Finally

Our shipment finally arrived on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  It was so much fun to have the truck finally pull into our driveway!  We had not told the girls that it was coming in case it was another mistake, but the phone call came at 3:30 that the truck was at KAUST's gate.  The first item off was Theresa's dollhouse but she and Marcella had eyes only for their long lost Barbie's, which followed soon after!  We spent all week unpacking and each day the girls and twins were reunited with their things.  We had thought the twins would have forgotten some of the toys, but you could tell they remebered and even started asking for specifics like the fisher price people when the fisher price house came down.

 Here is our cardboard kitchen- fully equipped with old playhouse toys.  This has been so nice to have in the kitchen now.  Both twins love cooking with Mommy and Daddy and going shopping. 

Another finally was Marcella losing her first tooth.  This tooth has been wanting to come out for about two weeks now and it finally broke loose this same morning.  She was ecstatic!

Thanksgiving Gala

Our first Thanksgiving here was very pleasant.  Casey cooked the turkey and it turned out fantastic.  He had put the stuffing inside and I think this helped the turkey stay nice and moist.  The girls helped with all the vegetables-washing and cutting.  This was so much fun for them.  They also helped with all our pies- pecan, cherry, and apple.  All day we could smell the wonderful aromas coming from the kitchen.  The smells were so much like the Thanksgiving smells we remember from home that for the day we almost felt as if we were back in Texas.

Later in the evening we ventured out to Thuwal Park for a Saudi Eid Gala.  Now this was a real experience.  So far all the KAUST sponsored events have been so well organized but for some reason this particular event was a little on the "sensory overload" side as Mr. Chris, a K-2 teacher put it.  They had advertised gifts for kids and our kids were a few of the lucky ones to actually receive gifts.  The organizers ran out of gifts in about 30 minutes.  The girls got plastic tea party sets and a hair care set and Eben got a Ben 10 car that continually plays Axel F and lights up.  He loves it as do the girls.  What was so neat about the girls' tea sets is that they came with stove top pieces- this was perfect timing because my sister Mary had sent us a link on how to make a cardboard kitchen.  We used the stove top pieces for this kitchen.  Since our shipment had not yet arrived, the tea set was a big hit.  We got a kick out of the packaging.

Here the kids are enjoying the sights and sounds and their new gifts.  The couches were all over as were the beautiful lamps.

The main problem with the event was the blaring music and in my opinion, treatment of the animals.  First of all, the event was supposed to have traditional Saudi musicians and dancers, which it did, but the music was so darn loud you could not enjoy the show.  Then the camels and horses were a little dissapointing to say the least.  They came a bit late which only drew attention to the way they were transported here: in the bed of a run down livestock truck- all six of them!



  Here you see a camel "jumping" off the truck in full regalia.  I had had visions of the family posing in front of a camel for our Christmas picture but this vision quickly fizzled when I saw the absolute madness taking place with the animals.  There were no lines; everything was all jumbled.  Camels are very tall animals with very large feet.  There was no stairway leading onto the camels back.  The camel sits down, the riders climb up, and then the camel heaves itself up, back legs first.  They had to do this over and over.  Unbelievable.  There was no way our kiddos were getting on them.  Marcella did ride a nice pony and we rode as a family with some school friends in the Hantuk, which was basically and old pick up converted into a wagon pulled by two skinny, sore covered horses given no break.  Apparently there are no animal rights for such events.  When browsing the pictures, note Theresa's friend, Layla and Eben sitting up front- he loved it!

Sand Storm, Sand Blast

I have decided to take a few minutes to show everyone some recent sand storm pictures.  These are not of the actual storm itself but rather they are what the storm leaves behind: fine sand everywhere.  We have been having these storms two to three times a week now.  I feel like most of them have been on a Tuesday or Sunday, the two days we do Story Time, or a play group day.  At first I was staying at home, but I quickly realized that these storms are a part of life and as my neighbor pointed out one day while I was contemplating venturing out or not, "you just have to get used to it."  Casey brought home masks from the lab and we keep these and sunglasses at the ready (thank you Granny for equipping us with so many great pairs!) and go forth to brave the sand.  Anyways, here is what our front and back porches look like after a storm has blown through.

Our First Eid

We had a wonderful and restful Eid holiday.  The entire country is off during this celebration.  In case you are wondering, Eid ul-Adha (auf deutsch Das Opferfest) is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a ram to sacrifice instead.  It is a joyful time and many people give to charity, give gifts, feast and so on.  This is the first time since Casey has been working that we felt he was truly "off."  Everything is closed in SA.  People are truly on holiday.  Here in KAUST many people used the ten days for travel.  Others were making their pilgrimmage called "Hajj" to Mecca.  This pilgrimmage is an obligation that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every Muslim who is physically able and can afford to do so. 

We did not do any travel other than two trips to Jeddah.  I went with Kelly for one of the trips to mainly get story time supplies and a few craft and toys for our own kids.  Casey took the two older girls later in the week.  When Kelly and I went we hired a driver.  Casey took the bus with the girls.  The bus leaves KAUST at 4:00 and returns at midnight.  We had no idea how this would work for the girls since they never stay up this late but they had a blast and stayed up no problem.  Of course they fell asleep on the way home but this was expected.

The bus took them to the Mall of Arabia:

After doing some quick shopping where Theresa chose a Fulla doll (SA Barbie) and Marcella chose rollerskates, they visited the carnival.  The carnival is a permanent fixture in the mall.

Below is this climbing thing that the girls went in.  It is like a glorified fast food playscape.

Naturally we did a lot of crafting over the break.  The neatest thing the girls made were their stick horses.  They spent an entire afternoon making the horses and stalls in their room.  This was inspired by a book we have been reading called "Summer Pony" by Jean Slaughter Doty.  The girls absolutely love this story and we have started its sequal, "Winter Pony."  Up till now they have really shown no interest in horses which has been a dissappoinnment for me since I was a huge horse lover as a girl.

They love running races with the horses.

We also spent the break visiting new parks or areas of interest here.  

Here is Theresa, Spider Girl.  She probably climbed this web twenty times.

And here are some hands we have always seen while swimming and wondered about. 

These last few pictures are maninly of the twins.  They still love their rabbit and mouse from Tante Oma La-La and here they are giving them a bath:

Theses next few pictures are just for fun. 

Eleanor has started to make line ups of everything.  She gets real upset when Ebby messes them up.  He prefers to be the destructor but occasionally enjoys making a tower or two.

Eleanor loves to sit and read various magazines and instruction manuals to things like games.  She is so cute.  She will take the piece and do this little get comfy sit and say "I'm reading it."

She also loves to carry ALL her animals and dollies and then some with her after her nap.

Well, that's about all for now.  Here is Marcella, sending out love from KAUST (look carefully and you will see a heart she drew with a piece of wood through it for the arrow):







New Heights

We have had a nice mellow week so far.  One of our outings this week was to a climbing wall here at the rec center.  Marcella actually made quite a climb.  She is usually so timid about new things, but she was raring to go!

Go Marcella, go!!!

Nice Sand

Helmet Head Eb

"Mommy, I'm not sure if these shoes have been sterilized." 

Here are some more book friends I've added to the twinner's wall:

 "Spot" and "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb Monkey"

The kids were all coughing a lot last week and the twins had accompanying runny noses.  This has actually been happening with them all on and off since we arrived.  Casey and I took them all down to the clinic for a second trip and only Marcella seemed to have any real issues-mild bronchitis.  The doctor gave us some natural floral/herb elixirs and their coughs have lessened somehat but the twins noses still run at times.  After talking with other friends having similar issues we decided to have our ac cleaned, filters changed, etc.  We also had a mold check which came up negative but a lot of dust was found left over from construction work.  The ac systems here are ductless so this dust is blowing right in our rooms.  A crew came and cleaned all this dust out and actually cut a hole in our livingroom to clean more thoroughly.  Now the noses do not run so much but at certain places we still have nose issues.  It appears we will just have to make do with this allergy.  Luckily it comes and goes.



Happy Halloween!

We had a surprisingly great Halloween.  I had had no idea what to expect but KAUST put on a nice little party for everyone on the 28th.  This was a Thursday so it was the "Saturday" of our weekend.  The party was from 4-6 and then we went trick or treating.  Houses that welcomed trick or treaters put a Jack-O-Lantern sign on their door.  At the party we got to decorate cookies, make guesses for candy filled jars, paint pumpkins (which were actually very large gourds), and do Halloween arts and crafts.  There were other events happening, but these were the ones we chose to do.  The girls really enjoyed themselves and since it was located in KAUST's day care building the twins got to play on some fun toddler sized play equipment. 

Marcella and Theresa made their beautiful fairy costumes.  All four kids wore green, which believe it or not we did not plan; it just happened, so I guess we had a particularly "go green" Halloween this year!  How fitting since the fairy costumes were made from a recycled school posterboard and other recycled house items like foil. 

My only complaint about the whole thing was the heat.  The evening was actually quite cool but the party was held in and enclosed play area and there were so many people.  Everyone was sweating and practically gasping for air.  I was drenched.  There was just no air moving.  It was so refreshing to be in the open air when we left.  Hopefully next year the festivities will be held in a field or someplace where air can circulate better. 

Casey took the girls trick or treating and I stayed home with the twinners to hand out treats.  There were so many trick or treaters that we actually ran out of candy and had to raid our pantry.  The twins loved running to the door to see the next batch of kids all dressed up.  The girls brought home a nice stash of goodies- KAUST families were very generous!

Two sweet little fairies biking to the party!

Twinner Party Hang Out

Marcella has a loose tooth!  She is so excited about this-it is her first loose tooth.  She has actually "graduated" to a new Arabic class and as a reward her Arabic teacher let her pick a prize.  She chose a little fairy and immediately made this fairy a little fairy house:

Theresa has become quite the little puzzler!  She loves them and now does 100-150 piece puzzles.  She gets home an hour before Marcella so she and I have about 30 minutes of one-on-one time.  We usually play school with her being the teacher.  I love this because she has such a cute little teacher voice and I get to be the good kid.  Sometimes we do puzzles and baking too.  It is a very nice quiet time.  Casey and I really have to work at making alone time for each of the kids so this time is very precious to me.







New Moon

Tomorrow we will have been here a month!  These past few nights we have been enjoying the gorgeous full moon.  All the dust in the air makes it especially dazzling.  Speakng of dust, this is the time of year in SA for dust storms.  They are actually called sand storms here and last week we had two.  Both days we woke up with the weather clear as usual but at 10:00 am each day in blew the sand.  It is literally a cloud of sand that lingers for an hour or more depending on the size.  The first one was the worst.  It brought a tremendous heat with it and so much sand that the pool closed down.  The sand coated everything.  It also dried out the air which in a way was a blessing- we were not sweating so much- but then again we also could not breath due to the smothering heat.  I have never felt such a heat.  It was like opening an oven but not being able to close it.  We were constantly putting on lip balm.  The second sand storm was not so bad and actually blew away the heat so now we are back to the humidity which I prefer.  While most people welcome fall with cooler weather and the changing of leaves, we welcome it with sand storms!  Actually other than that first sand storm day, the temperatures have dropped to the upper 80s and mid 90s and in the evenings it is very nice.

We were not aware that the pool had closed so when we arrived for a swim we had to wait for the finishing cleaning touches.  Luckily the gym was open so we had some fun with balls:

                                                        WOW..that's our Mommy!

                                                               Theresa has a sit.

We finally got to go swim and I could not resist a few pool shots mainly to show off Eleanor's USA suit.  It actually bothers her a lot for some reason.  I think she does not like being the only girl in a two-piece and there was this little string hanging down in the front.  Little strings hanging down can be such a bother!

 Here is a good shot of Eleanor and the bothering string.  It had been cut off in the previous two pics.

Every Wednesday evening we go down to a place called "Discovery Square" and eat out.  We would never do this in the States but here it is a nice place for families to gather and get out after a work week.  We always see other families we know and after dinner we treat ourselves to delicious Baskin Robbins.  The BR here is way cheaper than in the States.  Our whole family can have icecream, large scoops for $8.  This is even cheaper than buying a half gallon of vanillla at the Tamini since in the store the icecream is about $9 for a half gallon.  This past Wednesday we ate at "Pizza Inn."  Note the founding city of Pizza Inn!

Also note Marcella's new look.  She is really working at "blending in with the natives here."

On Thursday while the twins were napping we got real crafty.  Theresa made about six beautiful water color pictures which I will show at a later date.  Marcella made some cute little ghosties and a black cat.

I worked on decor for the twins' room.  Their room is so bare and I have been struggling with what to put on the walls.  I did not want to spend a lot of money but also wanted something meaningful for the twins to look at.  Casey came up with the idea of book characters.  We do soooo much reading here without our toys.  Well, we do a lot even with the toys, but since our arrival I would say reading is what we do the most.  Luckily I brought quite a few books with our luggage and we have been frequenting the library.  What I am doing is copying the twins' favorite book characters from the books we have spents hours reading.  This weekend I did Rosie from "Rosie's Walk" by Pat Hutchins and Dingo Dog from Ricahrd Scarry's "Cars and Trucks, and Things That Go."

"I just can't believe that Dingo.  He is so naughty."

                                                                    "Run Rosie!"

Here are some cute reading pics.  Eleanor loves this dress.  She calls it her Rosie Dress because it has little blue chickens on it (they are actually roosters but gender does not matter here).  The dress was actually made by my Gonka (mom's mother).  It is almost 40 years old since it was sewn for my older sister.  Eleanor is so cuddly in it.

                                       "Here Eleanor, let me blow dry your hair while you read."

Two favorites with Daddy, "Go Trucks" and "Baby Dear."

We wrapped up our weekend with a KAUST sponsored "Kite Festival."  This was another well attended and fun event.  They had face painting, more jumping castles, characters to pose with, and even a trampoline.  Casey's boss' family was there (from Austin area) and his oldest daughter was wearing the same shirt as Eleanor!

                                             Eleanor has a little rest from all the festivities.

Before I go I wanted to update everyone on two things.  First our zinnias have sprouted!  We made signs so that the gardeners won't pull them up and placed an Inukshuk near them. An Inukshuk is a rock pile traditionally built by Native people of the Far North as a landmark for guiding their way home or marking a special place.  Second my story time last week was a success and I am hoping for more people this week.  Casey helped me obtain a $500 grant from Recreation Services as well.  This much needed money will go towards purchasing a cd player, puppets, and other supplemental materials.  I am really enjoying setting this up for the KAUST families.  It is my way of helping build a community here.