Jane is now 10!

Jane is 10!  Wow.  This year she had a joint birthday party with her good friend Ameera.  And what a party it was.  Since we had someone to share the work with, it was definitely more ambitious that it would have been had I done it on our own.  The girls invited all the girls in their class plus a few more friends so we had a lot of girls helping Jane and Ameera celebrate.  We all had a great time.

Jane and her wonderful buddy Ameera had a joint birthday party this year.  Their birthdays are only a week apart and they have been great friends since kindergarten.

First stop: bowling alley!  Here are two of the winning team mates on the left.

Celebrating a spare

Maya said that she needed her nerdy glasses to bowl today.

Birthday girl ready to bowl

Here goes Meredith and we can see Elif strategizing off to the left

Jane's first strike

What a great group of girls helping Jane and Ameera celebrate 10

2nd stop: Pizza at Ruso's

The birthday girls, Jane and Ameera

The birthday girls plus parents

3rd stop: Scavenger hunt all over Al Wahda mall.  Here is team 3 ready to go!

Sampling eye shadow for 8 points

Trying on shoes for five points

4th stop: To our villa for playing, prizes and cake

Happy birthday, dear Ameera and Jane....

Make a wish

Jane doing the happy dance because her bowling team won

During all the loud and fun festivities, Anna put herself to bed for a nap.  I don't know how she slept with 19 girls squealing their way around our house!

The day after Jane's birthday, we had a quiet family lunch at Jane's favorites restaurant: Texas Roadhouse.  They just opened one in Abu Dhabi so that is where Jane elected to spend a birthday lunch.  It is fun watching waitstaff from all over the world do a little country line dance and hear country music in the middle east