HALLOWEEN 2011. The festivities were held at another complex and it was really nice. It was set up for expats and they did a good job organizing. The kids visited maybe 25 different villas and made out pretty good on candy! They were super happy. Rylan thanked us when we got home, he said he had a lot of fun. Rydge was so tired.

This was a VERY creative costume...camel. These kids were so cute!

VERY w-i-t-c-h-y EYES! scaryyyyyyyy

My boys and I. Yes, same costumes as last year...not so creative at the McAlister household, but they didnt care, so that was good. Ry loves is Rockridge tshirt and hat and Rydge was okay with batman again, so win win here! :)

Lost in the crowd! We have friends who live here, Rydgees BEST friend. So we hung out at their place for a while. Good times!

Rydge checking out Noahs stash!

Rockridge baseball player and Batman!

present from Granny. New baseball bounceback. he will spend hours throwing the ball to it while it bounces it back.

Rydge got new cars from GRanny

Popcorn from grandma Laura....its was yummy. Arrived JUST IN TIME for HALLOWEEN! :)

The kids had a great time tonight! It was fun for all! Time to sleep.

♥Abby

Presenting.....................Our New Nanny. This is exciting news. We are so excited to welcome Feruz Andris into our home on November 3. She has completed a 2 year contract with a cleaning company here in Abu Dhabi and she will be coming to live with us. She has been a Team leader for the cleaning crew at my school. She is from Ethiopia and she has a story let me tell you. Our church back home has been helping her for many months. She is supporting a large family back in her country. Her father passed suddenly a few years back, which left the family in financial distress. She decided to work here in the UAE, where she makes on 800 dirhams a month which is roughly 220.00 US. Out of this money, she sends home 700dhs and keeps 100dhs for herself. That is about $27.00 a month she lives on for food. When she lives with us, we will pay her more, pay for her food, she will have a nice home to be in and a much easier work schedule. She will keep our home nice and clean and watch the kids for a few hours a day. She will also be our respite when Andy and I need to get away for an evening. It will be nice. We are so happy to be able to help her. She currently works 6 days a week 6 am to 6pm, so her work load will be cut in half! She is super duper happy. And........an extra bonus. Our new neighbor....just hired her best friend she is roomates with at her accomodation. So, its all working out, her friend will be close by and they can see each other daily. One of the pictures above is of her friend Ghoe(Go). He traveled from Ethiopia to this country to be closer to her......he has been her friend since childhood(they are only 22), he wanted to make sure she stayed safe. Our goal is to get him to Al Ain as well, he is currently in Abu Dhabi, 2 hours away.

Anyway, that is our latest news. We are doing well. Take care

♥Abby

Ry and daddy wrestling

ya think rydgee might need a haircut? i do think so! he said, not happening, i like my curls!

mastering the art of yo-yo-ing!

Rylan won this FIRST place trophy at school yesterday(Thursday). They had a roller blading competition of races and he was the winner of the third grade class! He was pretty proud! All the practicing and a broken tooth from it paid off! LOL

Rylan has mastered the yo-yo!

For the DUNCAN's, who sent the boys tons of Halloween stuff! Its sideways. sorry.

Our nanny thought I needed my hair done in corn rows...I am NOT a corn row type of gal. I did it, will sleep with it and khallas(finished in Arabic) I will take it out tomorrow. It was an experience!

Our NEW writing center. This is something I REALLY wanted to implement this year and together, we did it. Its Arabic/English and its the talk of the school. WE are proud! ♥ my Arabic teacher Shamsa!

Our VP finally purchased couting bears for us and the kids, as you can see are already enjoying them, sorting going on here....love it! :) I made some fun little sorting cards and pattern sheets and they are going to town with it. I have some smart cookies this year! :) Some stinkers too, about 3 boys-the ones you see here standing up....yes they are a challenge!

Precious little girl, sorting beans for our garden unit! They are having so much fun with hands on learning! ITs so new to them and its so fun for them!

Talking about 1-5 this week and I made up some of these fun playdoh mats from a great site I found. They kids just loved it....they spent a really long time playing with these great mats!

Matching numbers! i cant believe how much time they spend on this.....its new and they put it to good use! I was proud of my hard work on centers this week! Andy did not like all the ink I used though! Ink is SO expensive here and the schools just dont have the money to supply us with it, so I spend a lot myself! :(

Our kids are so scrawny! Rydge and Noah, buds hangin poolside for pizza and a movie(cant forget the fries too!)

Rylan eating his pizza poolside for movie night! They had a B-L-A-S-T!!!

WOW, another week down! Its going SO fast, just like last year. We had an enjoyable night by the pool, with about 6 other families. We watched a kids movie, enjoyed visiting with other adults and the kids played so hard with all the other kids and they ate pizza. IT was good for them. We have settled nicely into our new home, its actually like a home now, last year was just apt. living, this year is so different. The kids are so much happier altho Rydge keeps saying he misses Hili because he had sand there. Well.....the rest of us DONT miss Hili! I plan to take the boys to my school on Saturday, so they can play in the sand and play on the slides while I organize for next week. Its a nice covered area for them to play and I need to clean my desk area anyway at school. Andy will have some time to head to the mall to sit at a local coffee shop and download some movies hes been wanting to do. We dont have our internet hooked up yet, so we are using a USB type thing for now, which works, but we are limited on downloading and uploading. We mainly have it for basic stuff and for an occasional SKYPE. Anyway, we all good. We have our nanny/maid moving in in a few weeks, so we are very excited about that. It will be nice for Andy and I to get away without the kids when she arrives. We need to get out, just the two of us every now and then. I will introduce you to our new gal in a few days. She is a sweetie and we are very excited to welcome her into our home and give her a better life while also helping us. Its a win win for all of us! Take care!

Love,

Abby