Karen and Crew: We Love Weekends

The kids started asking us Wednesday morning what time we would be leaving for our date. "We don't want you gone or anything. We just need to plan our night." They love date night almost as much as we do. When we called after dinner to check in on them, we were told, "We're filming deleted scenes." The movie bug that bit them last summer is still energizing them. I'll put a link at the bottom.

Isaac had his first campout of the year. He came home hot and tired. Most boys didn't bother sleeping in the tents--too hot. They just laid their sleeping bags over the top of the opened and flattened tents on the sand (beach). They went to a shooting/archery range first to see who could qualify for those badges. They got to the camp site around 9 at night and had to set up and cook dinner in the dark. Isaac's patrol got the award for best food. That's a new part of how the patrols can win points (like house points) and Isaac really wants the cooking honor. I helped him season and precook hamburgers at home. He also took baggies full of chopped onions, peppers and tomatoes to make gourmet scrambled eggs with turkey bacon with tortillas for breakfast burritos the next morning. Starting in January, the cooking badge will be another eagle requirement.

Isaac post camp out.

The girls hosted a Harry Potter movie night last Saturday. They had 5 friends come over and watch part one of 7, then we made a bunch of arabic bread pizzas and then watched part two. Good times.

Piano is going well! I love listening to them practice each day and hearing the compliments from their teacher. We have two duets right now. Jess and Makenna and Makenna and Isaac. I love that the kids get along so well. But if anyone is having a bad day, it's comes out during duet time. If they are off, 90% of the time is spent squabbling about who is taking up more of the bench, getting off beat, bumping with elbows, etc. I don't know that the 10% of music is really productive at all. Luckily, this is the exception, not the rule. And it is much less likely to happen if they do NOT practice while waiting for lunch.

Hooray for carpools! We are trading off with a couple families to lighten the hours spent in the car. I know 3 kids' schedules are far fewer than my parents and many other have/had to deal with, but when every where you go is 15-45 minutes each way depending on traffic, skipping a trip now and then is pure heaven.

Seminary has officially started. There are not enough kids with workable schedules to have an early morning class. So the two Dubai wards are doing home study with a group lesson between ward meeting times on Fridays. There are 8 kids, but they go to 5 different schools with different start times all over the city. So for now, this is the only workable option. There was a stake youth activity last Saturday down in Abu Dhabi. Isaac was glad to go, but missed the supercharged things he was able to do last summer. Youth Conference has been announced for March 7-8, 2014. Beating the heat and summer exodus.

Makenna told me today that she wants crasins for Christmas. Jess wants an insulated lunch box that has room for "yogurt, a main dish, a drink and a little vase with a flower."

We are all still swimming together on Matt's days off. Isaac challenges Jess to races which gets her to do some laps too and she's getting much better. If she keeps this up, I'll officially be the slowest in the family. It's getting a little cooler. It's not supposed to hit three digits at all this week. I have been running at the gym still. 27 miles last week plus a couple classes that are hard and painful but good.

We are going to start craft days up again. I'm looking for good ideas.....

love Dubai