Easter Party and Easter Egg Hunt!

Kiddos dressed for the Easter Party!

Dan's work graciously hosted an Easter Party and Easter Egg Hunt for all the kids last weekend!  They had an inflatable slide, bouncy house, magicians, Easter Bunny, pot luck luncheon, cotton candy, snow cones, face painting and an Easter Egg Hunt!!!  It was a great time and still not too hot here in Kuwait to be outside for a couple of hours!  

Me and Jack

Me and my Tweeter!!!  With his blue raspberry snow cone!

Me and my Bugga

Kiddos enjoying their snow cones!

Me and my Moopert

Kylie and Daddy waiting in line for lunch

Essa, Jack, Megan and Ava eating lunch by themselves at their own table :)

So cute!

Jonah with his cotton candy, snow cone and sticky face!

Boys waiting at the top of the slide

Me and the Easter Bunny with a conspicuously smushed in face.

Jack, Megan, Ava, Essa and Kylie

Clive, Jack and Zethan

All our kids helped the little ones at some point on the big slide!

They did the Easter Egg Hunt by age groups - Kylie went before Megan and Jack

Sweet girl

Megan hunting for eggs

Jack gathering them up!

So pretty!

Handsome boy

Dan and Kristen's Birthdays

Our birthdays were pretty low-key this year.  Dan was traveling on his actual birthday and our internet went out right after I spoke with him in the morning, so the 2 big kids didn't even get to wish him a happy birthday on his actual day since they were at school (the littlest was home not feeling well).  We made plans to celebrate his birthday the day he got back home - which was a weekend, so it worked out perfectly!  We opened presents, went to church, ate lunch, hung out and had Papa John's pizza for dinner!  It was a good, chill day.  

My birthday fell on a Sunday, which would normally be great, but as it's a school and work day here, everyone was gone for the day.  I got to sleep in in the morning and not have to wake up at 5:45am to get kids ready for school, then a friend invited me over to her house for tea/coffee in the morning.  I made our usual Sunday morning grocery run and was bummed that they didn't have grits that I wanted to make Shrimp and Grits for dinner.  When the kids got home, I piled them into the car and drove to a different grocery store (actually it was the 3rd of the day) to see if I could find the grits - and we found them!  We got home, kids worked on homework and Dan got home 6:30ish.  I made delicious Shrimp and Cheesy Grits and then we opened up cards and presents and the kids went to bed!  

Happy Birthday Tweeter sign!  We had the house decorated for him so when he got home from his trip, he'd see all the presents out and waiting for him!

Kylie and I, thankfully, got to run to the mall the day before he got home to pick up some random fun presents for him!  Nestle Tollhouse peanut butter cookies and assorted cookies, an awesome coffee mug, a Kuwait Towers 3D puzzle, a 2x2 Rubic's cube and other presents that hadn't arrived yet in the mail...

 Kylie wanted to wrap and write on the presents :)

 Cards made by the kiddos

 Reading through his cards on his pretend birthday morning!

 Kylie was adamant that she wanted to buy a present for him - so she picked out this Kuwait keychain at the mall!  She wanted to get it for him because "he always gets us fun presents when he goes on trips"!  

 My birthday sign that Megan, Dan and the kids made for me!

 Presents and cards all lined up!

 Me and the kiddos!

 Mmmm...Shrimp and Grits!!!

The Birthday Tweeters

Hi, My Name is Kristen, vol. 5

...And I'm the Birthday Girl because today I turn 35!!!

Things I love:   Anything Turquoise, Polka dots and Stripes, My hoop earrings, my Jim Thompson turquoise blanket, Words, my pink blanket, palm trees (coconut palms in Thailand or date palms in Kuwait - either one works), swimming at the beach, flip flops, having my toenails painted, tinsel in my hair. 

TV Shows I've Enjoyed this Year:  Bunheads, Downton Abbey, Sons, The Americans, How I Met your Mother, Good Luck Charlie, Greek. 

What I enjoy about Kuwait:  Date palm trees, our view from our house, our house, my Bible Study and ladies in it, our church and the kids' program, our office and great friends!

Meals currently in rotation:  Chili, Chicken and Stir-fried Veggies with Rice, Grammy Casserole, Shrimp and Orzo, Shrimp and Grits, Roasted Chicken with Veggies, Huevos Rancheros. 

Plans for our townhouse in August:  (anyone who wants to help with any part of it, let us know!)  Move the sink in the kitchen to a different location and open up the wall where the sink was to make it a doorway, move some cabinets, paint the whole house inside, install hardwood floors in the kitchen and dining area, paint the kitchen cabinets.  There is a lot more, but we'll start with this!

Hi, My Name is Dan, vol. 5

Aaaaaggghhhh!  Our internet has been down for 2 1/2 days - no email, no internet, NOTHING!  Here's Dan's birthday post!

...and I'm the Birthday Boy because today I turn 37 years old!!!

Things I really like:  My new drum set, Computers, iPad/iPod/iPhone, Movies/TV shows, Log cabin magazines, Cigars, GPS coordinates, RC planes, RC car, Guitar, xBox, WD box, 'Merica, Facial hair, musical instruments of any kind, Malone, Cold weather.

Favorite TV shows/Movies:  How I met your Mother, Sons, The Americans, The Cosby Show with the kids, Dragons Riders of Berk with the kids, Clone Wars with the kids. 

Countries I've traveled to:  28 - 4 new this year!

Favorite Sayings:  "I'm a bargain!", "Let's go have a Smokey Chat", " 'Merica!", "I should beard up", "Cause I'm a man", "Are you catching the vision?", "Next year in America...", "Tricksy", "I love unpacking",

Favorite Foods:  Papa John's Pepperoni Pizza, Taco Bell Volcano Burrito and Volcano Nachos, Lasagna, the Game Pie at Pudding Face.

Things I've done as a 36 year old:   Played on a softball team, Officiated a wedding, Learned to fly an RC plane, Began playing drums, Started co-leading a Bible Study for 4 couples, Helped Kristen run the Kid's Church program 1x a month, Started planning how to renovate our townhouse. 

Why my Tweeter loves me (written by Kristen):  Because you are a wonderful, amazing man of God.  You lead our family well and love us well.  You are a great example to our children and me, you take time to explain things we don't understand.  You still wrestle with the kids and still twirl my hair.  You enjoy your job and who you work with and do a great job with it.  You make our family a priority and enjoy spending time with us.  You love the Lord and do a great job encouraging us to know Him more.  We love getting to get you back home after a trip and miss you whether it is a couple of weeks that you've been gone or just a couple of nights!  You do a great job of communicating with me when you travel - either by facetime, iMessage or Hey Tell.  You protect us (from Kylie) and are really funny.  You are the best father and husband!  I love you Tweeter!!!  Happy 37th Birthday my Tweeter!!!

Me with a giant statue on top of a coffin

 Mustache Contest at work!

 Walking on dunes

 Self portrait

 Swimming in the Atlantic Ocean...from the Right Side of the coast.

Cigars on the beach after a swim!

Me and my Tweeter

Our great Family!

Megan's 11th Birthday

 Megan had a great 11th Birthday!!!  She got to wake up and choose whatever she wanted to watch in the morning, while I was making her breakfast choice of French Toast Casserole and Bacon (yes, bacon!)!

 Her presents and cards awaiting her...

 The kitchen table set for a special birthday meal

 Her menu for breakfast

(yes, I realize it says Mik and not Milk, it was a typo)

 Getting ready to open presents!

 She loved them!  She got a camera from us!!!  And proceeded to use it all day and take 155 pictures!  

 Beautiful cards!

Great kiddos!

 

Her first self portrait!

Since her birthday was on a Friday and we attend church in Kuwait on Friday, we headed to church after breakfast!  (and, incidentally, after Kylie burnt her right arm by accidentally placing it in the hot melted sugar and butter on top of the french toast.  It is a pretty bad burn, but seems to be healing pretty well.)

 The World's Tallest Man - Sultan Kösen - happened to be in the front hall of where we meet for church!  He is 8ft. 3in. tall!  Megan took this picture of him - he was very kindly posing for pictures from all the staff there, as well as other Kuwaiti's!

 Friends from church - this was the last day for two of them because they moved the day after Megan's birthday, but we'll get to that in another post.

Our Family

 Second self portrait on our way out the door to walk along at the beach near our house (not the one across from our house...that is totally covered in litter and trash).

 Megan and I having fun with her new camera!

 Cute kiddos!

 So fun and sunny!

The water was BEAUTIFUL!!!  While there were some people swimming, the general concensus is that it is not safe to swim there...but it looked gorgeous!

 Our family in shadow

 Fun picture

 The girls at home

 Then, we went to our friend's Brad, Carol and Kent's, for dinner!  They very graciously had invited us over to enjoy some CoCo Curry's that they had been shipped from friends in Japan.  They love it as much as we do and it is a much coveted item, so it was so so so so so so so nice of them to be willing to share it with us!  We finally found a night that both Brad and Dan were in country and it happened to be Megan's birthday - luckily for us, she was thrilled to have it for her birthday dinner!

Carol made Panko crusted chicken cutlets, rice and curry.  It was beyond amazing.  We weren't sure how it would taste, since it wasn't fresh from the CoCo Curry restaurant...but it was glorious!  We all LOVED it!!!

 I may have used my finger to lick the plate clean.

 Megan loved it too!

After this amazing dinner we enjoyed some Tim Tam Mint milkshakes...and they were wonderful!  Overall, I think Megan had a great birthday!  She ate some wonderful food - french toast casserole, bacon, a BLT for lunch and CoCo Curry's for dinner in Kuwait!  Happy Birthday Moopert!  We love you!