March 2013

So, I’m committed to getting caught up – Here is what this month has kept us busy doing….

A trip to my happy place, The Hiltonia!  It was a little chilly, but still relaxing even with all three kids at the pool by myself.

We got home that afternoon, showered off everyone and then I enjoyed the view from the balcony as the kids painted.  Come to think of it I still cannot figure out where I put those paints.. been looking for them ever since!

Trying to not to miss these sweet moments thru the hustle and bustle of our house:

It seems like just about every other day Audrey has some ‘event’ to attend for Girl Scouts or whatever…. On this 1/2 day of school they scheduled a ‘beach bash’ where all the troops just basically had a big picnic & playdate on the beach.  I left Julia home with a sitter and soaked up some time with the big kids.

Daddy’s traveling has slowed a bit – so the kids are having fun with him the little bits of time that they can squeeze in.

Audrey accomplished her goal that she had to set at the beginning of the year – she chose “count to 100 in arabic”  I remember thinking, “oh my word – we need to change this” but knew that would be a terrible lesson to teach her.. so we stuck with it and before we knew it she could count to 100.  As part of the class requirement she had to present to her class how she accomplished her goal.  I was blown away at the confidence she had to stand in front of the class and count for them, answer their questions and explain how she learned this.  Way to go Audrey!

When lately Audrey is getting to do all these over the top things we wanted to make it a BIG deal that Will had his 4th birthday.  He felt so special and I promise to post about his party soon. 

His birthday breakfast request… cinnamon rolls and bacon.  We added sprinkles just to be fancy and as our McManemin birthday tradition continues, we decorated the house while he was asleep so he would wake up to see streamers and balloons everywhere!  Most of the work above is by Audrey… she went to town and stayed up late making it for him.

Grandparents sent money and I took him shopping – it was a really fun trip to the toy store getting to tell him, YES you can have this and YES you can have that.. he stayed in disbelief and was totally thrilled.

He has started to enjoy drawing lots of interesting pictures… I remember this looks a lot like Audrey’s early artwork

Julia has been EXTREMELY busy being precious.

oh wait, what? another event for Audrey… if this is first grade I cannot IMAGINE middle school!

This was last week at the Mother Daughter Tea Party.  I had to hire a sitter for Will and Julia and shared a sweet time with my biggest girl.

Audrey’s class picture…. a $15 one I might add.

aaaand as If we don’t have enough on our plates, I threw an Easter Party for Audrey’s friends.  I invited all the girls in the class and expected many to not come due to religious reasons or just schedule conflicts.. but every.single.girl came. I had twelve of those cuties here.  Only problem was that Will came home from school sick the day before with a fever… I debated back and forth on what to do and eventually decided to just keep him upstairs while the party was downstairs.  Sweet boy listened and did not come down even though it was KILLING him to not be in the middle of it all.  I ran up and down, back and forth for 3 hours.

I found these clay pottery eggs at the Iranian souk in the Mina port area…

The girls enjoyed painting them – I thought this would be a better alternative to having 12 6-year-old girls dying Easter eggs.

I divided them up into 2 groups of 6 so it would be more manageable.  While half of them painted eggs, the other half made bunny hats and masks.   

Lunch: mini pizzas, fruit, cheese, veggies and cheese balls.

After they did all of that I taught them the bunny hop and then walked back to the school to start the Egg hunt.  To simplify this I kept them in 2 smaller groups and got them to hide eggs for each other.

Getting ready for the egg hunt:

I separated the eggs by color so that the girls would have to find their assigned color to avoid one kid getting all the eggs – remember some of these girls have never heard of this kind of ‘game’ before. They all LOVED IT though.

The very next day we had the ACS gala (fund raiser by the PTA for Audrey’s school – by the way, Will got accepted to go there next year also!!! both kids at the same school.. booyah!!) 

The event was at the beautiful Emirate’s Palace.  Charles and I got there a wee bit early so we snuck in a mini date at the cigar bar where we grabbed a glass of wine (no cigars!) and caught up…

speaking of getting caught up.. this event was 2 days ago, so I’d say I’m current!  I just need to get the pictures off of my camera from Will’s birthday party.. stay tuned for that.