Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye to all the wonderful friends we have in Kuwait was not easy. This was by far the most emotional move we have ever had. We all had made some really amazing friends.

The goodbyes began about a week before we left. My very first friend in Kuwait, Nena, put together a coffee morning for me.

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So many of my friends were there and it was such a lovely morning.

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Thank you Nena!

We also were able to attend a nice get together at Alison and Jasmine's home. They are the ladies that I went to the Kuwaiti weddings with.

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It was such a wonderful evening spent with some very interesting people.

All of the Mom's from Alayna's KGH class even got together and had a little going away party for me at pick-up one day. Complete with cupcakes and a wonderful gift! They all chipped in and bought me the most gorgeous purse!

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It really was a great group of Mom's and I feel so privileged to have gotten to know all of them.

The kids each made some really great friends as well that we had to say goodbye to. Here is Alayna with her BFF Anannya

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And Calvin with his Best Bud Cameron.

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Calvin understood much more about saying goodbye and was a little sad when he left. He is such a sweet little boy though and the night before his last day of school he spent the whole afternoon writing individual notes to every child in his class and both teachers. It was so sweet.

The hardest goodbyes for me were saying goodbye to my dear friends Marcelle and Sarah. We got to go out to dinner for Marcelle's birthday in our last week there to a lovely resturant along the gulf.

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You can see the Kuwait Towers in the background. Here are my besties!

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And the men.

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The one picture I am missing is of our last game night with the Godwin's, but it was another fun one for sure.
We will miss all of our friends so very much. They all touched our lives and hearts so much in such a short amount of time. We love and miss you all!

Alayna's Production

On Alayna's last day of school she had her KG Production. We were so happy that she got to be a part of it and didn't miss it. She was a "Currant Bun".

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Her class sang a counting song about currant buns that were bought out of a baker's shop.

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There were also two other KG classes that sang songs. They all did really great and Alayna proudly sang along with all the songs.

Here she is with her amazing teacher Mrs Sam Hamlet.

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Alayna had a great year in KGH and Mrs Hamlet was just an amazing teacher. We felt so blessed to have her be a part of Alayna's first real school experience.

Moving Day!

Monday May 17th was moving day! And boy am I glad it is over with! The movers were here for 2 days and really did a good job. Here is some of the chaos:

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Both kids were so excited about seeing the long awaited movers. We got a couple pics of Alayna coming home and checking everything out.

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"My closet is empty!"

On the 2nd day the movers worked all day so we bought them all pizza for lunch. Here they all are at our dinning room table.

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Alayna's Pretend Birthday

Poor little Alayna has an August birthday so she seems to always get cheated when it comes to having a friends birthday party. Since she has so many friends here we and we will just be getting settled in VA on her real birthday, we declared May 12th Alayna's official pretend birthday.

I brought cupcakes into school and they all sang Happy Birthday to her there. Then in the afternoon we had our weekly playdate with Marcelle and Sarah and kiddos, and they did a whole party for her! They made her a cake,

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and we all sang Happy Birthday to her.

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All the girls dressed up in their princess dresses.

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Of course there were presents too!

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They really made her feel so special and she had such a wonderful day. All of the kids played outside and just had so much fun.

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Don't they just look like little grown-ups sitting around that table?

I pray that Alayna remembers that day, it was certainly a memory for me that will last a lifetime.

Go Shorty....

It's MY BIRTHDAY!

And we partied like it was my birthday!

It was another good birthday this year. The kids and Ryan got me a Baskin Robin's cake and some really sweet cards.

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Oh yeah, and money to buy some new clothes when I am back in the states. YAY!!!

Then since the kids thought that this was a true birthday party, they insisted on playing games. We broke out the Hullaballoo and had a great time playing that for awhile.

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That night we had our dear friends over to celebrate with us. Marcelle and Sarah were so generous with the gifts this year. They bought me this beautiful bed cover.

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As you can see I was VERY excited about it! I had been wanting it for a while. Then they each got me their own little present as well. They are way to good to me.

What am I going to do without you girls?

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It's Good to Be Me

Um, I don't mean me actually.

That was just the theme of Calvin's class assembly this year. And guess what? HE was the STAR of the show! He played a little mouse that wished he was as big and strong as all the other animals in the jungle, but in the end saved everyone with his "fantastically sharp teeth". Hence he learned that it was "good to be me"!

Here he is before the show started sitting with some of his classmates.

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Unfortunately once the show starts and you have to sit in your seats it is impossible to get a good picture, so please excuse the terribly dark pictures that follow.

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They also did a nice bit where they came up in pairs and said something that made the other person special. Calvin was special because he was "Clever and smiled a lot". It was so nice to hear all the children saying nice things about each other.

And what show is ever complete without a musical number?

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After the show we had bought some flowers to give to Calvin (I even bought blue ones), but the first thing he said was that he didn't want them because they were "too girly". But we were able to get a picture with them first at least!

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Since he didn't want the flowers, I convinced him to give them to his teacher.

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Mrs Moulden is an amazing teacher and has really been a blessing to us this year.

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And you know what? I get to be Mom to this amazing little boy and that does make it very good to be me as well!

Fairytale Dress-up Day

A few weeks ago Alayna's class had a fairytale dress-up day at school. Big surprise Alayna went as a princess! She chose to wear her Cinderella dress. Here she is at home before we left for school.

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And her close-up....

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I have no idea what happened after we got to school, but she decided she didn't want her picture taken. And every time she saw me with the camera this is what I got:

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I have countless pictures of her back side! They did a little 'parade' around the garden for the parents and I actually got to sneak a couple pictures when she didn't know I was there.

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Before they went over to their classroom I desperately wanted a picture of Alayna with Lewis. Even the teacher teases that they will be married some day! But here was one of my many attempts.

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I am not ashamed to admit that I resorted to bribery. Jellybeans were offered. And it worked!

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Not perfect, but at least you can see both their beautiful faces.

Once over by their classroom they lined them up for a photo op of the entire class.

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Have you ever tried to take a picture of 16 4 yr olds? No easy task! And that is Alayna's teacher Mrs Hamlet in the back with the full Capt Hook outfit on. She is such an amazing teacher and the kids have so much fun with her.