The end of Birthday Season 2013

Daddy had been traveling the week before, but came home the evening of her birthday; just in time for us to pick him up and head to dinner. Saoirse told everyone, "My birthday present is Daddy!" (and this present out shone all the others) First thing we do when we go to the Mall is take a picture of where the car is located. This mall is MASSIVE and the parking garage is insanely huge and easy to get lost in - not that we have any experience with that personally. Saoirse chose Olive Garden for her birthday dinner (yes they even have an Olive Garden in Kuwait). Her favorite meal is "pasta with that white cheesy sauce", so when she realized there was an Olive Garden at the mall she knew that was the place for her. Bread sticks and raspberry lemonade meant there were no objections from any of her siblings. For dessert we walked across the way to the Cheesecake Factory where Daddy and the kids split (but weren't quite able to finish) 3 BIG desserts.

Bad Mommy!

I know I missed the mark and didn't get photos of the 10 year old's nor the 8 year old's birthday dinner. The best I can do now is sum them up for you. Jael chose to go to Azteca, a Mexican restaurant. The food is good and the guacamole is amazing. The waiters know us there and brought the kids each a glass of juice (mango-strawberry maybe, I'm not sure) on the house and they are very attentive. But the REAL reason she chose this restaurant is because a couple doors down is the gelatino store. There Daddy and the kids get free samples before they choose a flavor and get a scoop in a cone or cup. What more could a kid want in a birthday dinner? Tekla chose to go to Texas Roadhouse for steak. Yes, they did the line dancing, but it was interrupted by the call to prayer and they had to stop. Daddy and the kids shared 2 BIG steaks and Mommy had her special order chicken salad. Then we walked around the mall a little till we found the Cold Stone Creamery. Steak... ice cream.... One very happy Tekla...and Jael, and Saoirse, and Mordecai...okay, they were all very happy that night as they vibrated them selves to sleep.

Happy Birthday Big Boy!

All day he has been insisting he isn't 4. 1...6...10...anything but 4. I think he wants to stay my baby. But he is getting big! He chose to have his birthday dinner at The Chocolate Bar. They have sandwiches and pasta that mostly filled us up, and Mom and Dad agreed to let everyone (except Mom) have the special treat of a milkshake with their meal. Then Cai chose the dessert of strawberry shortcake for dessert to share, and Daddy decided to supplement it with a caramel apple cobbler since they wen't too big. Everyone left happy.

Back to the Science Center

We finally got our passes for the science center. We actually paid for them weeks and weeks ago (okay, months), and eventually followed up with the pictures we were supposed to have to make the cards...and a few weeks later we got around to actually picking them up. As it worked out, now they have a new exhibit in the "Discovery Play" area. Robot Zoo. They had several animated "animals" an highlighted features about what the real animal can do. Daddy and the kids liked playing around with the camouflage display. "You can't see me!" Here, Tek points the Bat head towards the insects and the ping tells how far away they are. Jae and Tek test thier strength. ...And Cai checks out the giant grasshopper. The we absolutely had to go into the aquarium and see our fishy friends.

Briefly lost pictures...

Cast on... Due to the small fracture and the fast healing girl, the cast only had to be on for 3 weeks. As the Karate instructor and several moms at the park observed...it didn't really slow her down much at all. ...Cast off

Paris and France by Tekla

In France, it was cold when I visited. The museums were open and days seemed short. We saw art museums and World War 2 museums. We also went to a tower. Aunt Cheryl said it was were Joan of Arc was imprisoned. Then we went to 2 castles and 1 abbey. The first art museums were not as fun as the last one. The last one was the Louvre. It had 2 statues and 4 pictures of Joan of Arc. There were also lots of ancient statues from around the world. One gallery was so long, I could fit 700 statues in it! In all, I think our trip was great!! Au revoir for now!

Our trip to France

- By Saoirse My favorite Part about our trip to France was seeing my cousins. I also liked the house we stayed in. It was made of stone and I liked my bedroom. I shared it with 2 of my cousins. It snowed while we were there and we built a snowman. My favorite place was Mont Saint Michel because it was very interesting. . I also liked the glass pyramid at the Louvre