Quick trip to Dubai

We left Thursday for a long weekend in Dubai.  Eli and I have decided that before the kids and I leave each year for the summer, we will try to spend a few days together, and this year we went to the Atlantis.  It's a pretty spectacular place, in a pretty cheesy way, but oh my god did we have a good time.  The Atlantis has a waterpark in the resort and we spent chunks of each of our full days there.  Tommy is now tall enough to ride the slides without weight restrictions (some are so vertical that he would fly off of them if we went, but try to explain that to him), and the resort is structured for people to go in pairs on double tubes.  So Eli and I swapped going with him.  Before the trip, I wondered if he would be scared of the slides but he just LOVED them.  He told me more than once that it was the best day of his life, each day.  And in return I told him he is the bravest seven-year old I could imagine, which is of course, his aim in life.

I was anxious about the border between the UAE and Oman, because so many people had told us how confusing it was, but I finally just sat down with one of my fellow type-a moms who explained it all to me, and we made it through with no problems at all.  The drive over was very long (six and a half hours?) but the ride back was much shorter and easier (four and a half hours).  The kids were great, but we let them watch movies on the ipad.

The pictures below are of the resort...But none of the waterslides as we didn't take the camera there.

There are 65,000 fish in this tank.

There's an aquarium there, too -- see those huge grouper below??

These pretty pink fish that I had never seen before are hermaphrodites.  A male swims around with 10-15 females (his harem) and when the male dies, one of the females becomes a male.

Here is an interesting story that happened on our trip:  one morning at breakfast, we were chatting and I somehow started explaining to Tommy the eighties fad of rabbits foot key chains.  Does anybody else remember those?  Anyway, he looked at me as I was talking with a look of disgust and said, "that is savage, mom."  And I started telling him I was sure they weren't real rabbits feet (?) and he just looked at me and said, "why would anybody want those? What was good about them?" And I told him they were soft.  But it was a weird conversation because he was just so right and I had no such awareness when they were around.

We checked out on Sunday morning and then went to Ikea and Ace Hardware.  At Ikea, we checked the kids into the play space and took off for an hour and a half.  It was pretty fun and we got a bunch of stuff we needed and plenty that we did not need.  But you know the best part of Ikea Dubai?? The shawarma.  We decided to stuff some lunch into the kids before leaving, and the store has proper shawarma, for so cheap.  (Interesting fact:  the gas station across our roundabout also has very good shawarma, which I know thanks to my friend Antonia as I am not one myself to sample gas station food.)  I don't think it's about the shawarma (as you can get nice shawarma at the gas station), but there is a rumor that Ikea is going to open in Muscat and expats can have very long conversations about this topic.  

Random photos

 We often spend Friday mornings walking on the beach and swimming, and sometimes we have noodle fights.  They aren't my favorite thing, but someone really likes them a lot and his daddy usually indulges him (and ends up whacking them way too hard).

Below is Lizzie at one amazing birthday party with her face painted.  I said, "do you want a flower or a butterfly?" and she said, "I want a dolphin!"  And the photo beside is me in sparkly orange eyelashes which I liked more than I thought I would.

 Some days after we have lunch and start the long wait for Tommy to come home, we have a hard time finding things to do.  But we are all set when there are workers bagging the dates on the palm trees.

It rained and we were really excited.

 I know this is a boring photo, but can you believe how long Lulu is???

Below are Lizzie and Grace on their bikes.  I think my children are lucky to grow up in such a pretty place. (But it is rather hot sometimes.)

Mother's Day

Lizzie's class had a mother's day tea for us on Thursday the 8th, and it was very sweet indeed.  Here is the card she made for me.  My favorite thing is that she puts eyelashes on her people.  No bodies - just heads with arms and legs sticking out, but eyelashes.  Maybe she has seen me putting on mascara one time too many.

Tommy wrote me a very sweet card on my own stationary.

But friends, you know this is not a Mormon mommy blog because even though I love my children and am so incredibly grateful to have them and wouldn't change my life for anything, we are not in the easiest moments right now and I'm willing to write that for the whole internet to read.  The kids are tired (my fault!) and doing a bit more bickering than normal and all Tommy wants to do are chemistry experiments which is a nice problem to have but usually I'm trying to cook dinner and the cleaner has just walked out the door and I don't want to do chemistry experiments!  A few days ago he explained that his first choice career is a chemist, second choice is butterfly catcher, third choice is spy and fourth choice is zookeeper.  Last choice is police officer and I was relieved but I know this means he'll probably tell me he wants to be an Army Ranger when he's 18.  Sigh.  And Lizzie, though sweet and cuddly, is in a phase of fits (pray that it is nearly over) and when she gets really mad, she gets as close to my face as she possibly can and screams as loudly as she possibly can.  It's truly an experience and Eli and I agree that it's incredibly difficult not to burst out laughing.

BUT, as I said, I would not change my life for anything and I am grateful they are mine.  I just wish they thought every thing that came out of my mouth was the best idea ever.  "She wants us to clean up our mess!???  RIGHT ON, I can't wait to start!!'  You know, that kind of thing.  A girl can dream.

My Birthday

You guys!  I had such a lovely birthday.  It was totally unexpected (I am not usually so great at birthdays), but it felt just perfect.  Thank you all so much for your very sweet emails, and please know that I am going to reply to each one of them!  I felt very very loved.  To top it off, when I told Tommy that I didn't want to get any older, he said, "Don't worry.  When you turn forty, you probably won't get sick and die."

My biggest gift was a shiny new air conditioner compressor in my car.  The old one still worked a little bit, but now I can be driving along in my car and be too cold and let me tell you, that is just the very best feeling ever.  It is now very hot here and even people who live here all the time are complaining.  (It did not stop birthday party hosts last weekend from having a huge bouncy house outdoors, however.  I have never seen Tommy's face so red.)

Opening my presents (I had not yet dried my hair which is something to consider next year if Eli is taking photos).

Here is my favorite gift:  Lizzie picked this sucker out herself and she thinks it is the most beautiful ring in the whole world.  I told her that she's very lucky to be my daughter because someday it will be hers!

Here is my birthday dinner at Elevation Burger.  I told Eli that the food tastes good enough to make it acceptable -- and the fact that my kids don't stress me out in this place is just so awesome.  Plus, then we got Tommy a haircut in the same mall!

My friend Dina made this cake for three of us.  It was delicious.  She is an accomplished dentist
but should probably pack it in for baking...

I O U

I have about four posts going in my head right now, but no pictures uploaded and these posts require photos.  I will let you know that I had a lovely birthday, that we saw Tommy's school play yesterday (my god I just love school plays - am I the only one or is this a common condition of parenthood?), that the end of year lunch for the AWG was yesterday and included a fashion show in which I modeled (horribly) and wore orange false eyelashes (see what I mean about photos?) and that Mother's Day was uneventful.  Lizzie's class had a Mother's Day tea the Thursday before during which they sang "Oh Mother Dear, Oh Mother Dear, Oh How I love you Mother Dear" to the tune of "Oh Christmas Tree" complete with hand motions.  Tommy wrote me a very sweet card right after he woke up on my own stationary (which he is not supposed to use) so the card said, "Dear LAURA KENT" rather than "Dear Mom" but beggars can't be choosers.

Our life is consumed by end-of-school year madness with sides of going away parties for dear friends and choir concerts.  It is for this reason that we are going to Dubai for a long weekend, perhaps putting my posts off even longer.  I am sorry.  I will catch up.  This is stuff I really do want to tell you all about.

Book week

You guys, it was book week last week, and on Thursday my children dressed up as book characters, but you will have to take my word for it that they were adorable.  Tommy was Harry Potter and, despite requesting that I address him as "H.P." for the day, was frustrated when he got off the bus that, "people kept guessing my identity!"  Hmmm.  He wore his Harry Potter glasses, a cape and took a wooden dowel that had been part of a wand-making kit of Lizzie's.  He did not mind that there was a bit of lavender paint on it.

The Harry Potter costume seemed obvious to me - but I felt like a genius when I came up with Lizzie's.  Book character day coincided with Lizzie's day to be the 'leader' in her class, which meant she got to bring in her favorite book.  She chose Fancy Nancy and at that moment, I realized we had everything we needed to dress her as Fancy Nancy.  She looked amazing - she's on her class blog here if you want to see:
http://ec1taism.blogspot.com/

Our weekend was mellow except that I attempted to sell a lot of stuff in a garage sale (they are different here because things are so unavailable/expensive that people really want to buy your old things) but failed.  I have not lost hope, particularly as it's my only potential income stream...