Farewell 2011!!!!

We will be heading back to Texas and family in two days so I am posting my final 2011 entry.  It has been a wonderful year.  We are so thankful the kids are enjoying life here and are all happy and contented.  Marcella told us just the other day that after crafting, school is her next favorite thing!

Here is a little group of pictures to end the year with:

I recently attended Theresa's Open House.  We had to bring items and pictures from home representing things Theresa does with family and friends.  At school we decorated the inside of a box with the family items and the outside with the friend items.  I am so glad I work right next door to her school- so convenient!

Last weekend we made a nice little "Tape Town."  The whole family got involved- the twins loved taping!  Eleanor liked filling in spaces and connecting, Eben liked making lines,Theresa made a nice "pile" of blue tape for the lake after outlining the rug, and Marcella worked on the Duplo buildings.....

Mommy and Daddy helped with the twists that tape sometimes makes...........

This is our tomato and pepper pot garden.  The back pots on the porch are basil and oregano.  The garden is doing incredibly well and we feel that when we return we will have fresh veggies!  We can't wait!

Winter Concert

The girls had their Winter Concert last night with a theme of Blue Green.  It was a wonderful performance and we were so proud of both of them. 

Theresa's class had the longest song to sing and as with her K-2 Showcase in the Spring she was center stage!  It was so much fun to watch her sing and do the moves!

Marcella took center stage as well by not only singing a solo, but singing a solo of a song she wrote while at a beach field trip!  It was incredible- first we saw a brief video of her composing the song, and then we listened to her sing with the class.  It was an echo type song called "The Pipe Fish Song."  After she led her classmates with the song she invited the audience to join in- what a performance!

Tis the Season

Just sharing some pictures of the Christmas happenings here.  We've been making Gingerbread cookies, sugar cookies, and stockings!  Thank you Tante Lisa and Tante Rita for the sprinkles!

Odds and Ends

This post is just a bunch of loose photos for you all to enjoy.  Completely themeless.

Here is the girls' Duplo Pyramid- we hope to go visit the Land of the Pyramids in the near future as our San Marcos neighbors will be moving there soon!  Small World indeed!

Above we see Eleanor's First Braids- done by Daddy!!!! 

I love how she was holding her Bunny Doll Rapunzel.

Here is Eleanor with some new goodies from Ms. Sheila and Ms. Irene from Building Blocks. 

These two sweet ladies are always bringing their Beautiful Girl, as they call her,

new pretties for her long goldens.

Here is Mermaid Theresa- she came down one morning all fancied up.

Finally, here is Marcella, dispalying her worldy projects from a recent Unit of Inquiry with a topic of

Cultures and Celebrations.

Daddy's Lab

During our EID Break we were able to finally have our private tour of Casey's lab.  We were all very impressed and are happy to now be able to picture Daddy's work in our minds better.

First we signed in...

then we put on safety goggles.

Eben loved to "Bumpy Table" which is used to steady ones' hands when doing experiements.

Here we are learning about the numbers on gas containers.

Here we are learning about experiemnts which must be done in clean air.

Pilsbury Dough Clean Room Daddy - WE LOVE OUR DADDY!!!!

And here we are experimenting with the sticky mat placed at the entrance to the Clean Room. 

This was a fascinating mat for the kids.

After the tour we let the kids run around campus and explore such things as.....

Spiral Couches

Comfy PoPo Chairs

And Odd B--t Chairs

Never a dull moment with our Daddy and his lab.

Here is a little Therresa funny:  Her classroom Teaching Assistant recently left the school to work at the university.  The art teacher asked Theresa where Ms. Jessica went, and Theresa said "She went to work for the Universe" in all seriousness- too cute!



In Thanksgiving

We hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving as we did here across the seas.  Two families came to join us and we all contributed to the meal which turned out to be quite scrumptious and plentiful- everyone was able to take home leftovers!

For the kids, the biggest hit was a new recipe from my favorite blog called "Edible Indian Corn.  You'll see it in the pictures and here is the recipe (the kids all loved it and came back for more):

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons of butter
• 4 cups of mini marshmallows
• 5 cups of puffed corn cereal (we used Honey Kix)
• 1 1/3 cups diced dried fruit (we used raisins and cranberries)
• Popsicle sticks
• Fruit leather

·         Instructions: In a large pot, melt butter and mini marshmallows over low heat.  This takes about 5 minutes.  Using buttered hands, shape each treat by pressing 1/3 cup of the mixture around a Popsicle stick.   Add fruit leather husks to the bottom of the ear, slightly moistening them to help them stick if needed.   Makes approximately 15 treats.

 Most of the following pictures are of all the Thanksgiving crafts the girls did before the dinner; from trees for Calico to dressing the dolls! 

The last picture in this series was taken at Building Blocks by the twins' teacher- we are so thankful for her and all the staff there because Eben and Eleanor really enjoy attending and are so loved and cared for by all the workers.

Boat and Camel Rides

We recently had the opportunity to take a 40 minute boat ride around the KAUST Harbor and we finally got to ride camels!  The boat ride was our children's first on a real boat and they had a blast.  The crew provided life jackets and juice boxes, the weather was breezy and not too hot, so everyone was happy all around.

The following week KAUST sponsored a Family Barbecue night and we decided to actually ride the camels that are frequently brought to KAUST events.  We arrived early for this and did not have to wait long.  Casey rode with the girls and I rode with the twins.  Nobody cried although it was a little scary as the camel rose since she stands her back legs up first causing us on  her back to fall forward.  The ride was very bumpy as well but I'm glad we finally got on one.  It's a little sad for the camel because they are constantly having to get up and down, after about an hour children could only ride without an adult because the camels were getting too tired and adults would have been too heavy- very sad.  I should correct myself here, we actually rode one humpers- dromedaries- not camels which have two humps although when I looked dromedary up in the dictionary it said that they are also called Arabian camels!