Makenna is 11

Our sweet little girl is growing up too fast recently. I have had several people ask what we are feeding her because she is looking so tall!  She has topped 5 feet and has long legs, but remains graceful.

Matt was able to come home early Saturday (the day before her birthday) so we went out for crab--her birthday request.  She did get to see one present that day, because there was no hiding it.  We had arranged for "a bit of earth" for her to step up her gardening endeavors.  Matt thought of the sign.

 It's getting a bit warm, but she has grand goals for more veggies and flowers now and in the fall.

On her birthday we woke up and went to the beach.  It was rather windy, so we brought the boogie boards in hopes of using them, but upon arrival, we realized the wind was blowing the wrong way and the water was very calm.  It was still gorgeous.  The sand was warm, not hot.  The water was cool and refreshing.  We stayed for 3 hours and mostly avoided sunburns.

 Jess spent a good chunk of time trying to catch a fish with a sandwich baggie.  It never worked out.  If you look close in the picture, you can see a couple fish shadows.  The fish themselves are nearly transparent.  

 They found a few clams and a couple of snails.  They built a little habitat and observed them for a while.  

The snails were named Romeo and Juliet. 

After a few hours at the beach, we came home showered, and I took the girls to a nail salon for the girls' tradition.  We finished in time to swing by and pick up Isaac and take him to kickboxing and the girls to gymnastics.  Normal.  

For dinner, we made Makenna a salad bar.  There is a good salad bar place called Sumo Salad at Mirdif City Center that we try to mimic sometimes.  Everyone is happy because you get it just how you want it.  

 Not a cake, Fruit Pizza!  Isn't it gorgeous?  Makenna decorated it herself.  

We used fruity tea lights for candles instead of the skinny tall traditional ones.  Besides not needing to be planted in the cake, they have the huge added benefit of not melting wax all over it.  

 Her face when she first saw the seed packets. 

As I type this a week later, the lettuce has already sprouted. 

Thanks grandma Chris.  She wore it to the pool the very next day.  She loves the neck ruffle. 

My budding seamstress also got a few skirt patterns to try with the fabric we found.  She is eager to cut and sew.  

This was from Jess.  It was a complete surprise to me and I think the most thoughtful gift of all.  It was done in green ink.  Inside is her acceptance letter and required materials list.  Makenna got it on her 11th birthday.  Wow.  

EMEG

We went with our homeschool group to the Emirates Marine Environmental Group last Thursday.  We met Major Ali, the Emirate man who runs the site and saw a sample of pearls he and his family collected.  They are keeping pearl diving alive.

That big one is priced at 200,000AED.  The smaller ones are usually ground up to make shiny eye make-up.

We saw an instructional video and were given a mini lecture by one of the conservationists.  Turtle egg laying season is almost here.  So one of the tasks we helped with was beach clean up.  They want to keep the beach pristine so the endangered hawkbill turtles don't go eating something bad for them and dying.

They patrol the beach every morning for turtle tracks so they can cover the egg stashes with a netting that will keep the desert fox out, but allow the baby turtles to make their way to the sea when they hatch.

Because it's a private beach/preserve, the kids were admonished to NOT take any seashells.  Oh, that was so hard for the girls, and in all honesty me too.  It was a sea shell mecca!  They couldn't help picking up especially beautiful shells, but they were good and always put them back.  We did collect a fair amount of litter that had either washed up or blown in.

Timothy, Isaac and ? carrying a rather heavy load of rubbish.

Macey, Elaine, Rayyan, Jess

We also went to the area where they have been planting mangroves.  Did you know that mangroves take 3 times the amount of CO2 from the air that normal plants do?  They are excellent for the environment.  Unfortunately, sea grass/algae is bad for them.  It chokes them and stunts their growth.  So we waded through ankle deep sludgy mud and collected gallons of algae from around the baby mangroves.  They save it to use for oil spills.  It is VERY absorbant.

Makenna and Kaitlyn in the muck.

After a quick lunch, the kids were released to go use the kayaks and play in the lagoon.  It was a gorgeous day.

Flag Quilts

For Craft Days, the girls started working on flag quilts.  You can tell from teh different pictures that we started these back in January.  The girls have had to measure, cut, sew, iron, unpick, hand sew buttons and tie the quilt.  They are in the last stage mentioned right now.  Binding will happen at the end.

Jess just realized she has a bit of unpicking to do.  

These were taken last week.  I'll add a couple more when we have the finished products.  

Three of the flags are done.  Jess just needs to edge hers!

Isaac is 14

In the spirit of growing up and gaining more responsibility  Isaac insisted on doing school on his birthday.  In the spirit of letting him make choices, we went along with it.  Though we tried to supplement all that brain power and good intentions with some excellent food throughout the day.  Homemade cinnamon rolls and super fruity spinach shake for brunch and a huge Hawaiian Haystack feast for dinner.  When Matt got home from work, we had cake and presents.  The third cake in three days was a new coconut recipe that turned out quite well.

He asked Makenna to paint him an abstract picture and she delivered.  

Jess got him a couple new bracelets, but got to do "heavy heavy hangover first".

Thanks to Grandma Chris and Grandpa Don for most excellent new shorts, shirts, and camping tools.  (He is probably using that new spoon/fork as I type this since he is off on a campout with the scouts.)

I think at this point he opened the fancy box that ended up containing the eraser that Matt has been promising.  That started the biggest giggle fit that ended in "water eyes".  I really wish I had it on video, but the snap shots are better than nothing.  He was trying so hard to stop laughing, but that only made it worse.  

Eventually he calmed down enough to open the last present.  Something that was really more of a needed tool for his increasingly demanding school schedule, but was a huge surprise.  When he first opened the box he seemed to freeze.

A refurbished laptop--his own.  Matt specced it out well. Watching him handle it in the days since, seems like he is channeling Grandpa Dan using microfiber clothes to move it and covering the keyboard when closing....  He taking good care.  Matt is taking next Friday off and will be ordaining our ward's first Teacher, since last summer.