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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