kids and trips

Last weekend Audrey spent about 5 hours straight working on shrinky dinks.  She’d color them, I’d bake them… Charles even helped her set the castle up.  She got them in a pkg my parents sent a long time ago, but I put them at the top of the closet for a day just like this one.  so precious! 

Speaking of precious Will fell asleep on the couch during a time out… this is the second time this week he has fallen asleep within minutes of being put on the couch for time out.  He obviously acts up when he is tired! 

He looked like a little frog!  Earlier today he went upstairs and picked out this outfit all by himself.. I don’t generally let him wear the spider man shirt, but he was just so cute and excited about his outfit he chose… sweet boy!

We’ve had a few “do nothing” weekends in a row… (hence the non-interesting blog posts)  I’m trying to enjoy the down time without going too stir crazy.   We have made lots of big plans in the upcoming months before our trip to America and we are sooo looking forward to them!  First we are headed for a long weekend in Fujairah during Audrey’s spring break… it is a city in the Emirates but also mountainous.  I plan on spending the rest of spring break parked at the Hiltonia *weather permitting (it has been so sandy/foggy/dusty here lately). 

Then some of our long time friends, Chuck and Christine Chapman (we met them when we were living in Katy, TX when I was pregnant for Audrey) are also expats but currently living in London – they have made plans to hop on one of Chucks work trips that coincides with their spring break and will be visiting us mid-april!  They have 3 kids and I’ve already got super kid friendly itineraries underway.  We couldn’t be more excited!!

In mid May we plan on taking another quick trip to Istanbul, Turkey… it has been at the top of our travel list here and we quickly realized that since we are going to the US during the summer and also for Christmas our next travel opportunity will be a year from now… with a baby.  It kinda made the decision easy to squeeze in one last hoorah before the summer. 

One month after that we are states bound! 

Key Lime Pie Recipe

Living in Abu Dhabi has forced us to adjust to what is available in the grocery stores of a foreign country.  While the selection is better than what I anticipated, there are some things that they just don’t have… Key Lime Pie is one of them.  Charles’ birthday is the day after Will’s… my husband is just not a ‘cake’ guy -  He adores a Key Lime Pie.  In our first year of marriage I attempted to make him one and it was of epic failure!  After juicing and zesting what felt like a billion tiny little limes – I said, never again…  It only took about 7 years later and trying to buy one in several grocery stores and bakeries in Abu Dhabi for me to muster up enough umph to give it another go.  By the way – the bakeries had no idea what I was even talking about.  I hit allrecipies.com and dug for the perfect key lime pie recipe… I thought I’d try this one since it had 1,202 reviews and all of them where 5 stars. It was identical to the ones I had been buying in the states and was absolutely DELICIOUS. The best thing about it was that it really couldn’t be easier. Of course I forgot to take a picture of mine – so I pulled this one off the website… the only difference was that I piped on homemade whip cream to make it look more ‘fancy’ for Charles’ birthday.  He truly didn’t believe me that I made it…. the recipe is that good!

Ingredients:

• 1 store bought 9 inch prepared graham cracker pie crust
• 3 cups sweetened condensed milk (*notice it is cups not cans)
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 3/4 cup key lime juice (*no key limes here so I just used regular limes)
• 1 Tablespoon grated lime zest (*easier to grate zest first and then juice)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 C *for all my non-USA resident friends)
2. In a medium bowl, combine condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice and lime zest.  Mix well and pour into graham cracker crust
3. Bake in preheated oven for 5-8 minutes… yes that is all! 5 – 8 minutes.  (*mine took a tad longer more like 10) you will see teeny tiny little pinhole bubbles burst on the surface of the pie – that is when you take it out.  DO NOT BROWN.  Chill pie thoroughly before serving.  Garnish with whipped cream (*make it yourself! so much better) and thin lime slices.

If you save recipes on Allrecipes.com or want to print it out from there here is the link: 

KEY LIME PIE VII

Will’s 3rd Birthday!

A LITTLE ABOUT WILLIAM:

Likes:	Dislikes:
cars, trucks, trains	vegetables (except corn)
dinosaurs	fruit (except pineapples and apples)
sucking his thumb	fish
his blue blankets	eggs
meat	lunchmeat
anything McDonalds	cheese
TV	brushing his teeth
beach/pool time	sharing
riding his scooter	using the potty
dancing	being told “no”
peanut butter & nutella
going to the park
chips
routine
LOVES preschool

 

Will got to celebrate his birthday 2 days in a row!  I sent cupcakes to his class on Monday (the day before his bday) since he didn’t go to school on Tuesdays.  I ordered the cupcake toppers online at etsy, printed and punched them out here and used coffee stirs cut in half as the sticks.

When I showed up at his class with the cupcakes, he was SO EXCITED and SO PROUD… it was priceless.

 

you can just see him all puffed up! His teacher, Ms. Karen (who is also our  neighbor) got the class to make this card for him. 

He wanted to leave school early with me, so of course I let him and off we went to get last minute stuff done for his party the next day. 

Before we went to sleep the night before his big day, I decorated the stairs with streamers so that he would have to break thru them to get downstairs and also decorated downstairs with more streamers and balloons.  When he woke up he had his favorite breakfast waiting for him… Cinnamon Rolls!

 

Some of Will’s best buddies (twins, Tommy & George) came over first thing in the morning to bring him a gift!  As you can tell, he LOVED it!  He left it on the whole day and even ran several errands with me in his costume.

 

It was finally party time!! I had to wake Will from a nap just before guests arrived… We had a neighborhood block party since it just seemed fitting for a Tuesday afternoon… everyone in our compound plays in the street every day anyway… so why not?! 

A friend of mine, Nicole, allowed us to borrow a bouncy house she had – the kids LOVED IT… I’m not sure where the picture went of all the kids in the bouncy house it was a sight to see! 

Below is a picture of Audrey’s sweet friend, Evelyn and next to it is MY sweet friend, Nancy (evelyn’s mom) and her precious younger daughter, Camille.

 

I tried to keep it easy the best I could for this party, so I ordered happy meals all around for the kids and fed the adults gumbo and potato salad I made the day before.  I made cupcakes but also ordered a cake – Will requested a KaChow cake.. (Lightening McQueen).  Ordering a cake here is so bazaar… they require you to order by the kilogram.  I was like ‘WHAT?!’  this cake pictured is a 2 kilo cake.. I learned that it will feed between 20 & 25 ppl.  Doesn’t it sound so irrational to order cake by weight? It just really annoyed me for some reason – to the point where I felt the need to explain how we order cakes in America and how it just makes sense. The cake dude was not amused.

As you can see below – Audrey had some friends from school come too and they hit up her mega dress up collection and partied like princesses.

 

 

Birthday boy enjoying his cake! and below some of the neighborhood kiddos enjoying theirs!

 

 

Will, you are the cuddliest, most affectionate little boy!  I love your zest for life, your charm and your excitement!  you’ve added a dynamic to our family that surely keeps life interesting.   Your “strong will” is not softening any as I hoped it would at this point in your life, but I know as you mature it will make you a wonderful leader.  When you and Audrey are playing and laughing it makes my heart so full of joy to listen in on you.  Your personality is so BIG – you just constantly crack us up.  You are still quite the challenge to deal with sometimes since that big, fun personality can be just as big (and not so fun) when you are unhappy.  Thanks for allowing me to give you lots of sugars each and every day and if you don’t mind, could you TRY to use the big boy potty sometime soon!?!

all my love,

mom

what we’ve been up to…

 

Oh, I know it has been a long time without a post – We are just burning up the roads, having fun and staying really busy. 

here is a quick recap of the last few weeks in pictures:

Audrey’s valentine party for her class was a few days after the Father Daughter Dance – so I made a bunch of heart cookies to go with all that leftover icing I made for the dance.   The kids had a ball decorating the cookies!

We attended the Terry Fox Run here in Abu Dhabi… y’all know I’m no runner, so that is why we have one picture of this event – we walked with some friends, Lance and Nancy and lasted a whole 45 min before we turned around and headed back. The kids wanted in the stroller, out the stroller, on daddy’s shoulders, off daddy’s shoulders… you get the picture. Later that day we had a bday party as well as the next day too.  Here are some pics of the kids having fun at the party:

Audrey and her friends playing dolls.. so precious.  Will was just hanging out thinking he was big – even if it was with a bunch of girls.

Will, Audrey & Camille ^

They each got a turn with the Magician… they loved it.

The next weekend we went to ski dubai to hang with the penguins – but they did not allow cameras in.  Audrey and Will love the movies, “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” and “Happy Feet” – so this was super cool to them.  The next day Charles golfed with a buddy and we headed to the golf course to meet up with him and lots more friends for Family Fun Day at Sadiyaat Beach Golf Resort.  We got there at 10:45 and did not leave until 3:30 – almost 5 hours of fun! There were 7 adults and 12 kids and we all had a blast… looking forward to next time!

This weekend Audrey had a girl scout “camp out” – well, sort of. The older girl scouts sleep over at the school, but the little kindergarteners have to wait a year or two… but for now they enjoyed all the activities and went home at 8:30.

The girls had a FABULOUS time doing arts and crafts, games, songs, and even made s’mores.  They played so HARD.  I had the best time watching all the girls enjoy it so much!

Our troop^ 18 girls!! (minus the 2 that were absent)

Audrey trying to jump rope – she looks like pipi longstocking here

The next day, yes – we just keep trucking along, don’t we?! the weather was warm enough to hit the Hiltonia – we didn’t intend for it to be an all day event, but we happen to run into some friends there and stayed 5 hours. Audrey and Will had a blast! These kids don’t know how lucky they are!!

Audrey, Charlotte & sister Sonja

My little stud-muffin!

I think Charles had a blast too!  Some of his buddies were there with their kids – giving the mommies a break since they both have newborns – so the guys just cut up and played with the kids. 

oh and in the meanwhile, I’m growing another McManemin…. took the below picture today

And that's all folks!