A Walk Through History

One day this week, we had to make a visit to the embassy to renew Sarah Claire's passport, so we decided that since we were already going to be out and about, we would make a field trip day out of it. When we finished up our embassy appointment, we grabbed a taxi and headed over to a neat historical area of the city.

There's an old market area that has been around since the 1300s that is still very active with all kinds of stuff for sale, so our first stop was at our friend Mustafa's beautiful glasswares shop. I had something in mind for a piece of our bedroom decor, and knew that Mustafa's shop was just the place to find it. His store is full of gorgeous (and cheap!) glasswares, like perfume bottles, drinking glasses, decorative pieces, and tons of Christmas ornaments. With some trepidation, we took all three kids inside the store and let them help me look around for the right pieces. I was pretty nervous the whole time, but we found what we were looking for and made it out of the store without any broken glass!

That was the only shopping I needed to do, so after that we walked through the market area to a street just on the other side of it that dates back even further than the market area. This street was the main street of our city about a thousand years ago, and because it led to the palace, was the site of fabulous parades and processions. The kids had fun picturing the "Prince Ali" parade from Aladdin as we walked down the street.

There are some really impressive old buildings lining the street, so we admired them and heard some neat stories from our tour guide (a.k.a. Daddy) about how they came to be. He may have taken a tour group or ten down this street in the past.

The kids did great, but weren't really up for hours of touring, so after a brief walk down the main street, we turned around and headed back. It was a fun outing, and we ended it with lunch at a place that's a little newer to our ancient city--Auntie Anne's pretzels. We love this city and its crazy mix of old and new!

Wedding Bells

by Jason

Aren't they cute, all dressed up?

Today we went to a wedding. It was a lot like a bunch of American weddings you and I have attended through the years. But there were a few subtle differences, and that’s really what made this event interesting. So, I’m going to write about those.

The wedding in question was for the brother of a good friend of mine. We didn’t really know anyone involved other than the brother of the groom. My friend Adam told us about the wedding a few weeks ago, and gave us a printed invitation last week. The invitation said the ceremony would start at 1:30, and that’s where we started asking questions.

So I called Adam last night and asked what they meant by “1:30.” Like, is it really going to start at 1:30, or was that just a suggestion? He said really they call it 1:30 but it would probably be 2:00 before it started. This was helpful, because many weddings here don't start until two or three hours after the announced time, so we at least knew what time frame to shoot for.

We got dressed up in the early afternoon and headed to the church. The groom’s family is Roman Catholic, and the church was Episcopal, but the preacher today was Presbyterian.

I kept a timeline in my phone so we could keep up with what was happening when.

At 1:30, when the wedding was advertised as starting, we arrived at the church. We met the groom’s father out in the courtyard. We met his mother inside before we sat down. There were 20-25 other people already sitting in the church.
1:39, the musicians started practicing in the sanctuary. There was a keyboard and guitar, and both players were singing.
1:40, mother of the groom is walking down the aisle visiting with family and friends.
1:55, mother of the groom walks back up the aisle, talking on her mobile phone, giving someone directions to the church. For a wedding that was supposed to start 25 minutes ago.
2:00, the musicians do a sound check with the microphones.
2:05, mother of the groom gives her phone to brother of the groom so he could try to explain how to get there.
2:13, brother of the groom takes Sarah Claire out to the reception area to get some chocolate candies.
2:22, we heard people saying “wassalu” meaning “they arrived.” I think they were talking about the bride and groom. 52 minutes after the service was to start. You see, usually the couple will visit a photo studio before the ceremony to have portraits made. I guess they did that about 1:30.
When they arrived, the musicians started singing “How Great is Our God,” while the groom walked up the aisle greeting people. Now this looks like a fairly formal affair: the groom and his brother are wearing tuxedos; the ladies are all wearing black dresses and the men are wearing coats and ties; the preacher is wearing a long black robe. And the groom is just walking around greeting his relatives while the musicians sing!
2:27, the musicians start a second song.
2:29, the bride and her father walk in. At the back end of the aisle, he hands her off to the groom who escorts her to the front of the room.
2:30, a full hour after the announced start time, the brother reads from Ephesians 5 and prays.

Now the rest of the ceremony was pretty familiar. Well, except that there was this double throne thing for the bride and groom to sit on. They sat down for a little, but then while the preacher was preaching, they decided to stand up. He paused to ask what they were doing, but they just said they wanted to stand up. Also while the preacher was preaching, the groom’s father walked up and asked the groom something. And the photographer was wandering around the room taking pictures of everyone, and even walking up on the stage between the preacher and the couple if he wanted a better angle. I don’t think that was allowed the day we got married. Actually, our photographer wasn’t allowed to get any closer than the front edge of the balcony! Oh, and the bridesmaid walked out and back in down the central aisle during the first song.

When it was over, there was a brief, small reception in the courtyard area of the church. There were cupcakes and fancy chocolate candies. Because the wedding was during Lent, there was a separate table of cupcakes and candies for those who were fasting. Adam told us they were made without butter or some other products they can’t have while they’re fasting. I guess at a Catholic/Presbyterian wedding at the Episcopal church, you can eat cupcakes while you’re fasting.

Overall, it was a lovely affair. Our kids mostly played games on our phones, but Sarah Claire also kept a careful lookout for the bride the whole time. She was quite disappointed that there was no flower girl (or "petal girl," as she calls it) in this wedding.

Afterward, we celebrated Arab Mother’s day (21 March) by taking Beth to Outback Steakhouse.

It was a great day!

School Days

Tonight I just have a few random photos to share from some recent school days.

One day the girls decided to surprise me by dressing as "twins." Sarah Claire even wore her pretend glasses so she would look just like her big sis. 

 See, they matched from the back, too!

 Here's Sawyer hard at work on a math assignment...

and Lee Anna doing schoolwork in her favorite spot, "her" desk in the corner of the schoolroom. She has become remarkably independent with her schoolwork, which is wonderful since I've got two others who still need a little more attention and reminding to stay on task!

 Here's my little kindergartener having some letter fun with play dough,

showing off yet another completed workbook (have I mentioned she's flying through most of her KG stuff?), 

and posing for a pic after she surprised Lee Anna by reading this book to her at bedtime!

And I included this last picture because I don't have any others from our favorite part of the school day: Read Aloud Time. When everyone has completed their written work (math, handwriting, lang. arts, etc.), we all meet up on the couch for a snack and some reading together. Apparently, Sarah Claire had my phone with her during Read Aloud Time one day and snapped this picture of her snack. It may not look special to you, but those mini marshmallows are sent with love all the way from America! We can't get them here, so it's a super special treat when we get to have them!

And that's a little peek into our school day. Maybe I'll give Sarah Claire the camera again soon so she can document some more school day fun!

A Breath of Fresh Air

In a city as large, crowded, and dusty as ours, it can be a challenge to find places for the kids to play outside, get some exercise, and just be out of the house for a bit. Thankfully, there is a small public garden area very near our apartment, and it has been wonderful to be able to take the kids there when they need to burn some energy and we all need a breath of fresh air. 

I snapped a few pics one day recently while they were playing. There are several different types of pretty flowers growing, and I had a hard time convincing Sarah Claire not to pick any other than this one.

Sawyer even took a break from soccer playing to smell the flowers--when he saw that I was taking a picture! 

 I'm so grateful to have a place nearby where they can run and play!

We also took a trip to another, much larger park and playground this week. This one is not nearly as close to our house, which meant we got to experience the traffic above in order to get there, but once we arrived we all agreed it was worth the trip.

The park is a beautiful green oasis in the middle of the city (with endless views of apartment buildings in every direction), and it has a huge children's play area with all kinds of swings and slides and fun contraptions to wear out energetic children.

The kids played hard the whole time we were there, and they slept especially hard that night, too! We all agreed that we should make another visit very soon. I'm so grateful for the little spots of green that brighten up our desert city!

Our Littlest Reader

Since we've been able to get settled into our new home and back into the swing of homeschool, Sarah Claire has been really making huge strides with her reading. It is so much fun to see the new world of words opening up to her as she learns to make sense of them all. She breezed through her kindergarten readers in a matter of weeks (the photo below was her finishing the last one of those), so we've moved on to the first grade set.

I set up a little incentive program for her as she read through the first grade book. For a while, we were having serious drama every morning at breakfast as she lamented the fact that she had a Winnie the Pooh bowl to eat her cereal from. She calmly and rationally explained, frequently through tears, that Winnie the Pooh is not her favorite Winnie the Pooh character, but Piglet is her favorite because he is pink!

We don't have a Piglet bowl (and I'm not even sure there is such a thing!), so I finally told her that when she completed the entire I Can Read It book, she could go to the store with me and pick out a new breakfast bowl to eat from.

She read several stories each day, excitedly marking them off on her chart, as she counted down to "New Bowl Day." And today she finished the book!

She and I made a special trip to the store, where we didn't find a Piglet bowl (surprise, surprise), but we did find a lovely pink princess bowl that even came with its own spoon. She loves it!

So she brought it home and took it for a little test run.

I'm so proud of my little reader!

Crafty Girls

Now that most of our boxes are unpacked, I've been able to think a little more about the next stage of setting up house--decorating! We're still not ready for a tour-of-the-house blog post, but I did want to show you one fun little project the girls and I did a few weeks ago.

The girls had a big empty wall in their room that needed something cute on it, so I looked around online and found this fun and easy idea. We searched through our supply of scrapbook paper to find cute prints with teal in them, and then got to work making our medallions.

It was a great project for the girls to help with, and we all love how they look hanging on their wall!

Here they are after we got them all hung up...

And this last pic is a closer shot of their shelf. I'm so grateful for our friend HaLee and the incredible photos she took of our family last fall!

We're making improvements every day, so I'm sure I'll have more to share soon!

It's a ...

Last week, Jason and I got the chance to see our newest family member in action and find out if we're going to be welcoming a baby brother or baby sister to our brood this summer. I knew the kids would want to know as soon as we got home from the doctor's office, but also wanted to find a fun way to tell them, so we decided on cupcakes with a hidden blob of blue or pink icing in the center.

I made them up the night before, and made two sets--blue and pink--so that we would be ready either way (because I knew that at our house, having extra cupcakes that needed to be eaten later is definitely not a problem). When we got home from our appointment, after a quick lunch, we brought out the cupcakes and explained what we were going to do.

Here we are, all ready to bite in and find the hidden icing!

You can watch the moment of discovery for yourself, or just scroll down to see the "after" pictures...

There were smiles all around when they discovered the cupcakes' blue middles. We are all looking forward to meeting our new baby boy this July!

And speaking of him, here's a sweet picture that the doctor was able to get of his face during the ultrasound.

We think he's pretty adorable already. Can't wait to see how he looks in person!