Park life

At one point in the day, we find ourselves at the park, especially with the nice cool weather. Yasmin has a music sessions at the park once a week, and the girls enjoy hanging out with their friends at the playground. Here are a few candid shots of them at play.

Yasmin is a regular at the park now ...

Sera and Yasmin feeling at home on the slide

Not sure why they stick out a 'peace' sign and say 'cheese' at the same time?

Music session at the park. We sit on this huge parachute, sing nursery songs with our kids, be all animated and funny ... all for the love of our kids.

Yasmin hugging the dolls to the song, "Miss Polly had a dolly ... "

A day by a canal

Off highway 11, towards Abu Dhabi, is a place called Gantoot. And by a wide sandy canal, we spent a rather nice afternoon with some of Johan's colleagues and their families, who were going to camp overnight. By the time we arrived after lunch, a stretch of camping tents were pitched by the bank of the canal. The girls quickly got into their swim suits and were off to play by the water. That's how the girls spent the rest of the afternoon. Easy!

By the time the sun slowly descended, BBQ pits were quickly sprouting up along the beach. We were in the midst of very seasoned campers. I thought to myself, or even out loud to Johan, that we'd never wing this camping thing, or at least, not this elaborately. But we're going to try this camping thing ... maybe next month.

Yasmin, sharing her snack with Johan

I'm always amazed at how comfortable the girls are any where ... so far that is

The camping site

The kids looking for crabs

This is Nico, 6 years old, so comfortable lying on the sand you'd think he was at home on his sofa

What was I thinking letting her wear this white outfit? I mean this is Yasmin, who was rolling and tumbling on the sand immediately after putting on fresh clothes ...

Sera doodling on the sand, making sure she kept her clothes clean and free of sand

Sera posing ... but more importantly, I've only just noticed how tanned she is!

Sisters hanging out

Okay, November is starting off very dry on blogger ... sorry! But here are two photos of the girls hanging out. The first one of the girls painting on the balcony. Sera was busily making hand-prints on the paper while Yasmin was painting her body. Hmm ... so in the end, both girls were painting their bodies and very tickled by it.


One of the sweetest thing for me, is to see the two girls reading together. Sera, the book worm, has taken on the mantle of 'reading' or making up stories for Yasmin. One of the rare occasions when Yasmin actually sits still for a few minutes. This photo was taken in the morning, just before we set off for Sera's school.

Trick or Treats!

Don't ask me what the significance of Halloween, I do not know. All I know is, it's good fun to play dress-up whether for the kids or the adults. And honestly, the treats are secondary because at the end of the 'harvest', Sera only gets a few sweets and the rest I either re-distribute or stash away for safe keeping. 'wink'

So this afternoon, at exactly 4pm, a few mothers and their kids ... and Johan (all the moms were very surprised that a father actually came!), met at the playground to embark on the mission of Trick or Treating. One of the moms had suggested the night before that the mothers come dressed as 'men', with moustache and all. Inwardly, I groaned but peer pressure (yes, even for a mom like me) meant I had to suck it in and just do it!


I don't own a piece of formal shirt or anything that has a buttons all the way down, so I rummaged Johan's wardrobe and chose the 'smallest' shirt I could find. Pants? Shall I just wear his as well? Hmm, why not? Belt, his thick brown belt definitely. I was starting to feel, creepily, like Johan. I pulled on white socks and wore my Nike runners. All done. Oh actually, not quite yet. Without thinking, I started to apply black eye shadow on my jawline, above my upper lip, created side burns. The result, I looked like a ghastly version of a Johan.

Sera was all ready in her mermaid costume. I have to say, she looked very cute wearing it for the 3rd time. She has grown into her costume, especially with the coloured hair extensions I added for her. So, how did Sera react to my costume? She cried! She was confused and kept saying she didn't like how I looked. She wanted me to look like mama. Oh goodness. We were running late so I had to quickly explain that I was only in costume, just like she was. She reluctantly accepted my hasty explanation and we rushed to the playground.

Johan, who was walking with Yasmin, was also adding the finishing touches to his costume. He was going as 'Bob the Builder'. Come on, it was so easy for him. He wore this 'costume' at work everyday! From the boot of his car, he pulled out his safety helmet, his safety vest and his working boots. When he met me at the playground, he insisted I put on his other safety helmet and safety vest. Huh? Ok, whatever. I ended up really looking like him now!

We all had a good laugh at each other, posed for photos and then planned our strategy for our Trick or Treating. It was simple. We just had hunt down the houses that had a pumpkin of some sort outside their doors. So all the 'men' plus one real man, and all the giggling kids, spent the next hour 'begging' for sweets. We drew a lot of curious stares along the way (but of course) but all of us, even the kids I'm sure, had a good time.

We decided to have dinner at the Italian restaurant nearby and Johan was like, "Didn't you bring a change of clothes?". Yes, my husband who didn't stand beside me the whole time we were Trick or Treating was actually very embarrassed of this male imposter. Ha ha. I wiped off my beard, took off the safety helmet and vest, let my hair down, carried my hand bag ... hmmm, that was the best I could do. I grabbed his hand, didn't let go of it, and marched straight to the restaurant. I glanced at him from the side, and I'm so sure I saw him cringe. What I thought? Oh, my outfit, or rather his - the baggy shirt and the thick belt that was barely keeping his shorts up. Ha ha.

The Trick or Treating crew

Sera with her friends, Elin and Josephine

"Trick or Treat!!!"

Taking a rest in between the hard work

Bags full of treats ... the crew was tired but contented

Yasmin was oblivious to all the sweets that were being thrown at us ... she was happily scootering around and at one time, even followed these boys instead

Any excuse for another party

We were invited for a Halloween party by an Indigo (that is Sera's home room) mom. Hey, any excuse for a good party ... count us in. ha ha. I was resigned to letting Sera wear her mermaid dress, yah, here I go again. This so very unimaginative mother of hers. But at the last minute I found this strange looking hair band at Claire's, that had bat purple sequinned bat wings and ears! I had no idea what I was going to do with it but I bought it purely on impulse. I'd figure something out.

So 1.5 hours before the party (I always work best under pressure, or so it seems) I remembered she had a pair of black leggings (did they still fit?), her patent boots (a gift from Sigi but do they still fit?) and I needed a black long sleeved top. Hmm, a grey one would have to do. I was a bit wary that she'd just HATE the costume because all around her, the girls at school wanted to be princesses and it had rubbed off along the way. But she loved the costume and was soooo thrilled with her wings that grew from her head and not her back. ha ha ha. Johan, being Mr hardly-out-of-the-box, asked me to cut the wings and stick it on her back. "It's just crazy that the wings are on her head!"

I thought it was hilarious and in the end, Sera loved it so nothing else mattered. She didn't even flinch when I used my black eye liner and eye shadow to create some sort of mask like thing on her face. She was very keen to be Bat Girl. And of course, Johan just had to comment, "But there is no Bat girl, only Cat girl!"

And all together ... we roll our eyes to the blue skies! 'wink'

I dressed Yasmin in Sera's eeyore outfit, which was a gift when she was born. It still fits and that mouse ear had to do because the eeyore head piece was annoying her. Check out the attempting to be fierce Bat girl.

You'd think those mouse ears were really a part of his head!

Sera and Sophia singing a medley of songs to get their treats

Getting treats the easy way ...

The kids were sooo picky ... they were studiously picking up their favourite sweets and throwing back the 'undesirable' ones!!!

The dessert spread was ridiculously sinful (and this is only half of the table!)

Yasmin in action

Yasmin ... ahh, she definitely has an adventurous soul.

Dancing happily when she got raisins

Her # 1 favourite thing to do is to go on Sera's scooter

Her # 2 favourite thing is to go high on the swing

Her curiosity always gets the better of her. Here she wormed herself through the the leg rest of the kitchen high chair. She's looks unhappy in this shot but soon after she was laughing at herself.

She loves doing 'happy baby'

With her friend Reef, munching on falafels

Her playground friend, Hanna.

With her best mate playing their make shift cave

Two snakes in the basket

Musandam, Oman

We drove to the northern most part of Oman, the Musandam peninsula, and we were on a mission to look for dolphins. Well, that is one typical attraction there, where we'd spend a day on a dhow cruise and hopefully get a glimpse of the resident dolphins that frolic in the fjord.

The drive into Musandam was, for lack of a better word, breathtaking. The mountains rise straight out of the sea, and the lack of vegetation gave it a stark, even treacherous feel but it was still undeniably majestic. The 4 hour drive, with the girls getting stir crazy by the hour, was very worth it. We checked into Esra apartment hotel, a very basic DIY service apartment with a pool, but very pretty restaurant. It was almost dinner time by that time, so we tucked into some local Arabic fare and soon after, the four of us fell asleep on the double twin beds.

Driving into Musandam


Esra apartment hotel ... the restaurant was the only thing worth taking a photo of

The morning of the dhow cruise. After digging into a breakfast of three kinds of eggs (plain omelette, hard boiled and then veggie omelette), we went to the nearby harbour to hop into the dhow. Sera was very excited and even more so that her friend, Elin, would be on board. Elin and her family had also planned this trip together with us. After fitting the girls with life-vests, we crossed over several dhows to reach our very own. Our dhow looked like somebody's very own living room. The deck of the boat was covered in Arabic carpet, and all around the boat were plump cushions that were just wanting to be sat on. It was perfect!

We sat sail on the dot, at 9.30am, and made out way into the 17-km fjord. The scenery was surprisingly beautiful, serene, and the calm water enclosed by the soaring mountains made us feel like we were entering an almost magical place. We caught a glimpse of isolated villages (and remnant of) that were almost camouflaged into the mountains, and also coastal villages that still subsisted on fishing as a simple way of life. But the highlight was of course the dolphins and they did not fail. Just a few minutes into the fjord, we were greeted by a family of 5 dolphins. They swam by the dhows and dove in and out, gracefully and with such speed. Thankfully the dhow is a very steady boat because all of us (probably 40 passengers) went to the right side of the boat to marvel and exclaim at them.

Getting fitted into safety gear before setting off

Yasmin was not happy with her life vest, which of course came off eventually

Sera was beaming throughout the day ...

Yasmin was ready for her nap when the dhow set sail

Dolphins!

They visited with us twice during the day

The rest of the day was spent lazing on the boat, snorkelling at Telegraph Island and another enclosed bay. Johan and I took turns to swim with the girls so it worked out really well. Sera, Elin, Yasmin and Erik had great time on the boat, just cruising around and helping themselves with the fruit basket. Between the four kids, they probably ate an apple tree and a whole bunch of bananas.

We arrived back at the harbour at exactly 4pm. We were tired, sticky from the salty air and water, but it felt extremely good. All of us could barely sit through dinner but were very grateful to crawl into bed at 7.45PM. Ha ha. Ahh, why not?

Sera and Elin scoffing down apples throughout the day

Everyone just chilling out

Snorkelling at Telegraph Island. It was here that Sera and I swam from the boat to a tiny rocky island on the left.

Yasmin had a long sleep in the morning. Here she had just woken up, and waiting to have her lunch

I stood by the captain to get this shot of the dhow

Lounging on the cushions

On our day of departure, we set off right after breakfast and on the drive out of Musandam, we couldn't resist stopping at one of the isolated, almost perfect beaches. The girls were more than happy to get out of the car, and excitedly raced to the water's edge. Sera and I went shell picking, while Yasmin busied herself with the sand and pails. Eventually and very reluctantly, we had to say goodbye to Musandam and drive the 4 hour journey back to Dubai. We had a great weekend, hope yours was even better!

Feeling very at home on one of the beaches at Musandam