Taekwondo & T-Ball

Taelyn just wrapped up her first sessions of both Taekwondo and t-ball.  To conclude this term in Taekwondo, she completed some testing and was awarded her first belt!  Taelyn is now an orange belt and is eager to keep working her way up.  I obviously didn't get some great shots of her moves, but here is a general idea of a couple of them.

Then today was her final t-ball game.  When the players were up to bat, the coaches attempted to throw a pitch a few times first, and then if the child needed it, they brought in the tee.  Taelyn was able to hit on her own one of the three times that she was on bat.  She tried her very best batting and did a great job running the bases.

Daisies' Camping Trip

Kaelia is a part of the Girl Scout's Daisies group in New Delhi this year, and we just got back from her first camp outing which was shared with several Delhi Cub Scout troops.  Here we rented a tent and enjoyed various activities at a camp, including a ropes obstacle course, rock climbing, and a hike.  Taelyn also got to come along, and both girls loved the ropes course the best.

Kaelia practices the Heimlich.

During the day, Kaelia earned a camping badge for setting up our beds and helping cook dinner overthe fire in the evening.  She also earned a health and safety badge for learning the Heimlich Maneuver; stop, drop, and roll; and my phone number as well as tips to follow if she ever gets lost.

At night, we were responsible for cooking our own food over the campfire.  Unfortunately, some stray dogs got into our tent while we were at the ropes course and ate our food!  All the other scouts graciously gave us some of their food, however, so we were still able to cook and eat.  Then we all roasted marshmallows and had smores and ended the campfire with skits, songs, and jokes.  Each troop presented their own performance;  Kaelia's troop sang "The Ants Go Marching" while Taelyn was able to join in one some of the Cub Scout's skits.

A Day at the Animal Shelter

Our Elf on the Shelf, Rosie Bell, challenged the girls with their first good deed yesterday: a trip to the animal shelter to bring love and joy to all of the animals there.  Our school actually organized this trip for anyone interested in going, so Justin went with the girls and a few other families.  The girls were so excited to go!

At the shelter, the girls had lots of time to play with the cats and dogs. They really loved one particular dog there with a funny tail and spent quite a bit of time with him.  They also fed and pet a donkey and ponies while they were there.  The Christmas spirit is now certainly in bloom!

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Getting Ready for Christmas

We officially started getting ready for Christmas this week, beginning with the tree.  As I put up the lights, the girls were patiently waiting so they could put up the ornaments.  To pass the time, they ended up putting together a cute little Christmas skit and used tissue papers from the Christmas box to complete Santa's beard.  After the performance, the decorating began.  Taelyn was excited because it was her turn this year to put up the star, and she didn't need any of us to help her the entire time.


On December 1st, the girls woke up and found their own advent calendar waiting for them on the couch, filled with chocolates for each day until Christmas.  Along with the calendars, they also received their very own Elf on the Shelf!  We read the story together to learn more about this elf, and gave her the name Rosie Bell before heading off to school.  By the time the girls came home, Rosie Bell had left them a note, thanking them for the name and telling them a little bit about herself.  She is visiting until Christmas to spread the love and joy of Christmas and to help our family do good deeds for others.  We are excited to see what Rosie Bell has planned over the next few weeks!

Thanksgiving at the Beach

We just got back from an amazing beach vacation in Goa, India which was a perfect ending to a wonderful Thanksgiving week.  We have a lot be thankful for!

For the first full day of our trip, we spent some time at our hotel, Beleza by the Beach, enjoying the beach, body surfing in the waves, sea shell hunting, and then at the pool.  This was actually Thanksgiving, so we went out for a nice dinner at Martin's Corner - a really fun restaurant with great ambiance and food.  Justin and I even had lobster and king prawns for dinner, and we all picked out our own decedent dessert!  It was a fantastic Thanksgiving meal.

The next day, we book a few tours.  First, we took a crazy jeep ride to a trail that led us to a waterfall.  The water was too cold to go swimming, but we went in a little bit for some pictures.  Taelyn was most excited about the huge boulders and trees around to climb, and Kaelia especially liked the monkeys that came by.  We even got to feed them!  After the waterfall, we went on a spice tour to learn about various Indian spices that are locally grown, followed by a nice lunch.  To top off the day, we had an "elephant shower" where we sat on an elephant's back in a river, and the elephant splashed us with water from its trunk.  Taelyn and Justin went together and absolutely loved the experience.  Kaelia went with me and quickly asked to get off because there was so much water dumped on us at a time.  It was quite an experience!

For the rest of the vacation, we spent more time at the beach and pool and enjoyed other restaurants and fantastic seafood.  It was an awesome trip with some great quality family time.

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Turkey Time

This year was the biggest celebration we have probably ever had for Thanksgiving, and much of the week was turkey, turkey, turkey!  First, we had a huge Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday with most of the teachers and their families at the school.  People brought their own side dishes or desserts, and our school catering team cooked turkeys imported from the US.  We have never seen so many people and food come together for this holiday.  Tables were decorated by 2nd grade students from class that day, crafts were spread throughout the center floor for kids to work on, and rows and rows of tables were set up for people to sit together and feast.  The evening was filled with great company and delicious food.

The next day, the running club got together to run the Turkey Trot.  This is not like the local 5k races scattered throughout the US on Thanksgiving.  Instead, we ran a route that was in the shape of a turkey!  It was the most unique run Justin and I have gone on and a great way to continue to think turkey.

This is our running route, shaped like a turkey.












Here is the whole group on the Turkey Trot.






That night, our family took a flight to Goa, India for a relaxing trip to the beach.

Delhi Half-Marathon

For the first time since before Taelyn was born, Justin and I got to run a race together in the Delhi Half-Marathon.  Another teacher at the school joined us, and the three of us teamed to see how fast we could run despite our sporadic training.  Since Diwali, the air pollution has not been great, and we do our best to still train, be it through the gym where there is filtered air or outside with face masks on.  Safety first is the motto around here!

Needless to say, we also ran with our masks on during the race - a concept that hasn't quite caught on among the locals but is getting more and more press now.  I even made the Hindu Times newspaper in an article to spread awareness about how people are choosing to wear masks because the air quality is poor.

In the end, we were happy with our times, though nothing special.  I did, however, come in 4th place for my age group, just two minutes away from winning prize money.  Maybe next year!

Beautiful Nepal

For the Diwali long weekend, we traveled to Nepal for a beautiful, relaxing getaway where we spent most of the time staring at the mountain.  We first flew into Kathmandu, spent one night, and got up early the next day to take a flight of Everest.  The mountains were amazing, and when we came upon Everest, we got to take pictures from the cockpit.  Justin was in awe.  Even Taelyn was excited and insisted on taking lots of her own pictures and videos.

Taelyn's Video from the Cockpit

After the flight, we did some shopping downtown for a few hours and then headed up the mountains to a town called Nagarkot, just over an hour away.  Here we were directly in the Himalayan foothills with spectacular views of the great peaks from our balcony and from the hotel restaurant.  Every night and every morning, people gather on the rooftop to watch the sun set and rise over the mountains.

In Nagarkot, we went for a family hike each morning on a winding forest trail and enjoyed the fall season - especially since we don't usually get to experience fall in warmer climates.  The girls did great on their hikes; Kaelia especially loves going on hikes with her family!

One of the highlights of the trip was the evening of Diwali.  We decided to stop in a very local restaurant - a two room hut with a bedroom on one side, and the kitchen and tables on the other side for the restaurant.  Justin and I sat down for a terrible tasting beer while the girls interacted with the two little boys that lived there and their chicken.  Eventually, other local children came by with a guitar and performed songs outside of the restaurant as a part of the Diwali celebrations.  It is a tradition in Nagarkot that groups of children go around from door to door singing, and they usually make some tips along the way.  We all got into the festive spirit and danced along with the children.  Once they left, the owner of the restaurant put on more music so the dancing could continue.  It was a unique and culture experience that we are so glad we got to be a part of.

The weekend was a perfect combination of rest, relaxation, and outdoor enjoyment.  We will definitely come back to Nepal again!

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Tour of our New Home

Our apartment is finally ready for a little tour!  Here is a video of our place, followed by a video that Justin made of campus.  We live in faculty housing directly on campus, off to the side of the school facilities.  Faculty share our own playground common space as well as some smaller grassy areas.  We also have access to the pool just about any time, and the middle school field opens up to our dog park before and after school.

We live in a three bedroom apartment with a small back patio.  We haven't done anything with the patio space yet, and it is in dire need of some gardening, but we'll get there.  Then there is a gate that opens up to the common areas: to the right is a small grassy area that Meeka likes to go to every day, and to the left is our garden area.  The faculty playground is only about 100 meters away, and the pool is about 50 meters away.

Our Apartment

Campus Tour

As you can see from the videos, there are a lot a natural rock formations scattered throughout campus and our home.  A famous Indian architect designed the school and campus and wanted to preserve the natural rock to make it a part of the overall aesthetics.  The girls love this aspect of campus.  They have rocks to play on during recess time among the rest of the playground, and we also have rocks directly outside our apartment that they climb all the time.

Early Halloween Celebrations

This weekend was full of Halloween fun as we celebrated the holiday a week early.  Next weekend is actually Diwali, and our school gets a long weekend where most faculty families travel.  Therefore, we had our on-campus trick-or-treating on Friday of this week.  Then the school-wide Fall Fiesta was on Saturday.

We started the festivities with a potluck dinner on Friday at the faculty playground.  Kids came together for some food and pictures and were then sent off door to door once it was dark outside.  Parents quickly ran to their apartments to prepare for children to stop by.  Justin passed out candy after making our entrance extra spooky, and I ran around and took pictures.  This is the first time I didn't have to walk around with the girls because we they were completely safe on their own on campus.

Kaelia had a wonderful time walking around with her good friend, Simrin, at a slow and steady pace.  They didn't make it to all of the apartments and didn't even get that much candy, but that had an awesome time together.  Taelyn ran around with Sophie and Bella, the vampire twins, and made to all of the apartments three times before stopping.  They got a lot of candy and were eager to count everything and negotiate trades at the playground afterward.

The next day was Fall Fiesta on our main sports turf field.  This is the main fundraiser for all high school clubs, so each year the high school students prepare and run various booths with games.  The entire event consisted of bouncy castles, games, food, live music, a haunted house, and high end raffle drawings.  The girls went around from game to game, winning tickets for prizes at the end.  Their favorite game was "Prison" where they had to run around in a room behind bars and try to escape from the high school students that were in charge.  Taelyn crawled under a table to get out while Kaelia actually slipped through the bars.

After games and dinner, the girls were eager to try out the haunted house.  Unfortunately, it was a little too realistic, and they did not enjoy it.  We will not visit it again next year!  But we did end the evening on a positive note as we hung out on the turf, listening to the music and the raffle drawing.  We didn't win anything, but we did have a great time.

Happy Halloween!

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First Family Garden

Every year, the on-campus teachers set aside a plot of land for their families to develop their own gardens.  This is something the girls have wanted to do for a couple of years, but there was no way to grow plants in our back yard in Qatar.  Now we have officially started our very first family garden - and really the first garden that Justin and I have ever had outside of childhood.

We first attended a garden kick-off party and begin the planting.  Kaelia chose to plant carrots while Taelyn chose mini pumpkins - both of which are questionable about whether they will successfully grow here.  I then planted numerous items, hoping that something will sprout.  Amongst that group are lettuce, basil, rocket, cilantro, green beans, and eggplant.

To top off the party, we were also given a sign to take home and paint as a representation of our personal plot.  We chose to name our garden the "Walker's Weeds" which seemed fairly fitting for a while.  We certainly have some plants sprouting up, but many of them were weeds.  Unfortunately, I couldn't really tell the different between weed and plant, but after a few tips from other gardening teachers, we are getting on our way!

So far, we have some basil, rocket, green beans, and carrots developing quite nicely.  It also looks like one of Taelyn's mini pumpkins may be growing as well as a few sprouts of cilantro and lettuce that are beginning to form.

Kaelia's Carrots

Taelyn's Pumpkin

Oktoberfest in India

Every year, we get pretty excited about Oktoberfest, and we were pleased to learn that India does not disappoint.  We first celebrated the holiday at the American Embassy who put up a large tent, offered German food and beer, played live music, and led various Oktoberfest games.  Our teachers put together a few teams for some of the games and either came in first or second play each time!

A couple of weeks later, the brewers that live on campus hosted our own faculty Oktoberfest.  Justin included, all of the brewers dressed up in Lederhosen and set up tables with their home brews and labels.  Justin decided to call label his brewing company The Stray Dog because there are a lot of stray dogs around here and his brewing style is a little wild like them.  We also had plenty of sausages on the grill for the evening and lots of variations of potato salad amongst other types of food.  It was a great night!

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10K in India

I had my first racing experience in India today where several of the teachers and members of our running club entered into a 10K.  The race was held about 1.5 miles away from campus, so it was really convenient to jog over there this morning.  The race sponsors also hosted a little dancercise warm-up just before the race which was more entertaining than anything, and then the race was off.  There were not many girls up toward the front of the race, and I caught the only female ahead of me before the halfway point.  Then an Indian man ran with me for the next 5K, and when he started to fall off the pace, he said to me several times, "Madam slow," trying to ask me to slow down so we could finish the race together!  I did not slow down and finished the race shortly after as the first female and third person overall.  My time was not great, but it was a firm effort and a fun event!

Long Weekend in Dharamsala

We just came off of a three-day weekend where we traveled up into the mountains of Dharamsala, India and had a lovely time.  We stayed in a hotel up in the mountainside, full of beautiful views of the town and countryside - although it is now rainy season, so the afternoons were quiet foggy and rainy.  From the balcony of our hotel, we were actually able to see the residence of the Dalai Lama which was only about 150 meters away.  One day we walked over the residence and walked around to see the grounds where the Dalai Lama lives, works, and prays.  He happened to be in Belgium this weekend, so we unfortunately could not see him, but it was still need to see the home.

The biggest highlight of the trip was our hike to the Baragsunag Waterfall.  We walked for about two miles through the winding mountain roads and up a path to get to the site. Along the way, we came across lots of stray dogs, monkeys, and enormous cows.  Once we got the pathway, a couple of goats walked alongside us, and the girls were able to pet them as they went.  We finally made it to the waterfall, and it was beautiful. We all took off our socks and shoes to stand in it, and the girls even wore their bathing suits and attempted to swim.  The water was absolutely freezing, so there wasn't much swimming involved, but Taelyn was daring enough to go under for a second.  After drying off, we hiked up to the top of the falls and then made our way back to the hotel.

During our last morning in Dharamsala, we also hiked to St.John's of the Wilderness - an old, gothic-style Catholic church tucked into the mountains, surrounded by the forest.  On the church grounds was a very old cemetery with graves covered in moss.  The entire property felt like it was straight out of the beast's castle in Beauty and the Beast.

When we weren't hiking and seeing sights, we spent the rest of our time shopping and hanging out on the balcony of our hotel restaurant.  The shopping was amazing: lots of small tourist shops with jewelry, scarves, Tibetan-style items, and outdoor gear.  We ended up buying a lot of North Face items at a fraction of the cost in the US.  The girls also got some very cute sweater tops and hats.  After shopping, we went to the restaurant balcony for meals and played a lot of Farkle as we looked out over the beautiful mountain view.  It was a lovely weekend!

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Busy Days

Life is getting quite busy at our school now as Justin and I start leading after school activities, the girls start their activities, and we all still manage to attend social events.  Justin is now co-leading the rock climbing club and the adult volleyball league.  He also has numerous counselor-related nights with parents and students.  This week, for example, he had Senior Night on Wednesday.  I am now co-leading writer's club, the writing lab, I am the 11th grade "Home Base" coordinator, and I just joined an adult book club.  Both of us are also in the adult running club.

The girls have their own schedules too.  Taelyn is now in soap and candle making, magic club, gymnastics, and t-ball.  Kaelia is in chocolate making, Taekwondo, and gymnastics.  And next week, we will attend a meeting about Girl Scout's to see if the times fit with our schedules.

On a more social note, we often have happy hours, social events at the American, Australian, or Canadian embassy, and spend a lot of time with other families at the pool.  There is never a dull moment here!

Even though we have so much going on, though, we don't feel overwhelmed at all.  Justin and I love our jobs and the students, and the girls are so happy with their teachers, new friends, activities, and our nanny.  And despite the business, we still manage to have family time together every night.  Life is good!

Staff Retreat in Neemrana

Our school organizes a staff retreat each year, mostly for new faculty, but is also welcome to any faculty and families at the school.   We traveled a couple of hours outside of Delhi this past weekend into the rural area of Neemrana.  Amongst a very local village, our hotel was set along a hillside, and it was once an old fortress and palace.  The hotel was beautiful where each room was unique from the next.  Our room happened to be two floors, a bedroom and bathroom on each floor.  To get downstairs, there was a winding staircase with a long braided rope that reminded us of Rapunzel's hair hanging from the ceiling as something to hold on to as we made our way down the steep clay steps.

Much of our weekend was spent with other families from the school around the pool.  Justin and I also went zip-lining through the hillside.  We also took a great family hike through the countryside to the step well where locals once collected their supply of water long ago.  We walked the stairs to the bottom and admired the architecture of the old building and the birds.  During our hike to and from the well, we also came across lots of wildlife.  Some of the highlights were camels, peacocks, cows, and piglets (the girls loved them the most).

On Saturday, we attended a dance show at the hotel where Indian dancers performed by balancing objects on their heads and interacted with the crowd; we even had flower petals sprinkled on each of our heads during the show.  The girls loved the show and are really embracing all that they can learn about the Indian culture.

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First Day of School - 2016

Today was officially the first day of school at our new school.  Kaelia is now entering in to 1st grade, and Taelyn is in 2nd grade.  They both had wonderful days, meeting their teachers and getting to know new friends.  Kaelia's teacher is Ms. Ruebush, and Taelyn has Mr. Rob - both of which seem to very nice fits for each of our girls.

At the end of the day, both girls were all smiles with positive energy and information to report.  Kaelia said she played with a new friend named Sasha while Taelyn said she has a new best friend (already) but couldn't remember her name.  Taelyn also reported that there is boy at her table who "cares very deeply" about making sure his paint colors to do mix with one another.  The best part of the day, however, was apparently lunch.  Both girls loved the lunch and can't wait for tomorrow when they get frozen yogurt.

Our Welcome to India

After over 30 hours of travel, we have finally made it to New Delhi, India.  We met up with several other new teachers and their families at the airport by the administrators at the school who greeted us with flower leis.  We were then taken to campus to our new apartment.  In the walkway to our front door, we found beautiful decorations on the floor, made out of colored rice.  At first we didn't even notice that it was rice because it was so pristine.

Our new teacher orientation started the next day at lunch time, but with jetlag, we were awake before 4am.  After a few hours, we found the campus pool and took the girls for a little swim.  However, it wasn't long before we experienced our first Indian creatures.  There were some bright yellow wasps flying around the pool, and Kaelia grabbed a nearby rope to keep herself afloat that happened to have some of the wasps around it.  She was instantly stung which ended pool time and began a massive swelling on Kaelia's wrist.  She got over it a day later, but it was an interesting start to our first day!

During orientation, it was wonderful to get to know the other new teachers and learn a bit about India.  The school even put together a little expo (called mela in India) to show us more about the Indian culture.  At the mela, we attended stations to learn more about fashion, beliefs, travel, holidays, clothing, art, and food.  They had some delicious samples of Indian food, and we left with free bags of artwork and bangles (bracelets).  There was even a henna station which the girls and I definitely took advantage of.

It has been a wonderful first week to India.  We are learning more and more about the culture, and we cannot believe how kind everyone is.  The people here have gone above and beyond to help us and make us feel welcome.  We are really hoping that the girls embrace this culture and behaviors as it is such a contrast from our last two years in Doha.

Summertime Fun

It's time to say goodbye to another fun summer in the USA.  Our time here was quite short this year because of the timing from leaving one school and starting at another with a slightly different calendar, but that did not stop us from fitting in some awesome time with friends and family.

Just after the 4th of July, we flew down to Florida for a week where we spent time in Orlando and Vero Beach.  Uncle Joel first met us in Orlando for a few days where we hit up the two parks at Universal Studios.  Because we stayed in a Universal resort hotel, we were given an hour early admission to the Harry Potter parts of both parks.  This privilege made such a difference!  On day one, we rode all of the Harry Potter rides several times, got some butter beer and pumpkin juice, and watched a little demonstration about wands at Olivanders.  Then we visited the rest of the as it just opened for the rest of the public.  Most rides were about a 5-10 minute wait, and we rode everything by noon!  We all found the Harry Potter rides awesome, but we also liked the Riptide Falls water ride, Spiderman and the King Kong ride.  King Kong is new and only open for an hour a day to test it out; we happened to get on during that hour, and it was really worth it!  We also enjoyed the Jurassic Park ride, although Kaelia did not like when T-Rex almost ate us at the end.

The next day, we went to Harry Potter at the other park to ride the Gringott's ride and then ventured over to the rest of the park.  The highlights here were the Mummy, Transformers, and the Simpsons ride and part of the park.  Justin and Joel even enjoyed a Duff beer at Moe's while the girls tried their luck at the Love Tester!  Kaelia got a rating of Casanova while Taelyn got Dead Fish.  Before leaving the park, Uncle Joel allowed the girls to each pick out something as a gift.  Kaelia chose a stuffed animal cat, and Taelyn chose a new wand from Harry Potter.  She couldn't decide which wand to get, so the saleslady asked her about her personality and showed her the wand that would match.  Taelyn was sold and then went off the various parts of the park where she could wave her wand and say a spell, and then "magic" would happen.  It was a unique experience and a fun way to end our time at Universal Studios.

For the rest of our time in Orlando, we swam at the pool at our resort and then went an escape room one evening where we had an hour to find gold in the old West.  Even the girls helped find clues, and we got out in time with no problem.

After Orlando, we went to Vero Beach to see our great friends from high school, Adam and Michelle.  All of our kids had a wonderful time together swimming in the pool, going to the beach, playing mini golf, and getting lots of ice cream!  It was a wonderful and relaxing visit.

Our other big trip of the summer was to the west side of Michigan where we went to Michigan Adventure with Uncle Matty's family and the Jettner's and then on to the Jettner's lake house.  Michigan Adventure was a blast - they had rides and waterslides for every age.  Taelyn and Jayden liked some of the more extreme rides while Kaelia and Ari preferred the milder rides.  At the lake house, we spent a lot of time tubing, kayaking, jet skiing, and hanging out. It was a great way to end the summer.

In between these visits, the girls had plenty of cousin time with Jacob and Riley and quality time with Grandma and Grandpa Pepera and Walker - including camping for a night with Grandma Walker.  They also started the summer off with a week-long day camp; Taelyn went to Harry Potter camp, and Kaelia went to Barbie dream camp.  We really had a nice time seeing everyone again and enjoying summer activities.  Now we are on to our next adventure: India!

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Frankenmuth 4th

One of our favorite places to spend the 4th of July at is the Frankenmuth Volkslaufe where they hold a German-American festival of music, food, and running races.  This year, both of our parents joined us along with the girls, who ran their first Volkslaufe races this year.

After living in Doha for two years, Justin and I were not in the best shape, but we attempted to put in a little speed over the last month to try to secure an age group award in the 5K.  Justin ran significantly faster than expected and came away with 2nd place in his age group.  I didn't run any kind of special time, but it was the best I could have hoped for that day and good enough to win the age group.

After our victories, we hopped in the 2K fun run with the kids.  Justin ran with Taelyn who ran the entire distance and had quite the kick in the end.  She loved the race and wanted to run fast!  I ran with Kaelia who had a great time talking with me and enjoying the atmosphere,  She did not want to run fast and she took breaks, but she was very proud of herself after each running segment for persevering through the tough times!

One of the best parts of the Volkslaufe is the awards ceremony.  We all got a German-themed lunch of brats or roasted chicken while an oompah band played music in lederhosen and drindl.  When Justin and I were called up for our awards, we were given German beer steins as our prize and took them straight to the beer tent for a free fill of German beer.  It was a great day and a great combination of my two favorite countries.  Happy 4th!

Weekend in Traverse City

It felt like summer officially began this past weekend as Justin and I drove up to Traverse City with our good friends, Dave and Helen, for an adults-only weekend.  We stayed in a rental house in downtown Traverse where we could walk to many restaurants, breweries, trails, and the big lake.  On our first full day, we went wine tasting and enjoyed lots of tasty samples as well as the ambiance of each place.  To top off the day, we went on a biking/kayaking/brewery tour.  It was a lot of fun!  First we biked to two different breweries to try out some of their best beers and then hopped in kayaks to paddle to the last three places.

The next day, we went to the sand dunes and hiked a couple of miles to view the water.  Afterward, we went to Glen Arbor to visit Cherry Republic for lunch.  We loved the cherry-themed food and then took advantage of their cherry beverage tasting building where they had cherry sodas and wines.

Other highlights from the weekend were a game of mini golf and Pirate's Cove, a midnight game of wiffle ball in the street outside our house, and Helen won the game of Farkle for the first time!  Justin and I also celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary on Sunday.  Overall, we had a fantastic weekend of good friends, exercise, food, and drink.

Kaelia's New Look

Look who just got her ears pierced!  Kaelia made the decision a few months ago to get her ears pierced at Claire's this summer, so we decided to get the job done right away this summer.  Kaelia was really nervous leading up to the piercing.  When it actually happened, though she scrunched her face and said a simple, "It hurts," but after about 10 seconds of holding her in my arms, she already saw Taelyn looking at lots of fun toys and earrings in the store and asked me to put her down to look around too.  She was back to herself instantly, forgetting that her ears were just poked with a needle.  Fortunately, she was able to get both ears pierced at once, so the pain was not drawn out.

Here is Kaelia's new look.  She chose My Little Pony Rainbow Dash earrings which was no surprise to any of us and even matches her shirt in the picture!

Goodbye Qatar

After months and months of preparing for our next move, the time has finally come to say good by to Qatar.  Although we won't miss much about the country, we will miss the people that we have formed close relationships with during our time here.  He said our goodbyes to everyone over the last couple of days and had an especially hard time during our final moments with our nanny, Jen, and our Doha best friends and next door neighbors, the McInnis family.

Final Farewell to Jen

Goodbye McInnis Family

Now we are off for a quick but jam-packed summer in the US and then on to India.  It truly does feel liberating to be moving on, and we are so grateful for our next adventure!

Waiting for the Driver to Take Us to the Airport!

School Year Recap

The girls both had a very successful school year this year in kindergarten and 1st grade.  Here are some highlights for each.

Taelyn:
Taelyn really excelled in her reading, writing, and public speaking this year.  She loves to write her own stories and illustrate the pictures for them.  She is very creative in both her storytelling and drawings.  One of our favorite stories is Dog vs. Pig where the two animals prepare to fight head to head and we never find out who wins.  She even wrote a sequel to this story, but the readers are still left with a cliffhanger about who will win.

In reading, Taelyn is at a PM reader score of 21 which is an end of 2nd grade/beginning of 3rd grade reading level.  She has been trying out different chapter books throughout the year but struggles to find the perfect book that meets both her interests and reading level.  She often brings home books that are a bit too hard but is passionate to read them.

Taelyn has also been a key speaker in her class, delivering several speeches and often leading small groups.  Her best work in this area was when she had to research thunder and lightning, create a poster, and deliver a speech to a 2nd grade class.  This was supposed to be a project with a partner, but her partner was absent for most of the time, so Taelyn stepped up her responsibility and did the entire project on her own.

In math, Taelyn has learned single digit addition and subtraction and moved on to basic single + double digit addition.  She was very motivated to try out speed tests to see how fast she could complete some math problems.

Taelyn really did well in all of her academics this year.  At the end of the year awards ceremony, she was recognized for being one of only three students in the school to complete the library reading bingo challenge.  She even won the Academic Excellence Award as the top student in her class!  We are so proud of her.

Taelyn's favorite classes this year were Music, Art and Cultural Studies.  Her best friend was still Dana from last year while she also was close friends with Sonia.

Kaelia:
Kaelia did very well with her reading and analysis skills this year.  She is now reading at a PM level 15 which is at the end of a 1st grade reading level.  She does especially well using reading strategies and phonics with words that she doesn't know.  She often surprises us by reading

words and sentences that we would never expect her to be able to read.  Halfway through the school year, Kaelia was pulled out of her class during reading time to meet with other students that are at a higher reading level to help her continue to grow.  She even ended up winning the Class Reader award at the end of the year!

During her units, Kaelia was very descriptive and observant in dissecting and analyzing class content.  She did particularly well in her art unit where she interpreted art in multiple unique ways.  She is also quick to answer questions and help other students when they don't understand concepts.

Perhaps Kaelia's favorite part of school, however, is the social side.  She loves hanging out with her friends in class and on the playground and feels like she belongs with her peers, teachers, and all staff members.  She knows all of the teacher helpers and cleaning ladies and is quick to include them when thinking about the adults that she is thankful for at school.  It is a beautiful trait that she has developed!

Kaelia's favorite time of day was recess where she could play with her friends.  Her best friends were Ghalia and Maren while she also played with Mesim, Nada, and Alya.  She frequently draws pictures of herself with Ghalia and Maren and writes down BFF on the paper.

Below is a photo recap of the school year.

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