My Birthday

So it was my birthday today.  Another year gone by.  I am now officially in my late-30’s.  Good Lord.  Brian and I were going to go out to dinner tonight but I wasn’t feeling well off and on today.  So, aside from Step Class and Squash it was a pretty uneventful day.  Although my mom did get me some really cute new, comfy pajamas.  Hopefully next year is better!

Headed to Dubai…..

We headed out to Dubai for one of Alexander’s baseball games today.

Saw the Burj Khalifa again.  Tallest building in the world

After baseball we decided to go to Ibn Battuta Mall.

The entrance

 

The mall is themed throughout and it’s pretty cool to see.  (here are pics from the website)

                   

                   Here’s a bigger one of the clock in the India Court.                   Here’s another picture from the Egypt Court.

National Day Celebrations

December 2nd is National Day in the UAE.  This year is their 40th celebration and everything has been in high-swing.  The cars are super-decorated everywhere………..

              

 

Buildings are heavily decorated too……    

Even the skies were decorated……

 

One of the craziest things is the evening of National Day.  People swarm the Corniche (the main road) and it’s like a super-super-slow cruise to show off their cars and spray silly string and fake snow at everyone.  People try hard to spray it into the cars when the windows are open and people spray each other on the walkway.  I was bombarded once by a group of people and the kids were loving the whole scene.  Surprisingly – it was a blast!!

    

The Corniche was packed!    

    

We had a blast with friends!

    

Check out that crazy string!!

    

After attacks…..

    

        Cameron got his hand on a sound-maker and LOVED it!!                                       Bella had a blast with her friend.

Welcome back Elf on the Shelf Breakfast

We started the fun “Elf on the Shelf” tradition last year.  If you are not familiar with it……there is a book called “The Elf on the Shelf” and it comes with a little toy elf.  You name the elf (ours is Tebow) and the elf is a mischievous little guy who does tricks around the house.  He keeps an eye on you during the Christmas season and reports back to Santa on how you’ve been behaving.  You can talk to him but he can’t talk back and he’s always watching.  I saw this great idea for a welcome breakfast on Pinterest (a new, highly-addicting website) and decided that it would be a great idea.

I set the table up the night before so the kids could wake up to it:

 

They each had a “snowy” donut at their place and a personalized letter along with a bag with a couple goods in it.

                  

The kids enjoyed hot cocoa and snowman pancakes too.

          

The kids really enjoyed it and I hope it becomes part of our Christmas tradition.