Girls & Groceries

Our hosts at the B&B warned us that all of the shops in the area will close for Christmas Eve and Christmas day, so we had to stock up beforehand to make sure we had enough food during those days.  When we walked in to the grocery store, Justin and I grabbed a cart while each girl got their own kid-sized carts too.  The girls knew we were on a mission to stock up, so they went off on their own to help out.  Here is what each of them came back with.

Taelyn:
apples
pears
yogurt

Kaelia:
oranges (which she doesn't like to eat!)
toothpicks
rubber bands

Taelyn actually came up with some fairly practical food.  On the other hand, who knows what Kaelia was thinking about!  At one point, I even heard her say "Ooooh" in a very excited voice as she grabbed an item and placed it in her basket.  When I checked to see what it was, I saw the rubber bands!  Apparently, she was very eager to buy those.

Snowy Christmas

For our Christmas vacation this year, we travelled back to Europe and spent some time in Munich, Germany before heading out to Austria for a snowy Christmas.  Germany is my favorite country that I have ever been to, so it was natural to want to visit again to see the country decorated for Christmas.  We were not disappointed.  While in Munich, we went to many Christmas markets, and each one is fairly different from the next.  Our favorite was a medieval themed market where mulled wine was served in goblets, and we saw a small parade full of medieval characters.  We also visited plenty of beer halls where the atmosphere was family-friendly and full of Christmas cheer.  To top off the experience, we finally decided to buy some traditional German clothing to wear during the numerous times that we celebrate Oktoberfest (you'd be surprised how many times we wish we had had this before!).  Justin bought some lederhosen (leather knickers with suspenders), I bought drindl (think of a dress from Hansel and Gretl), and even Kaelia got a kinderdrindl (kid's drindl); they were sadly out of Taelyn's size, so we will look online to order one for her.

A nice surprise in Munich that we did not expect was that we got a chance to meet up with some old friends that we used to work with.  We were all posting on Facebook that we were in Munich for the weekend, so we contacted each other and got together.  We taught with one couple in South Africa, and then met up with a family that we worked with and knew very well in China.  What a small world!

After a few days in Munich, we crossed the border in to Austria and drove a couple of hours to a small mountain town called Obertraun.  This was a very cute, quiet, beautiful town, equipped with lots of wintertime activities.  When we first got there, they had not been any snow yet, and we were all very excited to see snow.  Taelyn was just a baby when she last played in snow, and Kaelia has never done so.  Our host at the B&B told us we could find some snow at the top of the Alps if we took a cable car, so that was our first adventure.  We even brought a sled with us so the girls could try it out!  The view was absolutely gorgeous and was especially nice as we went on a little hike along a trail.  Justin pulled the kids along on the sled from time to time, and they all went sledding any time we came across a steeper hill.  By the end of the hike, the girls even mustered the courage to sled by themselves.  They loved it!

Here was the girls' first downhill sledding experience

On Christmas day, it just started to snow, but it was not enough to partake in any outdoor activities.  For the morning, we spent time indoors as the girls found stockings from Santa and they exchanged gifts with each other.  ironically, they happened to buy each other the same type of gift!  Taelyn got her sister a big-eyed stuffed animal dog, and Kaelia got Taelyn a big-eyed cat.  They both did a great job thinking about what the other would like, and it was a heartfelt moment when they opened their gifts.  The girls also know that Santa would visit our house in Qatar once we got back.  After a relaxing morning, though, we headed out to an indoor water park where we had the perfect family outing to celebrate Christmas together.  The water park had a few water slides, a wave pool, a lap pool with diving boards, and kids pool playground, many heated pools and hot tubs, and even a pool that led to the outside where the snow fell down on our faces.

After Christmas day, the snow kept coming and coming.  We got to do all of the snowy activities that we were hoping.  First, we made a little snowman that the girls named Frosty.  Then we went for a hike through some snowy trails.  I had a nice time taking pictures of the family during this hike; Kaelia noticed this as asked if she could take a picture of Daddy and Mommy together since we didn't have any pictures with the two us.  Surprisingly, she took a perfect picture of us!

On one of our last days in Austria, we finally headed to the slopes for a day of skiing.  The girls spent a couple of hours in ski school where they got to practice the basics of going downhill while Justin and I attempted to make it down the mountain before their class was over.  This would have been no problem for Justin, but it was not the case for me.  It has officially been confirmed that I should never ski again!  I am the worst skiier on Earth and eventually took my skiis off on the last hill so that I could walk the rest of the way.  Aside from spending most of my time on the ground, though, we had a nice time, and the girls asked if they could try out ski school again in the future.

Of all the winter activities that we did, the girls really enjoyed a simple game of snowball fighting.  They thought it was hilarious to get Justin or me; whenever we walked somewhere in the town, the girls spent most of their time off to the side of the side walk, collecting more snow for more snowballs.  Overall, the girls were just fascinated with the snow.  When Kaelia wasn't throwing snowballs, she would just walk down the street with her mouth open so she could eat the snow!

We are so glad to have finally found the snow for a Christmas vacation and to share that experience with the girls.  It really was a fantastic trip!

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A Visit with Santa

Tonight we attended a Christmas party that one of the teachers in our company put together.  The girls put on their fancy holiday dresses and eagerly met some of their friends from school at the party.  It was also full of kids' crafts, a stocking scavenger hunt, and a catered dinner.  The highlight of the evening, however, was a surprise visit from Santa.  The girls were so excited to actually meet him in person.  Kaelia's exact quote was, "This is the first time I ever met Santa!"  Santa brought each child a present; our girls were so excited to open up a Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel doll.  Here are a few videos of when the girls got their gifts.

Taelyn gets a gift from Santa.

Kaelia gets a gift from Santa

Everyone opens their presents!

Merry Christmas from Qatar!

Christmas is Just Around the Corner

Christmas is full-blown in the Walker house as we prepare for the holiday season.  We started by decorating the tree at the start of the month followed by making some of our own keepsake ornaments.  The festive spirit was complete once the girls and I made and decorated Christmas cookies.  We are all excited now for the big day!

Kaelia's Big Swim

After weeks and weeks of swim lessons, Kaelia has finally decided to swim by herself in the big pool.  Ironically, she does not think she learned to swim from her lessons.  She was so excited to tell us today that Taelyn taught her!  Justin and I were encouraging her to jump in to the pool, but she refused and wanted arm floaties (which we no longer have any more).  Eventually, Taelyn convinced her to come in.  Once Kaelia was in the pool, she realized that she can, in fact, swim and float.  Instantly, she started coming up with different "tricks" to do, including the "Twist Sister" where she twists while jumping in to the pool.

Cannon Ball

Twist Sister

On another note, the girls both finished their swim lessons today.  Taelyn made some nice gains in her freestyle form.  Here is a brief video of her final swim at lessons.  The video isn't great because we are not supposed to use cameras at the pool, but you can get the idea.

Future Inventor

Today was "Job Day" in Taelyn's class at school as the students learn about the communities and the jobs around us.  So each child came to school dressed as the job that they would someday like to pursue in life.  Taelyn has changed her mind a bit since she said she wanted to be a museum curator last May.  For the last few months, she has come up with a series of invention ideas and has decided that she would like to be an inventor when she grows up.  She showed up at school in a make-shift inventor costume along with her inventor notebook with all of her ideas to invent someday.  Some of the inventions are actually really good ideas too.  Her most recent idea is the Freezerwave - a machine where you put food or drinks that you want to get cold quickly.  She explained it as the opposite of a microwave.  We have already encouraged her to think about getting a patent!  Here are a couple of the other ideas from her notebook.

The Plug Purse: a phone charger built in to a purse.

And our favorite ... The Butt Bra: a bra for a butt to keep it from jiggling!

Early Thanksgiving

This year, we planned on spending Thanksgiving with our next door neighbors and closest friends in Qatar, the McInnis's.  However, they will not be around next weekend, so we bummed up the festivities to this weekend.  We got together yesterday for a classic Thanksgiving feast and were all quite thankful that we could get the necessary ingredients here in Qatar.  I was even able to find whole cranberries!

The biggest highlight of the day, though, was the turkey trot.  Qatar obviously does not have its own
turkey trot race, and this was always one of our favorite parts of the holiday in the US, so I put together my own turkey trot for the kids.  It started off as a shuttle relay where the kids took turns running back and forth in front of our house.  Instead of handing off a baton to the next kid, they handed off the leash to their dog.  It was a pretty funny sight!  Then the kids all took one lap around the complex with the dogs and finished the run with a home made turkey trot medal.  All kids and dogs earned the reward!

Turkey Trot Relay

Turkey Trot Loop around the Neighborhood

Little Readers

Taelyn has really taken off with her reading this school year, and loves to read and write little booklets.  One day, she overheard Justin say that his stomach was hurting, and she decided that she wanted to do something nice for her day to make him feel better.  So she got Kaelia and I together and told us that she wanted us all to make a book for him.  After putting our hands together and yelling "Girl Power!" she directed us to the playroom to begin.  We all drew pictures on some paper, and then Kaelia and I went off to play together.  This was not good enough for Taelyn, however.  She continued to make more and more pictures.  Then folded the papers and turned them in to a book format and started to add text.  She then asked me how to spell a few words while she sounded out others, and before I knew it, she had created her own little book called Justin's Race.  Taelyn read her book to Justin afterward, and it certainly made his stomach feel better!

Taelyn's passion for reading books has also inspired Kaelia.  Tonight, in fact, Kaelia asked if she could read Taelyn's homework reading book.  I expected to read the book to her, but she took over right away and told me the title.  Then page by page, she read the words to me.  She sounded out some of the words that she didn't know and needed help with a few others, but for the most part, she read the entire book!  The more and more that she read, the more excited I got until Justin and Taelyn, who were reading on their own, heard the commotion and came over to watch Kaelia read too.  Taelyn was also helpful if Kaelia got stuck on a big word like "hungry."  What is amazing to me, though, is how Kaelia could pick up the skill of reading without any help from us or from school.  She has not been explicitly taught phonetic sounds, but she showed us tonight that she can sound out words and identify sight words.  I think she just takes in what her sister is learning and tries it out for herself.  We are so proud of her and of both of our little readers!

New Water Tricks

Since starting swimming lessons, the girls have taken more risks in the pool and learned a few tricks of their own.  First, Taelyn has been learning about the freestyle stroke, but she decided to see what would happen if she applied the same concept on her back.  Without even knowing it, she taught herself the backstroke.

Next, Kaelia has been more adventurous than ever in the pool and decided to practice somersaults.  One day, she just came up to me while swimming and told me to "watch this."  Then she just flipped over and over again!

Finally, the girls have also learned about swimming between someone's legs, and they love doing this.  Just recently, they started taking turns going through one another's legs, like a little game of leapfrog.

Halloween Doha Style

Today was a fairly eventful day as we discovered how to best celebrate Halloween in Doha.  Last weekend, I happened to find some pumpkins imported from the US, but they were about $35 for a very small pumpkin.  So we decided to get by without pumpkin carving this year.  Fortunately, they did get to partake in carving with the next door neighbors, but we also came up with our own activities.  Today, I woke up and found Justin making pumpkin-shaped pancakes for the girls.  Once he brought them to their plates, he took out a knife and started "carving" eyes, a nose, and a mouth out of the pancakes.  It was adorable!

After breakfast, the girls and I made Halloween crafts and hung them around the house.  In the afternoon, we went to a Halloween party where over 30 families got together to get in the Halloween spirit before trick-or-treating.  There were several games and prizes and even a piñata.  The girls had so much fun!

Next, we went with a group from the party to go trick-or-treating in the expat gated community where the party was.  All of the kids ran from house to house, excited to get more candy, and even more excited when they knew the people behind each door.  Kaelia was especially happy when she knocked on one door and found her teacher there, handing out candy!

Once we had had enough of walking around, we ended our night at another friend's house in the community for a little after party.  A Halloween movie was projected outside while the kids sat on the front lawn to watch.  It was the perfect ending to a great day.

Happy Halloween to everyone from Doha!

October Break in Doha

We just finished our first week-long break of the school year where we, unfortunately, were not able to travel any where.  The girls Qatari permits are still being processed, and we cannot leave the country until we have them.  On the bright side, the Jettners visited us from Saudi Arabia.  We are so lucky that our best friends from South Africa have now moved to Saudi and are just a 5-hour drive away!

The girls had a wonderful time playing with Arianna again, and we did several activities all together.  All three girls rode a gondola boat inside our Villagio Mall, we visited a local market (souq) where there were animals to hold and pet, street performances, and a bouncy castle area for the kids.  The souq had various festivities every day as a part of the big Muslin holiday, Eid.

We also went to the water park in Doha.  This was a great experience!  The kids enjoyed an incredible kiddie area with lots of different water slides as well as the wave pool and lazy river.  Then the adults traded off to take advantage of the thrill-seeking rides.  The weather was pretty hot at over 100 degrees, so the water was a nice relief.

After the Jettners left, we decided to try out a few things that Doha has to offer.  First, we took a dow boat out to see the city from a different view.  The captain of the boat played very loud music the entire time, and the girls did a lot of dancing along with it.

Next, we spent a day in the heart of the sand as we booked a dune-bashing trip.  A guide drove us up and down sand dunes and gave us quite a thrill.  At first, the girls asked if we were going to fall down the steep cliff of a dune, and we replied, "of course not .... we would flip over!"  But before we knew, the driver did, in fact, take us down the cliffs.  We all screamed and clung on to the door handles as hard as we could.  The girls kept yelling, "I don't think this is a good idea!" but on the driver continued. It was once of the scariest things I have ever done.

Halfway through the dune-bashing trip, the driver took us to a few sites.  We drove all the way to the Saudi Arabia border and then headed to the beach where we got to ride some camels.  The verdict from the girls was that the ride was very bumpy but fun.

Although we would have loved to have travelled during this break, we are so happy with what we did get to do, and we are especially grateful that we could get together with the Jettners!

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Our New House

We are finally feeling a little settled in our new home here in Qatar, so we decided to take a video of it to show everyone.  Our complex is brand new, and we are the first people to live in our house.  We were thrilled to arrive and find all new furniture and appliances as well.  The complex is small but perfect for us.  It has a small pool, weight room, games room, and playground.  Families live in every house, so there are plenty of kids for our girls to play with.  On most nights, our girls join the neighborhood kids as they ride their bikes outside after dinner on the street.

Here is the video of our house.

Kids Love Qatar

We have been telling the girls for months now about how Qatar is such a great place for kids.  Well since moving here, most of our time outside of school and our home has been shopping for home items, food, a car, and just about everything that a kid would find boring.  The girls were finally about to see more about what Qatar has to offer for kids this weekend.

On Saturday, we went to Disney on Ice.  This was a pretty big deal.  During our last month in South Africa, we noticed that the show was coming there, but it was in August when we wouldn't be there.  So when we saw posters for Disney on Ice in Qatar, we knew we had to get them.  The show was perfect for the girls.  Taelyn was absolutely stunned with the Ariel parts, with her jaw dropped to the floor and constant clapping.  Kaelia loved the entire show and paid particular attention to little details like which characters were not on the ice but should have been.  She was also full of smiles throughout the show.  Afterwards, the girls showed us their own ice skating moves while walking back to the car.

The fun continued today.  To celebrate the start of the school year, our company held a Back to School Fun Day with bouncy castles, face painting, animal balloons, popcorn, and cotton candy.  This reminded us all of South Africa where these types of activities were available often.  Needless to say, the girls had a great time.  As we drove home, Taelyn announced that Qatar really is a great place for kids!

Reading to Mom and Dad

In Taelyn's kindergarten class, she is already learning the basics of reading and brings home books to read to us every night.  For the first week, she seemed to simply memorize the books, but this week, she really is looking at the words on the page and reading to us!  Here is a video of her favorite book so far: Sam and Bingo.

Getting Settled

Since moving to Qatar, we are slowly getting our house and ourselves settled.  During the process, however, there have been a few interesting moments.  Here are some of them.

1. We arrived to our house with our shipment from South Africa sitting in our living room.  With jet-lag on our side, Justin unpacked their entire shipment during the first night.  Here was the damage.

2. Our housing complex states that each tenant must care for the back "yard" while the maintenance maintains the common areas.  As you can see in the picture, you really can't call this a yard, and it certainly is not worth buying a law mover over.  So Justin has resorted to using some good old fashioned bush trimmers!


3. In order to buy a car, we needed to either get a loan from the bank or pay in cash.  Unfortunately, the loan process a little more complicated than we had hoped, and we were running out of time to get the car that we wanted.  So, Justin and I each went to the ATM and withdrew our first pay checks.  Ironically, the ATM maximum cash amount is so large, that this could be done in one single trip!  We have never held this much cash in our lives and probably never will.

Kaelia's Big Swim

Kaelia has been getting braver and braver in the water now that we swim practically every day.  Many of the neighbor kids join us each night as well, and that has given Kaelia some inspiration to take off the arm floaties and jump in the big pool!  As of right now, she can swim for about 1-2 meters before starting to sink.  This should improve as we sign her up for swim lessons in the next couple of weeks.

First Days of School

The girls finished their first week of their new school today.  It was a pretty exciting week as a family because for the first time, we are all in the same building as one another!  It was an especially big week for Kaelia who started her first big girl school.  The girls love their teachers and have already formed some friendships in class.  They were fortunate to spend lots of time with the new teachers' children during the last three weeks as Justin and I attended our orientation to the school.  So as the girls roam the halls now, they see many familiar faces and are always saying hello to someone that they know.

The girls reported a couple of highlights of the week.  Taelyn loves music class - she really can't stop talking about it!  And Kaelia really likes playing dress-up with all of the great costumes in her classroom.  The best story of the week that I have heard, though, is that when the girls' classes overlap on the playground for recess, Taelyn and Kaelia are happiest playing with each other.

Despite the great things about starting a new school year, however, the school day is really long for them.  Classes go from 7am until 2pm everyday, and they are exhausted by the end!

Taelyn & Ms. Carole

Kaelia & Ms. H

Summer Sun

This year, we had an extra long summer because our new jobs didn't start until later, so we made time for several little excursions.  We had lots of time with family in Ortonville and then ventured off to the west side of the state to see friends and more family.

Throughout the month of June, the girls got lots of quality time with their grandparents as well as Uncle Joel.  They went to Jeepers, the wave pool, Huckleberry railroad, and many many playgrounds, pools, beaches, and splash pads.  Then we all went to Canada with our best friends from high school, Adam and Michelle, and their twin girls, Kayley and Ryley.

For July, we spent most of our time travelling around.  Justin and I took a trip without the kids to Mexico and beyond.  Then we headed over to the Grand Rapids area in Michigan to see Matt and Brandy.  The highlights of this part of the trip were taking the girls to the zoo and to Michigan Adventure.  We had an awesome time!  We even visited our best friends from South Africa who stay in Muskegon for the summer.

We stayed in Michigan for a couple of weeks in August before flying out to Qatar.  There we went up to Boyne Falls with my parents where the girls enjoyed the local waterpark, pools, and playgrounds.  Justin and I ended that part of the trip by staying alone in Traverse City for a couple of nights.  It was restful and nice.  Then we ended our stay in the US with a few more visits with Kate and Brad.

One of the highlights over the summer was that we got to bring our dog, Meeka, back to Michigan.  Since we are not coming back to South Africa, we flew her to the US, and then she will travel on to Qatar.  It was great to have our families get to know her, and the girls loved having their dog with them for some good snuggle times this summer!

The kids had a wonderful time with their aunts and uncles, cousins, and friends - although they did struggle with a lack of routine and their own home.  It is sad to say goodbye at the end of summer, but we are looking forward to our next adventure in Qatar!

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Taelyn's Big Week

This was a fairly exciting week for Taelyn as two major things happened.  First, she learned how to ride a big kid bike!  We visited our close friends from South Africa, the Jettners, who happen to spend their summers in Muskegon.  There, Taelyn was intrigued to learn that Arianna recently learned to ride a bike.  She Taelyn spent a good 30 minutes with Justin outside on the driveway and managed to get the basics!  Since then, she has practiced more and more on her cousin, Jayden's bike, and we will be purchasing a new bike for her to ship to Qatar.  Here is the footage of her first successful ride.

Later on in the week, Taelyn finally also lost her "wiggler."  She has had a very loose tooth for about 5-6 months, now and didn't really know how to help it along.  We have decided that her first lost tooth was probably an accident from falling down, so the idea of having a wiggler has been pretty new for everyone.  While staying at Matt and Brandy's, they encouraged her to wiggle it around even more with her tongue each day.  Then Matt finally suggested that she just grab the tooth with her fingers and pull it right out.  So that is exactly what she did!

That night, Taelyn made a little envelope for the Tooth Fairy, and decorated it with a heart and her name before slipping her little tooth inside.  The next morning, she woke up and came right to me so we could check under her pillow together.  Inside of her envelope was no longer a tooth, but a Tooth Fairy dollar covered in sparkles!  Taelyn was so excited to see the Tooth Fairy money and showed anyone and everyone that would listen.  As of right now, she doesn't want to spend the money on anything because she wants to keep the Tooth Fairy money, but we will see if this continues.  She does have another very loose wiggler right beside this latest lost tooth, so another visit from the Tooth Fairy is just weeks away.  Perhaps next time she will bring a Tooth Fairy Riyal (Qatar money)!

Kaelia's 4th Birthday Party

Today we celebrated Kaelia's 4th birthday with a small party at Jeepers.  This is one of the girls favorite places to go to during our trip to Michigan each summer, so it was fitting to have Kaelia's party here.  The theme was, of course, Disney's Frozen.

Kaelia started the party off with some great rides with her sister and cousin, Jacob.  The snake ride was definitely all of their favorite because it is the biggest roller coaster at Jeepers.  Other highlights were the wind tunnel and a twirly ride that all three of them rode together.  They had mixed feelings about those two experiences; first they squished each other on the twirly ride, and then the girls' hair blew in to Jacob's face during the wind tunnel.

The cake was a big hit amongst the girls with the two sisters from Frozen on top.  Afterwards, it was time to open presents.  Kaelia actually shared this part with Taelyn because the extended family brought gifts for her birthday that we celebrated in South Africa.  Both girls got some very nice gifts, and they had a great time.  Thanks to everyone for sharing in her special day!

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Kaelia - 4 Years Old

At four years old, Kaelia is now 37 lbs. and 40 inches tall.  She is full of personality, showing both a very sweet and loving side as well as a sensitive and angry side (particularly when in time out!).  There is also a super silly side to Kaelia's personality.  She loves to make us all laugh, and Taelyn finds her hysterical!  Most often, though, she is full of smiles, hugs, kisses, and snuggles.

Kaelia loves to play and use her imagination.  Some of her favorite things include playing with dollies (Disney Princess Barbie dolls), coloring and painting, dressing up, and reading books.  During a typical day, Kaelia will change her outfit at least four times!  She also loves going to playgrounds and could swing on the swings all day if someone was willing to push her for that long.  She does know how to pedal her own feet, but she prefers going higher when someone pushes her.

The latest and greatest topic of play for Kaelia is currently Disney's Frozen.  She knows all of the songs by heart, and her and Taelyn do a great job re-enacting some of the scenes - especially the opening scene where the sisters are kids.  Kaelia also has a favorite number: 12.  We are not really sure why this came about, but she brings up this number all the time.  If we tell her she has five minutes left of bath time, for example, she might respond with, "Um, how about 12?"

Kaelia is also understanding peer relationships more and more.  She likes to play off by herself, but also loves playing with others.  She is very close with the little girls in her class, although she sometimes misinterprets social situations and thinks that people are being mean when they are just making different choices than she would make.

At school, Kaelia has done very well developmentally.  She uses scissors, colors in the lines, can count and identify all her letters, and is even starting to work on her phonetic awareness.  Some of this is probably because her big sister is doing the same things in Pre-K, and Kaelia catches on very quickly to whatever her sister does.

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The Last Hurrah

As we prepare to leave South Africa in a couple of weeks, he are making sure we fit in one last time at some of the kids' favorite places.  This has included one last hair cut at Kiddo Cuts - the girls' favorite salon where they watch movies, color, get suckers and balloons, and, of course, get their hair cut. Here are their salon do's.

We have also gone to the Bird Gardens again, just a half a mile up the road.  In addition to seeing lots of birds and watching a great bird show, the girls also got their faces painted.

Next, we went to Old MacDonald's Farm where we saw some farm animals and played on the playground.

Then we visited the "big slide" where the girls took one last trip in intertubes down a huge incline.  This was the first time Kaelia would go on the tubes by herself because she has been a little scared in the past.  But this time, not only did she conquer that fear, but she was the first to put her hands up in the air on her way down the slide, and then convinced Taelyn to do it too.

Finally, over our last weekend in South Africa, we went out to various places in a Mini Cooper limo!  First, we took the girls around the block for a spin, and then the adults took over.  We spent the night with four other good friends - the people that we have been closest with during the last four years.  Of the six of us, four  moved to South Africa together, and five are now moving on to other countries.

Kaelia's Going Away Party

Yesterday was Kaelia's last day of school at her little South Africa preschool, so I arranged with her teacher to have a small going away party.  She shared the day with one of her best friends in the class, Luna, who also celebrated her last day.  The biggest highlight for Kaelia was baking cupcakes and decorating them in preparation for the party.  Kaelia was fantastic with the sprinkles, and had her own little system for getting the job done efficiently!

During the party,  Kaelia distributed her cupcakes to each kid in her class while Luna gave them cake that she brought in.  Then the class sang some songs and celebrated the two girls.  Kaelia had a wonderful time and was so excited to tell me all about it when I got home.  Here are some pictures from the day.

Cake & Cupcakes in Kaelia's Class

Kaelia with Teacher Philippa

Kaelia's Two Best Friends: Azile & Luna






We also received Kaelia's report card on Friday, and she did very well.  She is right on track with the grade-level skills even though she is at least a year younger than the other kids on the class.  We are so proud of our little Kaelia and so excited to have her come to our school with us next year in Qatar!

Graduation Day

Today was Taelyn's graduation from Pre-K, and the school put together a very nice ceremony.  The gym was decorated for the seniors' graduation from the weekend, so the Pre-Kers took advantage of the set-up for their graduation too.  The principal and school director even wore the robes from the senior graduation!  During the ceremony, the kids wore graduation caps, and in place of gowns, they wore their Daddy's large, white, button-down shirts with the sleeves rolled up.  It was adorable!

Taelyn was so excited for the day and even more excited to see Justin and I there.  Afterwards, there was a nice little party within her Pre-K classroom where we watched them perform songs.  Then each student announced what they wanted to be when they grew up.  Taelyn said she wanted to be a museum curator because she likes old things and wants to tell others all about them.

At the end of the party, the class said a final farewell to Taelyn because she is the only student in her class that is leaving this year.  She gave each of them a chocolate lollipop and said goodbye.  It was very sweet.

Taelyn truly has had the most amazing school year in Pre-K.  She had the best teacher we could ever hope for, and she loved absolutely everything about school.  She will certainly miss AISJ next year, but she is excited for new beginnings in Qatar.  We are so proud of all of her accomplishments this year and how much she has grown as a learner.  Here is a slideshow of Taelyn's entire school year.

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Thinking About What's to Come

We have been thinking more and more about our move to Qatar in the near future as well as our move out of South Africa.  With that, we have been talking about what we are excited about and what we will miss.  Here are everyone's Top 3 lists.

What we will miss about South Africa:

Justin - weather, running, beer
Sarah - weather, restaurants with playgrounds, African animals
Taelyn - Ms. Cate and her school, Pappachinos (her favorite restaurant with a great playground), dog park
Kaelia - "My Maria," our house, her school and friends

What we are excited about in Qatar:

Justin - focus on family, job, travel opportunities
Sarah - job, having both kids at school with us, travel opportunities
Taelyn - "circus" in the mall, water park, making new friends
Kaelia - riding camels, going to school with us, our new house

Kaelia's First Crush

Kaelia had her first taste of romance this past weekend and she developed her first crush for a boy.  She got along very well with Jacob, the 7 year-old boy that came with us to Nottingham Road.  It started off with all four of the kids playing together: Taelyn, Kaelia, Arianna, and Jacob.  But before long, Jacob and Kaelia formed a little bond and liked hanging out together.  One night, they sat together in the car, and Kaelia even leaned over to give him a kiss!  He told him mom that night that he really liked Kaelia because she kisses him.

The next morning, Justin walked in to the room and said hello to the girls.  Kaelia stopped him, though, and said, "Dad, you didn't say hi to Jacob."  He promised her that in the future, he would always be nice to her boyfriends!

Although Kaelia liked playing with Jacob, she still did play with all of the kids throughout the weekend.  I don't think the relationship will be long-lived, but it was pretty cute!