Fall fun and activities

A few photos of what we've been up to this fall (although it doesn't really start feeling like fall until the end of October around here).

Meredith and her friend Tiana at the school reading fair.

The girls telling principal Mr. Johnson about the book they read.

Early release day at school means time for some fun.  Still a bit hot out so off to an indoor playplace with some friends.  Here are Meredith and Zoe on the log ride.

Jane and her brave friend Elif.  Elif was so nervous about this ride (check out the expression on her face!), but she came back smiling and ready to ride again.

Amazing welcome back party for a bunch of kids in Jane's grade at a friend's farm outside of Abu Dhabi.  Our family went and we all had such a great time (I mean, who wouldn't have a great time here??).

Jane's favorite toy was this tippy floating toy - they rocked it and tried to knock people off.

Giant bouncey slide!

Rock slide (which was really much tamer than it looked - Regan is having to scoot herself down), but nice view through the bouncey slide.  The inside of the slide made a fun hang out spot/ trampoline where Meredith and Regan hung out for a while.

Anna, Meredith and Regan on the big round boat

I think that is Meredith hanging out on the surfboard

Jane and her favorite spot all day

Regan was so nice to play with Anna much of the day.

Floating trampoline!  Jake and Meredith jumping away.

On middle school parent /teacher conference days, I get to spend one of them with my sweet Regan.  First we went to my workout class together.  One of the teachers of the classes (Body Attack!) doesn't mind if I bring Regan with me.  It's a hard class but Regan pretty much breezes through.  She's very coordinated and fit due to just being active, running with Jake and all her dance classes.

Next stop - pedicures!

Don't they look nice!?!

Then special lunch at one of my favorite restaurants - Zuma.  She tried everything including a raw beef carpaccio and various other fun Asian veggies.

Anna bought a six person friendship necklace kit with her allowance money and had a bunch of friends over to make them.  They had fun and got glitter everywhere. 

Anna at a friend's birthday party getting to express her inner diva.

We are loving that NYU has opened an impressive new campus here in Abu Dhabi and they bring all kinds of interesting cultural events and performances here.  We don't make many of them, but they all sell out, so it's great to see Abu Dhabi folks taking advantage of these offerings.  This was an Australian kids' program called, "We Built This City" where the kids got to build a city with hundreds and hundreds of cardboard boxes.  It was a nice mix of free play for the kids with an occasional direction or challenge.  This photo was at the very beginning where you can see if was just a giant pile of boxes and the kids were told to clear off the "roads" and to start building. 

Pile of boxes is beginning to look a bit more organized.

Anna is doing her part.

Diva style

Getting tall and much less chaotic

It was also really *hot*

Then the girls discovered the Box Hospital where they could take damaged and squished boxes for repair.

Back to the Box Hospital

Now we're working on the tallest tower challenge.  For a while ours was the tallest.  Jake, Regan, Jane and Meredith were the work horses on this project.  They stuck with it despite a couple of tottering overs.

Even though our tower wasn't the tallest, two of our boxes got stuck in the tree and were taller than anything else after the "earthquake" test when all the standing tall towers were shaken and they all fell down.  Regan went back to NYU for a girls' leadership conference a couple of days later and she said that our boxes were still in the tree!

Soccer season!  Jane plays in two soccer leagues at our school - a fall and a winter one.  This is her fall league.  Big smiles all around.  The girls in her grade are really a neat bunch of girls with very little drama and a lot of closeness.

The "Good game.  Good game.  Good game." line up.  These games were at GEMS American Academy.

These great 5th graders!  The first game was HOT!

Teacher workday and the school families head to the waterpark.  No crowds!  We spend all day there and *this* is the only photo I managed to take (in my defense, it's hard to take pictures when we're all wet).  Anna rode the big roller coaster called the Bandit Bomber.  She wasn't really a fan but super proud of her for being brave enough to give it a try.  Meredith rode another scary inner tube ride called the Falcon Falaj.  I wasn't sure the staff guy was going to let us know - Meredith was so scared, she was crying hard.  I kept telling her she didn't have to do it, but through her tears, she said that she wanted to try it.  First thing she said when we got to the bottom??  "Again!" with a big smile on her face.

Happy, sweaty soccer players

Love, love, love these group of girls!

Team massages

Go ACS! This game is at our school.

Another addition to Abu Dhabi is a gorgeous and impressive new Cleveland Clinic hospital.  We are all so happy it is here as they have recruited top notch doctors in many fields.  And I finally have a super impressive allergist and have gone down the allergy shot path.  So this is my view twice a week as I go in for shots.  Hopefully in about 18-24 months, I'll be almost allergy free and won't suffer so much from dust mites, seasonal allergies and pets.  We'd love to be able to get a dog or cat once we move back to the States and this preparation should make that easier. 

A game at the American International School of Abu Dhabi (AISA) - love the view of the Capital Gate leaning tower.  Also Jane scored the only goal in two games!  Yay, Jane!

Regan off on an overnight school trip.  Their week long trip to Cappadocia in Turkey was cancelled due to political uncertainty so they are doing a one night trip to an adventure camp.  Brave girl did the big zipline!  Yay, Regan.

Meredith and our fun, ecentric piano teacher.  We love Mr. Pavel.  Grew up in the tough Eastern European system of coaching and training but has mellowed in his older years and he is now a lovely, kind and funny piano teacher.   I get the sense when he was an ice skating coach, he was pretty tough but am glad that he and Meredith crack a few jokes with each other.