5 years old!!!

It’s hard to believe that my “baby” is 5! She certainly makes our lives interesting; on one hand she loves to entertain, make people laugh and has the most amazing memory and imagination. She loves to cuddle and is apparently going to live with Mummy forever. However we also have the other side of her personality-  a drama queen with dramatic crying on cue who is not phased by any punishment, still unbelievably stubborn and determined and is very ‘street smart’, although the ‘street smart’ aspect keeps her teachers amused and they enjoy telling me daily of her latest exploits and comments in class.

It was back to school yesterday for the first day of final (3rd) term, getting out of bed wasn’t a problem as she knew she had to be ready for school before opening her presents (got to love bribery).

Present opening before school

Loving her new shoes

One happy girl

Opening her present from Lachie

She had a great day at school, one of the boys in her class had his birthday the day before so they spent the last 15mins of school playing party games for La and Simon. After school she had ballet where her new shoes were a hit with all the girls! Then last night we had dinner at home; Fajita’s followed by chocolate chip waffles and ice-cream was the birthday request. Before opening the rest of her presents.

While we were singing happy birthday

The facial expression I seem to see a lot!

Make a wish

Looks like she is inhaling the smoke!

Time for more presents

Hurry up and take the photo

Clint told her to pose and this is what she did 🙂

Charlotte’s party

I’m not sure what I was thinking to have Charlotte’s party less than 20 hours after we flew back in from Cyprus! Her birthday is Sunday, which will be the first day back of term so I did want to do it over the holidays. It did mean that Clint only had a few hours to whip the cake up, I baked it and froze it before we left (thanks for the tip Liz). Clint wasn’t as happy with it as he has been with past cakes but for 9pm the night before then finishing off at 6m before work the next day I think it is a great effort.

Its been all about fairies ever since mama gave Charlotte her first "Rainbow Magic" fairy books for Xmas She is addicted to the chapter books and fairies!

Being unsure about the weather (last year it was over 40 degrees on her birthday) I wanted an inside venue, that along with her love of all things chocolate lead me to the Chocolate gallery at the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr.

The venue

Although some of her friends were still traveling, she had 6 guests plus Lachie and herself and had an absolute ball. After opening her presents they decorated cookies with lots of icing and other chocolate goodies.

Staff setting up for cookie decorating

Waiting to start- the crossed legs of my "little lady" (arent looks deceiving)!

Stephanie, Charlotte and Claire- 3 little ladies

Hard at work

Lots of icing

Busy girls

Leenah (on the end) could get a job here!

Lots of fun

Dont they look delicious! Once the kids were done the cookies were boxed up for them to take home. here are Lalas masterpieces.

While waiting for the next activity, La’s showed how much she takes after Aunty Fi having a very in-depth conversation with her friend about SHOES!

Shoes, shoes, shoes

The conversation continues...

After cookies it was out for party games

running off the sugar

My birthday Princess xxxx

Then it was time for food. They had pizza’s followed by chocolate fondue for dessert.

They were delicious pizzas too

Chocolate fondue

Clean to start with

Chocolate monster

After filling up on chocolate, it was time for a chocolate hunt and more party games

Chocolate Hunt

Not the dress to do a sack (Egyptian cotton pillow case) race in!

Finally time for cake

Las shy face as the staff stared singing happy birthday and bringing out her cake

Birthday wishes

That massive basket next to the cake was a present for Las from the Gallery staff. It was full of chocolate- a ridiculous amount!

Cutting the cake

Having filled the kids with lots of sugar, they all headed home with their iced cookies and lots of chocolate and some prizes from the Gallery. Then it was off to rugby for Clint and Lachs and home for a bath and bed for Charlotte. Only 2 days till she turns 5, will post then!

Holidays

This week the children are on holidays again- 2 school terms down, 1 to go!

In the last week of school both the kids had special days at school. To culminate their topic of “Once Upon a TIme” all 5 year 2 classes did the play of “CInderella and The Hot Air Balloon”. Lachie was a frog who gets turned into the band for the party at Cinderella’s house.

My Frog- yes I had to make the costume!

6 little frogs

Lachie's class singing

The frog band- Cinderella dancing on stage

125+ kids do the Macarena- mostly in time!

Lachie and Princess Hamda as frogs

Lachs and some of the girls in his class

Lachie and his 2 best mates at school

Charlotte’s topic for the second half of the term was ‘expeditions’ and to culminate they had an exploration day. She had such a great day searching for hidden animals in slime and tunnels, hunting for treasure in sand, finding hidden clues around the school to make sentences e.t.c

 

ready to go

 

Charlotte and Lucy

 

Alex, Hannah, La and Lexi

 

Waiting for school to start

We are having this week at home, the kids are enjoying playing and being able to hang around, Charlotte has braved the pool but it is still a little cool for Lachs.  Marie (our lovely maid) is also on holidays and has gone home to the Philippines for 2 weeks- so of course we have had sand storms every day giving me lots of practice at cleaning again 🙂 We are heading to Cyprus on Friday for 5 nights and am looking forward to it… next entry should have photos from there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ballet- Spring term

Waiting for the class to start

Charlotte is still enjoying her weekly ballet lesson, normally the parents sit outside but at the end of each trimester we get to watch. It really is very cute at this age watching a sea of pink twirl around doing their ballet exercises.

Friends

A very pink circle

A spinning circle of giggles- the girls loved this

Waiting her turn to take the floor

La's and Miss Helen

My ballerina

Ribbons

My sugar plum fairy

Charlotte decided that this year she wanted to do dancing instead of gymnastics; actually she wanted to do both but they are on at the same time so she had to choose and dancing was the winner. Her first class was yesterday and she was very excited to be given her uniform, the pink tutu and satin slippers being her favorite parts. She absolutely loved the class, not entirely sure what they do as the parents are outside the dance hall but she came out happy and full of life and wanted me to video her new dance when she got home. If I only could figure out how to post video’s to this site I’d be able to share!

Now I have to become a ‘ballet Mum’ and learn how to sew the straps on her slippers for next week… as long as they never expect me to sew a costume I should be fine!

Happy Birthday Princess

It’s hard to believe our little Princess is now four years old… where have the years gone?

Lala of course was very excited about her birthday and started counting down the days after the easter bunny visited! She thought it was hilarious when she had 4 days left till she was 4 followed by 3 days left of being 3!

Charlotte’s birthday fell on a Saturday and the last day of the school holidays, she started the day with family presents and in the wonderful age of technology Great Grandma was able to watch her open and play with her presents which was lovely.  Lachie was just as excited about each of her presents as she was.

Birthdays in the age of technology... playing with her toy from Great Grandma while Great Grandma watches.

Very proud of her new bike.

Opening presents

After opening presents they enjoyed the special breakfast of waffles Lala chose before getting ready for her party.

With the charming weather already hitting over 40 degrees each day we opted for an inside party at a local play centre. The kids all had a ball, and Clint and I enjoyed not having to do any of the cleaning up!

Master chef at work the day before the party

Party time!!

Cake... pinky pie from My Little Pony

Cake close up

and again...

finally silence... only because they were all eating!

Cake with her specially chosen pony candles

Make a wish princess...

The inside of the cake was rainbow.

Charlotte had a fantastic day and enjoyed being spoilt with gifts and wishes from family and friends… thank you all!

After the party... more present opening.

Polar Opposites

As my children grow it becomes more and more apparent that my angels are complete opposites, maybe thats why they get on so well… the old opposites attract theory.

Lachie is still very ordered, everything in its place and to him everything is black or white. He wears his heart on his sleeve and is devastated if he gets in trouble. He is also somewhat of a perfectionist and if he can’t do something or perceives himself at not very good at it then easily gives up.

Charlotte on the other hand, will look you in the eye and blatantly lie and when in trouble she doesn’t care, just looks at you as if to say “whatever”. She will argue every point and minor detail and if there is a loop-hole she will find it… far to street smart for a 3-year-old! She believes if she can find a path to walk to her bed then the room is clean. She is also very determined and insists on doing everything by herself, she will try for ages until she gets it right or masters a new skill.

Yesterday Lachie was practising his spelling words for the week, one of which is ‘school’. He spelt it out correctly only to have Charlotte announce that it doesn’t matter if he forgets how to spell it cause it is written on his shirt (uniform)… yep how to cheat from a 3-year-old!  The look on Lachie’s face was priceless, the thought of someone cheating horrified him… he will probably tell his teacher that she needs to cover everyone’s shirts/dresses so no-one can cheat!

We love them both to bits but Clint and I shudder at the thought of Charlotte as a teenager!

Charlotte Starts School

Charlotte had her first day at school today… where has the time gone???  It was weird seeing her in a little school uniform, at 3 she is still very much my baby and if we were still in Australia she wouldn’t even be going to Kindy till next year! It was only an orientation day, she starts full time on Sunday and will go from 7:50am till 1pm during Ramadan (another week or so) then till 1:30pm… a long day for such a little girl!

She is in FS1. There are 21 kids in the class (they can have up to 24) with a teacher and 2 full time aides. One of the aides was the aide in Lachie’s room last year so thats nice for her to have. She knows 2 of the children already; a boy who use to live in our street at the old place and another boy who has a sister in Lachie’s class. We also met another little girl through friends the other week and had a play at her house on Monday and the girls got on well.

She had a great first day and (at the moment) is looking forward to Sunday so she can play again!

Charlotte starts school!

Sunday saw little miss off to school for the first time. She and  Claire, the little girl across the road, started together and will go 3 days a week 8am till 2pm at the American teddy bear nursery. It is near Lachies school so Sue (Claire’s Mum) will drop the girls at school after dropping the boys (Lachie and Claires brother Jack who is in fs2 with Lachs) then I pick them all up.

Sunday she went off happily in her new school shirt and had a good day. Monday she then announced she ‘didn’t want to go cause it is not a real school. They don’t get homework and they are not learning to read! She can be very stubborn but Sue got her in and she was playing happily when I went to pick her up.

It will be good for her as come September she is off to school 5 days a week in the equivalent of prep.

Charlotte turns 3!!!

Last Friday so our baby girl turn 3… where has the time gone??

We celebrated with a party at home which all the kids in the street came to. Her 2 favourite colours are still pink and blue so we decorated the house with pink and blue balloons and she chose a princess cake- pink dress with blue trim which Clint expertly iced for her after his return from Kuwait.

She had a lovely day and enjoyed opening her presents and playing the party games. With her hair down she looked even more grownup… my toddler has gone!

Photos:opening presents, Nick keeping the kids busy with art, a face only a mother could love, her cake