November life

Just a few photos of what we've been up to in November.

Playing at the new central park near our house.  Now that the weather is a-m-a-z-i-n-g, I hope we will find the time to walk here more often.  The draw this trip was that they moved the wonderful annual science festival to the park near our house this year.  Yay!

Regan's brave friend Zoe was the only one willing to climb this high.

Relaxing Regan

The 3 musketeer 7th graders

Inventor school

Super hard at work building and trying to program a remote control car

Deanna and Jane were the only team at our table that nailed it.  Their car would drive on the table and would stop and turn before hitting the edge.  Regan, Meredith and Zoe's team cars would drive but they couldn't figure out how to get it to not hit the wall.  Well done, ladies!

Just *look* at how gorgeous our new park is!  It has a farmer's market, free outdoor yoga (that my friend, Sara, will be teaching starting in January!), outdoor evening movies, lots of green space and more!

This is what our foyer looks like a lot in the afternoons.  Many, many girls come home from school (ours and others!), drop their bags and off they go.  I think we had 7 kids at our house this day.

Picnic in the Park - a favorite event at our school.  100% organized by high school students who raise money for their service clubs.  This event helped 90 high school kids go to four countries (building water stuff in Tanzania, I think an trip to work with an orphanage in Nepal, something in Cambodia and a trip to India).

Indian drummers (not students) with the opening act of the outdoor talent show.

Lots of running around and playing by the kids during the performances at Picnic in the Park.  The weather is amazing and a lovely evening to just hang out on a picnic blanket with friends.

Lunch out with Meredith - enjoying the view of the Corniche and nice weather.

Meredith's new yoga bag and yoga mat - thanks Gaga and Grandpa Carl for a great birthday gift!

I think Anna gets what she is thankful for and her prayer request list a little mixed up.  These are sad Syrian refugees in a boat.

Abu Dhabi Art Festival!  Another amazing event here with lots of wonderful art, performers and great stuff for kids, too.  And free!

Giant marble run designed and built by Jane and Meredith at Abu Dhabi Art.

Regan and Anna channeling their inner Van Gogh at Abu Dhabi Art's Kid Zone

Meredith with some interesting statues at Abu Dhabi Art.

Out of order but this is Thanksgiving - kids will play while Mom bakes (to be fair, Meredith helped with the pie crust, Regan helped with the pie filling, Anna cut up all the green beans so I did have some good helpers, too).

Happy 44th birthday, UAE!  On National Day, everyone dresses in UAE colors for the school celebration.  They have a great day of Arabic songs, dance, henna painting, Emiriati food and just generally celebration the history of the UAE.

I did (as usual) a really horrible job taking Thanksgiving photos.  I had good intentions as I took a "before" photo of my sweet potatoes.  We splurge on U.S. imported sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving - this bag cost almost US$30!!

Regan trying to save all our Thanksgiving dishes on the drive to our friends' house where we celebrated Thanksgiving this year.

Jane had a little easier job with her pie

Spontaneous dance party after all the food!

Golfing buddies, Jane and Ameera, getting ready for their tournament

The three sisters fan club enjoying the gorgeous night out

And the winners are...

First place team (best ball).  We couldn't make it in time for the older age group as we had a conflict, but they let them play in a younger age group (which we really didn't know until we got there).  So these girls had a bit of an advantage in the heat they were in, but they really played great even though the competition wasn't too stiff.  PJ (their coach) on the left and Martin (the mom's coach) on the right.  They helped organize this great kids' event.

Anna's last swim lesson of the season.