That word wasn’t on my vocabulary list for language learning. I guess, perhaps, because there was really no need to know.

Until now.

These are penguins in the Ski Dubai place (store? mountain? environment? thing?) at the Mall of the Emirates. My friend Laura took this picture with her phone.

And get this… these penguins were flown in and relocated from…

SEA WORLD IN SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS.

I’m not kidding.

We just saw these guys in Texas this summer. I don’t recognize any of them, of course, but wouldn’t it be funny if I did?

Maybe it’s about time we rented some jackets, scarves, and mittens for the kiddies and took them skiing.

They party until they just can’t party no more and they beg their mommies to put them to bed at 6:30pm!

Norah had all of her 3-year-old dreams come true today– there was a cake with a unicorn on it, balloons were hanging from the chandelier, and lots of friends to run laps around the villa with.

Our big 3-year-old is currently sleeping under a pile of glittery, girly presents that she has stacked onto her nightstand as though it were a shrine to the colors pink and purple.

Party on, Norah!

Redeemer Church of Dubai turned 2 yesterday!

And Norah Claire turned 3 today!

Norah’s and Redeemer’s birthdays will forever be in lock-step.

When we arrived at the celebration for Redeemer last night we turned the corner to see hundreds of people and all of the balloons.

Norah gasped, “For my birfday?!”

“No, honey, this is for Redeemer’s birthday.”

Then Aliza piped in with a very good question. “Mommy, if you pushed Norah out to make her a birth day, then who pushed Redeemer out to make it a birth day?”

That answer is obvious. Only Jesus could have done this.

One year ago our son was born and we named him Judson David.

Two hundred years ago (this year) a man named Adoniram Judson began his journey to take the gospel to the ends of the earth in Burma (aka Myanmar). Judson was the first American minister to be sent overseas to plant churches.

We have no idea whether or not our little Judson will follow in the footsteps of AJ or of his father to plant churches overseas. But we do know that God’s desire for Judson is that he surrender his life to Christ and worship the LORD in spirit and in truth wherever he is and in whatever he does.

So it’s to that end that we pray for our son.

The LORD bless you and keep you, Little Buddy!

The boy was too fast for my camera. That first photo is a split second after he picked the cake up straight away and stuffed it in his face before I had a chance to take the lens cap off my camera.

I couldn’t pick just one or two photos of Judson eating his birthday cake, so prepare yourself for some indiscriminate cake-eating joy.

You can tell this is his first taste of refined sugar. He’s trying to sort out how this cake stuff works and what is the fastest way to get it into his belly.

Yummmmmfffy…thish worksh!


What are you guys laughing at?

Wait. I have “two” hands!


I have conquered!



So, when’s my next birthday?

Baby Judson is turning one on the 30th, so we threw him a little birthday lunch today.

I did some snacks and desserts based on The Hungry Caterpillar from Eric Carle’s children’s story.

Balloon caterpillar

Big sis guarding the table

Caterpillar cup cakes! This was so fun and easy to make with a mini-muffin tin, a small round tin, poured fondant, and enough food dye to turn your tongue green.

The craft table – sort out which foods the hungry caterpillar ate in order and glue them onto the page. (Yes, that’s my daughter eating a glue stick.)

Mr Birthday! I’ll have to do a separate post of him eating his cake. It was quite spectacular.

I inherited a lot of things from my dad– his quirky sense of humor, his affection for browsing hardware stores, and his sense of adventure (among other things).

But one thing that he did not pass down to me was his extraordinary cooking talent. Dad is a chef– a real one– as in, it was his profession for a few decades.

Dad always said the difference between a cook and a chef is that the chef makes up the recipes, and the cook follows the recipes.

I have known this all growing up, and Aliza’s all-time favorite movie Ratatouille confirms it. One cook reminds another cook: No! It was “his” job to surprise. Your job is to always follow zee recipe.

I wanted to make these cute little ice cream bowls for Judson’s birthday party, but I started out all wrong when I strayed from the recipe.

I have hopes that someday I can be creative in the kitchen and make “surprises” like a chef. But I know in the back of my mind that it’s safer for everyone that I focus on being a cook who follows recipes.

I made a premeditated practice batch where I made up my own recipe just to see if it would work (because I did, after all, inherit Dad’s sense of adventure).

Here’s a picture of what I got the first time around…

Not exactly what I was going for.

So I donated the goof-ups to anyone who happened to mill around in the kitchen.

And I gave some to the kids’ pet ants.

Here’s the right way. Always follow zee recipe!

Fifty baby turtles!

Having a pet here is a fairly typical thing, depending on the pet. Some types of pets are considered taboo, while other “pets” might be considered lunch.

Some of the pets we see (and hear) in our neighborhood include dogs, goats, chickens, roosters and pigeons. For a little while I was considering getting a goat (but ended up not).

The pet shop up the street is selling hedgehogs, turtles, bunnies and fish. The pet souq up the highway has been fabled to sell wallabies, exotic cats, miniature horses and tropical birds.

In an expat population sometimes people are at a loss for what to do with their pets when their work contract ends or is spontaneously terminated. Many beloved pets end up on the street even though there are several credible pet rescue/relocation organizations. We’ve seen gorgeous Persian cats standing aloft dumpsters and delicate tropical birds singing on street signs!

For now the only pets we have are guppies and a couple of turtles. I don’t know how much longer I can hold out on getting something furry with a tail as long as a certain four-year-old keeps whispering “I love you” through the car window to every leashed dog she sees on a walk.