National / Liberation Day

 The weekend of February 25th was Liberation and National Day celebrations here in Kuwait.

(Basically, it's like the 4th of July in America, but the celebrations go on for the majority of the month, and the weekend of National Day is a major holiday with nearly everyone out celebrating, and most people get the Thursday before and Sunday after off of work)

This year, some sweet friends invited us to tag along with their gathering at Green Island.  

I can't believe we've been in Kuwait for this long and had yet to visit Green Island! It was lovely! We will definitely be back.

Last year, the twins had a blast spraying everyone and everything with water guns, but I was still post-op and not really up for making a whole weekend out of the festivities. This year, we were all feeling great and couldn't wait to enjoy two full days of fun activities...

Green Island had several areas with play structures, sandy beaches, and different architecture pieces along walking paths... 

...it also provided beautiful views of the Kuwait coastline...

We found our friends, and the kids immediately set to playing...

David joined some of the guys in grilling up our lunch...

The kids played for hours! Water fights, catch, chase, etc...

These two boys always have the sweetest time playing together, and it makes me heart swell with happiness when I watch. We are so thankful to have found fun and kind friends for our kids to play with in  Kuwait.

Here the boys are locked in a water gun battle...

Sister was thrilled at the opportunity to wear her roller skates...

So proud of our little self-taught skater =)

Occasionally, some of the kids would climb to the top of this little structure and chill out, enjoying the view below...

Getting much better at our selfie skills...

We had SO MUCH good food. Everyone brought something to grill up, and a side dish. Good food and great conversation...

(side note: see those pants I'm wearing? Get used to them. Dave bought them for me in Cambodia, and I triple heart love them. They are airy and light and soooooo comfortable. I want to be buried in them.)

The kids grazed and played all day...

They spent some time digging/playing in the sand...

A Cricket game broke out in the center of this sand pit...

...with a mini-Cricket game occurring over in the corner...

...David up to hit (is it 'bat' in Cricket? I have no idea) with brother standing by to play catcher...

There were kids everywhere, riding bikes and scooters, and just running around...

...and of course our kids took a chance to channel their inner-monkey...

We watched the jet-skiers go by...

...and played Frisbee...

...and then played some soccer football...

It was a really great day.

 The weather was just perfect...that weekend fell in the two and half weeks of Spring weather that Kuwait gets. 

It's been just like last year, where is goes from really, truly, downright cold (no, really!!), with an average temp of 7 degrees Celsius/45 degrees Fahrenheit, to a perfect 26 degrees Celsius/78 degrees Fahrenheit. There is sunshine and light breeze all day long. It's downright lovely. 

But it only lasts just under three weeks before it's in the 90's and heating up more every day...thus beginning Summer in Kuwait. 

Anyways.

This day was full of perfect weather and really great conversation with fun friends. 

After several hours, we left there with full stomachs and even fuller hearts. 

As we left, we had to make sure our windows were ALL the way up, as we were pelted with water balloons and the spray of water guns...

Kids of all ages - and some adults too- line all the main roads in Kuwait, with a stockpile of water balloons and buckets to refill their water guns with. They drench cars as they drive by, and have been known to open the car doors of poor unsuspecting (and unprepared) drivers and throw water balloons right inside. 

And it's not limited to people on the side of the road. People hang out of cars to assault passersby as well...

And if you think the police would be on top of people hanging out of moonroofs and leaning far out car windows, you'd be wrong. They pretty much just sit nearby and take it all in...

Sights like this guy hanging out of the window to spray cars behind him...

...and more police just chillin', watching children (and adults) precariously dangle out of cars, drenching windshields...

The police, along with the rest of Kuwait, pretty much just accept that it's a whole thing, and if you don't want to participate, you should just stay home. 

I had one stop I wanted to make on our way back to our apartment.

Earlier that day someone had posted on the Expat Mums in Kuwait fb page that this sign had been put up, and posted the location. I told David I needed a family picture with it before the day was over. 

He indulged me =). 

Love!


There was other people there taking pictures as well, and this one guy insisted our kids climb up on his motorcycle to have their photo taken...

...they thought that was pretty rad =).

A few more family shots...

After we finished up our little photo session, the kiddos BEGGED us to let them spray a few cars passing by...

Then as we were getting ready to leave, these sweet Kuwaiti guys were doting on our kids (I've told you before, children are revered here) and wanted pictures taken with them. They asked if they could lift them up and put them on top of the letters, and we said sure, and they proceeded to take a zillion and four pictures with our kids, and then gently lift them down, and give them a gentle kiss on the cheek as they said goodbye...

...that's something that has taken me a long time to adjust to...strangers, especially men, being affectionate with my children. I was really put off by it at first, but I've calmed down about it a lot. If you really watch (and I do), you can see that these people mean no harm and have zero ill-will (and I have a HIGH creeper radar when it comes to my kids...I think everyone is a creeper until proven otherwise), and that they just come from a culture where children are the ultimate gift from God, and are precious and should be acknowledged as such.

And, little fair-skinned, light-haired kids are few and far between around here, so ours tend to get stopped a lot. 

David and I keep saying it's going to be such reverse culture shock for them to go back to Portland and NOT have people stop them in the grocery store to stroke their cheek and tell them they're beautiful.

The next day there was more celebrating to be had! We went down to the Marina in the afternoon...

I know I've said this many times before, but I don't take for granted the blessing of living within walking distance of this beautiful space!

And it was a gorgeous day to be out in the sun...

The twins loved playing around with other kids and climbing on handlebars while Dave and I waited for the pizza...

...which allowed us to chat sans interrupting children and enjoy this view...

After we ate, it was time to douse some cars. 

These two were armed and ready...

The people in cars - and motorcycles - are generally really good sports about it. They slow down and wave their hands in the air and make silly faces as if they are feeling the attack of the water inside the car. It's pretty cute. 

Our kids had a blast, and we let them keep at it until the sun was down, as we knew this would be their last Liberation Day weekend in Kuwait. 

They even teamed up with some other kids and worked together to assault cars passing by...

Finally, the sun set, which made it nearly too dark to see much and also fairly chilly, so we packed it in and headed home, grateful for the fantastic weekend of celebrations we'd experienced.