All Dressed Up for Friday Prayers at the Mosque

On my way to church Friday I saw this cute father and son dressed in their finest to go to the mosque together for prayer.  I was so happy they let me take their picture.  Aren't they cute?

They were fighting the strong winds from the shmaal that came through the country that day.  While it was miserable for all of us, I felt the worst for Tiger Woods and the other pros who were being pelted by sand at the Desert Classic in Dubai.

Shmaal Hits UAE

While loved ones back home may be dealing with drifting snow, we are dealing with drifts of sand.

The visibility was so low this amazing mosque could hardly be seen.

Days like these I can understand where the hijab (head-scarf) originated.  It would keep the gritty bits of sand out of your hair.

Sand blew across the roads and blasted the cars..It's amazing there wasn't any damage to the paint.

Nico's Birthday Party

OK, after the fire station and the trip to the Women's College to play in the fountains...(see below), we met at ACS to celebrate Nico's birthday.  Molly had lots of fun games for the kids to play.  After, we went to Molly's for pizza and cake.  It was a very busy, very fun day.

Sam, making the hula-hoop come rolling back to him.

Dana rocks at the hula-hoop.  There's a good reason I'm not pictured trying this...it was pathetic.

Charlie, winning the race!

The object of this game was to jump in the sack to the end where the kids each picked up an animal to put in the KangaSack and jump back to the starting line.

Fun at Dad's Work-Abu Dhabi Women's College Campus

While the other kids played the fountain, Charlie just focused on staying dry and stayin' cool.

Dana's parents are in town visiting so we took them to see the Women's College and have some traditional arab food from Lebanese Flower (one of our favorite spots..right by the campus).  While Brad toured the campus with Dana's folks we let the kids play in the courtyard.  There aren't any students there right now since it's between semesters so it was a free-for-all.

It was right after a morning at the fire station.  We took Ali, Mark, Nico and the twins to the Women's College.

The kids played with a giant chess set for about and hour but soon the fountain was just too fun to resist.