2009-2010 ... done !

Another year done and dusted.... scary how quickly they're over isn't it. Aimee and lucy both did really well this year and brought home 'mostly good' report cards ;) A's B's and a C or two.
Aimee is heading into middle school and is soooooooo excited, Lucy is going in to grade 4.
WOW we have already been here 8 years - who would've seen that coming --- and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight either.
Andre has almost completed his first year at Aramco - we leave on our annual repat this Thursday.
Heading to America for 4 weeks - variety of activities ahead.....
Watch this space for Aimee & Lucy's account of our BIG adventure.

School 2008

Aimee Julie Bosch is now in Grade 4 at Dhahran Elementary Middle School.

Lucy Kate Bosch is in Grade 2 at Dhahran Elementary Middle School.

These photos from the first day/s of school - kept trying to see if we could get at least one decent photo from one of the days when the camera didn't mist up from the humidity :(

September saw mom and dad visit school for our Annual Open House where the girls showed us around, introduced us to their teachers (Aimee - Mrs. Cooke, and Lucy - Mrs. Flanders). They both wowed us when we visited their Arabic classrooms, with their ability to write their names in Arabic !! We got to meet the Bob family in Aimee's classroom - some characters who have become regular visitors to our home over the weekends.

Looks to be an awesome, busy, colorful year !

Swimming lessons

It's taken a while but finally finally finally after the 5th swimming lesson, Lucy is putting her head IN the water more than she's not. Irony is, this is meant to have been our water-birth baby and she can't 'do' water hehehe This was the last class before badges next week, so now we just have to hold thumbs that she'll be able to do the 10m (width of the swimming pool) completely on her own, no stopping. She did this in August but on her back because she still refused to put her head in.

Aimee is doing well, she was moved to the advanced class eventhough she hadn't completed the 50m badge requirement. She has been finding it tough but has persevered. Her lessons start with at least 50m freestyle, then 10minutes of treading water, 50m of breaststroke and then some diving ! Today they had to do 100m of breaststroke, treading water, 25m freestyle and finish with some diving.... She found the 100m very long and the last 15m were veeeeeeeeerry slow but she made it - complained of a pain in her side afterwards :) Possibly her very first stitch hehehe She has done an awesome job and it looks like she'll prove to be a better swimmer than either of her parents !

Student-Led Conferences 2008

And here we are again, just exactly where the year drained away to I have no idea but once again we prepare for the annual student-led conferences.

I was busy with my middle school students and the presentations of their very successful electronic portfolios - we used blogger this year and it worked so very well, I am so proud of their efforts.

After Andre had taken Lucy to swimming lessons, they came in to school just in time to have lunch with me. Sadly the cafeteria was not open so our only option was muffins and milkshakes at Joffrey's. Not very healthy but hey when you're hungry, you're hungry hehehe. After lunch we headed down to the classrooms. First for Lucy's conference which went really well. She has come a long way since the begining of the year, still a way to go but we're getting there. We then headed upstairs for Aimee's conference. She did well, has thoroughly enjoyed her year and done some excelent work. We even got to have a sneak peak at the scrapbooking pages she's been making in a scrapbooking club she's been going to after school.

All in all, how could we not be proud of our girls !

Aimee's ECG

We went to the doctor a week ago to get Aimee's prescription filled and he asked when last she had had an ECG and her blood checked ? Of course we had to answer never, as no one had asked before. From the conferences and research I have done on ADHD, I knew this was becoming common practice to keep tabs on the long term affects of Ritalin but none of the doctors we had ever seen had requested it. So off we went to have our very first ECG - Aimee practicing to say electrocardiogram to be able to tell her friends at school. She had an issue keeping still at first - strange how when you have to you just can't huh ? And then the blood - that didn't go down as well as the ECG, might have had something to do with needles and 2 testtubes that needed filling ;)

So we all tested out and good to go now.

Report cards today....

Wow we are already in our 4th quarter, the home stretch is ahead of us, before we know it, it'll be the end of another year and we'll be on our summer break.
Anyway, we only received report cards today due to our spring break starting directly after the last day of quarter 3.
Now that I have given the background and foreground hehehe down to the business at hand....how'd we do ?
Aimee is doing fabulously, 13/16 of her grades were A's, 7 of those were A+'s ! She is starting to enjoy her writing more and from her teacher's comments, this is becoming easier and more creative. Of course we still battle to spark the enthusiasm for anything extra at home but at least it seems there is light at the end of the looooooong tunnel :)
As for Lucy, she is getting better with her reading but definitely lacks confidence to try and put herself out there. Same as we had with Aimee, the listening and comprehension is good but the 'trusting that she can try herself' is a little lacking. Oh well many many many years at school still so no need to worry, yet ;)
And hey if the speaker I heard at my recent teacher conference is anything to go by ....looking at brain development, some kids develop the necessary 'links' in the brain as late as 9 years old ! Wow the brain is an amazingly complicated thing !

We CAN be loving ...

While Andre and I went down for breakfast and checkout on our last morning in Bangkok, Aimee and Lucy waited in the room (naked so as not to mess up the clothes they'd be wearing to go home, but I won't post any of the incriminating ones here hehehe). They were angels, played together and read together in bed. Proving on one of the odd occassions, they could be loving hehehehehe

Didn't have anyone to take a photo of 'us' on our last morning, but Andre took this one of me...wasn't to bad so I guess its ok to load hehehe

Aren't they beautiful ....

Aren't they gorgeous ??

Flowers and our girls hehehe

Took these photos in our hotel lobby, the morning we were leaving Thailand.

Happy Birthday Aimee

Happy Birthday to you...
Happy Birthday to you...
Happy Birthday darling Aiiiiimmmmeeeee...
Happy Birthday to You !

Aimee celebrated her 9th birthday on March 31st 2008.
She was thrilled with her gifts and not overly concerned that she wouldn't be having a party.
It was explained that she would be having an awesome time and loads of special experiences in Thailand. It is always so difficult to arrange something because her birthday falls either during or just before Spring Break each year and so many people are travelling. Thanks for being so understanding and cooperative my baby.

Girls and Retail

Isn't it funny, the little things make us smile.
The girls recently needed shoes and so it was off shopping and after a day of attitude and "You always say NO" or "I never get ...." it was all smiles.
Our girls, well mostly Aimee LOVE shopping !
Here Lucy is quite happy posing in the luxurious Thai Silk gowns they got at Christmas time - perfect at posing aren't we hehehehe, this was for a Read-the-day-away at school where the kids laze around in PJ's all day reading.

Annual Reading Month

The month of February is historically reading month at DEMS.
Of course there's the reading challenge - with keeping a daily record of minutes read; book buddies; book swap; mystery readers and more. The highlight though is always the last day when we have a character parade and finish off with the school enjoying stories read to them by the library staff and other teachers.
This year we went "old-school" hehehe
Actually it was just easier to pull out the princess outfits and of course what teacher doesn't have a witches hat stuck in a cupboard somewhere.
We have Aimee as Cinderella and Lucy as Sleeping Beauty and Tracy as Liewe Heksie.

Now that reading month is done, is this the last we'll see of reading for the year ??? Hope not hehehehe

How to make girls happy !

It was VERY early on a Tuesday morning, 2:30am to be precise when Andre arrived home. He had driven home from Yanbu - was expecting him mid-morning, but I guess maybe the incentive to get home quicker was more than he could ignore hehehe. Needless to say there were three very happy girls in our house Tuesday ! After three weeks, we were starting to forget what he looked like hehehe.

Wednesday was C-day for me...... Sick and tired with my hair, I arranged for a hairdresser to come to the house and off came about 4 inches. I am feeling much better about it although getting used to it being in a kindof style not just long and straight. And most importantly I guess, the boy is happy - had threatened to shave it again hehehe and he seriously requested I don't go shorter than my shoulder. So shoulder it was ! Not the best photos but you get the idea, before & after !

Thursday, it was up early to sit on the causeway for 90minutes. We needed to go and book tickets for Thailand. I would be going to our annual NESA teacher's conference being held in Bangkok again this year but, this year, the family would be coming along ! So we're booked, Andre will be heading back to Yanbu for the whole month of March but will return in time for us to spend a week in Thailand together.

And now its Friday. Some of us enjoyed watching the first game of Super 14 round two this morning - Andre and I had predicted different teams to win hehehe his won :(

And then it was off outside for the girls to ride - Steven you asked for photos and here they are ! Lucy needed to start riding a two wheeler, didn't go as well as we'd hoped, still very hesitant but maybe she'll try again later.

Dads 'n Donuts

Every year at school we have a Dads 'n Donuts where all our dads are invited to school 7:30-8:15 to share a donut and some coffee with their kids. This year it was Sunday 17th February but sadly Aimee and Lucy's Daddy was sitting in a hotel in Yanbu.
So I was the stand-in this year (sadly again, last two years Andre has been away).
We started by viewing some pottery the girls had done in Art class.

Its Reading Month at school too so while we enjoyed our donut, Lucy read to Aimee and I. Donuts done, we had some math games and activities set up for kids to demonstrate.
Lucy did some measuring activities - measured my ankle and wrist, head circumference and handspan. WOW, Aimee has the same handspan as me already and her shoe size ain't far off either hehehe.

Aimee and I played a math game together from Frog.

All this done it was back to class for the girls and off to work for mom.
Happy Dads 'n Donuts 2008 !

Wateen's birthday party

The girls attended a birthday party of one of Aimee's arab classmates recently. Was at a farm so it was a cowboy theme. Each child - and there were plenty, got a bandana & cowboy hat to wear and a sherif's badge. They enjoyed horserides and games included shooting at targets, and sack races (notice the interesting sacks hehehe). The girls had a ball and wow you should have seen the cake/s - filled a 2x1m table !