Lately...

 Remember how I told you we went to a school friend's birthday party over the break that went until 11:15pm?

11:15 PM, people. 

For a First Graders birthday.

These Kuwaitis really know how to par-tay.

The twins were stoked to go, and they had the best time at this Lego themed bash...

The birthday boy's mom sent me this picture the next day. These boys are huge fans of one another!

 I'm so thankful for the wonderful friends our kids have made at school. They really, genuinely just love going to school each day, and I know that is largely because of how much fun they have with their buddies. (and I choose to focus on that part and not on how it *could* be seen as a reflection of how they felt about homeschooling with me last year ;))

Our kids look and sound different than the majority of the children in their classroom - and school, for that matter - and yet they've been completely accepted and loved, just as they are.

This is such an answer to prayer for me, and a beautiful example of how children aren't born into racism. 

Even though the school is a private British school, the majority of the students are from an Arabic country - either Kuwait or a neighboring Middle Eastern country - and even though the language spoken at the school is English, most of the students naturally have an Arabic accent to their English.

Our kids stand out.

And yet, they have no clue, because they are just brought into the fold with the rest of the groups. 

The beauty of it all could make me weep until I was dehydrated if I let it.

Also during the Winter Break, we got together with a handful of school buddies at a local park...

We even got a walk-by-hugging from David as he passed by us on his way home from work...

Monkeys...

They all thought it was pretty cool to be hanging together outside of school! It was fun for me to get to chat with the parents as well. 

The girl on the left is Sister's best buddy here. She is from Ukraine and has been living in Kuwait for three years. 

I always catch them together when I run into them at recess...

(That was on "explorer day" at school...which means no uniforms, which means I can post pictures ;). 

I had to convince Sister this giant log was not coming home with us...

Right before we left for Abu Dhabi, I stopped into our pharmacy to pick up some travel meds, and saw one of the pharmacists that I hadn't seen in awhile. He asked me if I could bring the kids by to say hi to him the following day.

Not thinking anything really of it, I agreed. 

The following afternoon, we stopped in to say hello, and he high-fived the kids, and said "come with me..." and led us out to the parking lot.

He reached into his car and pulled out two GIANT bags from a toy store. 

Inside these bags were multiple wrapped gifts for the kids!

"Merry Christmas!" he bellowed as he handed them to my stunned children...

I was choking back tears.

(yes, again. I cry a lot. I'm not even ashamed.)

Here is our Arab, Muslim pharmacist helping us (he knows we are Christians) celebrate a holiday he doesn't even observe.

It was just so thoughtful and kind, and we were all so touched.

This is why I get so uptight when people speak with fear about Muslims.

Are there bad Muslims out there? Yes, of course. There are bad people of all kinds. 

But the religion of Islam tells the Muslims to treat their neighboring people - regardless of a neighbor's religious identity - in the best possible manners and not cause any difficulty to them. 

By and large, that has been our experience while living in a country of Islam. 

Okay. Stepping off my soapbox.

The air was getting thin up there.

We were also super excited to spend time with some of our homeschooling friends we haven't been able to see as much since the twins started school. Since we were off, our weekday mornings were free, and we had some fun playdates!

We also enjoyed the freedom of not having to leave the house by 6:30am (and all God's people said AMEN) and enjoyed lazy mornings hanging around the house...

We went to see Moana! 

(Which I totally LOVED, by the way)

We failed -again- at the selfie, but check out Brother's finger guns...

These two were hamming it up on the way to the cinema...

We met some friends at a new park we'd never visited before. The kids had a blast exploring some new types of play equipment they'd never seen before...

Another day the twins and I met some more friends at a local park, and had a picnic together...

(You'll note the Oregonians are in t-shirts, and the South Africans are in jackets and hats ;) )

This girl is as tough as she is kind, and I'm crazy proud to be her momma!

After awhile it did get a bit chillier, and we put on sweatshirts and had some hot chocolate to warm up...

Another day, another park with another friend! 

The neighbor kids were on Winter Break as well, so there was lots of loudness fun happening out in the hallway during the days as well....

And of course, plenty of laying around in our jammies, sitting on each other while playing PlayStation...

On the last day of our break, I took the kids to a park to enjoy the weather, and run them until they were exhausted so hopefully they'd go to bed earlier that night, since we were going back to our early mornings the following day...

There was a vendor selling bubble wands and kites...

...and my kids talked me into I decided to make a purchase because I am a sucker fun momma...

The twins noted a pick up soccer game happening in one corner of the park, and asked me if they could go inquire about joining up.

I was so proud of them.

When I was six, I was pretty outgoing, but still I don't know if I would have just sauntered up to a bunch of strangers and ask if I could play in their game with them!

But they didn't even bat an eye at the idea, and were thrilled when I said to go for it.

They walked up to the Dad who appeared to be delegating positions, and asked if they could play too...

...he generously said yes, and gave them instructions on what positions they were playing, and off they went!

If you would have told me three years ago that I'd be sitting on a bench in seaside park in Kuwait, watching my six year olds play soccer in a sand pit with a bunch of kids that they'd never met and that were older than them, with a man wearing a dishdasha acting as their coach and sweetly encouraging them...I likely would not have believed you.

And I'm so glad I would have lost money on that bet, because these experiences are simply awesome.