Yo Ali!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

So Ready for Halloween!

Around these parts we are so ready for Halloween. We've been decorating since O's birthday and, if I do say so myself, the house is looking pretty great. One of my colleagues at work found a bunch of old VHS video tapes and we cracked them open and used the black tape for decorations - that along with another old branch from the street and we're set.

VHS tape makes amazing spider webs

and a "really spooky" doorway said O - making his zombie look

love the Drexel heritage dressed up!

and the bathroom cause I'm like that...

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Karate en Francais

Tonight was Orion's first karate class and it was super interesting to watch. I actually can't believe that the class happened. It is being held at the Djibouti Cultural Center which took us about 45 minutes to find the first time. Then we thought the class started last week but it turns out that was only inscription (registration) and then we had to find a karate uniform...yowza! So...the class was finally held tonight and so far so good! This class meets twice a week for 45 minutes a class and this class is for 5-7 year olds. The teacher is pretty strict and I'm loving that. The kids bow before the enter the room and they have to sit certain ways. I have never been involved in any sort of martial arts class so its all new to me.

He is so not paying attention

OK now he's paying attention

cute little sets of toes

warming up...love the purple head scarf

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Orion turns 5!

On October 5th Orion turned Five. His golden birthday and what a celebration we had...about 35 people, a warm summer afternoon, a clear blue pool and what else? Ohh yeah...chocolate cake with pink frosting and tinkerbell - per my sweet boys request!

Friday, October 4, 2013

My Butter Saga

We can order foodstuff from this bulk foods company called Seven Seas - its a great perk of living here in Djibouti and makes it easier to cook and bake. On the last order I decided that I was going to give my favorite French butter a rest. You see it is super expensive - about 4 bucks for 250 grams which is about 1 stick of butter or about 1/2 cup. I mainly bake with the butter so I thought we should try the butter from Seven Seas. Now ordering off of their catalog is difficult - its basically an excel spreadsheet with lots of abbreviations and many numbers. We had never ordered butter before so I found what I thought was a 4 pound box and ordered away...but when it came boy was I in for a surprise.

I took one look at the box and started to panic and then when I opened it...

I laughed hysterically...yes, these are individually wrapped pieces of butter? Dinner roll anyone?

In case you are wondering...10 pieces of butter equals 1/2 cup

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Is it Pimms Time?

Missing summertime in London!

Saturday, September 21, 2013

5th Birthday Prep!

I'm a scrounge. Always have been and living where its hard to find things has made me even more of one. Last year, I found dead plants that looked like cornstalks and tied them to my front porch. I used a broken side of a crib for a magazine rack in the bathroom. Big rocks spray painted gold made great leprechaun gold for St. Patrick's Day. You get the point. Well, the other day I was riding my bike home and I found this great branch in the ditch. You see being a beachy, desert kinda town - there are not many branches to be found. This branch wasn't from an evergreen tree but it still had pretty good lines and it just called to me. So being the resourceful girl I am, I jumped off my bike and made it down into the ditch (high heels and all) with a full audience of Djiboutian men. I got the branch, threw it over my handle bars and finished my journey home.

Orion and I cleaned up the branch a bit and I think its going to make a great birthday tree. We've been working on decorations for it - using up all of our extra bits of crafting stuff - along with scraps of paper from the cutter at work.