New Rides

We got the boys scooters this week and they have had fun riding them inside and outside. Tonight we had a little race before bath time. Enjoy ;).

Happy Friday!

Caleb Counts...in Arabic!

Caleb is learning his letters, numbers, shapes, colors, animals, and foods in Arabic at school. He rarely talks in Arabic around us, but tonight we found him counting his blocks in Arabic in the bathtub...enjoy!

Up High and Down Low

Where is Ben? He's high in the sky!

And and just hanging out. Don't worry, Nathan caught him on the way down:).

While Ben is up high, Caleb likes to hang down low to pretend he is a robot and watch the kindle.

And speaking of the sky, here are a couple of pictures of sunset at a nearby park. We are thankful to enjoy beautiful sunsets every night.

Happy Wednesday!

A Kuwaiti Weekend

We had gorgeous weather this weekend, so we spent it outside seeing some of our favorite places and some new places in the city. The flowers are in full bloom, and if you know me, you know I like to take pictures of flowers!

 The Kuwait Towers are a landmark in the city. They have been closed since we arrived, but rumor has it that they may be open to the public next month. Nathan went to the top when he was here in 2011, and we hope we can all get there before we leave.

View of downtown from the towers on a hazy morning.

 Afterwards, we went to Burj Alhamra, which is the largest tower in Kuwait City, at 1354 feet tall. Construction started in 2005 and finished in 2011. We were hoping there would be on observation deck at the top, but like most things around here, it is indefinitely under construction and closed to the public.  It was kind of a let down, but the boys seemed to have just as much fun riding the escalators and it's something crossed off of our Kuwaiti bucket list :)

 We left downtown and headed to Steak and Shake, that recently opened in Kuwait.

 Nobody at work knew what it was, but we sure did! It brought back great memories of our road trips to Illinois with Caleb. It sure was good to eat a Frisco burger again! And we all enjoyed milkshakes.

Today we went to Souk Mubarkiyia. It's one of our favorite places to visit in the city. Lots of colorful things to see and lively people to watch.

 And we love interacting with the shopkeepers. Over the last year and a half, some of the shopkeepers have come to recognize us and are very friendly when we come by. The date vendors are amongst the friendliest and are always happy to see us, although for some reason they never smile in the pictures.

The real reason I am taking many of these pictures is because I am taking an online photography class that Nathan got me for Christmas, and these pictures are for my homework next week. It's a 8 week class and we just finished week 2.  Nathan has been very patient with my picture taking, and I hope his patience holds for the next 6 weeks :).

 Would you go into this man's shop?

 Ben would!

Both boys love dates, and they let us taste a lot. They are very proud of their dates and happy when you will try them. We bought a kilo and this nice man gave us an extra half kilo for free.

 View of the souk on the way out.

 Who you looking at?

 After the souk, Nathan and our friend went to get schwarma and his wife and I took the boys to a park. While Ben was napping in the stroller, Caleb found a tree to climb.

 And he found a friend. This girl was so sweet and followed Caleb around the playground for a while.

 We had a great weekend getting outside and exploring the city!

Fabric Souk and Thai

Nathan and I had a day off earlier this week for MLK Day, and the boys had school, so we headed downtown with a couple of friends to the fabric souk. 

In this country, a lot of people have their clothes hand-made. There were stores and stores lined with beautiful fabric for men and women, it was quite overwhelming. I went to the souk last month, and this time dropped off some fabric to make a shirt, and Nathan purchased fabric to get a shirt made. All you have to do is wash the fabric and bring it on in. We left a shirt that we like the fit and they are copying it, but they do completely custom fitted clothes too.

 We ended our day enjoying Thai food with a couple of friends, then picked up the boys at school. It was a nice day all around.

Birthday Party Bonanza

We were invited to two birthday parties this weekend. Wyatt turned 3 and had a How to Train Your Dragon party. Andrew turned 4 and had a Spiderman party. Our boys partied hard and had lots of fun!

Wyatt and Caleb are in class together at pre-school, and good buddies. At Wyatt's party the kids enjoyed lots of time to play, and there was even a piñata. The kids were trying to get as much candy in their bags as they could….and we left with a lot of candy x 2.

 Birthday boy blowing out his candle.

 Benjamin enjoying the cupcakes.

 And driving the motorized car with all of his candy in the back…he didn't want anyone to eat his candy, haha!

Andrew's birthday party was at the Embassy. The boys both wanted to bring Andrew his gift so they each grabbed one of side of the bag.

 Andrew's little sister enjoyed the beautiful day. She's a happy little girl.

 The boys had fun running around the field, playing ball, and jumping away in the bouncy castle.

Birthday boy with his middle eastern explosive candle!

 

We celebrated Andrew's birthday a few days prior as well at our neighbor's house.

 It was a fun weekend celebrating little friends' birthdays.

Rockstar Caleb

This weekend we visited a new kids barber, and Caleb did a great job. The awesome race car barber chairs may have had something to do with it:) At the end, he asked for spikey hair, and the barber took it one step further with some gold and red hair spray. Caleb thought it was so cool and loved it, and didn't want to take a shower that night, and he even volunteered to smile for some pictures for mom :). We love our animated and fun little boy!

Evening Walks at the Park

 With the sun setting around 5pm these days, we are enjoying getting out for walks in the evening after the sun goes down. There is a really nice park with a long walking trail close to our house, that we have been going to since we moved here. It's a fun place for the boys to run, play on the playgrounds, and for dad and mom to get some exercise!

 Ben loves to be thrown high in the sky!

 Caleb made a friend at the park and they kept racing each other down the slide.

Good times!