Olive Harvest

It's the olive harvest time of the year, and yesterday Benjamin's class went on a field trip to one of their classmates olive farm in Madaba. Benjamin said he had a lot of fun and said he picked 161 olives :). Here are a couple (of the many) pictures I got throughout the day. Benjamin and all his classmates.

Afterwards they had a picnic and then headed back to school.

I guess sometime next week we will get a jar of olives sent home. Happy Friday!

Amman Half Marathon

This past Friday a couple of friends and I ran the Amman Half Marathon. We are training for a marathon in January at Lake Tiberius, and it just so happened that this week was a 13 mile run for our training plan! 

Here is the start, about a mile from downtown. It was a really neat experience to run through the empty streets of downtown Amman, and weird at the same time because downtown was packed with people, but they were all going about Friday morning business at the markets and not there to watch the race.  It seems like most the fan fare was on the 10 km course. There was about 4000 runners for the 10 km race, where the half had only 300 and  the full I think even less.

The finish line was beside the Roman Amphitheater, what a great view of the city!

Thankful for my friends who like to run :).

They shut down driving access to downtown for the race, so afterwards we had a to walk a few kilometers to catch our ride home.

It was a really fun morning, and I'm planning to do it again next year!

Halloween Fun!

Halloween is in full effect here!   The past couple of weeks, the boys have made lots of spooky crafts hanging around the house.

Earlier this week, Nathan carved pumpkins with the boys and they turned out really cute! The boys chose was what spooky faces they wanted.

 Proudly displaying their pumpkins (large squash)!

 Last night, we went to the Embassy Halloween party and it was a lot of fun. There was around 400 people there! It was busy, but well organized and there was lots of activities for the kids, not too much candy, and a delicious buffet afterwards!

 Meet Captain America and Dr. Bones....

 The boys with some of their friends at the Embassy.

Tonight we went to a cookie decorating party at a friend's house. There were lots of sugar cookies, and plenty of frosting, sprinkles, and other toppings to decorate the cookies. The kids were really into the decorating and did a great job!

 And it was fun for the adults too. We have made some nice friends here and it's fun to get together at each others homes and watch our kids play together.

 The impressive finished products! We took a plateful home :).

And the boys finished off the sugar-filled night playing with their home-made paddle boats in the bath. This morning while I was running a half-marathon, more about that in the next post, Nathan made boats with the boys!

Tomorrow is a birthday party then one more Halloween party on Monday! 

Handy Man

Our house is back to normal after a couple weeks of stomach sickness that (hopefully) is now gone. And the handyman, Nathan came out! First creation was a lego table for the boys. We have had this table for several years and the boys have been building on it lately, so why not make it a lego table? Nathan did a great job and the boys love it!

We also spent a lot of time playing outside when Caleb wasn't stuck in basketball hoops :).

And for the second creation....bye bye teepees, hello secret hideout tent!

Topped with a Jordanian flag. Nathan is planning to hang their lanterns inside the tent so they can play in it after dark. Thank you Nathan!

We had some friends from Ethiopia in town visiting with other friends and we got together a couple of nights. They have 5 kids between 5 and 14 years old, and our boys loved having new friends to play with. I met their family in Riyadh on a work trip in 2014, then stayed with them in Addis before the mission trip last year. Here's their 2 youngest with our boys.

And the whole crew!

And parents :). It was a fun time to catch up with them and always nice to have visitors!

On Saturday morning I went for a run with a few friends, and came home hungry so we can go celebrate Sean's 6th birthday. The cake was ginormous and the kids literally just dug right in.

 Finished product....demolished! We all enjoyed a restful afternoon after the immense sugar high.

Happy Monday!

Haircuts

We got the boys out on Thursday for haircuts and they look cute. The like having it long now, so they just got a little trim...and some red hair spray.

Flat hair after the bath. Thursday has been turning into family movie night with popcorn and hot chocolate. The boys made a fort and we watched Toy Story 2.

On Thursdays, the boys bring their school bags home with work from the week. Caleb spent half of the week home because he caught this nasty stomach bug that is going around. Thankfully he is feeling fine now, and we are hoping we steer clear of it! They usually bring home english and arabic letters/numbers worksheets, but today we found this in Benjamin's bag, from french class. They have french for an hour each day, and 'amie' is the french word for friend. Mary is one of his good friends from class, and he even drew in her glasses, how cute!

Happy Friday!

Benjamin is 4!

On Saturday, we celebrated Benjamin's 4th birthday! It's hard to believe that our baby is 4, he has been a sweet love bug since the day he was born...

He has grown and learned so much this year. He loves to be outside any chance he can get, and has fun playing with this trucks, climbing trees, playing baseball, and soccer. He loves music and enjoys singing, dancing, and listening to Nathan play the guitar. 

Benjamin likes school and tries hard with his english and arabic letters. He is learning to recognize and write letters in both languages, and we often catch him singing arabic songs at home. He is very sociable at school, especially with the girls! Benjamin likes a good book, especially rhyming books like Dr. Suess, or anything with vehicles or construction.

This year, Benjamin had his good friend's Sean and Mary sleep over on his birthday eve. After dinner with their family, we had cupcakes, the famous candles, and sang Benjamin happy birthday! I tried to make him a strawberry cake the day before, but it crumbled so he picked out cupcakes from a delicious bakery instead.

The sleep over was a lot of fun and the boys were up talking and laughing in bed until almost 10:30 at night. Mary was smart and she crashed early. Nathan and I decorated for a soccer party this next morning, and Benjamin was excited to see 'the football map on the table' when he woke up! Everyone was up by 6:30am, and we enjoyed some Mickey Mouse pancakes, muffins, eggs, and sausage for birthday breakfast.

Benjamin received some very nice gifts - thank you! One of his favorites was a lego batman and catgirl set that Caleb gave him. To say he was excited when he saw what it was, is an understatement!

Enjoying their new hot wheels car carrier from Uncle Aaron.

Some awesome baseball gear and books for both boys from Grandpa Mark and Grandma Betty, complete with paint for their faces and big league chew gum!

And a new drum set from Grandpa Art and Grandma Sue! . There's been lots of drumming and signing in our house...or in the glass room outside our house!

Later that day, we went to their friends Sean and Ava, who are twins, 5th birthday costume party. The baseball gear was impeccable timing, and they both went as ball players.

I tried to get pictures of them both smiling, but it wasn't in the cards.

And then the flick of a hat and the tears started flowing!

Turning 4 is hard :(

By the time we got to the party, both boys were all smiles. Who wouldn't be with lots of friends, a bouncy castle, clown who does face painting, 2 pinatas, and lots of good food! On a side-note, I just learned about creepy clown sightings...thankfully not here in Jordan, ha! Seriously, what is the world coming to!?

Hello batman

Enjoying the bouncy castle.

And the water table with sensory jelly beads.

Pinata time. The boys got in one line for Sean, and girls got in another line for Ava and whacked away. The boys piñata was busted open first. Caleb has seen a piñata once before and knew exactly what to do, but it was Benjamin's first time and he was a little apprehensive about gathering candy when it all fell...rest assured they both left with plenty.

After signing the twin's happy birthday, Benjamin told their mom it was his birthday too and everyone sang him happy birthday too. It was a fun couple days to celebrate Benjamin turning 4!

And lastly, for Benjamin's annual birthday questions:

1. What is your name? Benjamin Aaron Purcell

2. How old are you? Four

3. Who is your best friend? Caleb, Lydia, and Mary

4. What is your favorite thing to do? Play with my diggers, toy cars, and baseball

5. What is your favorite color? Black like Batman

6. What is your favorite food? Chicken nuggets with ketchup

7. What do you like to do with your family? Family movie night with popcorn and hot chocolate

8. What is your favorite toy? My digger switch-and-go dino

9. What do you want to be when you grow up? Captain America

10. What makes you happy? Someone who smiles with me

11. What makes you sad? When Caleb doesn't share his toys with me

12. What is your favorite TV show? Peppa Pig

13. What is your favorite book? Big Dog Little Dog

14. What do you love to learn about? Arabic

15. What was the best part of your birthday? My sleepover

16. Where do you like to go? Petra

17. Who is your teacher? Ms. Dana, Ms. Da'ed, and Ms. Maria

18. What is your favorite treat? Popsicles

19. What do you think about before you fall asleep? I talk a little bit with Caleb, then I fall asleep

20. If you could meet someone famous, who would it be? Thomas the Train

21. What was your favorite birthday present? The Batman lego set

Happy 4th birthday sweet Benjamin! We love you so much and are so thankful for the love and joy you bring into our lives!