Birthdays, Grandma, and milestones....hooray!!!!

What a fun month we have had!!!  We have celebrated birthdays, showed Grandma all around Saudi and Bahrain, went to Spring Spectacular and the Spring Bazaar, celebrated our one year Saudiversary, and survived our second turnaround!  Enjoy the recap and the pictures!!

Our month kicked off with a birthday party for a lego loving little boy!  On February 21st, Soren celebrated his 6th birthday!  He decided he wanted a Lego Ninjago themed birthday party and so we did our best to deliver!  We had a lego building station, Ninjago masks, and Dad even dressed up as Lord Garmadon and all the little ninjas got to fight him!  I think Soren enjoyed his party and he is so proud to be 6.

Ninja Soren

The proud birthday boy

We can't believe he is 6!

A few weeks later, on March 2nd we celebrated our FIRST Saudiversary.  You may be wondering what this is, but let me tell you, it really is a thing!  A Saudiversary is the anniversary of the day you first arrived in Saudi.  I can remember the day like it was yesterday....so sad to leave behind everything we had in Houston, but also excited, anxious, and scared about our next adventure in Saudi....so many mixed emotions wrapped up into one day.  And here we are, one year later....so grateful for this awesome opportunity for our family.  Saudi has quickly become our home, filled with friends and a community that is so unique and amazing.  We can't wait to see what else our Saudi adventure has in store for us!

Last year right before we left for Saudi

What a difference a year makes!

A couple of days later, I (Sarah) flew to Dubai to meet Ryan's mom (Grandma) and bring her back to Saudi!  She decided to come visit us, making her our first visitor, to help me with the kiddos while Ryan was on turnaround.  (Sidenote:  Ryan started turnaround at the beginning of February, where he works 12+ hour shifts, half of them being the night shift.  When guys are on turnaround, you rarely see them...I sure have a huge respect for all the single moms who do that on a daily basis.  It was tough!)  So, Carol came over to help out with that, but also so she could see our life in Saudi!  And it has been so much fun having her here!

Grandma is here!

Very happy kiddos!

Grandma and her Saudi grandkids!

Every year, Soren’s school (ISG Jubail) puts on a Spring Spectacular Fundraiser, where several of the countries represented in the student population host a booth with food from their country.  So, there was a French booth, a South African booth, an American booth, a Venezuelan booth, a Malaysian booth, a British booth, and a Filipino booth.  I helped out at the American booth, where we served BBQ chicken, lemonade, and yummy desserts.  We also tried food from the French booth (a crepe...so yummy!), the Venezuelan booth (an arepa....kind of like a little taco, but sooooo much better!!!), and the Filipino booth (a chicken skewer and spring rolls...delicious!).  The kids played games and won lots of prizes!  All had a great time!

The next weekend we took Carol to Bahrain to show her a new country, but also to celebrate Ryan being released from turnaround.  (It was a wonderful day to finally have daddy/hubby home again!!)  We explored Qal'at al-Bahrain, a very old fort in Bahrain that dates back as far as 2300 BC.  We were able to walk through the fort, and saw beautiful archways, lots of rooms, and climb several steep staircases.  There was even a room where they used to make date molasses.  They had built little canals where they would pile the dates and press down on them to release the juices.  It was pretty neat and very innovative!  We also went to Al Fateh Grand Mosque, the large mosque in Bahrain.  We got to eat at Ric’s and Big Texas BBQ and got our fill of bacon and pork!  We walked around the Adiliya area and explored the local shops.  And, the kids’ favorite thing that we did was go swimming!!  It was a fun weekend!!

Soren with the fort off in the distance

Walking around the fort

The beautiful archways

Top of the fort!

Where they made date molasses

Another exciting event we got to attend was the Spring Bazaar on our compound.  Twice a year, our compound hosts a bazaar, where vendors from all over bring their goods to sell.  There are jewelry stores, furniture stores, clothing stores, antique shops, soap stores, and lots of Saudi type trinkets! Carol, the kids and I all got henna done too!  Soren got a shark, Elsa got a butterfly, and Carol and I got floral designs.  What a cool experience!  

My henna

More henna!

Elsa's butterfly

Soren's shark

We have been able to take Grandma to lots of restaurants, including the Dairy Queen, Applebee’s, Johnny Rockets, Piatto’s, a Lebanese restaurant (so she could try more local food), al Kunafany (where we got Kunafah….so yummy!!!), and Kunefeci.  So much fun eating at lots of yummy restaurants!  Ryan also took his mom out on a camel hunt where they got to see lots of camels!!

Camels!!!

Family entrance at Dairy Queen

Kjerstin has also been showing off for Grandma!  She took her first steps a few weeks ago and has been getting more stable and more confident with each day!  She loves climbing on couches, chairs, and tables too!  She loves going on walks around the house while pushing some sort of car, especially when it has her baby in it.  So fun to see how much she continues to grow!!!

Kjerstin loves her babies!

The girls pushing their babies

Kjerstin out for a walk

Much more stable!

Trouble trouble....good thing she is so cute!!!

And last, but certainly not least, our month ended with another big birthday.  We celebrated Elsa girl a few days early, since we are flying to Dubai on her birthday.  She decided she wanted to have a Peppa Pig birthday party.  We went on a scavenger hunt to find all of Peppa and her friends around the compound and we also played pin the tail on Peppa (drawn by daddy).  We can’t believe she is already 4 years old!!!

Peppa Pig cupcakes

The birthday girl!

Two of my favorite people!

It’s been such a fun month and we will be sad to say goodbye to Grandma in just a few days.  But we are excited for our next adventure.….spring break in Dubai with good friends!!!  We can’t wait!