Creativity strikes again!

I know! I didn't post for Father's Day! But I still share the sentiment. Belated Happy Father's Day to all dads, including, of course, the dad of my three kids, my father, and father-in-law. I love you all!

And in other news, Safa came up with yet another idea for a new pair of shoes. Have I ever mentioned how much this child loves shoes? She's nothing like her mom in that regard. But at least it wasn't an expensive pair this time! She started with a cheap pair of white canvas shoes, and 'Pollocked' them, using a bunch of inexpensive acrylic paints.

The 'during' pictures might look rather icky, but the end result was pretty cool!

Talk about a 'splash' of color! Unique shoes, for sure!

Two more promotions!

The boys are training during karate with more energy than ever. Important, of course, with testing for their new ranks scheduled. Hamza is a second degree black belt holder. There are six ranks between second and third degree, and he has been steadily inching his way up the ranks, testing only when he is absolutely ready. Last night was the black belt test. There were five current black belt holders testing for various ranks. A very hard working group of students.

The testing including demonstrating their kata, and sparring, both two and three way (against one or two opponents).

Great news that everyone passed their test and moved on to the next rank. Hamza is now only two ranks away from being a third degree black belt. I'm sure the training will only get tougher from here!

And this morning was Bilal's turn. All the colored belts test together, so there was quite a big group in the dojo. Not much space to get up and take photos!

But good news here too! Bilal has been promoted from purple to green belt.

And proud big brother!

They will be back in the dojo on Monday, training hard again!

Once in a while....

.... our pets will make peace with each other.

There is a pecking order in our home, and Tiny, for years, has been fighting to take over the role of Alpha Cat. As Sammy ages (he's almost 12 years old), he has become more and more mellow. He seems to have a certain fondness for Tiny, and watches out for our airhead younger cat. But most of the time she wants nothing to do with it, and if he approaches her with a little affection, she'll back away or even swat him.

But then there are the rare moments where they'll share the corner of the bed, in an uncomfortable truce. What you can't tell from the photo is Tiny's demeanor; she was sitting there, with her tail warily swishing, waiting for Sam to make the slightest movement toward her, so she could either find an excuse to attack him, or run away. But he didn't give her the chance to do either.

And when it comes to our pup, they have developed a 'live and let live' attitude, especially Sam. He loves sitting in the sun on the driveway, and barely twitches a whisker when Atlas walks by with us.

And Atlas will occasionally come up and sniff him, but most of the time he is perfectly content pretending that Sammy doesn't exist!

Summer fun at Six Flags

Boy, it was hot today! But it didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves, with a 2 hour drive to Six Flags over Georgia. And to add to the fun, we brought some friends with us too!

Waiting in line for one of the rides

Hamza posing in front of the Georgia Scorcher and Goliath, the best roller coasters!

Bumper cars!

We also enjoyed getting soaked during a couple of the rides, it cooled us off for a a while. By the time we left the park we were exhausted!

A happy, sleepy kind of exhausted.


We plan to be back before the summer is over, with so much more fun still to be had!

Weather permitting,

This is becoming a very common scene on the roads around our house, and I love to see it.

Our boys, out on their bikes together. Gives them a rare opportunity to bond. I think the fact that Hamza was the one to finally convince Bilal to start riding really helped too.

Safa's not been out much this week because she is still recovering from having her 3rd molars extracted on Tuesday. as promised, I didn't take pictures of her in her puffy, dazed state. She is doing much better today, but still took it easy at home, while the boys, Zakir and I went to a party we were invited to. And tomorrow there is another party, this time a graduation party for one of her best friends. I'm sure she won't miss that, no matter how she feels!

Friends

These little guys...

...are best friends in Sunday School. So when Bilal got invited to Adib's birthday party, how could we say no? They had a great time together!

I'm sure he'll be on Bilal's birthday guest list too!

Tomorrow the boys go for dental check ups. Between the three kids there hasn't been a single cavity yet, thank goodness! I'm hoping that this time won't be any different. And after their appointment, I'll drop them home and take Safa for her maxillofacial appointment. Time to get those third molars out, they've been giving her enough trouble already.

And in other news, this morning our house got re-listed for sale. And we already have two showings scheduled for this week. Hoping for a great outcome!

My Chef

Hamza kept me company in the kitchen today while I made Philly cheese steak sandwiches for dinner. And not only was he there, he also made dessert.

Banana pudding to be precise. With lots of fresh bananas, vanilla wafer cookies and a yummy meringue topping.

Delicious!

So glad that at least one of my children enjoys cooking along with me. I admit, he needs to learn how to clean up too, but I suppose I can't have it all!

Topless

Finally! The weather is perfect to drive to work with the top down on my car.

Hefty and I are just loving this!

A little incentive

We started teaching Bilal to ride his bike several months ago. He started to balance and could ride a little in a straight line, but would topple off and refuse to get back on his bike, usually for days or sometimes even weeks. So we decided he really needs to learn properly this summer. Considering yesterday he insisted we just need to sell his bike, I figured it was a bit of a long shot.

This morning the three kids were sitting with me in the back yard, and the bike riding discussion started up again. I promised either Safa or Hamza $25 to teach their baby brother to ride a bicycle confidently. When there were no takers I suggested $30. Safa said $50, so I figured, heck, why not? And since the summer has just started I needed something to persuade to start the endeavor immediately. I pledged an additional ten dollars if Bilal was riding independently by the end of the first week in June. But the one thing that prompted Hamza to jump up and get started on the task was my offer of another $5 if they started today. I could see my fourteen year old quickly doing the addition in his head. A lot of money at stake!

Not long after, I was on the phone chatting with a friend. About half an hour after Hamza and Bilal had left the back yard, I got called to come out and take a look at what was going on.

There he was, on his bike, riding out of the garage, turning around the corner on to the driveway, making a turn in the lawn and riding back to the garage, followed by a graceful stop inside. He didn't falter a single time! And Hamza was feeling rather smug, as he told me I owed him $65.

I later learned that Hamza had given him a little incentive of his own, he offered to forgive his debt (he claimed baby brother owed him $10 for breaking a piece off his computer case), and also offered him one of his Nerf guns if he would try to ride. But no promise to share the booty!

That was probably the quickest and easiest $65 Hamza has ever earned. But I have to admit it was worth it!

Now only if we could get Bilal to learn to swim the same way. That's the next challenging project!

Exciting plans

After months of looking for a new house, listing ours for sale, removing the listing and the plan to soon re-list, we have finally made a decision. We are building a new home. Still love the city we live in, so the move isn't going to be far from where we already live. But this lot of brush and weeds, though it looks rather uninteresting...

... is soon to become a new home site for us. We signed the contract with the builder today, and hope to see some progress at this location in as little as three weeks, as long as all goes according to plan.

So exciting!