Just Another Friday!

Friday was a big day for Blake.  She was chosen to read during mass.  Our weekly mass is a children's mass and is run by the kids.  It is really neat.  The kids do all the readings, take up the collections and sing in the chior.  Blake read the Responsorial Psalms.  We were very proud parents!!  She received many compliments after on how clear and loudly she spoke.  Church is really growing on me!  After mass the kids go to CCE and the parents all hang out and wait on them.  The church has a little cafe run by a sweet indian man that we all hang out at.  He makes the yummiest food! It has been fun visiting with other families and making new friends. Lilly had fun while we waited playing with her buddy Ben from Texas.  Ben is the youngest of 5 kids and he and Lilly are the same age.  Lilly loves him!  

Lilly shares her snacks in her new snack cup with Ben!

Where we hang after mass...

Every Friday when we leave mass we have to drive through this arch-thing at this hotel and we always see this balloon rising.  You can take rides in this balloon!  No thank you!  Later in the day Deric had to head back to Saudi Arabia.  He spends a lot of time there lately.  The kids and I had a great night.  We went to dinner at our little restaurant that is right by our house, Shakespeares.  We finally got to sit outside!  The weather was so wonderful.  People were out everywhere eating and smoking sheesha in their hookah pipes.  This is the arabic tobacco that people smoke in all the restaurants.  No drinking aloud but bring on the big bong-looking tobacco pipe!!!  After dinner it was grocery shopping and ice cream at our little town center.

Dinner at Shakespeares..Right behind us is where we do our shopping

A hookah pipe

Our friends at Spinney's (grocery store) know us-
They love Lilly!  Lilly never meets a stranger and
never gets scared of anyone!

Blake has buying ice cream for she and her siblings down!
 This is a frequent after-school treat after the long drive home.

After we got home Blake insisted that we celebrate Diwali!  Diwali is the Indian New Year.   Homes are cleaned to welcome the New Year and windows are opened so that the Hindu goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, can enter. It is believed that she cannot enter a house which is not lit up, so every household burns special Diwali clay lamps (diyas) to light the way for the goddess, which is why the holiday is also known as the Festival of Lights. Blake has been learning about India ever since school started.  We are amazed at how their class has just been immersed in the Indian culture!  Last week Blake's class took a field trip to an Indian restaurant and to an Indian temple.  Blake and Luke had painted diyas at school and so we set them outside and I let the kids light them.  They were so excited!  All throughout our neighborhood houses were totally lit up with lights and fireworks were going off.  It was a pretty amazing night!

Blake lighting the diyas.

Diwali means "row of lights".

I came out to see this!  Hahahah....Blake said they had
to "pray" for Lakshmi to come and bring us wealth and good luck.
Didn't have the energy or the heart to go into the "we only pray
to one God lecture"

After the lights there was Skype with Westwood Elementary!
They were so excited to see friends, a teacher,  a neighbor and a cousin!!!

Luke had had enough...This place wears him out!