CAKE AND STUFF!

OK - I'm not such a great blogger! Been a long time since my last post - have probably lost most of my readers but here goes.....

As you can see from the photo our sea freight arrived - at last! About 10 days ago I got a call that it was on the truck and headed our way. The movers had tried to deliver it to another American family across town but eventually ended up in front of our house. We actually had 5 large wooden crates full of "stuff." I am still working on unpacking and trying to get things organized. Been so long that I had honestly forgotten what was sent here and what went into storage. It's kind of like Christmas!

Now to the cake. Had a Girl Scout potluck dinner on Saturday for Juilette Low's birthday (she founded Girl Scouts, but you knew that). Then, for dessert, had a Father-Daughter cake decorating contest. Andy had already left for the US (he'll be gone 2 weeks) so Grant pitched in to help Erin. "Peach Tower" is the name of this creation - and it won 5th place - not bad considering there were at least 50 cakes there. We then bought the cake in a silent auction (proceeds going to charity) and ate it.

We are having Halloween in Doha! Took Erin to a Halloween Carnival at school on Friday night. It was very well done - they created a "trick or treat" lane inside the school with lots of cool decorations, then had carnival games outside on the basketball court. We are going to do trick-or-treating on a nearby compound Halloween evening.

Also have made some work for myself since the last post. Volunteered to be Room Mother for Erin's class ( no one volunteered, should have been my first clue!). I am organizing a Halloween party for the class, will organize 3 more parties this year, gifts for teacher and assistant birthdays, silent auction basket, etc; You already know I am a Girl Scout leader. Then, I put my name on the substitute teaching assistant list at school and got called to sub in a preschool class. That was a fun morning! I painted paperbag pumpkins, made witches, did puzzles, read books, etc; Had to chuckle though - we read a book and saw a little movie about Fall - when the leaves turn colors, fall off the trees, people have to rake them up etc; One little boy asked, "does that happen here?" Good question kid! Example of an American school program in the wrong place!

Grant has a Boy Scout campout coming up this weekend. Anxious to hear how it goes - they are going camping on the beach. Since Andy will still be out of town, Erin and I will have a girl's weekend. Perhaps we will check out the Christmas decorations at one of the Malls - yes, they actually put up Christmas decorations here! I guess it will be OK for us to put our 8 foot blow up snowman in front of the house.

Finally having that great weather people told me about. High today of 88 - low of 68 - and low humidity. I can live with this!

Happy Halloween!

CB