Eid al-Adha Break

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!