Heigh Ho! Here’s a Skyrim Ninja Duet!

I haven’t shared any videos of the kid’s piano lessons in quite some time, so here’s an update.

Brian is working on a piano version of the theme music for the PC Game Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.  We found the sheet music from the website of composer Joyce Leong who shared her cover of the music. Brian started working on this piece with his last teacher in Kuwait, but hadn’t got too far on it when we packed up to move July of last year. We didn’t get the keyboard here until the end of October, and we just found a new teacher here in Maryland at the start of the year. They’ve had about 4 lessons with the new teacher and so far seem to really like him.

Brian decided to continue with this song, and has picked it up where he left off and marched on! He’s almost got it and it’s sounding very nice. One of the challenges of piano practice in this house though, is sharing the piano with cats. Ninja decided this particular performance should be a duet.

Honor is playing the pop song “Heigh Ho” by The Lumineers. This is one that she had wanted to learn for school for a project, and she started in Kuwait, but then she broke her arm and after healing, went on to other things. Then, like Brian, she had to wait awhile to start lessons again here. She had a lot more interference from Ninja on her first attempt at the song, so we tried a couple more times. This first video is Honor and Ninja trying the song together – Honor reads the music, Ninja tries to eat it. The second is Honor playing on her own.

and

Goodbye Middle School!

Last week was his little sister’s turn to Move Up to Middle School, and tonight, Brian moves up to High School. We have a successful 8th grade graduate!!
Honor couldn’t attend the ceremony due to limited seating, but it’s not like she’d have wanted to go anyway. She managed to pick up a nasty strep throat cootie over the weekend and has been laying on the couch for the last couple of days. Antibiotics are making her feel better, but she’s had a rough couple of days.
Before we took off for the school, I took a few photos of Brian. It was hot out. Right at 117F when we stepped out into the shining brightness. It’s amazing he could peel his eyes open.

Showing off his pearly whites (fresh dental cleaning yesterday – *SHINE!*)

Looking sharp in his new outfit (and hot… lots of degrees hot and swelter-y)

The graduating class enters the auditorium. Brian tries not to giggle at his mom stepping into the aisle to snap a photo.

Waiting his turn…

Finally, the moment that Brian’s been waiting for! Getting his certificates from the Principal and the CEO of the school.

We are rather proud of this kid!

Like his sister, Brian won an academic award. A Gold Certificate in the President’s Education Awards Program! Maintaining a high GPA, cumulative through all of Middle School!! All that hard work, chasing ‘A’s and ‘High Honor Rolls’ has paid off.

And this is it! He’s now a high school kid. Whoa!

Goodbye Elementary School!

Honor has graduated 5th grade and is now an official Middle Schooler!

When a girl goes to a Moving Up Ceremony in Tardis socks, she goes in style… because Tardis socks are cool.

Honor receiving her Silver Presidential Education Award!

For OUTSTANDING Academic Achievement – the Silver Award from the President’s Education Awards Program! This is based on achievements in total GPA and standardized tests. We are so proud!

And here she is, receiving her 5th grade graduation certificate.

See. Official. She’s on to 6th grade!

Free Cat Carrier–and Talabat for delivery

We ordered Lebanese food from Mais Al-Ghanim last night and it was so tasty! It’s a restaurant that’s been in business for a long time and their foods are simply very good and the quality is always amazing! From their website:

“The history of Mais Alghanim Restaurant dates back to the previous century when our founding father Edmond Barakat (Abu Emile), opened a canteen for the employees of Yusuf Ahmed Alghanim & Sons Co., called “Mess Alghanim”.

Over time, strong ties and personal relations grew between Abu Emile, Kuwaiti, and Expatriate Families extending over three phases and three generations. The first phase commenced in 1953 during which complete meals and take-away services were offered transforming the canteen into a restaurant for one and all.”

We ordered a mix of good grilled meats – lamb, kebab, and chicken – as well as a variety of salads and sides, like hummus, baba ghanouj (an egg plant dish), muhammara (a walnut and chili dip), fattoush (mint and cucumber and tomato salad), falafel and spinach fetayer. It was all amazing (just like it always is! It’s one of our favorites.)

Also – we placed our order through Talabat.com which is a great online service for food delivery, from their website:

“Talabat.com is the largest online food delivery portal in the State of Kuwait, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Sultanate of Oman and State of Qatar. Order your favorite food online from hundreds of our restaurants with a simple click of a mouse.”

Our dinner came delivered in handy boxes too. And we know what boxes are good for… cat containment! Pumpkin demonstrates how well the box fits. Pixie said that she will only perform if I give her treats…

Unless I don’t want her to perform…. balancing on the washer when I’m trying to load laundry isn’t helpful. (But it’s cute to have all of the help…)

Meanwhile, in the desert…

Traffic was crazy enough today, with some major roads closed because of a large conference in town, and then it rained…



Brian had gone home on the bus a bit earlier, but the storm hit while I was out picking up Honor at after-school band practice. There was thunder, lightning, and the skies just opened up. It poured hard for about an hour.


While waiting with a friend of Honor’s, for her mom to make it through the traffic and pick her up, we watched massive amounts of debris float merrily … and FAST… down the streets… including two tires! I wish I’d had my other phone or camera with me so I could have caught a video!


Like us… this guy (in the photo above and below) decided to grab a few photos! He’s actually standing up on a medium, the water was much deeper in the road. Like us too he was probably already soaked. As we left the school and headed to the car, I had to take off my loafers or risk having them float off of my feet. There were a bunch of people with pants rolled up to their knees (mine were already sopping wet, so why bother?) and also carrying shoes.


I think the driver of this GMC was having fun… unlike a lot of other drivers who were stalled in the deeper water. We could feel the water hitting the floor of our truck as we drove through it.


There was a LOT of this!


We saw some deeper areas, but my phone was out of space and I had to drive. Fortunately, we don’t have to go back out into it tonight. My dentist called and said they couldn’t get into the office this evening and we’ll re-schedule. Fine with me! No school tomorrow, so hopefully things will have a chance to dry out.

UPDATE :

Here are a few links to other sites with more photos -
http://kuwaitiful.com/news/kuwait-flooding-rain-along-avenues-mall/

http://news.kuwaittimes.net/heavy-rainfall-flash-floods-hit-kuwait/

http://248am.com/mark/information/weather-warning-2/

Halloween 2013

Hope everyone had a very fun Halloween. Here are a few photos from our celebrations.

Brian’s Middle School had 3 days of dress up. One day was Wacky Day – he wore a nice serving spoon on a lanyard. Why go all out when you can go with one really great accessory? For 80’s day, I managed to convince that he could really rock the rock look, and he did too.

On Halloween, both kids got to dress up. Brian went as a knight and Honor went as a zombie pirate.

The embassy hosted a big party for the kids after Halloween and both kids were very helpful with set up and running carnival games. Honor and a friend helped with a bean bag and ring toss game. Brian helped with a fishing game, and I helped run a ‘Monster Hunter’ game, where we had a good spirited volunteer dress up, act ‘monsterous’, and allowed little kids assault him with wet sponges. Good man!

Here is the bean bag target that we made for the carnival. Honor helped me paint it… and I painted Honor. That’ll teach her to dare me…

Ninja helps to model it.
 

Rather than plain ol’ square bean bags, we made fancy ones…

Minecraft bags – Zombie, Ghast and Creeper

And we also had a bat bag, witchy bag and mummy bag

Before heading for the games, I painted my death monk hubby.

And Honor and I decided to be pirates together. We had thought about being zombie pirates, but decided to be ‘regular’ pirates instead.

Honor got to be the Captain…

Summer 2013

So… I haven’t had much to say on my blog lately. It happens! I am not going to try and catch up on everything I’ve missed posting about, but as my blog is for photos as well as random thoughts and recipes, I am going to post some older photos.

I love this photo of Ninja helping Honor with her homework – she’s always so involved in whatever the kids are doing.

…and this is a rare one of all three cats hanging out together doing the same thing. They generally have their own favorite activities, but ‘yelling’ at birds and outside cats on their patio is something that they can all get behind.

Ninja seemed to know that when the last day of school was this year. Honor and Brian’s class schedules had been on the fridge for the whole school year, but the first week of summer vacation starts and Ninja chose to celebrate by eating Honor’s schedule!

One of the reasons that, I believe, I have been so remiss in posting lately is that Kuwait feels very much like ‘home’. Why should I post things that are seem so similar to home? I know… to share, and I should do more. And, yes. It is different here and the culture is different, and the people are different, etc. but we feel at home and there really is so much that is NOT different!
Driving down the roads, unless you look closely at the signs, feels like driving in the US (except perhaps, with more folks here who go faster than they ought to) but still, very similar to desert-y and/or coastal, depending on where we are at, city areas of the US.


There are a number of very lovely malls that are nice to visit. They are designed to be nice to visit and roam about, not just for shopping. We took Honor out for her birthday to the Avenues Mall. There’s a pretty fountain at one entry point.

Above the fountain, the color of the lights in the ceiling gently cycle through various shades. I had to take several shots to try and catch the ‘best’ ones. We like the peacock effect and colors.

We wandered about and after a fun visit to Build-a-Bear (haven’t gone there since Honor was 3 years old!) we had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.


Avenues is more than a name, it describes the theme of the mall. It is set up like indoor ‘avenues’. Quite lovely.








We had some lazy summer days… which the cats did not mind.

And a lot of computer playing… which Ninja found boring…

We had some really gross sandy days…

And some very hot days… but Honor and I planted a bunch of plants and made a nice fairy garden.










Eventually, as the temps went up past 110F and pretty much stayed there day and night(!), the garden dried up (melted?!) despite our best efforts to keep it going. We will plant again soon. Perhaps in October.

Here is a random photo of a cat in a drawer. Just proving the concept that if something is opened, a cat MUST get into it.

The kids are still taking karate lessons and enjoying them. Their instructors are very good! 


There was the traditional 4th of July camel ride.

Brian had been a good ‘big brother’ to a friend’s little boy and rode with him as he was too small to go alone. Brian was relieved that we took his buddy down before the camel sat so he could dismount though. Riding a camel is easy… but that bit where the camel rocks way forward and way back in order to stand up? That’s a little crazy!

And what next? Well, R&R of course! By July, we were on a plane and heading to the US for vacation, but those pics will come later.