History in the making

Over the weekend we had Bahrain Tina and David over for dinner, and enjoyed yummy food and great conversation. 
(Not a single picture was taken...blogger fail on both Tina's and my part!)

One of the things we discussed was the upcoming U.S. election, so when they left David and I were feeling all political and decided to watch some of the speeches from the DNC and the RNC. 

I don't know if it's because I'm currently residing in a country where Women's Rights are so far behind so much of the world, or if it's because I'm raising a young daughter, but I was so struck by how historical this election is.

No matter your view on political parties, this is a great time for women in history!


Last month, there was this...

Nicola Sturgeon (First Minister of Scotland) and Theresa May (Prime Minister of the United Kingdom)

I read that tweet and cried.

Because AMEN.





And then there is the current Presidential nominee for the Democratic Party... 

...and cue more tears.

"When there are no ceilings, the sky's the limit."

What a fascinating time to be alive and experience these monumental times that will create beautiful new chapters in history books.

Lately...

So it's been hot here. 

I mean, duh, it's the desert.

But, it's been like stupid hot. We've even been breaking records here.

So, we've been staying indoors A LOT.  The kids and I have been hanging around the apartment more often than not, entertaining ourselves in various ways. I kind of feel like it's a bit of a gift...I mean, we spend so much of our lives running from one place to the next, it's nice to allow my six year olds to just take it slow I guess =).

Babygirl hanging in her jammies, writing stories...

We are still loving having the two feline visitors here. The kids just ADORE having them around, and are going to be so sad when they leave us soon. Their favorite is when one of them settles in on one of their beds...

(I feel like L&A really look like twins in that pic!)

Buddies...

Our son, the pirate...

We visited Magic Planet with some fun friends recently, and had the BEST time playing arcade games...

...and being silly at the restaurants in the mall...

We had another awesome swim play date...

...which also included sidewalk chalk drawing. Sister drew a Toothless!

We've been working with the twins on learning to dive recently, and it turns out we were doing it all wrong. We clearly just needed to give them a round flotation device to dive into the center of...

That's pretty much life lately around here...happy weekend all!

Then (and Then) and Now

Twin Shenanigans, 

2016 Style...

2014...

2013...

Thick as thieves, these two. 

Lately...

We've been going to the grocery store pretty frequently these days, as our kitchen is so hot and food turns quickly in there...

I'm just the worst at taking selfies! It makes me laugh so hard when I take one and then look at the finished product, and it almost always looks like this...

It's been sooooo hot outside, so the twins and I have been spending our days inside our apartment, at friends houses, or inside a pool.

Luckily, we have some super fun friends to go play with!

And our friends have some fun dress up clothes...

Hanging out at home, sitting on a stool, on a trampoline...naturally.

We did a painting craft with bubble wrap the other day. We took paper plates and made fish with them, then used bubble wrap to make bubble paint on them...

This picture is super dark and I'm far too lazy busy to figure out how to lighten it, but if you look closely you can see Sister is pretending her fish is eating her...such a ham ;).

Our kids are super into Dragons, and can set up the entire living room into Berk and surrounding areas...

We've goofed around with buddies at our place...

And Sister has crafted a Toothless out of paper...

David has strengthened the twins' poker skills...

When it's 120 degrees outside, you have your picnics indoors...

Sister feeding her friend's guinea pig...

He declared himself King for the day...




These two Star Wars loving fools always have the BEST time together...

We got to swim with our friends again this week...

I mean, how rough is this girl's life???

I took this picture in hopes of always remembering this sweet time in my life...sometimes when I'm making dinner, this boy will come hop up on the dryer and chat with me. I absolutely love it, and hope he always wants to have chats with his Momma.
On this particular evening, I was making pizzas, and he grabbed a handful of spinach to munch on while we took turns telling one long story.
Precious moments, I tell ya.

As seen in Kuwait - part two

A few more differences between our life here and our life back home...

The other night we had a small lizard (gecko?) on our wall. Can you see it up by the leaf, near the ceiling?

That's the first time we've seen one in our apartment, but the kids and I have also seen them down in the gym on the building's ground floor.

The average temp in the summer...

50 degrees Celsius is 122 degrees Fahrenheit.

Also, all temps are in Celsius here.

(And all weights in Kilograms...)

(And all distances are in Kilometers.)   

At the rate I'm going, I figure I'll just about have the mental conversions down about the time we leave next Summer.

With it being this hot outside, cold tap water is impossible to come by. It doesn't matter how far to the right you crank that handle, you're only getting warm/hot water coming out. We haven't brushed our teeth with cold water in months.

And speaking of water, you don't drink from the tap here. You can brush your teeth and wash your dishes with tap water, but that's about it. Our apartment has this filter thing that we can use for filtered water to wash our produce or cook with, and the rest is all bottled water.

While we're in the kitchen, I'll take note of the efficiency of having the clothes dryer in the kitchen. I mean, how else would I be able to fold laundry while also making grilled cheese sandwiches??

I'm still wrapping my head around how medicines are done here. As I've ranted spoken about before, they DO NOT do narcotics here. Post surgery and broken toe, I was given Panadol (acetaminophen) or Ibuprofen. Not super helpful for extreme pain.

Yet, you can purchase antibiotics and Clomid without prescription...

 Weird, right?

Another thing I've noticed is all the skin "whitening" products that are sold here...

In the States, it's all instant tanners, and skin darkening creams. 

Ah, Marketing...always making us want whatever is different from what we already have.

Summa summa summa time

Last week we spent an afternoon and evening at a friend's house with a bunch of people from our homeschool co-op. 

Our little summer cuties ready to go have some fun!

(I love this pic because Sister looks like she still has her baby cheeks ;) )

The afternoon sun hid behind the neighbors tall house, so the private villa pool was nicely shaded.

The kids had an absolute blast playing together...

Brother was King of the chaise...

At one point a football game broke out...

...one of the things I love most about this group of homeschoolers is the wide age range. These kids all play together - most of the time - very, very well.

My kids had never actually played football before, and these older boys were SO sweet as they taught L and A the rules, and encouraged them as they played. I mean... make a Momma Heart burst!!!!

I loved watching them have fun, and getting to chat with my fabulous momma friends as well. It's such a blessing to be able to get together so often.

One of my favorite parts about the day was all the different languages we heard as families and friends spoke to each other. While everyone speaks English, it's a second language for a large portion of the families in our group. That afternoon we overheard Spanish and Afrikaans frequently, and a German speaking family was there as well. So much culture in one front yard =).

It was 116 degrees on this particular afternoon, and so the popsicles had to be devoured rather quickly...

...luckily, Sister was up to the challenge...