Talent Show

About a month ago, our elementary school had auditions for a talent show, and Taelyn was one of ten acts to make the cut.  She has been taking Irish dance lessons for the past 2.5 months and decided to show off her new skills.  Today was the big day.  Most of the students were 4th and 5th graders, but that didn't stop Taelyn from having the courage to perform in front of the school.  Taelyn did such a great job, and we are so proud of her for all of the hard work and practice she has put into the talent show!  We are also proud of the dedication, motivation, and passion she has shown for Irish dance.  It looks like she found her niche this year.

Weekend Away in Bahrain

As the end of the school year draws near, we decided to celebrate our last hurrah by going to Bahrain for the weekend to meet up with some friends from Saudi.  We stayed in a beautiful hotel with some friends who used to work at our current school, and Kris and Ari Jettner also joined us for a day.

On Friday, we had a gluttonous, American Denny's type breakfast followed by a trip to an indoor water park.  We all had a great time!  Kaelia really liked the lazy river, and Taelyn couldn't get enough of the boomerang and toilet bowl slides.

The rest of our time was spent at the hotel, enjoying the jungle looking atmosphere, swimming in the pool, and taking advantage of the poolside bar.  We spent hours at the pool, and kids working on their tricks as Justin through them in the air.  During the evening, the adults even had a night out for some high-end Thai food at one of the restaurants in the hotel.  It was a great weekend, and now we all feel fully refreshed and ready to make it through the home stretch until summer.

Taelyn's Latest Pool Trick

Open-Minded Award

Kaelia was recognized at the morning assembly today with the Pride of Principled Open-Minded award.  She has recently been studying art in her class, and her teacher has mentioned how much Kaelia looks at the art critically and comes up with several different possibilities that she can see in the art.  Her favorite artist so far is Jackson Pollock; her class even painted their own version of a Jackson Pollock painting.  Kaelia really got into this task and threw paint from her brush in almost a dance-like way!

Kaelia "dances" while she helps make a Jack Pollock painting.

The finished product with Kaelia and her two best friends!

When Kaelia received her award, she was especially excited that her two best friends were also given awards.  Here is Kaelia getting called up next her her friend, Maren, and with her other friend, Ghalia, called up immediately after Kaelia.

Final Hockey Tournament

Justin played his final hockey games with his Doha team this weekend as his season came to an end.  He had a really strong team this year because the players united together and played well with one another, and this is not always the case in his league.  Justin played well throughout the entire season, finishing as #7 for scoring while his team won the entire tournament!  The girls and I went out to watch the final game to cheer him on.

To wrap up the season and school year, the hockey league rented a dow boat and brought in catering and beverages for everyone.  Justin and I had a very nice night out on the boat, and it was a great hockey weekend to go out on.