Kirk's Trip to Dubai and Paris

I (Kirk) had to make a trip to Europe for work to visit several of our facilities in Germany and France. The direct flights to Europe were very expensive, but I was able to find a cheap flight that connected through Dubai. I was able to take this flight and spend a day touring Dubai.

Flying into the city all you could see was desert until you came to the city. We flew over the city then came back to land at the airport. In the distance you could see the man made "World Island and "Palm" developments.

I was lucky to find a tour bus called the Big Bus Company that allowed me to see most of Dubai very quickly. The Bus would stop at all of the major tourist stops and allow me to get off for as long as I wanted I could get on the next bus which came every 30 minutes. The city was pretty amazing to see. There is construction everywhere in the city. I was able to see the Burj Al Arab Hotel, The Jemeirah Palm Island, Ski Dubai Indoor Ski Slope, the Burj Dubai (tallest buiding in the world - 800m+), and the old part of town. There are definitely many things to do in the city and would be a great place to come back and visit on a vacation.

Dubai is one of the 7 Emirates in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The majority of revenues in Dubai come from Tourism, Trade, Real Estate and Financial Services. Only 6% of the revenues comes from Oil & Natural Gas. The global financial crisis is taking its toll on Dubai and many of the new building projects have been halted.

After my overnight stay in Dubai I travelled to Germany for work for the next week then drove back to Paris for the weekend. I got to hang out with Mike Powrozek (a co-worker of mine). We toured the city on Saturday and then found a Canadian Bar that was showing the Michigan State Quarter Final Game (which they won). It was tough rooting for the Spartys.

Concordia Field Day

The kids had field day at school early this year since they are tearing up the field due to the new school construction. Both Elizabeth and Alex participated and had fun. There was a 50m race and Alex did a great job running the whole way. Elizabeth of course did too.

Book Charater Parade

Concordia celebrated book week this past week. They had many activities to get kids interested in books and reading in general. The week ended with a book character parade. This year, Elizabeth was one of the Seven Chinese Sisters. Alex was one of the monkeys that jump on the bed and fall off. The kids love this event!

Elizabeth's Class Field Trip to Science & Technology Museum

The theme that Elizabeth's class was studying recently was the earth. They learned all about the earth's crust and fossils and volcanoes, and earthquakes. To put some more sense to the teaching the kindergarten class took a small field trip to the Science and Technology Museum.

This is a really nice museum with many exhibits and many of them are interactive. The classes were able to see a volcano go off and were able to experience what it would be like to be in an earthquake. That was pretty scary and made me think a lot of last year's earthquake in Sichuan and how the children there must have felt.

After that, they had some time to play in the children's area. Here there are different exhibits demonstrating concepts such as heart rate, physics, and oscillation. They had fun and the parents liked it also because it was only a half day field trip!

Alex's New Bike

We were going to wait until his birthday to buy a bike for Alex. He has been trying them out in Decathlon for a while now. It was really sunny this day and he and I rode up to Decathlon to try to find some shin guards for Elizabeth. He was trying the bikes out again and was having so much fun. So....spur of the moment purchase and he was off and riding! He loves it and is really good at it.

Elizabeth's Birthday

The big day finally came. Elizabeth was so excited for her birthday. She woke up to find her presents right outside her door. Alex was more excited for her to open them than she was since he helped buy one.

She got a scooter from Daddy and Alex, an armoire for Emily and Ivy's clothes, and a jewelry box. She also got an American girl hairset from Gigi, and a dress and book form Grammy.

She rode the scooter that afternoon and fell once, but it only left a small mark on her face! She's getting really good at riding it.

She is already talking about turning 7.

Daddy Daughter Dance

The Girls Scouts had a Daddy/Daughter dance on the night before Elizabeth's birthday party. She was so excited about it. The theme was a masquerade ball. It was held at the Thumb Plaza Radisson. From the pictures, it looks like all the girls looked beautiful.

In the afternoon, she went to the salon to get her hair done. On the way, she ran full force into the arm of the apartment entrance parking lot. She hit her forehead dead on and it knocked her right on her bootie and even her shoes flew off. I was so scared! She put on a good show for everyone at the salon, but after she had her hair washed, she was better. And luckily, there was no mark!

Elizabeth and Daddy had a lot of fun and both of them danced all night. She didn't want to leave the party. Sounds just like her mom.

Elizabeth's 6th Birthday Party

Elizabeth turned 6 on March 8. She has been looking forward to turning 6 for a long time.....365 days to be exact.

I asked her what kind of birthday party she wanted and she said "Camp Rock". For those of you who do not frequently watch Disney movies, this is a movie with Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers in it. The main character is Mitchie who is a singer who goes to a music camp for the summer.

She gave me the list of all the girls she wanted to invite. With her classmates and her other friends, it totalled 17. No way I could do that in my house. So I decided to host the party at a new salon behind our house and have the girls get their toes and nails done. This also worked out good because the next night was the Daddy/Daughter dance and most of them would be attending so they would be all ready for that (nails and toes wise).

Kirk looked up birthday cakes on line and decided that we should make a guitar for her birthday cake. Then he conveniently schedules a trip to Chongqing the night before the party so I am on my own. I bravely made a guitar shaped cake, fondant, and butter cream icing. Man is it nice to bake when you have a housekeeper to clean up after you! Kirk came home and we did the decorating portion together.

You can see all the girls were properly pampered and really enjoyed themselves. Elizabeth loved being around all of her friends. She really was looking forward to the day. The salon did a great job decorating it and accomodating all the girls. They even braided and sprayed their hair colors.

She really wanted Alex to come to the party. And he had to dress up like a rock star and wear jeans she said. He came, but lasted about 30 minutes and then the ayi took him home. She requested that Kirk come dressed as Joe Jonas. She told him he had to wear jeans and a skinny tie. Of course he complied.

We had New York Pizza delivered and the girls all loved that. They also ate fruit and then of course they were served birthday cake. She got lots of nice gifts from her friends but she was most happy that they were there. I think she had fun.

Elizabeth Loses Second Tooth

Elizabeth now has a perfect hole for her straw to fit through.