Happy New Year!

I drove to Dubai with the kids for the first time in 16 years here in the Middle East!  Yay!

We welcomed my friend from University and her two kids.  Here Waqar, my husband is taking Seth to golf.

We jumped in a taxi to go somewhere.  Forgot now!

Here we are on New Year's Eve.  We took the train to the Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world) to watch the fireworks but it was crazy so we headed back to the hotel tout suite!

Here are Eden and Amal at the Burj on our tour on New Year's Day.  (U2's diddy comes to mind!)

Liz, Eden and Seth up in the Burj Khalifa.

On our way back to Oman, we stopped and went camel riding and quad biking!  That is Ali in the green and the girls on the camel.

Waqar and Ali on the quads and the girls on the camel.

Ali and I posing with 'Joshi' the camel.

On the way back to Muscat in what takes about 4 hours to 5 hours driving took us over 11 hours as I got a flat tire on my car (we had two cars) right when I crossed the border.  Here is Eden, Ali, Liz and Seth enjoying the weather and some cupcakes from Dubai while we waited for Waqar to fix the tire.

Here is Waqar with the spare, a cup cake and a cigarette.

My car is seriously damaged and I don't look forward to learning what that is.  We think the guy who patched the tire screwed something up majorly and we are waiting to put the car in the dealer to see what is wrong.  I have a rental until tomorrow.

This is from the rooftop of my house.

Eden fell in love with my 'outdoor' kitty, Oreo.

In Muscat we went snorkeling and on a tour of Old Muscat and saw the Palace and other things.  We went rock climbing and to a couple of beaches.  It was so much fun these last three days here.

We are waiting for my husband and then we are all off to the airport to drop them so they can begin their long journey home.  It was such a great time to be together in Dubai and Muscat with them!  Come again!

Tomorrow I will be back with the update of my Mystery Quilt before the long week away!  Then, I have to get the kids ready to go back to school on Saturday after three weeks off for Winter break!  Yay!  I have two days left with them and will be cooking back on the South Beach diet and hangin' with my babes!  

Hope your New Year has been as wonderful as mine!

Dubai, BFC, Pizza, Kids and then some!

I'm not sure which came first of the following pictures in this post but I think this one was first.  I finished my purple squares and have started and finished my first rust one.  So, to date, I have 8 red, 7 purple and only 1 rust.  This is going to be a very masculine and pretty afghan or quilt!  Here is my ever present supporter Uki!  She was attacking the tails of the threads and it was so funny!

Ali got this little kit to make teeny, tiny pizzas.  We finally got around to it and the kids had a lot of fun.  The end product was a bit salty for my taste but I did not say anything to them!

Here are the kids working hard in the kitchen.  Two things;  not sure what the knife is about and Ali sucking his thumb??  I asked and Amal was in the process of cutting veggies and Ali wanted to demonstrate how delicious raw pizza stuff was!!  I hate my kitchen!

Here is just one tray of the goodies.  Ali made calzones and Amal made a salad.  This girl is really getting into cooking!

Here are the variety of little pizzas and calzones.  What made this SB was that we used whole wheat flour and low fat cheeses.  The middle one was Amal's favorite with feta cheese and black olives and oregano.  

This is a must to post.  My husband's friend from Bisiya many years ago told me that they have BFC and that it was very good.  I said, "what is BFC??" and he said it was their form of KFC.  Since this place wasn't Kentucky but Bisiya, they call it Bisiya Fried Chicken!  So funny!  It is so very tasty and we eat it with bread.  Personally, I like it with hummos and veggies and bread.  This is very famous in this little village.  

Here we are driving into Dubai.  The tallest tower is the world famous TALLEST BUILDING IN THE WORLD called Burj al Khalifa.  What a sight!

We stayed very close to The Dubai Mall.  We LOVE this mall.  It is huge and it has all sorts of stuff that we all love!  We stayed in a place called the Qamardeen and it was nice.  It was 4 star!!  :)

I found a new place that sells cupcakes called Kitsch and it is adjacent to Candylicious which is a Dentist's dream as well as everyone else's but for different reasons!

SORRY, WE DID NOT LIKE THEM so much!

Very pretty though.  Looks are important but taste is also very important. 

Of course, we will try them again next time we go to Candylicious but they were dry and the frosting was not as tasty as, well, mine!  Here are the kids posing with them.

Here are Ali and I posing in front of the Dubai Aquarium with the colorful lights from Candylicious bouncing off the glass!

Here are Amal and I, same as above.

Amal got her first COACH bag!  Woo hoo!

and SO DID I!!!!!!!!!  I did not use mine on the spot.  That is my hubby!

We also went to Magnolia again and tried two smores cupcakes; red velvet with cream cheese frosting (all our favorites); vanilla cake with chocolate frosting (my hubby's favorite and it tasted just like mine!!);  in the middle right is carrot cake with a weird cream cheese frosting; and top right is their banana cake with caramel frosting and caramel inside.  

Y. U. M.

We then at some point went to see the water fountain show outside of Dubai Mall and also outside of Burj al Khalifa.  We took so many photos and it was not as impressive as times past.  The kids felt gipped!

Back home and Amal vacuumed the red carpet and rolled it up and I really like the new Ikea pillows with NO HIDEOUS RED CARPET!!

I know this is blurry but you can see the carpet rolled up and Waqar's laptop and bag and our new sheep rug for the cats.

It has been a wonderful week.  Time spent with the kids as a family is always good.  Spending time with family and friends is also cathartic.  Spending some money with NO OBJECTION FROM THE HUBSTER was priceless!  Getting to plan our next trip up in November even better!

Now, this has been a very long post and very picture heavy so I must bid you adieu!!

Thanks for stopping by...

Magnolia Bakery in Dubai!!

Have you heard of this place? OMG. I LOVE sweets. Not all. Mostly baked goods. Cakes, cookies, cupcakes, muffins. Gosh, my butt just got bigger thinking about these mouthwatering yummies!

Old Fashioned White with chocolate buttercream and Devil's Food cupcake with Chocolate Buttercream. Holy crap! I tasted coffee in there somewhere too!

Magnolia's Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream. I could be vulgar right now but I'm not fina....

Old Fashioned White cupcake and two chocolate cupcakes with three or two frostings. One, heavy in coffee which I love! On the left, Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting and another chocolate with Caramel frosting and then the Vanilla one. oh my GOD!!

I started the taste test. Then, the kids came in for the kill...

Got a cute t-shirt for Amal. My girl.

This is the back.

I even got a cookbook with all these recipes in it and more! Hurraayyy!

It's not such a great photo of the book, I could do better; but look at the background! Selvedges and Uki!!

Kidzania - Dubai - May/2010

On our trip to Dubai last weekend; we had one day left before we had to get to the airport for our flight back to Oman and were all shopped out so the kids wanted to see this place in Dubai Mall called Kidzania. This place is so cool! Had I known that it was suitable for my kid's ages; I would have taken them a while ago. Nonetheless, you live and learn. I took them and it is set up in the mall and you go through Emirates Airlines as if you are getting on a plane and it seems to be all real props! EA is a local airline to the UAE (United Arab Emirates) and you 'pay' and go through the check points and you enter a 'city'. It was done so very well! Once inside, you see this monument thing.

I did not want this to be picture heavy so skipped the pics where the kids were cashing in their 'checks'. They got money (fake) and then tried to join some 'jobs'. But then, Amal decided that only with a university degree could she and Ali make or earn some money. So, they went to University...

One of their first 'job's' after University was as couriers. They were running all over the place. We only had four hours!

Then, they signed up to be Police Officers and got to do some adventurous things. By this time; I found the food and coffee and a CHAIR! I did not know; but I picked the BEST place to sit. It would have been more enjoyable for me if I had someone to talk to but I made friends with some Brits and got to watch all these kids running here and there. It was awesome and precious as kids from all ages come to this place where they can 'be' any profession for a bit.

At some point, they earned these ribbons. For my kids, Ali 11 and Amal 14; I think the art of trying to use up their 4 or 5 hours to the best and to get the amount of money they wanted to 'buy' the little toys was their strategy. I think that the process was enjoyable and challenging. They kept touching base with me and I was able to snap these pics.

After 5 hours here and still an hour of sitting in traffic to get to the hotel to get our stuff and get to the airport; I was getting nervous. We ate crap all day so I was adamant that I wanted us to have a decent dinner as our flight was very late getting into Muscat and the kids had school the next day and I had a big meeting to be at on Saturday. As I started to say, after FIVE hours with all these screaming kids and kids actually fighting with their parents and maids dragging kids of all ages around (so glad I raised my own kids! Was HORRIFIED to see how these maids handled little ones!). Well, I was DONE with kids. I must be getting old!

My babies were so DISAPPOINTED to find out that they needed REAL money to buy these silly little toys and deduced that all that planning and plotting and running around was for nothing! I asked them if they had fun in the process and they said YES!!!!!!! so, it was a good five hours!

We made good time to the hotel. Got our luggage and grabbed another taxi to get to the airport and got there in really good time so had about two hours to spare. We found a really nice restaurant after walking the entire airport and had a very nice meal. We got treats for dessert on the way to our gate and settled in to get the flight. It is only one hour or less from Dubai to Muscat and we were home and Waqar was late to pick us up! The kids were so wound up that we got to bed late but I am a stickler about school and they got up and went and we all had an early night Saturday! Whew! Can't wait to catch our plane for the US. Can't wait!!