Morning Assembly

Today was pretty special because Kaelia and her two best friends were chosen to read a book out loud to the entire school at the morning assembly.  Kaelia, Maren, and Ghalia read No, David and did a great job.  We are so proud of Kaelia and her friends!  Here is a portion of the reading.

Youtube Sensations

The girls are currently very in to Kids Youtube.  Kaelia especially loves it!  She will often choose to spend her screen time watching videos of how to make My Little Ponies out of Playdoh and other How-To films from kids around the world.  She really wants to start her own Youtube channel and asked me to record her first film.  She also grabbed Taelyn to be an actor, and Taelyn took her job so seriously that she ended up as two of the three characters (four if you include Meeka) in the show.  Without rehearsing ahead of time, here is what they came up with.  Pay attention to Kaelia's "Youtube" voice as she introduces the show!

Coronation Day

Changes for T

Taelyn has experienced a few changes over the last couple of days.  She lost another tooth over the weekend, and we joked that she has now lost seven teeth by time she turned seven years old.  She was very excited to get a visit from the Tooth Fairy while we were in Dubai and knew exactly what she wanted to spend her money on.  Taelyn has had her eyes on a very large, blingy necklace at Claire's lately, so she finally now had enough money saved up to buy it.

Today, Taelyn also got glasses!  We took her to the eye doctor last week and found that she needs glasses to wear all the time with the hopes that her vision will improve over the next year.  She immediately picked out a pair of glasses that she loved and has been really excited to pick them up.  We finally got them today along with her new necklace.

In Taelyn's words, I now give you the new and improved Taelyn of 2016!

Cross Country in the Middle East

Justin and I had a pretty interesting experience today as we took a few of our students to a cross country meet in Qatar.  When we got to the school that hosted the meet (an hour away from Doha which was on the opposite border of Qatar), we soon found that the course was simply a circle marked off by cones, literally in the middle of the sandy desert.  Students toed the line and took off in the sand until they reached the finish line 2 km later.  The course was certainly different than we are used to.  To get an idea of the conditions, I took some pictures of our neighbor, Keira during the 6th grade race and then some pictures of the races in general.

The start of the 6th grade girls' race

Keira (maroon) competes alongside pipes to the oil refinery.

Justin coaches the races from the oil pipe.

Runners from afar in the desert

Runners amongst desert terrain

Weekend in Dubai

Justin ran the Dubai marathon this weekend, and we decided to all go as a family and make a trip out of it.  The girls and I headed to the finish line as Justin ended his race.  After some bouncy castle fun, we watched him finish in 3:28 - not bad considering his running has been pretty awful in Qatar and he only ran two miles this past week.

Later that day, we went to the Dubai Mall for some ice cream at the Ice Cream Lab.  The shop is set up like a science lab, and the workers make the ice cream from scratch.  It has a chemistry feel to it as steam fills the area while each scoop is created.  Afterward, we viewed Dubai Aquarium and then went outside to see the Burj Khalifa next door.  It is currently the tallest building in the world.  The girls have been excited for quite some time to see this building.  Then we met a friend for dinner at the best Mexican restaurant in Dubai.

The next day, we went to the movies and then visited a children's museum before flying back to Doha.  It was a short trip but still a great weekend away.

Kaelia's Dream House

Kaelia recently finished a unit in school where parents were invited in for the final assessment.  Kaelia had to draw up blueprints for her dream home, and we then helped her make that home in 3-D.  We had a great time working with her!  She decided that her home would be in Poland and in snow.  The only way to get upstairs to her bedroom was by climbing a stairway from the back yard up to the upstairs window (or continue on to the rooftop).  Then the only way to get out of her room was to take a slide down to the front year, into the snow.  She then finished the assessment by presenting her work to all of the kindergarten students and their parents.  Kaelia was very creative throughout the building process, and we are so proud of her!