Conference

This last Friday we took the kids to a conference center to see the camp that was going on as well as check out the place for our camps this summer!  It was great.  There were around 180 kids that attended this camp put on by the students we meet with regularly!  It had a big playground and a huge soccer field where my boys could run around wild!

My kids usually have a great time playing with our Egyptian friends because most of the time they get what they want from their “friends”.  I usually have to de-spoil them when we return home.

Egypt wins the African Cup!

This blog is a little late in coming, but I though I would share a little about our life when the country we live in wins a huge soccer game!  The last game they played wasn’t actually as big as the one before that.  The one they played before the championship game was against Algeria, the huge rival of Egypt since the Algerian team beat Egypt out of the World Cup play offs.  When Egypt beat Algeria, people were partying in the streets until 2am!  It was crazy.  A couple of days later, my mom, sister, and I were buying some water and my sister noticed in a store window the Egyptian flag draped over the manacan displaying wedding gowns!  Very funny! 

A couple of nights later we went with our friends to a restaurant to watch the championship game!  It was a lot of fun, even though it took us more than an hour to get home (we only live about 10 minutes away).  There were people who would just stop in the middle of the road to dance and hit their drums!  Craziness.  We say this all the time, “Only in Egypt!”

What we have been up too!

My mom and sister came into Cairo last week and stayed with us for 8 days!  We had a wonderful time showing them (especially my sister) all the nuances of our daily life!  We had a good time sitting and visiting along with the kids enjoying their Aunt Lissa and Nana!

A couple of funny things that happened…

Cairo found my food coloring…blue food coloring to be exact and he decided to paint his arms and hands with it.  While he was enjoying his curiosity, Dad was sleeping, Mom (me) was in the shower, Nana was on the computer, Aunt Lissa was tending to her own, and Cohen was the one who happened to see his brother blue!  And as Cohen shouted, “Cairo has blue paint!!!”, Adam shot off the couch picked up Cairo and sat him in front of our water cooler and very strictly said “Do NOT MOVVVVEEE!!!”  Adam then picked up our light green, long shag rug and preceded to wash out the dye from it. (Thank goodness it wasn’t bad and surprisingly it was easy to get out).  Then Adam washed Cairo in the bath tub ( I am still in the shower), literally scrubbing his hands and arms.  Not so easy to get off of your skin!  Because Adam got up in such a jolt and then hunkered over to give Cairo the bath he somehow blew his back out!  He was on the couch the rest of the day!  It was quite a day!

Then just traveling around with our kiddos is always exhausting.  Someone is always moving, yelling, hurting, etc… not that I don’t love it.  The three of us ladies decided to take the kids with us to Midan Gammaa.  The Egyptian equivalent to Lowes/Home Depot except for it is a square mile of shops.  Adam actually tried to go with us, but as soon as he bent down for a second to help Cairo, his back gave way again!!!  It was sad and hilarious and embarrassing.  He even had to call our friends to come and get him! (Don’t tell him I wrote this)

We did however find some things for my home.  It is an adventure daily to try and find things here.  There is no Hobby Lobby, or any cheap antique stores!  So we are always on the hunt for things.  Our first thing we wanted to buy was an old door.  The store manager could not understand why in the world would we want an old door!  He kept saying “Why” in arabic!  It was funny.  Turns out though that he wanted way to much for his old door!  We continued to shop and found some old iron shutters and a piece of lattice along with some other old wood architecture.  (Pictures coming soon)

It was a lot of fun to experience all of this culture with my mom and sister!!!  I’m sure we will remember these times forever!  I’m anxious to see them again!!!

On the Nile!

 

The recycling center

Aunt Lissa gave Cairo a mohawk!

Blue boy

Close as a brother…

Although living overseas away from our family is sooo very difficult, there are some things that are good, or benefits of being all each other has.  I love the fact that my children will grow very close to one another…right now they are each other’s best playmates!!!  In this picture Cohen had decided to get in the pack n play with Caroline and she was giggling at whatever he did…nothing will warm your heart more!  Then of course little brother had to join in the fun, so Cohen decided he was going to teach them their shapes!

(Caroline was having fun…but then as I started taking pics and she began to cry, wanting me to pick her up.)

Then it was time for baseball!

Caroline was seeking safety in the suitcase.

Climbing Caroline!

Little Climber Caroline….she is getting very hard to chase after…constantly going and following her brothers!

More pics…

The first group of pictures are of a party we attended with students from camp that we meet with on a weekly basis. There was lots of food, lots of music (loud music), karaoke, and a great reflection on the reason for the season!!

The second group is of Caroline and Cohen enjoying the outdoors at the Red Sea! Cairo was around, just not around enough for me to catch him with my camera!

Playing Catch up!!!

It has been a long time since I have posted…much going on though and between Christmas, Cohen being home from school, trying to do language, attending some Egyptian parties, and going on a Team retreat, I haven’t had much time to update our blog. 

We had a wonderful Christmas!  It was very special to spend it with just our kids and enjoy them all day and we didn’t have to worry about traveling to all our families houses! (Not that I didn’t miss our family because we missed them immensely, but just saying that it was nice to just focus on our family.)  We also had a wonderful time with friends who are becoming like our family! 

Few favorite things for Christmas:

Cohen says, “my bike!”

Cairo says, “my football and bike!”

Caroline liked walking around and picking up paper, tape, and playing with her little choo choo train that she can ride on.

Adam…well he got a sling box! Need I say more??

Liz…Adam got me camera classes to better learn how to use my camera! We will see how that goes!

Retreat:

That was amazing! It was great to get out of the city and let the kids run.  I have pictures of them immediately playing on the grass and a tree that was right outside our condo.  They had a wonderful time playing on a huge playground and then of course running free on the beach.  The adults also had a good time connecting with one another and setting goals and plans for this year!  A very productive weekend.

Wall fun…

We recently put up a chalkboard that we had made here along with some cork board so that the kids could have a place to hang their art.  They love it to death, although I hate the fact that little pins could get on the floor where a little girl could find one (she hasn’t yet!)  And sometimes she also finds chalk and likes to eat it. 

Sometimes it isn’t enough to have things like chalkboards and corkboards, the art still ends up on the wall somehow!

Car Adventures

Running errands is much easier now with a car of our own!  Just a quick story of one of our outings because no two outing are the same here in Cairo!  Adam, Cairo, Caroline and I drove down to an area called Midan El Gamma…basically it is a couple of square miles of all kinds of shops for anything you could ever need or want.  It is our equivalent to Home Depot except it would be a Home Depot divided into millions of shops!  Anyway we are driving down a one way street trying to get to the shop that made my pillows.  It is a one way street with cars parked on both sides…and by that I mean I could literally put my arm out and touch the parked car next to us.  As we are slowly driving, we come upon a ruckus in the street just to my right.  Evidently some guy made another guy mad and their was attempted hitting .  So the car in front of us decides to stop and rubber neck.  Ridiculous, was the word going through my mind.  Well the seven men that were involved had pulled the mad man off of the other man and he was getting into his truck which was right next to me on the passenger’s side.  Well all of the sudden the mad man comes running up and hits the other guy on the back of his head!  And then 30 men came out of no where and rushed to my side of the car trying to break up the fight.  We were in our car with a mob of men pushing and shaking our car trying to break up this fight.  I was shocked and actually I thought it was kind of funny that we were in our car observing this whole situation!  They made their way around our car and we honked our horn and made the guy in front of us go because by this time there was many cars backed up behind us!  I don’t think I will ever forget this experience…I have seen none other like it except in the movies!!!

And much to my dismay, I did not have my camera

Preschool Christmas Party!

Yesterday evening we and the Osborn’s went to Cairo and Lucy’s Christmas party at their school.  It was quite the experience with a loud muppet dance party, a muppet belly dancer, a very long choir program and last but not least, Papa Noel (aka, Santa Claus)!!!  Our children had a great time…although they had to be very patient waiting for Santa Claus!!!  Watch our slide show and enjoy the pics!

Click on the link below.

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