Reception Christmas Concert

It was Owens Christmas Concert. For weeks I have heard the song "C" is for the candle on the christmas tree, "H" is for the holly leaves as green as green can be, "R" is for the Rudolph nose so shiny bright, "I" is for the icicle twinkling in the light, "S" is for the stars shining up so bright, "T" is for the tree standing up so high, "M" is for the mistletoe where everyone is kissed, "A" is for the children that make up the christmas list , "S" is for old Santa who makes everyone his pet we bring you all of this in our christmas alphabet. All the children did a lovely job of the production and sang so well! The costumes were provided by the parents and the hats were made at school. The concert was well attended by parents and family and lasted 30 minutes. Afterwards we were able to take the performers home in their outfits. Owen had a blast and kept peering into the audience to see where we were.

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Happy Birthday Owen

Owen is 5 today! How the time has flown by so quickly. Because it was a school day we got out of bed earlier than normal so that Owen could open his present and I could finish the 27 cupcakes that were for his class and 2 teachers. I went with his party theme and put no entry signs on each cupcake. He was thrilled with his container of Meccano that Grandpa Roly had recommended buying for him many years ago. Secretly I think he was more interested in when he was going to eat his cupcake!

Owen's 5th Birthday Party

At 2pm about 20 children and their parents descended on the Le Majestic Gardens Clubhouse to celebrate Owen's birthday. Most were from his school. His theme was traffic related and he chose the design of the cake. In the days before we made a traffic light piñata that was filled with sweets, cut out endless numbers of printed road signs and made traffic lights. The trusty faithful "pass the parcel" started as the warm up game. We invited Paul, the magic man, to entertain the children with his tricks. They loved it but one little boy didn't particularly like the cockroach trick and had to be reassured it was not a real one! Brendon had arranged a tyre race (discarded tyre's sourced by Brendon and Douglas one night in a vacant plot down the road) and an egg and spoon race. The tyres were spray painted black so that the dirt did not come off and mark hands and clothes. After all the activities there were lots of hungry mouths and the food disappeared in no time. Hotdogs, jellies with worms, fruit platters, crisps and pop corn were devoured. After this it was time for the cake and Owen was so excited his grin was enormous. The last parents left at 5.30pm and Owen was desperate to open his gifts. But during clean up time Owen shot out of the clubhouse and promptly puked on the steps. Maybe one too many jellies I would say!

Party Preparations

I started the cake at 8am and took 4 hours to bake it, level it and crumb coat it. When Brendon got home from work we put the cherubs to bed by 6.30pm and got working on the rest of the decorations and cake. Brendon finished the traffic lights and piñata. I took another 4 hours to ice the cake again and do the fondant work. We were finished by 11pm! Roll on party tomorrow.

The Owen Show

Owen's imagination is something else these days. We went to see Wizard of Oz in March this year and so he decided to create "The Owen Show" complete with an audience. He loves creating various scenes with his Lego and comes up with clever creations.

Graders, trucks, scoops and rollers

Owen loves machinery and especially ones that fix or make the roads so he was thrilled when a whole fleet of them camped outside his bedroom window. It doesn't matter that they start up their engines and the house vibrates from 5.30am they are still stared at with the same amount of enthusiasm as the day before and the day before that and the day before that!

Nursery Buttercup Class Room

While Owen was at Sports Day and the class room was empty I was able to take some pictures of where he spends a significant amount of his week. He sits at the red table with the yellow chairs. He has learnt a lot at school and I am pleased that he is happy to spend his time there. He has a teacher, Mrs. Bexon and 2 teaching assistants, Mrs. Baker and Mrs. Holmes. He goes to the library on Wednesday, PE on Tuesday and has a baking day on Monday. They do lots of creative work, read books, free play and a bit of TV now and again. Erin loves joining him in the classroom every morning and it is a struggle to get her to go home with me.

Sports Day

Qatar has declared every second Tuesday of February National Sports Day. It is an official holiday but with lots of sporting activities taking place all over the country. Because of this Owens school held a sports day for Nursery and Reception classes. There were 11 stations with different activities such as an obstacle course, throwing a ball, egg and spoon race, running and shooting hoops. Owen enjoyed it and Erin went through stages of enjoyment too during the 2 hour long event. Owen is not a competitive soul and pays attention to details like putting the correct colour hoops on the correct colour poles and making sure that the next person has the bean bag/spoon in his hand before he lets it go in the relay race. Hence he was not very quick but very precise. Stickers were given as a reward for their achievements. When I checked Owens lunch and snack box later in the day it was empty which is unusual and he had an early night after the active day.