A Mom, a Camera, and a Lot of Kids

Katelin Julia

Sweet Cheeks

Timothy

Macey

Matthew

Jolee

Chris bought a nice Nikon camera awhile ago, and every once in awhile it gets taken out of its bag. I'm not sure why it doesn't come out more often, except that is not as user-friendly or as small as my little point-in-shoot. Anyways, the results are much better, but I need to practice. We stopped at the park one day, and we happened to have the camera with us. Too bad the kids were in play clothes!

International Homeschool

Matthew, Macey and friends trying to find the best spot for their mangrove.

Cleaning up tar on the beach

Timothy and friends canoing in the lagoon

Katelin and her friends

Timothy and Charlie planting their mangrove

Groups deciding where to plant their mangroves

Matthew and Macey listening to the guide

Beautiful desert lagoon looking out to the Arabian (Persian) Gulf

Marine preserve near Jebel Ali

We have so many different nationalities in our homeschool group - American, British, South African, German, French, Portugese, various Asian nationalities, Indian, Spanish, Australian, New Zealand, the list goes on. We are all learning together. You notice no Emiraties...it is not possible for the locals to homeschool. My kids are currently in a swimming group and a chess club. Our hs group goes on a field trip or has a beach/park day every Thursday. We wish we could fit in the Arabic club. Here are pictures from a recent field trip to a Marine Preserve - they protect the ocean and the desert and its wildlife. They moved the coral before the man-made islands were constructed. We planted mangroves, and we picked up tar from the beach courtesy of a tanker that dumped its unusable oil.

Itty Bitty Bit Gets Big!

Julia has grown from 4 pounds at birth to 16 pounds at 7 months. She's sitting and crawling, and her big blue eyes get her a lot of attention here in the Middle East. She responds with a toothless grin. Now, if she would just grow some hair!

Feb 8, 2011 Yes, one is missing!

Julia with Madu, our helper from Sri Lanka

Feb 15

March 2

Julia's first swing ride - she loved it!

March 9

"Here it's called Football!"

"Here it's called football, Mom!" I hear this every Monday from Matthew when I take the boys to soccer, I mean football, practice! I think the US must be one of the only places that calls "football" soccer (use your feet) and football "football" (don't use your feet!). Americans messed up on this one!

Macey's Eighth Birthday

Macey celebrated her 8th birthday with friends and family at Cafe Ceramique with paint, pizza, and cupcakes! Silliness abounded as the girls (and a couple brothers) discussed the merits of different paint colors and shades on various ceramic pieces. Even Dad and Jolee joined in. After the last drop of paint was scrubbed off, they lunched on pizza and cupcakes. The ceramic pieces were fired, and a week later when I picked them up, they looked great!