Happy Halloween!

 Happy halloween from Batman and Spiderman! 

 The superhero dynamic duo :)

Where we are in place and time

Caleb and Benjamin are working on a unit at school called, 'where we are in place and time.' This week, Caleb was asked to bring in pictures of a place he visited in his homeland, talk about where he was, what he did, and who he was with. This morning when we dropped him off at school, we saw his presentation. Proud of our big boy!

Ready for Halloween!

Spooky Halloween lights are up in the boys room...

 Pumpkin was carved tonight...

 Taking out the guts.

 Carving out the face...

 Proud boys :)

 We are ready for Halloween!

Worldwide Culture

It's been a fun week of culture at preschool for the boys. It is the time of year where the olives are harvested and brought to the press to make oil. This week, each of the boys classes visited a classmate's olive farm, where they got to pick olives and are they preserving them in jars at school. Their teachers take lots of pictures, so we were glad to have some of the day. Benjamin went early in the week and said he had lots of fun. He showed us how he picked olives and said the best part of the day was the hot dog picnic. Here is his class and the nice family that hosted them.

Caleb's class went to the olive farm yesterday, and he too had a great time. He was waiting all week to go, and was so excited when it was his day. He showed us how he hit the olives off the tree and said us he would bring some olives home soon so we can try them. I just love his smile!

 Caleb working hard, picking olives :)

 Over the next couple of weeks, both classes have been learning about where their classmates are from, and they now are learning about Jordan. One week, they made flags from all the countries represented in their classes. Both classes are pretty much the same.  Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, and the America. Another day, each boy had to talk about a place they visited from their homeland. Benjamin talked about the beach in Florida, and Caleb talked about.....Kuwait! His teachers told us he swore up and down he was from Kuwait and was talking all about it. Bless his heart! In all seriousness, Caleb does know he is from America, and he knows the American flag. Though we will need to be focusing on American culture, geography, and history more in the coming years.

For the Jordan part, the boys will talk about a city they visited in Jordan, what they did there, and who they were with. I don't think this has happened yet, but stay tuned. They learned who the King and Queen of Jordan are and are learning about Jordanian culture. Today one of the kid's mom in Benjamin's class brought in Mansaf, a traditional Jordanian dish of rice and chicken, for the class to share. They were taught how to eat with the right hand (typically clean hand)...though the kid next to him is using his left....It was really nice of the mom to bring this in. I wish I could have come for lunch!

 Benjamin's class. On Thursdays they do not have to wear their uniform, so they have fun picking clothes for the day.

Stay tuned for more Jordanian culture. Nathan and I are enjoying learning from these experiences too :). Happy Thursday!

Hanging around

This weekend we hung around the house a lot, so we could get more unpacking and decorating done. We will post pictures soon, I promise :). But for now, here are some of our weekend. The boys play really well together these days, most the time. We are very thankful for that! They really like to play with their hot wheels race track. They like to make the long race track and big ramps, and race all their cars.  

We took a few construction walks around our neighborhood. We live on the top of a hill and close by there are some nice views of other nearby hills. And lots of rocks to throw.

This picture does not do it justice, it is a very, very steep hill, and the boys wanted me to take their picture of them at the top.

Checking out some bulldozers and throwing more rocks from a different lookout.

We stopped to talk to this nice security guard and he insisted the boys take a ride :) Don't worry, they only pretended to take a ride.

And they got haircuts! Caleb likes it spikey with fire coming out of his hair:).

Just a fun weekend hanging around together.

Birthdays, Bizarres, and More

A bit belated, but here's some more pictures from Benjamin's birthday. These firework candles are amazing and we will enjoy them as long as we are here!

Make a wish, sweet boy.

The cake turned out good, you can never go wrong with chocolate :) Dig in birthday boy.

Who wants to open presents? Meeeee

Ben got nice gifts and says thank you for them all!

I think we have another music lover in our family ;). He had a fun 3rd birthday!

Another day this past weekend went to a Diplomatic Bazaar downtown. The late Queen Zein Al Sharaf started a charity called the Mabarrat Um Al-Hussein Home for Boys, to help disadvantaged orphan boys. This bazaar is one of the biggest charity events of the year and all proceeds go directly to this charity. There were over 50 nations represented at the bazaar, selling food and handicrafts from their country. The US Embassy represented with selling all beef hot dogs. We left with a big bag of food from Thailand, India, and Brazil and chowed down when we got home. Next year, note to self...go really hungry!

Caleb ran into his best friend Shawn and said that was the highlight of his day!

Brotherly love while waiting for Indian and Thai food.

Hot dogs and ice cream, the American dream!

Brazil had really nice fruits and veggies on display and delicious baked goods. They also did a Capoeira performance which was fun to watch.

And we found Kuwait!!!

Yummy Thai food we enjoyed for dinner.

The next day, we were off for Columbus Day, but the boys had school, so Nathan and I took a drive to Madaba, which is only about 1/2 from Amman. We heard there was a nice walking tour that went by the main sites, so we started at the Visitors Center and were off. Madaba is known for its mosaics, and is thought of as the mosaic capital of the world. There are so many beautiful mosaics on ancient church floors, walls, just about everywhere you look. These mosaics are from the archeological park, that contains the remains of several Byzantine churches and famous mosaics.

Famous mosaic on Church of the Virgin Mary floor, was discovered in 1887, in what was a private home at the time. The mosaic was built in the 6th century on a Roman temple, and it was renovated again in 767 AD.

Famous mosaic on the floor of Hippolytus Hall that shows the 4 seasons, also from the 6th century.

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All of the churches were on an old Roman street that ran through town. In the late 1800's Madaba was resettled by Christian families that came from Kerak, in the west of the country, and they built their home on the ruins, unknowingly and found them as they built. 

This is the oldest mosaic in Jordan, from the baths of a fortress built by King Herod dating back to the 1st Century BC!

It's a great time of year here and flowers are in bloom!

Streets of Madaba

Church of the Martyrs

St. George's church (mosaic map church of the biblical sites of the Levant)

We ended the day with pizza for lunch, and visiting some mosaic shops. It was a fun 1/2 day off exploring the country.