Easter

Alexandra brought this old, ratty pillow to the middle of the kitchen floor one night while I was cooking dinner and laid down. She was so proud she had made a nice, cozy bed in the middle of the kitchen.

Here is her new cheesy grin she gives to the camera. She even says "cheese."

Here are the girls watching the Ten Commandments on Easter. Abby and Sammy really got into it and have watched parts of it several times since.

The girls went on a Easter egg hunt and met the Easter Bunny. Alex became obsessed with him and followed the poor bunny everywhere stealing a touch of his fur whenever she could. She even kept her eye on him when he was off in the distance. Perhaps she was contemplating whether he was real or not.

Hooray for Easter!

Abby's artwork always surprises me. I am quite amazed at how good it is. Is it just me or do you think it is good too? Who couldn't love those birds! It has gone on our art wall of fame (our walls on the way down to our basement are completely covered with their art. I will have to post a picture of it sometime).

I love, love, love getting things professionally framed. I have been wanting to frame this since the summer of 1999. I got this from Maloula, Syria. It is the Lord's Prayer in English, Aramaic and Arabic. Maloula is one of the last places on earth where Aramaic is spoken.
My Easter table - I love the coordinating chairs and table cloth
The girls' morning ritual is to stand at the glass door and wait for Abby's ride to pick her up and take her to school. After Abby leaves, Alexandra and Sammy won't leave the door until the car has completely disappeared. If she only knew how much they idolize her.
Abby and Sammy were being the best friends one day. I love that they always have each other to play with AND little Alex of course....

Could I Be A Bigger Idiot?

Embarassing Moment #1:
The other day I invited my neighbor across the street over for lunch. She is Pakistani and a practicing Muslim. She also grew up in London and since we lived there for five years and I have studied the Middle East, we have a lot in common. She has been so kind and taken me to some Indian/Pakistani grocery stores here to further my curry cooking. I have been so grateful and enjoying all the great curry and Indian food so much that I wanted to thank her by inviting her to lunch. I was so excited to make quiche and thought she would really enjoy it. I had been craving it recently after all so I set about mkaing my quiche the morning of our lunch. Charles does not like quiche so I make it frequently when I have someone over. However, in my excitement to make it I didn't think twice about adding a bunch of ham to it. When she came over, she asked if it was ham in it. I immediately realized what I had done. You would think that after living in the Middle East numerous times and studying it for so long I would remember something like that but I didn't. How embarrassing!

(In case you don't know, Muslims do not consume pork or any part of swine. The animal is considered filthy. The Quran says: Quran 16:115 "He has only forbidden you dead meat, and blood, and the flesh of swine, and any (food) over which the name of other than Allah has been invoked." All flesh of swine is filth and it is forbidden to eat their meat, fat or skin. It is also forbidden to sell the flesh from swine because, like unslaughtered dead animals and wine, it is filth.)

Embarrassing Moment #2:
Abby has a friend in her class that she has had only one playdate with. After that playdate her friend invited Abby to her birthday party. Abby was so excited of course. I wrote it on the calendar and then didn't look at the invite again. The day of the party arrived and I took Abby to the girl's house and dropped her off. I did not get out of the car, just let Abby go up to the door herself. When I saw that she went in, I drove home.

After two and a half hours, I went to pick her up. I walked up to the door and the woman answered and said Abby was just about to have dinner with the family. I noticed there was no other children at the house and no signs of a party. I thought it was strange but then figured they were just having a family party and only invited Abby. I left Abby there for another hour and went to pick her up again. When I picked her up the second time I asked when the girl's actual birthday was. The mother replied that her birthday was on Saturday which was the same day as her party! I couldn't believe I wrote the party date on my calendar wrong and had dropped Abby off at someone's house (who I barely know) completely un-announced AND un-invited! The mother said she didn't remember scheduling a playdate and had looked through all her phone messages and emails to see if she simply had just forgotten. I was sooooo embarrassed!

Adventures Far and Near

This past Thursday all of Abby's dreams came true - she and Sammy met

PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN and his family! They not only met them but they did it at the WHITE HOUSE! How could anyone's spring break get any better than this? .......Ok so it wasn't the White House in Washington D.C. and the President was wax and not very chatty but what's not to love? Who knew Springfield, Illinois could be so fun AND educational? While Charles and friends took the girls on their day trip to the exotic locale of Springfield, I....

.... stayed home and had adventures with Alexandra in the basement as we drove and discovered every square inch. Yee haw!

As you can see, our lives these days are pretty dang adventurous and cool. I know you are all jealous but that's life. Everybody can't have the luck and adventures that we do!

Maybe next time we go to Springfield, we'll send you a postcard...

if you're lucky!