Friends and Farewells

This weekend Tes had a going away party, since she too will be leaving Kuwait in a few weeks. We are very excited that she is coming with our family to Jordan, and she has been such a blessing to our family. She spent most of the morning preparing some delicious Philippino food for all of her friends.

I prepared some appetizers, and we ended up with a nice spread of food.

She has been in Kuwait for 5 years, and she has lots of friends from church, the Embassy, and neighborhood.

Tes is lucky to have one of her sisters in Kuwait as well, and they are very close. 

Her Embassy friends were happy to see Caleb and Benjamin. Ben is always up for cuddles.

When we first moved to Kuwait, Rozelle watched our boys initially. Benjamin was only 7 months old and just starting to sit up, and Caleb wasn't even 2 years old.  They sure have changed and grown a lot since we first arrived!

A special visitor was Tes's church Pastor and his wife. Tes has been very active with her church during her time in Kuwait. She has a wonderful church family, and we are thankful they could come over to spend time with Tes.

Pastor Tony and his wife Rose.

The boys had some friends to play with during the evening, and they all played so nicely. At one point there was some music playing with Nathan on the guitar and Zoey playing the harmonica.

Caleb was a super hero and the boys had fun horsing around.

We are very thankful for Tes, and for the love that she has for our family.

It was a fun evening had by all!

Love these days

I am so blessed to be a mom to these sweet boys. Living in this part of the world, I get two Mother's Days, the local one in March and the American holiday in May :). Yesterday when I came home from work, Tes and the boys surprised me with flowers and a really cute craft.

 This has been a special week for Ben's class in preschool. Today they got to wear their PJs to school and had a teddy bear picnic. Caleb wanted a teddy bear picnic too, so we had one this evening when I got home from work. This is our teddy bear family :)

 Caleb put baby bear to bed and sang him a song.

Just a typical night in our home. Love our boys and love these days.

Farewell and see you soon!

It was a big weekend in the Purcell home. We bid farewell to our fish Freddie, and said see you soon to our cat Twix. We inherited Freddie last year from a co-worker who was leaving post soon. Nobody was sure exactly how long he had been around, but we all guessed at least a few years, based on his known previous owners. Well this weekend, we learned that Freddie has been around since 2003, which makes him 12 years old! Supposedly flower horn fish live 10-12 years, so his time may be coming to an end soon. I told our friend who took him to not feel bad if he died on her watch since he lived a very long and happy life.

Freddie was a good fish. He had lots of personality, and liked when you came to his tank to say hi. 

 The boys were good helpers to clean the rocks while Nathan cleaned the tank....for the last time. We probably won't get another fish again... I brought him to our friend, and he is now settled in a good home. Farewell Freddie, it's been fun.

This morning, we said see you soon to Twix. She and Nathan hopped on a plane this morning and headed to Jordan, where another family will be watching her for the summer until we arrive. They have another cat, named Kimba the Jordanian white lion. He's a big fluffy white cat.

The boys said their goodbyes to Twix last night before bed, and gave Twix some final poking and prodding :). Her foster parents have a Facebook page for their cat, and they have already featured Twix in a post, so we will get to see how she is doing over the summer. For now, it seems like the two cats are working out their differences...

 Farewell Freddie, it's been fun. See you soon Twix, be a good houseguest!

Lazybones

This is what we walk into most weekday mornings at 6:30am. It is a nice change from the 5-5:30am wake-ups we were getting for the first 1+ year we were living here:). Love our little lazybones!

Back and Belated

I got back in town last night, and Nathan and the boys surprised me at the airport. I was planning to take a taxi and was on a mission, until I saw Caleb run out from the crowd and he gave me a big hug, it was very sweet! I had some really pretty birthday flowers waiting at home for me.

Before going out of town, Tes baked me a delicious chocolate birthday cake that we all enjoyed before I left.

 And she baked me this beautiful strawberry cake when I got home!

All the boys really wanted to do was blow out the candles and eat cake. It was quite delicious.

While mom was away, the boys had some 'guy time,' as Caleb says :). They took trips to the park, aquarium, corniche, and zoo. They had a great week, and it's so nice to be home with my 3 boys!

East Coast

I am back in the states this week for work, and was lucky to fly in a couple days early to see friends, do a little family shopping, and enjoy the sights of springtime. I drove by our house in Virginia, and saw all the new construction in the neighborhood. A lot of the woods are now gone and new homes are popping up, and it will look nice when it is all done. And the best part is this new trail that will be several miles long, that is very close to our backyard!

I couldn't resist a visit to Wegmans and eating a fresh lunch. It was sensory overload to walk through the store. So much variety and choices compared to where we live.

And I made it to Manassas Battlefield, one of our family's favorite spots in VA, right in time to catch a beautiful sunset.

Loving all of the beautiful pink flowers in bloom!

I got to visit with our good family friends, the Kerns. Their girls are now little ladies and growing up so fast. We had a fun afternoon together, and it was nice to re-connect with the girls. They are now a elementary, middle, and high schooler!

On my birthday, I got to spend the day with my best friend Marissa, and her sweet son Henry. We had a great time visiting Ellicot City, MD. We had a nice lunch outside, visited the train museum, walked through shops, and took a hike by the river.

Is this little boy cute or what! It will be so much fun to get our boys together in a couple of months!

Marissa is a wonderful mom, and Henry is quite in love :).

My birthday coconut snowball.

We said our goodbyes for now and then they drove home...don't worry, Henry has a car seat in the back...

Feeling thankful for this weekend of good friends, springtime, and enjoying the little things :).

Spiderman

Spidermen are here to save the day!

Sorting, Purging, and Playing

Pretty crazy that we are down to our last 7 weeks in Kuwait! And in between the moving preparations,  we both have individual work travel planned, so the time will go by very quickly. This week Nathan and I took a little time off work to begin the sorting and purging process. We got through most of our house, sold some stuff at a yard sale this weekend, and donated the rest. Next step will be organizing what is going home with us for the summer and what will go to Jordan. There will be a bit to do in the coming weeks, but all in all, I think we are off to a good start, thanks to my wonderful partner :).

We are also taking the opportunity to get outside and enjoy the things we love about Kuwait. It is getting hotter, but it has been very dusty the last few weeks, which makes the temperatures cooler, or at least it seems. Today we went to a new souq, then we went to a park downtown to let the boys ride scooters and play, and we had a picnic.

Love our little tree climbing monkeys!

Happy Saturday!