The best way to spend Easter Monday!

We went to beautiful Mt. Washington for the last day of the season. The day started out overcast, but the sun did come out briefly. The hill was almost empty, and it was fantastic!


With the exception of one day at Kimberly about five years ago when Robert was just 2, I have not been on skis in fifteen years. The logistics of trying to get my money's worth out of a ski pass with two little ones - one who could ski and one who could barely stand on skis mixed with the need to keep it short and sweet those same little ones resulted in me standing on the sidelines. It was just easier that way. Then, the fear set in. It has been soooooo long, would I still know how to ski?

Yep! It's like riding a bicycle. Jamie was surprised that I could actually ski and not only that, but I could ski pretty much as well as he can, once I got over my jitters. But I know that won't last long, he is coming along really well and he has that youthful sense of immortality that results in NO FEAR! Someone else is really coming along well too. Considering this is his second time on skis this year and really only his third time in his life, he is doing really well.  GO ROBERT, WHOO HOO!

يوم ميلاد سعيد, روبرت

I think that says Happy Birthday, Robert in arabic. The country we studied this month was Dubai. It is funny how different countries inspire Robert and myself in different ways. Iceland and Greenland, for me,were all about Vikings and Inuit, for Robert it was about fish. He became interested in Dubai when we were looking into the tallest building in the world and this came up:




Searching on google maps he was fascinated with this:

For those who are interested there is a very documentary on the making of this island here. I wonder what the Sheik thinks is going to happen when the oil does run out in 2016 and he can no longer afford to run the air conditioning and the power for all these luxury resorts, shopping malls and amusement parks?

The architecture is what intrigued Robert about Dubai. For me it was more reading about Islam, and the food. I love Middle Eastern food and it is dairy free! So for Robert's Birthday, we decided to do a Middle Eastern theme. On the menu was hummous with pita, tabouli, falafel (which didn't turn out very well - too much onion or garlic made them bitter) and warak enab (stuffed grape leaves - these were ok, but not really a kid friendly food), olives, figs, grapes and dates.















For a cake, he wanted a skateboard cake. I think the cake turned out pretty good and it was quite tasty.

Finally, inspired by this post I tried my hand at making some beards as party favors for the boys and the party guests. The beards were not nearly as finely crafted as Annie's, but the kids got a kick out of them and I think they all look very handsome in their beards!