September and October

Considering I spent most of September updating the blog with all our summer events and then it took me all of October to post about our European vacation, I didn't want time to go by without acknowledging some of the day to day stuff that happened in September and October.  

I decided to get involved with sewing and give it a try.  I figured what better time to learn then while living here.  My friend Laura wanted to give it a try too so we signed up for a beginner quilting class together. Before the beginner class began, we gave sewing a shot and attempted to make an applique beach bag. Hmmm... considering we'd never operated a machine, heck... I don't even own a machine, the one I was using was borrowed, we were a little over our heads.  We did both make a pin cushion and got half way through our plastic beach bag, making some flip flops and cutting out our bag.  Unfortunately, both Laura and I went on vacations when the beginner class actually started and ended up missing some classes and were told it was in our best interest to come back the next class sessions.  Looks like we'll try and start, again, in January.  I'm super excited about this potential new hobby and am hopeful to learn something!  

Gavin's school held Culture Day where all the students were asked to dress up in something that represented their culture and country.  I received the letter the day before and didn't have time to come up with something, but did send Gavin to school in a GAP shirt that had the American Flag emblem through the letters.  When I arrived to his classroom to help usher the kids to the parade I found Gavin dressed in a US Post Man outfit from his class's dress up bin.  Um. Okay.  US Postal Man it is, then.  The parade was cute and there were over 32 countries represented from his school- pretty cool!

We celebrated Delia being with us for one year!  She has been such a HUGE blessing in our lives and we love her soooooo much!!

Since we are leaving for the USA mid November and returning right before Christmas, we decided to decorate our house early for Christmas so we could enjoy our decorations and not have to set everything up days before Christmas.  The boys were a huge help to us putting all the ornaments on the tree.  Miles was amazed at all the shiny balls that kept coming out of the boxes and Gavin enjoyed placing them all over the tree.  

 

 

I found this idea on Pinterest to make a felt Christmas tree and allow your kids to decorate the tree with felt ornaments and presents and it be used as a way to prevent them from messing with your real tree and ornaments.  It has been a HUGE success in this house.  I let Gavin stay up one night after the little ones went to sleep and Brooks was at basketball.  He helped cut out the ornaments and glue the designs on them.  He placed the star on top and presents underneath.  Miles has fun taking the ornaments on and off the tree.  Even Brooklyn has had some fun ripping them off the tree.  

 

My group of girl friends last year decided we were going to have girls nights once a week since our husbands get basketball nights.  Sometimes we're able to make it work and sometimes we tend to get together during the day when all the kids are in school, but one week we took off and had dinner at Applebee's.  We were there for hours and even ordered desserts.  It was such a fun night talking and laughing.  It was also our last get together before our friend Heather had her baby.  

A week in October Gavin's school was closed for a week due to a national holiday called Eid and Miles play school was also closed.  It just so happened Miles and Brooklyn both got sick during this time with a nasty cold infection running fever for days and then Delia was out for the week due to various circumstances.  I was on my own with some sick and tired kids.  It was a really, really loooooong week.  I came downstairs one morning to find the bathroom like this and none other then Miles Lee on top of the kitchen counter, which he can now climb onto without the help of a stool, and helped himself to a few bananas, a bag of M&M's, a pack of gum, emptied Brooks' water bottle on the floor, and managed to open that bag of sugar and pour it onto the counter.  Nice.  All before 6:30am.

 

By the end of the week we were all hanging on by a thread.  We did manage to do a few fun things when everyone was feeling good.  

I heard Gavin calling me from outside and when I went to the door here's where I found him.  

 

Of course, if one gets to do something the other one has to do it, too! Miles got a turn!

 

Sometimes, we find Gavin asleep on the couch.  We have no idea when he went down stairs or how long he's been asleep down there.

Our Thursday morning watching cartoons.  They are too cute.

First Days of School

Gavin and Miles both started school the first week of September and it was an exciting time for both our boys.  

Daddy had to work so mommy took the boys to school by herself.  Our morning started off with chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, which got devoured quickly.  The boys got dressed and humored me for some first day of school pics.  Brooks called and talked to both of the boys wishing them a great first day.  Delia came to the house and stayed with Miles and Brooklyn while Gavin and I walked to the school bus on our compound.  I rode with Gavin the first week of school on our company provided bus to help him get situated and adjusted to riding with all the big kids.  Last year, I rode with Gavin along with another mom and her son Devin to school everyday in a personal vehicle.  So, this was a small change for Gavin.  He did great and was excited to be on the "big kid" bus.  When we arrived at school and got to Gavin's classroom (he is in pre-Kindergarten and attends school all day) he found his name tag, his seat, and began playing with the other kids at his table.  He was excited and happy to be there.  He kept checking the room out and eyeing all the different stations set up.  He wasn't too scared and willingly gave me a hug and kiss and told me goodbye.  I held myself together this year and was just as excited for him starting this new adventure with school.  

 

 

After riding the bus back to our compound and talking with the other preschooler moms about how our kids are growing up so fast, I was dropped off at our house where Miles greeted me ready to go to his school (he's attending the play school on our compound (every day from 8am-12pm and LOVES it).  We had his snack bag packed and his backpack filled with extra clothes and diapers and off we went.  Our favorite driver Khaleq was there to take Miles to school.  He was excited to get to ride in a car to school.  Now, everyday the same bus that takes the big kids to ISG, comes back to the compound at 8am and picks up all of Chevron's play school kids and brings the moms and kids to and from school.  It's a huge help since they built a new play school over the summer and it is literally on the other end of our compound.  None the less, Miles LOVES riding the big bus and seeing his friends before they get to play school.

 

Both the boys had great first days of school and came home very tired!

Brooks was able to take an hour or two off the next day and took Gavin to school.  He got him dressed for school, fixed his breakfast, walked him to the bus stop and rode to school with him.  Gavin was excited to show his daddy where his cubby was, where he sat in class, and then walked him through his classroom.

 

On a side note: I wanted to do something special for Gavin on his second day of school so I decided to get a little creative and made him a fun lunch.  Here's what he got: a peanut butter sandwich face, with spiked pretzel hair, M&M eyes, yogurt raisin nose, and hot tamale lips.  I thought it was cute.  However, once Gavin got home from school he calmly and assertively told me to NEVER make him a sandwich like that again.  He did not like it at all.  Geez-- why can't this mama do something right?!

What my boys have been doing

Brooks has experimented and played with his tortilla maker and really likes it.  We found a homemade flour tortilla recipe online and tried it out (we didn't use lard and it still worked).  They were pretty good.  

Gavin's starting to get a goofy personality.  He's always made amusing facial expressions but now, they're to a whole new level.

When my mom was here, she helped me tweak a few things around my house and had a great idea to hang chalkboards on the wall in the kids play room area.  Gavin, his friends, and even Miles love writing and drawing.  Gavin shocked Brooks and I when he drew a sun, house, and tree, with some grass in this picture.  At school last month, they learned about houses and whats found outside a house, thus what prompted this drawing!!

Miles, our little tornado, is living up to his name!  He made every effort to get the bowl of Fruit Loops and I've finally decided those dumb suction things don't work.  He got to the bowl by climbing up on a chair and throwing it off the kitchen table.  I was changing Brooklyns diaper while this was going on and found him eating the Fruit Loops off the floor.  

 He's also our climber.  He climbs on everything, all the time.  Nothing seems to work to keep him from climbing on things.  He could fall down, hurt himself, be screaming crying from the fall, while trying to climb back up the very thing he just fell off of.  

Gavin being goofy!

Miles eating his first popsicle.  The child HATES cold things... like hates them!  We have to fix his milk cup and let it sit for 10-15 minutes to take the chill off before he'll even drink it.

Miles also learned how to escape from our yard.  Since we live on the end of the compound (literally, the 10 foot wall of our compound is next to our house) and there is a street for cars to drive on we called the carpenters to install a fence to keep Miles in.  This has made life very easy in letting the kids play in the backyard.  

That's what my boys have been doing!!

We have fun around here

Creativity.

It's one of the things you have to have living over here. In order to have fun, we have to create our fun.  With three kids under the age of 3 we've had to get creative and keep things fresh and not boring.  

So here's how we've been creative in having fun!

Gavin's school held a literacy week and one of the days was dress up like a character from a fairy tale book.  Here he's dressed as Prince Charming.  We used what we had at home since there's not a costume store around here and we didn't have time to order and ship something.  Instead, we turned his superhero cape inside out, pinned up his cowboy hat and I borrowed a feather from a neighbor's table decoration and voila!  He even took a small plastic knife with him that the blade slides into the handle when it's pushed down.  He loved his outfit and kept telling us he was superhero on the bottom and prince charming on top!  I tried teaching him how to bow and talk with an accent, but that didn't work.  I also showed him how to wave his cape around. which he did a few times.  It was precious!  

Another way we have fun is letting the kids run through our sprinklers.  Gavin's friend, Devin was playing at our house one day after school and the boys were outside when all of a sudden the sprinklers started spraying.  They asked me if they could run through them, we hurried and took their shoes off, then it took the boys about 5 minutes to decide that they really wanted to run through them then they took off.  Miles had no reservations or hesitations about running through the sprinklers until he felt how cold they were and he took off running to Delia.  

I baked a cake the other day and quickly found myself surrounded by all three kids so I decided to get the two boys involved.  They stirred bowls with their own spatulas and helped shake sugar bags and mixed cake mix while it was still in its box.  They were such big helpers I put some cake batter on their spatulas and let them lick it clean!  Now, every time the mixer comes out Miles finds the stool and stays by my side waiting for something to taste.  

Last Friday we hosted our "Weekly Meeting" and everyone stayed for lunch.  It was a beautiful day outside so a majority of the kids migrated to our back yard to play with the little ones. Before we knew it, Brooks and all his buddies started a game of dodge ball.  Then they got involved and it became kids versus all the older guys.  It was hilarious and so fun to watch everyone dodging balls and chasing after one another.  This lasted a good 30 minutes!  

Miles got to play with his buddy, Aden, our friends little boy who was born a week after Miles here in Saudi.  They laughed with each other, chased each other, played together, and had a lot of fun. They have very similar personalities so they get a long great!  

Okay, so Miles probably didn't think this was fun, but I needed 10 minutes to finish cooking breakfast and he was all over the place so I put him in the walker (we took it out of a closet the night before for our friends little girl to use while she was at our house).  He was so confused on why he was being contained that he didn't even try walking.

Gavin likes building things and found some time when Miles wasn't around to actually make something without it getting knocked over.  He was pretty proud of himself for getting them to stand up!

After dinner we had some hang out time. The boys just wanted to chill together.  What one does, the other does! Always!