We work and the kids play, at least for most of the week.

This week Stuart and I had a week of professional development while the kids parties with Kayleigh and our Irish friends' kids, Oscar and Astrid. 

On Sunday they headed to the zoo. It was an exceptionally hot day, but the kids reported they had a great time. 

No day at the zoo is complete without an icee. 

Millie fed the birds and was not scared a bit. She certainly doesn't have my disdain of birds. Ick!

Jack rode a horse and was a happy chappy. 

Once I returned from a riveting day of professional development, I got home and started filling eggs with candy for the Easter egg hunt. DeDe came over and we finalized the details of our Easter Extravaganza!  

Millie fell asleep on the sofa just before 5:30 pm and slept all the way through until 6 am. The zoo wore her out. 

Monday was no less exciting for the kids. Kayleigh kept them home but she had many activities planned. They made cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies, and the girls got their toe and fingers painted. Awesome! Kayleigh has earned her money so far this week. 

Cupcake decorating looked fun. 

Delicious!

Lovely!

By the time we got home Millie was a wreck. She was reported to have been very sassy with Kayleigh all day. We spoke with her, she had a bath at 3 pm and then fell asleep on Stuart's lap just after that. She napped for a couple of hours. And as you would guess she didn't want to go to sleep until after 9 pm. 

Both kids were up by 6 am raring to go at it another day. Tuesday they were off to the rugby club for a swim. I picked them up as soon as I got out of school and we headed back to the house to get ready for our Easter Egg Hunt. We had a craft, bag decorating as well as cookie decorating. Finally, there was an Easter egg hunt. Stuart made grilled cheese sandwiches and everyone was happy. The Murffs and the Rouvis came over for the fun. It was a great evening. It was a little messy, which everyone knows I'm not crazy about, but the kids had so much fun that I almost didn't mind the mess. 

Craig Murff made the cookies and the kids decorated them. 

Those are supposed to be eggs. This might be an example of 'craft gone wrong'. They were supposed to be eggs. 

They got their bags ready for their spoils. 

Every kid found dozens of eggs. There were 8 kids and almost 200 eggs filled with candy. 

Prior to the Easter Extravaganza, at school I was in charge of the professional development for Tuesday. It only had to be an hour but had to be about total engagement. I did the workshop on cooperative learning. I don't mean to brag but the teachers, even my most negative ones, said my workshop was the most practical one we have had the entire year. Well there you have it. As a teacher I loved cooperative learning so much because it took the pressure off of me, involved all students, and made for a better learning environment. I felt very satisfied in my job today. It was a refreshing change. 

Here are my teachers involved in a cooperative learning structure. I was so proud of how engaged they were. Considering this week was supposed to be a vacation for them, their attitudes were surprisingly positive. 

Wednesday the kids spent most of the day at Action Zone (similar to Amazing Jakes). They won all kinds of prizes and we're happy little campers when we got home. We went to the grocery store after school to get food for our camping trip. We knew we were going to get out early on Thursday so the plan was to leave at 1 pm.

When we got up on Thursday morning the air was awful! The wind wasn't bad, but the air was thick with sand all day long. The kids didn't notice, thank goodness. They were home building forts and having fun. 

Forts galore!

I believe there was more than one fort built. Kayleigh is so much fun!

Once we got home we conferred with our camping friends and all but one of the families decided to postpone our trip until Friday morning. The drive would not have been safe. 

In the attempt to give some excitement to the kids, because they were disappointed we weren't leaving for the beach and clearly they don't have any fun at all....EVER, I decided to take them to see the movie Home. 

Unfortunately, the Internet gave me the wrong timings and failed to let me know it was only in 3D, of which Jack hates. So in the end we came back home, ordered Chinese and the kids watched Nut Job. 

We got up Friday morning and the air had cleared. So, foolishly, we headed to Fujaraih to the beach for our camping adventure. Our intention was to stay for three nights. We arrived and set up our tent and our new shade structure. 

It was brilliant. It guarded us from the intense heat and was a promising set up for three days. The wind struck and the structure was not going to withstand the fury of nature. Our tent took flight and operation 'save camp' kicked in. We recovered the tent, took the lines that come down the side of the tent and tied them to large rocks. We took the canopy off of the structure and left the frame up, in hopes the wind would stop and we could put it back up. 

Millie enjoyed a snack after a dip in the water. 

Jack and his buddies loved the water. 

The kids were having an absolute blast in the sea and playing on the sand, so not all was lost. Evening came and we cooked up the pounds of meat we always bring, and it looked as if we would weather the storm. 

Here are the master chefs. 

The kids went to bed just after 8 pm and I followed shortly. When I woke up at midnight the wind was doing a number on all the tents, but especially ours. Because our tent is about 6 feet tall in the middle, wind is not its friend. Stuart and I pretty much just lay there and listened to the blowing sand pound the sides of our tent. Every ten minutes or so I would run my hands over my face to brush off the sand that had somehow entered the tent and landed on my face. 

At about half past 5 Stuart rolled over and said, 'Let's pack up. I can't do this another night'. Oh thank goodness. I enjoy camping but not as much as Stuart does, so for him to say we were breakin camp and leaving really let's you know how horrible it was. 

So Saturday by 11 am we were back home, unpacking our car and cleaning the sand out of the crevasses of the car, bags, tents and ears. Our spring break had not taken off like we thought it would. 

Once the 5 loads of laundry were finished, because no matter if you go one night of seven nights everything must be washed, we showered and felt quite refreshed, although still exhausted. We started looking for a hotel on a beach in Abu Dhabi. We decided since our camping trip was a bust, we still needed some time away. We weren't sure what we would do but we would find something. 

From the camping experience we had so much meat, and it needed to be cooked. So we invited the other two families that also left the camp to come and have a BBQ. It was so fun. One of the things we really love about our new home is we can have people over and not feel like we are cramped for room. 

Everyone stayed until just after 8 pm. Then we all headed for a much needed sleep.