Cand and Kathleen's Visit

Cand and Kathleen's visit was such a great one! We had so much fun-even though a big part of it was spent making boxes, wrapping, packing, cleaning, moving, unwrapping, unpacking, and attending to many other moving related issues! (To which I say again-I was so thankful for the help! THANK YOU CAND!!)

Donna just loved having her Aunty and cousin around. Cand taught Donna all sorts of good things, like how to eat and enjoy cupcakes, how to brush your hair with a toilet brush, (which was new at the time but...), she reminded Donna how to throw 250 plastic balls downstairs...and many more much more useful and slightly more biblical life lessons!

Donna loved her "baby cousin Kathleen", she was totally overprotective and utterly overwhelming, but just so gorgeous, and so so loving, thankfully it seemed as if Kathleen enjoyed the extra attention-well most of the time anyway! When we went out and someone would come up to Kathleen, Donna would sprint from wherever she was, put her straight, strong arm across Kathleen and proclaim "She's my baby cousin!"!! I told her to be kind to the people and let them say hello to Kathleen, to which she replied "OK, but they're not allowed to take her!" My precious little girl!!!

One thin is for sure: Donna's going to make the best big sister in the world! She is so caring, and just wants to help me/Cand feed, bath, dress and look after the baby, and is so keen to share her stuff, and find things for the baby to do and play with!

I look forward to watching her grow with her baby sister!

I did allow my guests to go out a little bit! We went to Ikea, Ibn Batuta and the Mall of the Emirates, and did a good amount of shopping-mostly for the new house, but also some spoiling for ourselves!

We went to Cafe Ceramique, Donna's favourite Coffee Shop where you paint some ceramic thingy, have it glazed, and get to take it home. Cand and I painted some HUGE coffee cups, which I got to keep (thanx Cand!!), but they are about double the volume of my next biggest cup-which is just great for me, but gave Ryan a heart attack! Well at least I have fewer cups of coffee and tea a day!

Donna painted a plate to go with her cup that she painted last time-which came out just beautifully!

The other very lekker thing we did, was go for a fancy tea at the Courtyard Marriot here where we stay. Cand had a English Breakfast tea and a very rich chocolate cake, both of which Donna shared and helped polish, in record time!

It was a fantasic morning!

When we dropped Cand and Kathleen off at the airport, Donna and I cried so hard in the car-it must have been hilarious to see the two of us! Donna kept on asking, "When will we see them again Mom?"

We had a very special time with them, and we cannot wait to see them again for sure!

The Big Move

We finally moved on the 10th of October!!!! It was a huge thing-and as usual, I was not as organised as I thought or hoped I was!

I started packing so long ago, which was not the right thing because I ended up unpacking stuff, or at least messing up boxes as I frantically dug through a box looking for a paint brush, specific teddy, etc! Donna helped me so nicely too-her best was to clean the fridge-to get in the fridge and scrub it with my old toothbrush, she did a great job!

Candice and Kathleen came to visit at the same time-when the tickets were booked, I thought we'd be moved in and settled already, but that was not the way God had planned it! I felt terrible for Cand that she had to help with all the moving stuff, and for Kathleen for all the disruptions, but I was so very very thankful for their help!!

(I mean it Cand-It would have been very difficult without you-THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!!)

Donna's First Hamburger!!

So.... Donna had her first hamburger!!! To be honest, I think the build up was more exciting than than the burger itself, but it was all alot of fun anyway! And for those who were wandering-that is not coke-it is apple juice!! That would be pushing us too far!!

Much to Ryan's delight; this was the only bite Donna had...

PACKING!!

So, it's coming to the end of our stay here in Uptown Mirdiff. We have been so blessed to stay here, it has been a great place to live and grow (in all ways!). For those of you that could come visit us here, thank you-we hope that you had fun and were refreshed. For those that never made it over-sorry for you....!

Packing has gone ok so far-very slow, but getting there anyway! As much as I pack, little Miss Muffit unpacks to check out and look at again! I managed to do one box from her room, but have decided to leave the rest of her room for last-it was impossible!! Donna was so kind though, she gave away 2 full boxes of toys to a charity. She was so excited to give some of her toys to children who don't have any, "Now all children have toys!" was her response when we dropped them off. Bless her!

We got this clip from a friend in the week, Donna just loved it-for those that haven't seen it yet-enjoy! Those that have-enjoy again, it's so cute!!

Night at Al Qsar

We had an amazing opportunity to live it up at the very, very fancy Al Qsar hotel with Mel and Sean last weekend. It was a real treat! Again I had such fun with my camera, taking too many pictures of the Burj al Arab-but then one doesn't get a perfect, uninterrupted sea view of it everyday, so I took full advantage of the time I had! We had a great time with Mel and Sean, Donna is getting to love Mel more and more, which is so heart warming to see. Donna walked hand-in-hand with Mel for about 1 1/2 kms when we went out for supper, chatting away-not stopping for a moment's breath. I was quite impressed with her level of fitness!

Breakfast the next morning was just brilliant, variety like non other-we ate enough for breakfast, lunch and a bit of supper too (well it was the price of about 3 meals!!). It was in this over-the-top breakfast setting that Donna said "I could live in this hotel forever!!"....

After breakfast we went to the pool and had a superbly relaxing time. We also went in for a dip in the sea, which was so hot and had Donna gagging because it is so salty, so that didn't last long! But I got my sea swim in-so it was good!

We were very thankful for the time we had away, a great time with the Emirati Pennies altogether!

Bab al Shams

Bab al Shams, "Gateway to the Sun", has been one of my favourite visits of our time here in Dubai. I so loved the realness of it, it's one of the few places here in Dubai where they are true to the surroundings, and don't try to be something they're not. The desert is beautiful, and it was a privilege to experience it like this!

The falconry was amazing, the falcon is such an agile bird, it's awesome to see God's diversity in creativity on display like that. I took far too many pictures!

That evening we had a fantastic traditional Bedouin style supper, out in the desert. The food was delicious, far too much, but delicious! The entertainment was superb, again local at it's best!

The pool was beautiful. An Infinity pool overlooking nothing but desert. Quite something! We met up with the Dercksens (unplanned!) and Donna's superhero Keagen, aka Spiderman, was enjoying swimming so much, that he enticed Donna to go to depths she never has in the swimming world! Since then, and after watching hours of Olympics, she is swimming like a proper fish! I will be posting a video soon, you cannot believe how this 2 year old can swim! It makes her dad very proud!

Leaving Bab al Shams was really hard, even Donna said, "It's so sad to leave "Bubble Saams", she really had a fantastic time, which made the trip just so much more enjoyable and amazing!

Ice-Skating!!!

So with summer at it's hottest, we've had to resort to indoor entertainment to escape the Desert Sun at it's meanest!



This morning Donna and I went ice-skating, and it will be embarrassing to say who enjoyed it most! At first is was shaky, to say the least! Handling a two year old and a pregnant belly on ice is a balancing act requiring skill I don't really have! But we survived-all except my back! But when Donna looked up at me and said "I weally like ice-skating", all pain vanished from my side, and all confidence abounded in my little girl! She started lifting her legs waist high saying, "I'm getting so good!" It's in the little video clip-just so cute!