cottage we worked hard and we played hard. This post is about some of the little projects we did while we were there.

Ryan dug out a LOT of stumps.

From work hard

And as you can see the whole family got involved in these projects.

I even enlisted Nana's help with making the curtains.

From work hard

Of Course Papa was a TON of help, and had done more work than you can imagine over the past year. Here he is helping Ryan raise the pier up. (the bottom was almost touching the water, so it needed to come up several inches)

From work hard

We also cut down a ton of small trees and cut some branches on bigger trees and generally cleaned up the yard.

From work hard

Ryan spent a lot of time cleaning out the garage and getting it organized.

From work hard

And of course we hung our Bak4More sign!

From work hard

This is just some of what we did this summer. We also did a lot of planting, and we hope to see the fruit of that labor next summer. We did A LOT, but it was so enjoyable to work on something as a family and be able to wash the sweat off by jumping in the lake when you were done.

Our Special Place

2010-09-07T15:42:00.002+02:00

So I have LOTS of summer fun to share with you. So much fun actually that I don't think I am going to even post it chronologically. I will be posting more categorically I guess. We had a wonderful summer where we worked hard, played hard, and had a TON of guests. We really loved every minute of it and can't wait till we are Bak 4 More.

From special place

I thought for my first post I would try and explain what makes our little place so special. Let's start with the obvious -- It's on the lake and we get to go swimming EVERY day sometimes even twice a day. Right off our very own pier.

From special place

OR if you want you can take a short little walk to the private beach.

From special place

Family - This is a huge one for us since we always live so far from them. It is a place where we get to spend lots of quality time with family.

From special place

As most of you know my parents also have a cottage just a short walk down the gravel road from us so we get to see them lots when we are there. And Ryan's parents just live a couple hours away and can come up whenever they feel like it and stay as long as they want.

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Friends - We were able to have a TON of our friends come and visit up at the cottage this summer and hope to have lots more guests every year. I will devote a whole post to all the guests we had this year, but here I want to talk about "summer friends". To those who get to live in one place for decades at a time it may seem like a small thing, but for my kids to have summer friends that they will see every year it is truly something special. In our nomadic lifestyle they will have to say good-bye to lots of friends and become masters and making new ones, but at the cottage they will have friends that they can grow up with year after year. Our neighbor's grandchildren were some of my kids favorite people this year.

From special place

As well as one of our long time family friend's sons.

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I can already imagine the fun (read trouble) Jake and Calvin are going to have over the years!
This is a place where you know your neighbors and people stop by for a drink while walking around the lake.

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(this is actually Jake's Grandma and Grandpa)
Again, that may be a small thing to lots of people, but when you live places for only a couple years at a time you never seem to know your neighbors and no one ever 'pops in' for a drink or a coffee.

Oh yeah and you can WALK around the lake over this cute little foot bridge that you can see from our pier.

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It is just so peaceful up there with no internet or TV and limited cell phone service, you are truly 'unplugged' up there. It is a nice change of pace from our otherwise very busy life.

Faith - Yes faith is a huge part of our community up there which was formed around a Lutheran Camp that has since closed. The little Chapel in the Pines church is only steps away from our cottage and is only open in summer.

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It is so nice to walk to church every Sunday and sit with family and friends. And as you take that walk around the lake you will also come to "Inspiration Point" where you can sit and enjoy the beauty of God's creation.

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You can even walk to a cute little coffee and ice cream shop that resides in the old Mill.

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And we had the kids save up their money so they could buy their own ice cream. It was pretty cute!

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Just a few steps from the Mill is a cool little bar that even has a train that will bring you your beer!

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It is just a small little town in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin, but it is the one place we can call home no matter where the Air Force sends us. We love that our name is on the sign at the end of the road, sort of staking our claim to a little piece of heaven.

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Will be back soon!

2010-08-20T21:26:00.001+02:00

So if there is anyone still even looking at this after my long absence, I just wanted to let you know the updates are COMING SOON! Kids start school next week and then I will begin the updating. Lots of good summer pictures to show you.

Saying Goodbye

2010-06-27T18:22:00.002+03:00

Saying goodbye to all the wonderful friends we have in Kuwait was not easy. This was by far the most emotional move we have ever had. We all had made some really amazing friends.

The goodbyes began about a week before we left. My very first friend in Kuwait, Nena, put together a coffee morning for me.

From 2010-06-16

So many of my friends were there and it was such a lovely morning.

From 2010-06-16

Thank you Nena!

We also were able to attend a nice get together at Alison and Jasmine's home. They are the ladies that I went to the Kuwaiti weddings with.

From 2010-06-16

It was such a wonderful evening spent with some very interesting people.

All of the Mom's from Alayna's KGH class even got together and had a little going away party for me at pick-up one day. Complete with cupcakes and a wonderful gift! They all chipped in and bought me the most gorgeous purse!

From 2010-06-16

It really was a great group of Mom's and I feel so privileged to have gotten to know all of them.

The kids each made some really great friends as well that we had to say goodbye to. Here is Alayna with her BFF Anannya

From 2010-06-16

And Calvin with his Best Bud Cameron.

From 2010-06-16

Calvin understood much more about saying goodbye and was a little sad when he left. He is such a sweet little boy though and the night before his last day of school he spent the whole afternoon writing individual notes to every child in his class and both teachers. It was so sweet.

The hardest goodbyes for me were saying goodbye to my dear friends Marcelle and Sarah. We got to go out to dinner for Marcelle's birthday in our last week there to a lovely resturant along the gulf.

From 2010-06-16

You can see the Kuwait Towers in the background. Here are my besties!

From 2010-06-16

And the men.

From 2010-06-16

The one picture I am missing is of our last game night with the Godwin's, but it was another fun one for sure.
We will miss all of our friends so very much. They all touched our lives and hearts so much in such a short amount of time. We love and miss you all!

Alayna's Production

2010-06-27T18:10:00.003+03:00

On Alayna's last day of school she had her KG Production. We were so happy that she got to be a part of it and didn't miss it. She was a "Currant Bun".

From 2010-06-16

Her class sang a counting song about currant buns that were bought out of a baker's shop.

From 2010-06-16

There were also two other KG classes that sang songs. They all did really great and Alayna proudly sang along with all the songs.

Here she is with her amazing teacher Mrs Sam Hamlet.

From 2010-06-16

Alayna had a great year in KGH and Mrs Hamlet was just an amazing teacher. We felt so blessed to have her be a part of Alayna's first real school experience.

Moving Day!

2010-05-25T20:30:00.002+03:00

Monday May 17th was moving day! And boy am I glad it is over with! The movers were here for 2 days and really did a good job. Here is some of the chaos:

From 05-21-2010

Both kids were so excited about seeing the long awaited movers. We got a couple pics of Alayna coming home and checking everything out.

From 05-21-2010

"My closet is empty!"

On the 2nd day the movers worked all day so we bought them all pizza for lunch. Here they all are at our dinning room table.

From 05-21-2010

Alayna's Pretend Birthday

2010-05-25T20:17:00.002+03:00

Poor little Alayna has an August birthday so she seems to always get cheated when it comes to having a friends birthday party. Since she has so many friends here we and we will just be getting settled in VA on her real birthday, we declared May 12th Alayna's official pretend birthday.

I brought cupcakes into school and they all sang Happy Birthday to her there. Then in the afternoon we had our weekly playdate with Marcelle and Sarah and kiddos, and they did a whole party for her! They made her a cake,

From 05-21-2010

and we all sang Happy Birthday to her.

From 05-21-2010

All the girls dressed up in their princess dresses.

From 05-21-2010

Of course there were presents too!

From 05-21-2010

They really made her feel so special and she had such a wonderful day. All of the kids played outside and just had so much fun.

From 05-21-2010

Don't they just look like little grown-ups sitting around that table?

I pray that Alayna remembers that day, it was certainly a memory for me that will last a lifetime.

Go Shorty....

2010-05-25T20:01:00.003+03:00

It's MY BIRTHDAY!

And we partied like it was my birthday!

It was another good birthday this year. The kids and Ryan got me a Baskin Robin's cake and some really sweet cards.

From 05-21-2010

Oh yeah, and money to buy some new clothes when I am back in the states. YAY!!!

Then since the kids thought that this was a true birthday party, they insisted on playing games. We broke out the Hullaballoo and had a great time playing that for awhile.

From 05-21-2010

That night we had our dear friends over to celebrate with us. Marcelle and Sarah were so generous with the gifts this year. They bought me this beautiful bed cover.

From 05-21-2010

As you can see I was VERY excited about it! I had been wanting it for a while. Then they each got me their own little present as well. They are way to good to me.

What am I going to do without you girls?

From 05-21-2010

It's Good to Be Me

2010-05-25T19:43:00.002+03:00

Um, I don't mean me actually.

That was just the theme of Calvin's class assembly this year. And guess what? HE was the STAR of the show! He played a little mouse that wished he was as big and strong as all the other animals in the jungle, but in the end saved everyone with his "fantastically sharp teeth". Hence he learned that it was "good to be me"!

Here he is before the show started sitting with some of his classmates.

From 05-21-2010

Unfortunately once the show starts and you have to sit in your seats it is impossible to get a good picture, so please excuse the terribly dark pictures that follow.

From 05-21-2010

They also did a nice bit where they came up in pairs and said something that made the other person special. Calvin was special because he was "Clever and smiled a lot". It was so nice to hear all the children saying nice things about each other.

And what show is ever complete without a musical number?

From 05-21-2010

After the show we had bought some flowers to give to Calvin (I even bought blue ones), but the first thing he said was that he didn't want them because they were "too girly". But we were able to get a picture with them first at least!

From 05-21-2010

Since he didn't want the flowers, I convinced him to give them to his teacher.

From 05-21-2010

Mrs Moulden is an amazing teacher and has really been a blessing to us this year.

From 05-21-2010

And you know what? I get to be Mom to this amazing little boy and that does make it very good to be me as well!

Fairytale Dress-up Day

2010-05-25T19:25:00.002+03:00

A few weeks ago Alayna's class had a fairytale dress-up day at school. Big surprise Alayna went as a princess! She chose to wear her Cinderella dress. Here she is at home before we left for school.

From 05-21-2010

And her close-up....

From 05-21-2010

I have no idea what happened after we got to school, but she decided she didn't want her picture taken. And every time she saw me with the camera this is what I got:

From 05-21-2010

I have countless pictures of her back side! They did a little 'parade' around the garden for the parents and I actually got to sneak a couple pictures when she didn't know I was there.

From 05-21-2010

Before they went over to their classroom I desperately wanted a picture of Alayna with Lewis. Even the teacher teases that they will be married some day! But here was one of my many attempts.

From 05-21-2010

I am not ashamed to admit that I resorted to bribery. Jellybeans were offered. And it worked!

From 05-21-2010

Not perfect, but at least you can see both their beautiful faces.

Once over by their classroom they lined them up for a photo op of the entire class.

From 05-21-2010

Have you ever tried to take a picture of 16 4 yr olds? No easy task! And that is Alayna's teacher Mrs Hamlet in the back with the full Capt Hook outfit on. She is such an amazing teacher and the kids have so much fun with her.

Where have I been?

2010-05-20T08:19:00.002+03:00

Let me start by saying I am very sorry for my extremely long absence from the blog. We have been very busy these past few weeks.

Calvin's production, Alayna's fairytale dress-up day at school,my birthday, Mother's day, we shipped the car, Alayna's pretend birthday, then we were getting ready for the movers.

Well on Monday and Tuesday the movers came and took all of our things, so now we can relax and enjoy our last 17 days in Kuwait. Please stay tuned for more blog posts to come, but be patient......the movers packed my camera cable so I currently can't download any pics! OOPS! We will be looking to buy a new cord over the weekend, so hopefully by next week I will be able to catch you up on all the events that have been going on here.

My little Athlete

2010-04-23T11:17:00.002+02:00

Calvin loves sports, ALL sports! Especially since playing them usually involves getting to spend time with his Daddy. Baseball is his favorite, but lately tennis is coming a close second. Here he is all ready to play!

From 2010-04-11

He also loves football, which he unfortunately has started referring to as "American Football" since football over here means soccer. Oh well! Anyways, he is a Dolphin fan just like his Daddy!

From 2010-04-11

These photos were just too cute to not post!

Easter Morning

2010-04-23T10:56:00.002+02:00

The last of our Easter fun was Easter morning finding all the eggs and baskets that the Easter Bunny had hid. It was hard to get pictures of them finding the eggs since they were running around so fast!

From 2010-04-11

More candy and goodies in their baskets.

From 2010-04-11

And they even had goodies to open from the Grandparents!

From 2010-04-11

Let me just say that we are literally drowning in candy over here now! There is no way we can eat it all before we leave.

Easter Fun

2010-04-23T10:23:00.003+02:00

We had lots of fun this Easter! It started with an egg hunt at the Embassy on the 27th.

From 2010-04-11

They got lots of candy and had a great time.

Then on Friday the 2nd we dyed eggs.

From 2010-04-11

On Saturday the 3rd we had our Easter celebration and dinner with our friends the Godwin's and Erin and Jamie with their girls Delaney and Amelia. It was a great day. We started out with an egg hunt in our garden.

From 2010-04-11

We must have hid at least 75 eggs out there, probably closer to 100!

From 2010-04-11

The kids were so excited and were absolutely going crazy running around and grabbing the eggs.

From 2010-04-11

Sydney was the oldest, but still not tall enough to get some of the eggs we hid.

From 2010-04-11

Clearly I didn't hide that one, I don't even think I could reach that! HA! Good thing her Daddy Stew was here, he can reach anything!

From 2010-04-11

(I think he is like 6'7" or something ridiculous like that!) After they found all the eggs they got to come inside and check out their loot.

From 2010-04-11

After all that fun we let them play and run off that sugar high while we got dinner together. There were no hams to be had this year so we decided to keep it simple and stress free and grill out. Everyone brought their own meat to grill and a side dish to share. It was perfect and low stress for everyone. Jamie brought desert and had made these yummy cupcakes that looked like Easter baskets. The kids LOVED them!

From 2010-04-11

And this is what happens when a sugar high turns into a sugar low!

From 2010-04-11

It was a wonderful day spent with wonderful friends.

Long Awaited

2010-04-23T10:13:00.002+02:00

My kids got umbrella's from my bff Mona for Christmas. They have been anxiously awaiting a rainy day so that they could use them. But seeing as this is Kuwait, they have to wait a VERY long time! Finally on March 26th there was a rain shower. They were so excited!

From 2010-04-11

It was Friday, our pajama day, which is why Alayna is still in her nightgown.

After the rain stopped they wanted to play in the puddles so I let them have at it. They had so much fun. Here is what they looked like when they were all done:

From 2010-04-11

They both were soaked! Needless to say they went straight into the bath after that!

Wobbly Teeth

2010-04-23T09:04:00.002+02:00

That's what the English call "loose teeth"! And seeing as my kids go to The English School, that is now what they call loose teeth.

Anyways, Calvin had his first wobbly tooth in March and on March 25th he came to me saying that it was hurting him. I took a look, and it was very loose and bleeding a bit. I told him he may have to pull it out if he wanted it to stop hurting. And sure enough, he pulled it out all on his own!

From 2010-04-11

My brave little boy!

Now he has both of his bottom teeth missing. If you remember the other bottom tooth got kicked out before Christmas and the big tooth has still not come in. How cute is he???

From 2010-04-11

Now that it is April 23rd, the big tooth to replace the kicked out tooth is coming in and the two top teeth are now wobbly! He will be a toothless wonder in no time!

A Day at The Beach

2010-04-23T08:20:00.003+02:00

I know I am dreadfully behind on my blog postings, but bear with me as I try to catch up here.

On March 20th we spent the day at Marcelle and Mazen's beach club The Palms. Sarah and her kiddos were able to come too, but unfortunately Mark had to work. It was an amazing day that I will never forget. We met up in the morning and spent sometime in the pool and Mazen and Ryan played some tennis on the roof-top courts. After that we got everyone dressed and played at the park for a while.

Kids just love to swing!

From 03April2010

Isn't Calvin cute pushing Chloe?

Then the boys had a turn.

From 03April2010

And here is a video of Calvin doing his new favorite thing: the monkey bars!
After we played at the park awhile we took the kids to the Child Care Center located right there and the adults went to have a nice lunch. It was so nice to know that the kids were safe and having fun just a few yards away while we were able to enjoy a nice quiet lunch with friends. When we finished eating we went and got the kids and took them down to the beach for a little while before we called it a day.

What memories of all our kids playing together on a private beach on the Persian Gulf!

From 03April2010

Lewis making a Sand Angel!

From 03April2010

Alayna was searching for shells.

From 03April2010

Showing her treasures to Marcelle and Mazen.

From 03April2010

The kids had so much fun!

From 03April2010

The pure joy on their little faces!

From 03April2010

Priceless!

How can I even begin to tell you all what these friendships mean to us. Our children love each other and play together so nicely. And we adults have shared so many fun memories together and become so very close. These are the friendships you keep for life. We are so blessed to have these two families in our lives and will forever cherish our memories with them. God willing we will be reuniting with them on vacations all over the world and creating lots more memories.

Sports Days

2010-04-03T10:13:00.002+02:00

In the last couple weeks both kids have had their "Sports Day" at school. Alayna's was first.

From 03April2010

(that's her waving)
Her sports day was comprised of her grade level and the grade level above her, and they were competing as classes. They started out with a warm-up jog around the field.

From 03April2010

Then came the highlight of the event - the running race. They ran by class and were separated by gender. This way each class would have a "fastest boy" and "fastest girl". Check out my girl leading the pack!

From 03April2010

She lost her hat and you could see her look back and think about stopping, but then just kept on running. The other girls were left to eat her dust!

From 03April2010

The rest of the events were done for fun and without winners and losers. They did a Smiley Face Race where they had to run to the paper and draw a smiley face and then run back and the next person would go. Here is Alayna drawing her face.

From 03April2010

At the end of the events they awarded the Fastest Girls and Boys of each class a certificate. Here is Alayna after getting her certificate from the Headmaster Mr Alcot.

From 03April2010

My little speed demon!

From 03April2010

Me: Alayna, Who won the girls race?
Alayna: I WON!!!

From 03April2010

The next week was Calvin's Sports Day and theirs was comprised of Years 1 - 3 and was divided by "Houses" (basically 4 colored teams). Calvin is in the blue "House", and races were still divided by gender. Here is Calvin running his race and that is his friend Sami next to him.

From 03April2010

Unfortunately they did not come in first or second, but they had a good time. One of the races was an "egg race" that they used small balls for instead of eggs and Calvin thought he came in second, but had actually come in third. The first and second place finishers received stickers, and Calvin was very upset that he didn't get his sticker. He truly believed he had been done an injustice. The Agony of Defeat!

From 03April2010

He did eventually recover,

From 03April2010

and went on to perform well at some of the other events like basketball.

From 03April2010

The best news was that the Blue team WON the day so he got to hold the trophy in the end.

From 03April2010

They both really enjoyed their sports days and we were so proud of them both.

Oh What a Night!

2010-03-20T07:23:00.002+02:00

On Wednesday I got to have the most amazing night I have had in Kuwait. It started out with a cocktail party at the British Embassy. Our dear friends Anita and Stewart invited us to the event that was a fundraiser for Friends of Girl Guiding in Kuwait. (Basically a group that supports and helps out the girl scouts here in Kuwait) It was a very nice affair in the residence of the British Ambassador, who even made an appearance and gave a little talk. There was a woman playing a grand piano and people mingling and eating hors d'oeurves like bacon wrapped quail eggs! It was very posh and a lovely evening. The evening ended at 9pm and I was then picked up in a taxi with some friends of mine to head to my second event of the evening……….A Kuwaiti Wedding!

How the heck did I get invited to a Kuwaiti wedding? My friend Kate, an Air Force wife I met in IL, has hooked me up with her Aunt Alison who has lived in Kuwait for many years and raised both of her children primarily in Kuwait. Alison is a teacher at one of the colleges here and was invited by one of her students to attend her wedding. Alison was kind enough to think of me and ask if I could attend as well. Her daughter Jasmine, who is my age, was in town so she was with us as well. Alison’s late husband was Iranian and her daughter Jasmine is fluent in English, Arabic, and Farsi. This was a big help!

This wedding was a Bedouin wedding held at a local wedding hall. Basically the Bedouins are the more conservative here and the women will be covered completely so that all you would see is their eyes. They are not your rich Westernized city dwelling Kuwaitis. Weddings are segregated so that women are in one building/room and men are in a different location.

When we arrived, you go in the door and there is a woman there checking bags to make sure you are not bringing in any cameras or cell phones with cameras – No pictures allowed (that’s why this is one of the few blog posts without photos). You are immediately hit with the loud Arabic music, then you round the corner into the main room and your eyes are overwhelmed with what is in front of you. The room is set up with a kind of cat walk down the middle of the room and then about 3 or 4 rows of stadium style seating on either side. On either end of the “cat walk” are young women (maybe 19-30) in floor length gowns the likes of which you have never seen. Remember these are women who are always covered completely. And their hair is BIG, like 80’s buefont big! And the most shocking part of all is the make-up. Their eye make-up makes Tammy Fae look mild! That part I was ready for though, what I wasn’t ready for is the fact that they covered all of their visible skin (face, neck, chest, back, arms) with white “geisha” type make-up. It was a very odd thing to see. But despite the over-the-top make-up and big hair these women were beautiful! They were some the curviest women I have ever seen. Let me tell you, J-Lo and Beyonce have nothing on these girls!

Ok, so these gorgeous ladies are standing on either end of the “cat walk” and the stadium seating is a sea of black – all women that are fully covered. These are mostly the older women. Then there is an older woman who is in a bright green dress but has her head and face covered with black and she is carrying a small cane or shepherd’s hook and basically herding the girls onto and off of the dance floor! She is making sure every girl gets her chance to dance. The “herder” would let maybe 10 girls at a time in the middle to dance and make this noise similar to that of a Native American call – very high pitched and trilling. There was a live band playing and two woman singing Arabic music. It was a very tribal beat; this was NOT Arab pop music.

The dancing was so wonderful to watch. They kind of did this bouncing, trotting thing and then they would sway their hair from side to side. Apparently the dance is supposed to be like that of a horse. Also they had these hand motions that would either wave away from them or wave toward them. Jasmine explained to me that these hand motions are actually a signal to the match makers sitting in the front rows. (Remember that many of these marriages are arranged --not a lot of dating happening in the Bedouin community.) If they are waving away from them they are saying they don’t want love, maybe they are married, or just not wanting a husband yet, and if they are waving towards themselves they are saying that they want a husband and ready for love. It was amazing to watch.

Then the bride came out. She was beautiful! She was wearing a white bridal gown similar to what we would wear, but as you can probably guess by now, just a bit more over-the-top. She too had the very white make-up covering her visible skin. And the odd thing was that she did not smile. I guess they are taught not to smile until after her husband comes to take her away. At this point she is supposed to be sad about leaving her family. The bride, whose name was Muneera, slowly made her way down the catwalk. After she reached the end of the catwalk she was taken upstairs to a smaller room, where she sat on what almost was like a throne surrounded by flowers. She looked gorgeous!

This is where our night got really fun! One of her Aunties came downstairs and asked us to come up to this room. Not all of the guests came up; this was more for her family and the wedding party. it was quite an honor that we even got invited up there. There was lots of dancing up here as well, all in honor of the bride. Alison and Jasmine joined in the dancing first; they have done this before and know what they are doing! Then one of the Kuwaiti women grabbed my hand in an effort to get me to dance with her -- So I did my diplomatic duty and danced! All of the woman were so nice and wanted to teach me how to do the different moves. It was at this point that I started to realize that I was going to be a bit of a novelty item!

After a bit of dancing upstairs, her husband was arriving and everyone made their way downstairs with the bride. First all of them needed to cover back up, including the bride whose head covering was made of beautiful white satin. Now according to Alison and Jasmine, normally the husband and his father and brothers will actually come in to the main wedding hall, but this time he never even came inside. She and her Mother and some Aunties took her outside to where her new husband was waiting by a car to take her away. It was so neat to see her family helping her into the car and wishing her well.

Once the bride left, it was time to eat. This was the strangest part of the evening! It was a buffet, but instead of each food choice having a serving spoon, you had to use your own utensils to serve yourself each dish. A little weird, but ok I can live with that. The part that just had my mouth hanging open in shock was that some of the women were literally eating right out of the serving dishes! I mean scooping the noodles out of the serving dish into their mouths and then going back in for another bite! YIKES! Good thing I wasn’t really hungry anyways. Once you had your plate of food you just had to find a place to stand and eat it. There were some round banquet tables, but not with chairs so you just find a place to set your plate down and then stand and eat. It was while I was eating my food that I started to get approached by many of the women asking me if I was American and if I would dance with them. They were all so sweet.

After dinner we went back in to the main room and danced for a bit. The women all wanted to take turns dancing with me; it was such an overwhelming experience. When we had to leave they all mobbed us and asked us to come and dance at their weddings or of the weddings of their family members. I was standing with one group of young ladies and one of them asked me if I was American, and when I said yes her hands flew to her face and she gasped as if this was the single most exciting thing that had ever happened to her. It was wild! Then one of them who spoke a bit more English asked which state I was from, when I said Wisconsin of course they all gave me the blank stare. So I just told them it was near Chicago. That they understood and got very excited about. At first I couldn’t understand what the big deal was for them. There are Americans and other ex-pats all over this country, why are they so excited to be talking to me? Then it hit me that these women are normally fully covered and have limited English, they may have never had a real conversation with an American before, much less danced with one!

It was an unbelievable night and I was so thankful that I got to experience this before I left Kuwait. Thank you so much Alison and Jasmine!

National Day Lights

2010-03-07T08:43:00.002+02:00

Kuwait just celebrated their National Day and Liberation Day holidays at the end of February. National Day celebrates the day they gained their independence and Liberation Day is the day the good ole USA and our allies kept them from becoming Iraq. These 2 days, the 25th and 26th of February, are celebrated with lots of gusto here. People decorate their homes with flags and lights and pictures of Kuwait's leaders.

This year we heard about an area with a ton of lights that were on display and we thought we would go check them out.

From 20100302

The lights were sponsored by Kuwait Oil Company.

From 20100302

And all of the lights were on their grounds. It is almost like being on an Air Force base, since it is it's own little community with everything you need on the grounds. The lights were truly amazing.

From 20100302

This year is Kuwait Oil Company's 75th anniversary so we were told there were more lights this year than in years past.

From 20100302

Of course they had the obligatory picture of the Emir.

From 20100302

And just as a side note, this is what happens when you mistakenly set your camera to ISO and then shoot out of a moving vehicle.

From 20100302

Just thought you should all know that.

2 Wheels!

2010-03-03T07:49:00.002+02:00

Saturday was a big day for Calvin....he learned how to ride his bike with no training wheels! He has been asking for a while now, so we took him to the Embassy parking lot to give him plenty of room to ride.

From 20100302

He was so excited! We talked to him the whole way there about how he is going to fall, but that it's ok and just part of learning to ride. Well he sure did prove us wrong! The very first time Ryan let go he just took off!

From 20100302

Before we knew it he was riding in circles with no problems.

From 20100302

He was so proud of himself and was having so much fun.

From 20100302

The only thing that gave him any trouble was getting started and figuring out where to have the pedals when you start.

From 20100302

Other than that, he was a pro.

While Calvin was learning to ride, Alayna spent her time picking flowers.

From 20100302

She is such a girly girl! She is just getting so big, and I am sure it won't be long till she is up on 2 wheels too.

From 20100302

When it was time to go home Calvin said "I sure hope this wasn't just a dream!"

From 20100302

We couldn't believe that he hadn't fallen even one time. We are so proud of him!

Pirate Party

2010-02-19T08:57:00.002+02:00

On Saturday the 6th we had a birthday party for Calvin here at the house. Calvin requested a Pirate Party, so a Pirate Party he got! Here is the birthday boy before the guests arrived.

From Calvin's 6th Birthday

Lewis and Abby were the first to arrive, and they even dressed the part!

From Calvin's 6th Birthday

We had lots of Pirate themed games that we played. We played Hook the Pretzel

From Calvin's 6th Birthday

And Musical Islands

From Calvin's 6th Birthday

Then we played Sink the Ship where they had to throw their "cannon balls" into the other teams ship to "sink" it.

From Calvin's 6th Birthday

After the games came one of the highlights of the party...the silly string fight!

From Calvin's 6th Birthday

As you can see even the adults got into the fun!

From Calvin's 6th Birthday

And here is the aftermath..

From Calvin's 6th Birthday

After the silly string mania we did a treasure hunt.

From Calvin's 6th Birthday

The kids had a blast and went crazy when they finally found their treasure.

From Calvin's 6th Birthday

Then it was time to sing Happy Birthday.

From Calvin's 6th Birthday

The grand finale of the party was a pinata.

From Calvin's 6th Birthday

Here is Calvin's best friend Cameron with the winning hit.

From Calvin's 6th Birthday

And the kids went crazy scooping up the candy.

From Calvin's 6th Birthday

It was a great party and I think everyone had a good time.

Happy Birthday Calvin! We are so proud of you and love you very much.

From Calvin's 6th Birthday

Calvin's Birthday

2010-02-12T10:33:00.003+02:00

I can hardly believe it, but my baby boy turned 6 this past week! Time just goes entirely too fast. His birthday was on Wednesday and he requested my Mint Brownies as his treat to take to school. We did our little family celebration that night. He wanted tacos for dinner that night, and then we sang Happy Birthday

From Calvin's 6th Birthday

and had cake and ice cream for dessert.

From Calvin's 6th Birthday

Then it was present time! The coolest part was that he could actually read all of his birthday cards himself this year.

From Calvin's 6th Birthday

But his very favorite present didn't arrive until the next day...His tennis racket from Grandma and Grandpa!

From Calvin's 6th Birthday

And even though it was late and already bathtime, he insisted on going outside and trying it out with Daddy.

From Calvin's 6th Birthday

He is really coming along with the tennis and is practicing almost everyday.

It was a really nice day and he loved all of his presents. Thank you to all the family and friends who sent him something. He has no idea how lucky he is to have so many people who love him.

Incident Report #3

2010-02-12T10:20:00.002+02:00

Hopefully this will be the last incident I need to file while we are in Kuwait! Last Monday (Feb 1st) I got into a little car accident. We are all ok, but it was a little unnerving. As I am sure I have said here before driving around here is CRAZY and that is especially true around the school at pick-up and drop-off time. Anyways, I was backing out of a parking spot after picking up Calvin from school and there were cars parked in the street and making it impossible to see any oncoming traffic. I guy came speeding around the cars parked in his lane and ran into my back bumper. In all fairness there is no way he could have seen me or me him, but he was probably going a little fast for the conditions. Here are some pics of the damage:

From Calvin's 6th Birthday

Hopefully we will get it fixed next week. Inshallah!

Another Fun Weekend

2010-02-01T10:02:00.002+02:00

We had another fun and busy weekend here in Kuwait. On Thursday we had a birthday party for my friend Nena's daughter Gwyneth. It was a cool party at a place here called "Color Me Mine". It is a pottery painting place and the kids just loved painting something their very own.

From 20090201

Calvin painted some sort of alien thing.

From 20090201

And Alayna painted a cute little heart box.

From 20090201

Then on Saturday we had a get together for Alayna's class. Alayna and I went to that and Daddy and Calvin got to have fun boy time. The boys went to McDonalds for lunch and then played all sorts of boy things. Alayna had an absolute blast on our outing. It turned out that most of the children that came were the girls....only one little boy was there! It was at one of the family's apartment complex in their "garden" area.

From 20090201

Alayna loves to swing and loves older girls so she was in heaven swinging with a few of her classmates older sisters.

From 20090201

Of course there were tears when we finally had to leave, but once she was in the car she calmed down and spent the whole trip home talking about how much fun she had!

The kids have so many fun things to do here in Kuwait and so many good friends. DC has some awfully big shoes to fill!

DC Recon

2010-01-22T13:39:00.002+02:00

After Ryan's fun in Wisconsin he headed back to DC and did some recon for our upcoming move. He met with our realtor Irene and checked out the housing situation.

From Ryan's trip to the States

I have 3 words to describe the situation: old, small, and expensive! We will make the best of it though.

He also checked out the church and met with the pastor.

From Ryan's trip to the States

The most important thing he did was to visit the school and meet with the principal there.

From Ryan's trip to the States

It is a very small Lutheran school with grades K - 8. Alayna will be in Kindergarten there.

From Ryan's trip to the States

And Calvin will be in 1st grade. First and second grades are combined into one classroom there.

From Ryan's trip to the States

And still the class size is small as you can see.

We are so excited about the school there. The housing.....not so much!

Ryan's Weekend in Wisconsin

2010-01-22T07:23:00.002+02:00

Well I am now catching up on some photos Ryan took when he was back in the States over the Thanksgiving weekend. He was suppose to leave Kuwait Thanksgiving night and go right to Wisconsin to go deer hunting. Due to some snow in DC he left an entire day late and only ended up having one night at the cottage. They made the most of it though.

Here are the men! My Dad, Bob B., Ryan, and his Dad

From Ryan's trip to the States

(photo courtesy of Jake V. age 4)

Ryan got to turn the key of our cottage for the first time as the owner!

From Ryan's trip to the States

And see our name on the sign.

From Ryan's trip to the States

They stayed at my parents cottage though, as they have central heat and we don't.

Ryan was able to hunt Sunday morning, and unfortunately didn't get one. But they still had a good time. They played some cards,

From Ryan's trip to the States

and visited the local bar the Trading Post.

From Ryan's trip to the States

And check this out.....A toddler behind the bar!!

From Ryan's trip to the States

Only in Wisconsin!

It wasn't all play though, they did a lot of hard work too. They raked the lawn at our cottage.

From Ryan's trip to the States

And they cleaned out the garage.

From Ryan's trip to the States

They worked hard and played hard and Ryan really enjoyed getting to see our cottage now that he owns the place!

Calvin's First Tennis Lesson

2010-01-14T07:35:00.002+02:00

Last week Wednesday Calvin started Tennis lessons at the Embassy. Ryan has been playing almost every week now, and Calvin had shown some interest in learning.

FYI:Calvin shows interest in just about everything his Daddy does!

Anyways....since he is not doing swimming right now, we thought it would be a good time to let him try something else.

It is a group lesson for ages 3 - 5. They work on basics like hand-eye coordination and footwork and getting used to how the ball bounces.

From 2010-01-12

Coach Joe does a great job with the little ones. He is firm and direct but also patient and understanding of their age.

They do get a chance to hit the ball a few times during the 30 minute lesson. Calvin is doing great and hits it over the net every time!

From 2010-01-12

Apparently that takes a little concentration!

From 2010-01-12

He has had 3 lessons now and is doing great! He really loves it. Next month he will turn 6, so he will be in the "big kids group" for ages 6-12. It is so fun to see him participating in his first sport! Hopefully he will be able to volley with his Dad soon!

Christmas Dinner with Friends

2010-01-09T14:18:00.002+02:00

One of the highlights of this Christmas was being able to share it with my friends Sarah and Marcelle and their families.

From Christmas 2009

Unfortunately my camera was set on some funny setting and only a few photos turned out :(

Anyways everyone had a wonderful time and we got to share some of our different Christmas traditions. I made a turkey and some good old American sweet potatoes and green bean casserole! Sarah and Mark are British and they brought minced pies, Scottish shortbread, trifle, English Christmas pudding. Sarah and Marcelle both brought Christmas crackers that we opened. (click on Christmas Cracker if you don't know what that is)
Marcelle brought two amazing side dishes one with grilled Halumi cheese on top that was to die for! She is South African so her traditional Christmas dinner would involve BBQing by the pool since it would be the middle of summer for them!

The kids had a blast playing together. Here is a picture of the girls:

From Christmas 2009

(from L to R Chloe, Abby, and Alayna)

After the dinner the guys even escaped outside for a cigar.

From Christmas 2009

(from L to R Mazen, Mark, and Ryan)

It really was an amazing day, one that we will remember forever. We feel so blessed to have such amazing friends here. We will miss them dearly.

Christmas Morning 2009

2010-01-09T08:48:00.004+02:00

The kids were up bright and early at about 5:30 on Christmas morning, and they were so excited to see all the gifts under the tree.

From Christmas 2009

Calvin said "Wow, I must have been good this year!"

And without delay we got down to the business of opening presents. Santa brought Alayna a "Mommy make me better doll".

From Christmas 2009

And Calvin got a Zero Gravity car from Nana.

From Christmas 2009

This year the kids were very much about the presents and the joy of opening and ripping the paper was no more. Therefore, I have very few pictures of the opening this year. It just all happened so quickly! I did get a picture of Calvin opening his most favorite gift though.....his Super Mario Brothers Wii game from Grandma and Grandpa.

From Christmas 2009

Alayna had a very Mulan Christmas. She got a Mulan costume,

From Christmas 2009

(I have no idea what she is doing there, but thought it was too funny to leave out)

She also got the Mulan movie and a Mulan doll. She watched the Mulan movie twice on Christmas day!

From Christmas 2009

Thanks Auntie Brooke!

Here are a few of the other highlights: Calvin in his Superman costume and his very cool sword with his name on it!

From Christmas 2009

Alayna with the Magic Light Brush.

From Christmas 2009

Here is Ryan and Calvin putting together his "King's Castle"

From Christmas 2009

and the finished product.

From Christmas 2009

And we ended the morning with a little birthday party for Jesus.

From Christmas 2009

Christmas Eve 2009

2010-01-09T08:32:00.002+02:00

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve again this year. Like last year we got dressed up and headed to our friends house for their open house.

The kids looked so cute!

From Christmas 2009

And we even managed to grab a family photo before we left.

From Christmas 2009

For some reason I failed to take ANY photos while we were at Anita and Stew's house. But we all had a great time and ate some great food.

When we got home it was on to the business of preparing for Santa's visit. First though we had to open our "one present you can open on Christmas Eve" present from Nana. Somehow Calvin must have remembered last Christmas and already knew it was going to be PJ's! He LOVED his new Mario Kart PJ's!

From Christmas 2009

And Alayna loved her nightgown with matching nightgown for her baby doll.

From Christmas 2009

Aren't they cute?

From Christmas 2009

As soon as the kids had their new PJs on we got the cookies and milk ready for Santa.

From Christmas 2009

And then outside to leave some apples and carrots for the reindeer.

From Christmas 2009

Then it was off to bed, because we all know Santa won't come unless everyone is asleep.

Incident Report #2

2010-01-01T10:17:00.003+02:00

On Friday,December 18th we had a birthday party at a friends house. It was a circus themed party, for Alayna's friend Scarlett. It was very much a family event and there were lots people there that I knew. One of the fun circus themed things they had to play with were these "body boppers". This is important, but I will get to that in a minute.

All was going well and everyone was having a good time. We had played some games and eaten some pizza, and now it was craft time. Calvin says he wants to do his craft at home and goes over to play with the "body boppers" some more. Now it is important for me to note that in Kuwait most homes have beautiful marble floors. This is important, but I will get to that in a minute.

I was chatting with some other parents while keeping an eye on the kids. Calvin had wandered into one of the living areas with the bopper so I went over and told him he needed to stay on the marble floors and not on the carpeted areas, as those were the living areas, and were full of things to break and people to hurt. I will question this logic in a few minutes.

Next thing I know Calvin is screaming and crying. I turn around and see that his body is in the bopper, parallel to the ground and he is using his hands to hold his upper body off the floor. I immediately think "Great he's knocked out another tooth." I run over and scoop him up comforting him.

After a few seconds I pulled his face away from me to try and see where he is hurt, teeth - all there, tongue - not bleeding, hmmmm

"Calvin you have to tell me what hurts."

Back to holding him while he is still crying very hard. By this time the mother of the birthday girl is standing over us and I pull Calvin away from me again to try and see what is wrong. She says "oh, there's blood". I now pick him up and take him into the kitchen so we can get some paper towel or something to stop the bleeding. Keep in mind, I still don't know where or why he is bleeding. Once I sat down on a chair I pull him away from me again, and finally see that he has split open his chin pretty good. "Yeah, we are going to the hospital today."

Those of you who know me well know that I only looked at it for half a second, and that it was taking all I had to stay conscious. Thankfully I was surrounded by friends who helped me make the phone calls I need to make, drove us to the hospital, and took care of Alayna so she could stay at the party. And another helpful Mom I know who handed Calvin and me some miracle-over-the-counter-no-prescription-necessary-pediatric-homeopathic-dose-look-my-kid-takes-them-all-the-time-calming pill. And they actually worked!

Calvin ended up with 4 stitches, and he was very brave getting them. The good news about being in Kuwait is that we literally were with a Doctor in less than 5 minutes from the time we walked in the building. Here is the little bruiser when we got home that day:

From 2009-12-24

and a few days later:

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The stitches came out on Christmas eve. It healed pretty nicely, but he is definitely going to have a scar.

They say these things come in 3's, so I guess 2 down and one to go. Yikes!

Cookies and Crafts

2009-12-31T06:33:00.002+02:00

On December 17th, the kids first day off of school for the holiday break, we had a Cookies and Crafts day with the Godwin's. Anita's mom Granny Sue is in town, so she was running the show in the kitchen.

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My kids just loved her and I think they were just so happy to have a Grandparent around.

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We rolled out some dough in front of each child,

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and as you can see the kids even got to eat some dough!(Thanks to Granny Sue being around to chill us Mommies out a little!) They cut out their cookies,

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and then moved on to craft time while the cookies baked.

We had a few coloring pages for them to do and a snowman with cotton balls to make.

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I think they had fun!

After they were done with the crafts they watched Polar Express, since we were still waiting for the cookies to cool enough to be decorated.

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Finally it was time for the cookies to be decorated, and thanks to Granny Sue's wisdom and leadership we were able to set things up in a way that no one would have to fight over anything!

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Sydney took her time and was very careful about her decorating.

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My kids were a little more "free" with their decorating.

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All the kids did a great job and were very proud of their creations.

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KG Party

2009-12-29T07:41:00.002+02:00

From 2009-12-17

Alayna's class had their holiday party on the 14th. There are 3 KG classes and they all combined for the party, so that means a little shy of 50 three and four year olds!!!!

From 2009-12-17

YIKES! I am the Class Rep for Alayna's class so I was there for the party helping out. Let's just say I was exhausted at the end of the day!

To be fair, the kids were all very good, it just takes a lot of effort to keep 50 kids from getting crazy!

First they got to sit down to a feast and then they played musical statues, and pass the parcel

From 2009-12-17

and finally I read them "The Night Before Christmas". After all of this it was about the end of the school day and all the parents were invited to come in and watch the kids sing Jingle Bells.

Alayna was so proud and had such a fun time.

Winter Wonderland at TES

2009-12-24T13:30:00.003+02:00

The Christmas fun just kept on coming! On Saturday we went to the kids school's Winter Wonderland Festival. They had the big inflatable slide that some of you may remember from last year. Calvin had a blast again,

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Flying High!

And here is a video Ryan took with his Blackberry....too funny!

Alayna went down it this year too! I missed the mid-air shot with her, but here she is toward the bottom.

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Alayna and Delaney even stopped to watch the magic show together.

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And of course more face painting!

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It was another good day to be a kid in Kuwait!

Silly String

2009-12-24T13:13:00.002+02:00

This year St Nick brought the kids Silly String. So when we got back from the Embassy Christmas party we decided to have a silly string fight. It was so much fun! Calvin could shoot it all on his own.

From 2009-12-17

But Alayna need a little help from Daddy.

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Calvin loved shooting all of us!

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But don't worry, we got him too!

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I do think that Alayna probably got hit the most though.

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Good thing she didn't mind too much!

What a fun memorable time. We may not be able to build snowmen or go sledding, but we can have a silly string fight outside, in December, without even putting a jacket on!

Kid's Christmas Party at the US Embassy

2009-12-24T12:58:00.002+02:00

As if we hadn't had enough fun at the holiday happy hour, the next day was the kid's Christmas party at the Embassy.

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They even had some real trees flown in! It smelled so nice.

Our kids were first in line to see Santa!

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Calvin went first.

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Then Alayna...

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They were so excited and so happy. Oh, to be a kid at Christmas again!

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They signed a big holiday card for the troops here in Kuwait.

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And they did some fun holiday crafts.

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I think the thing the kids got most excited for though was the Secret Shopping they got to do for Mom and Dad. They were so proud of their gifts.

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And they have actually managed to not tell us what they are yet!