Bouncy castle movie

Baking a cake

Henry and Nathan love to help cook in the kitchen. So we enlisted their services while baking Joe's birthday cake last month.

Nathan helped prepare the pans:

And mix the batter:

Henry helped with the batter too:

Then we cracked eggs together:

And they helped clean up (eat up) afterward:

The finished product:

Desert videos: dune bustin'!

Video of car driving down sand dune. I had just done this, and you can see my car in the distance at the end.

Video of sand blowing in the desert. It looks like snow blowing on the north slope, only a different color and temperature. :)

Desert driving course

As you read this, we will be on a mega desert off-road camping adventure! This week is a Muslim holiday for an Eid in which livestock are slaughtered, or so I hear. With 5 other families, a guide and a military escort, we will drive for three days to Siwa Oasis via the Qattara Depression and Qaret Um el-Saghir oasis. After one night in Siwa we go dune driving through the great sand sea to the Western White Desert. Then we head to Baharia oasis and back to Cairo. In all it should take 7 to 8 days. Wish us luck!

In preparation for this trip, I took a desert driving course. Joe stayed at home with the kiddos. We practiced driving on the hard ground as well as on the sandy dunes. It was scary and fun at the same time. I must say that I have natural sand dune driving abilities that were previously unknown to me.

Here are the vehicles just off the road:

Sand, and lots of it:

My trusty steed:

Dunes:

Pool

Our pool is really just a huge sack of water, but it works great! It is 12 feet in diameter and 3 feet deep. We had fun playing in it during September and October. The winter will be too chilly for the pool so we have put it away.

Joe on the alligator:

Boys playing and having fun:

Fallen tree

In late September a sand storm blew through Cairo. The next day as we were outside playing in the pool, a huge tree fell down in our yard and on the villa. It was quite a shock to see and hear it fall. Luckily there was only a small amount of damage to the railing on the upper balcony and concrete near the front door.

View out of the front door. We couldn't get out of the house this way:

Egyptian men in dresses (galabeya) cutting down the tree:

Man walking on fence in sandals, wearing a dress and using a chainsaw Egypt style:

Bend adventures

After almost four weeks in California swimming in the Eel River, visiting Yosemite and relaxing in the Santa Cruz mountains, the boys and I went to Bend, Oregon for some fun on the farm.

They got to use the backhoe to dig up rocks:

They caught grasshoppers in the hay field to feed to Spike (the lizard):

They went swimming with Caitlin in the Deschutes River:

Caught more grasshoppers:

Went fishing in the boat:

Marie with her catch:

Caitlin caught some too:

And me:

Henry at Little Lava Lake:

Bedtime reading with Granddad (aka Grand):

Silly Marie:

Crawdaddy catch:

Patchy

In the Small Talk preschool room called Stars, there is a stuffed triceratops named Patchy. If a child is particularly good, he or she gets to take Patchy home for the night. The next day, the child brings some photos about his or her time with Patchy to share with class. Here are Nathan's photos.
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Patchy came home with Nathan Chmielowski on October 19, 2010.
Patchy sat next to Nathan as he ate snacks and meals at the table.

Nathan and his brother, Henry, built a house for Patchy out of wooden blocks.

Nathan and Henry dressed up as firemen and played with Patchy.

At bedtime, Nathan read a story about a baby triceratops to Patchy. We had lots of fun with Patchy!

  



Egypt passport photos

I had to get more passport photos of Nate and Henry, so we stopped by the camera shop in the Maadi Grand Mall. Here are the results.

Nathan:

 

Henry:

Santa Cruz day

While in California in August, we spent a day in Santa Cruz at the wharf and Boardwalk. It was fun!

Sea lions on the wharf:

Henry on the beach:

Nathan on the beach:

Nathan on car ride:

Henry on car ride: 

Henry on helicopter ride:

Nate and Joe on roller coaster:

Henry and Joe on Skywalk:

Nathan and Jessie on Skywalk: