Happy 35th birthday Nathan! We love you so much and couldn't be more thankful for you just being you.
We had a fun day celebrating and eating, starting with birthday eggs and muffins. Then Nathan and I had a lunch date at a delicious Lebanese restaurant downtown.
Afterwards, we tried to visit this pottery shop Nathan has been wanting to see. After driving down lots of really narrow and windy streets, we found the place....but they were closed!
But we got to see some amazing views of the city.
As we ventured down one of the walking streets, we found a great family-owned ceramics store that started operating in Jerusalem in 1922 and opened in Amman in the late 90's. They hand draw, paint, and finish the tiles right there in the store, it was very impressive. We have been wanting to get a tiled table for outside, and found one we really liked.
In the evening, we sang Nathan the happy birthday song, enjoyed some chocolate cake, and opened a few gifts.
Boys helping dad blow out the candles.
Ben ate his cake and the candle too!
Happy birthday Nathan! Wishing you a special day and many, many more years to come! We love you :).
In this part of the world, during the past few days Muslims have been celebrating Eid al-Adha, which is the Festival of the Sacrifice. The holiday honors Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac, as an act of submission to God. Muslims celebrate by sacrificing an animal, usually sheep, which is divided into 3 parts for family, relatives and friends, and to the poor and needy. We are not celebrating Eid, but we were glad to have the extra time off together. The boys were off two days last week and two days this coming week, and we got one day on each end. On the last day of school last week, the boys had Eid parties in their classes and came home with traditional Eid cookies from kids parents., and these cute crafts in honor of the holiday.
While most people here were celebrating the holiday, we have been celebrating Benjamin becoming a big boy that uses the potty! Truth is he has been ready for a while, but with all the transition we delayed in the training. He may not be happy if he sees this picture years from now, but I can't get over how good of a sport he has been about potty training.
So, with that said, we've been around or close by the house this long weekend. Lots of playing, scooter riding, crafting, cooking, and napping. With all the festivities packed into the coming weeks, we made a count down chain that we can take off a link each day.
The boys are having fun with legos that we recently found while putting stuff away. Caleb played with them for literally 3 hours this morning while Nathan and I did stuff around the house. Benjamin played a lot and did lots of scooter riding in between.
Caleb will tell all kinds of stories about what he is building and doing. He has such an amazing imagination!
This weekend I made a chicken curry, creamy spinach and chicken pasta, and lasagna. I really like cooking in our kitchen, it is a great open space and I especially love the big window looking over the flowers and to look outside and be able to watch the boys play.
We went to a new park this weekend, now officially called the Zig Zag park. There is a big hill with a path that goes in a zig zag, that they can ride up and down on their scooters...really fast! We went with the boys friends from school and everyone had a really fun time. Here comes the scooter gang...
Today we went to what we call the Up and Down park, because there is a playground on the top and bottom level. We went with another friend their kids. They have a son a little older than Caleb and twin boys that just turned one. The boys ran all over this park together, it's fun to see how easily kids make friends on the playground.
Ending the day with the super fast slide. You can't tell from the picture, but they literally flew off this slide!
It was a fun long weekend. Back to work for Nathan and I tomorrow. Boys still have one more day of Eid break!
Recently Caleb and Benjamin wanted to sleep in the same bed. It is really sweet and fun to hear them laughing and singing at night. Eventually they fall asleep.....
And this is the sweetness I walked into this morning...at 7am. Why can't they do this on the weekend?!!
This weekend we checked out a park close to our home. They had two playgrounds, lots of places to ride scooters, bikes, and run, and some nice gardens.
The boys enjoy the see-saw. Benjamin feels heavier than Caleb these days, and this proved it!
Caleb waiting patiently for a butterfly land on him.
Checking out the other playground.
Caleb recently learned how to slide down poles like a fireman, and he loves it!
Benjamin loves the big boy swing.
It was a nice way to spend the morning...and both boys crashed on the way home :).
Ben likes to line his worker men up in a row before bath time. He is so caring with his little people, and big people alike.
The boys enjoy bath time together, and we like listening to their conversations. They often start with Caleb asking Ben a question, then Caleb telling Ben what he wants him to say. Ben is starting to hold his own and tell Caleb what he really wants. Many nights after we put them to bed, we hear them talking to each other or singing songs together. Love our sweet boys!
We have had fun playing indoors and outdoors this week...the sun is finally starting to poke through and the dust is clearing! The boys like to line up their cars and make team hot wheels to the rescue.
They packed their bags and said they are going to....Kuwait!?
Ben was trying to help Caleb pack his bag.
The boys got helmets for their scooters. With all the concrete and sharp edges, we thought it was about time and gave in. They got hot wheels and dino helmets.
Nathan has been doing a lot of work in our yard the past couple of weekends. He has been trimming trees, getting rid of dead shrubs, and he picked up some nice flower boxes for the windows. Last weekend we bought these 4 chairs, and now we can sit and enjoy under the gazebo. It's so relaxing out there and it is nice to have a place to sit and relax and for the boys to play.
We have lots of flowers and herbs outside our kitchen window.
Mint and rosemary in the kitchen window flower box for easy picking :).
Today we had some friends over for a play date, but I forgot to take pictures. It is one of our co-workers who has two kids. The girl is in Benjamin's class and the boy is in the class across the hall. They had lots of fun playing for hours, and afterwards everyone took a nap. Happy for bluer skies this weekend!
This weekend we explored a few towns in the northern part of the country called Jerash and Ajloun. Jerash is said to be one of the best preserved Roman cities, and it was one of the cities in the Decapolis. This city is so old, excavations show it was inhabited as early as 3200 BC. It was an important place during the Roman empire, the ruins of this city are still impressive today. The 'new city' sits along the hills of the ancient ruins, it's pretty remarkable to see. This is Hadrian's Arch, the entrance to the old city. The arch was built in 129 AD, to honor Emperor Hadrian's visit to this area.
After a short walk, you come across the Oval Plaza, which was the main gathering place. The columns were so impressive, not to mention weighing around a ton each!
In the middle of the plaza there was the entry to the Colonaded Street.
And lots of different ruins along the way. I lost track of what most of them were.
The attention to detail is incredible.
Then we climbed some stairs to see more ruins.
Temple of Zeus.
View of the Oval Plaza from a hilltop.
View of the ancient city.
Old and new city.
Next we stopped at the ampitheater and all climbed to the top. There were men playing bagpipes and drums. Ironically, between some traditional music, they were playing Yankee Doodle and some church hymns.
View of the Oval Plaza from the top of the ampitheater.
We had a fun day hiking around and exploring the city. Afterwards, we ate some lunch and headed to Ajloun, which was about an hour drive through the mountains. Ajloun Castle is a Muslim castle from the 12th century. The castle was named after a Christian monk who lived on the mountain during the Byzantine Period.
Entering the castle...let the dragon hunt begin!
The boys checking out the sewers and dragon dungeons.
