Pictures on the pavement

Did you know that the pavement in front of your gate can be a good space for kids to draw? Well, at least Uzair and Hafsa definitely think so. One day, they just took their sets of crayons (oil pastels) and started the work. As they were working on their projects, they even got some encouraging words from the "upperside aunties' that they were doing really well. :)

First printing!

This morning was a very special one for Uzair. He ran out to pick up the newspapers from the carporch and was very happy and proud to announce to all of us that "Dawn's" "Young World" magazine has printed the painting he sent in for the arts section! Here below you can see Uzair with the "Young World" as well as a copy of his painting. We hope and pray that this first success will enocurage Uzair to work even harder on developing his artistic side!

Our first visit to "Learn to Learn" (L2L)

Yesterday, we went on our first visit to "Learn to Learn" (L2L) active learners club and really enjoyed ourselves there. There were different activities available for the kids, while parents were listening to a lecture about security at home. Smaller kids had their activities structured around the topic of turtles - they had a real tutrle to pet and they could watch a video about turtles. If they wanted, they could join in on a board game as well as participate in a show-and-tell activty. The bigger kids had some science activities in a different room, along with a clay project. The guided clay project that kids were working on together was a map of Pakistan (part of the ongoing theme of floods at L2L). They could also just make out of clay whatever they wished. The clay activity was so popular that even the moms joined in on it, after their lecture!

Hafsa was very excited to pet a real turtle, while Uzair like the most the clay activity - he made a great jug all by himself. After coming home, he kept on talking about one of the electric games he had enjoyed at L2L, till he decided to make a model of it from for playing at home. Although his model does no beep like the real game did, he and Hafsa still enjoy playing it. It does seem that we would be going back to L2L again, Insha'Allah, as all of us really liked it there!

Different types of hair

Today in our Usborne encyclopedia, we read with our mom about our hair and nails. For understanding better, why different people have different types of hair (straight, wavy, curly), we made clay models of all three types of hair. It turns out that straight-hair-people have round shaped hairs, wavy-hair-people have oval shaped hairs, while curly-hair-people have flat hair! Check out our work in the pictures below.

As we learned about our nails, we realized that the nails grow from the roots, just like our hair. We could very well see this by looking at Hafsa's nails, which had some mehendi on them. Mom had coloured her nails with mehendi on the Eid and by now all the colour had almost grown out of her nails, as the new nails kept on coming up from the roots.

Football the Pakistani-style

Just as the world football chempionship started, Uzair took keen interest in football. Now finally he's trying to play the ball we brought back from Latvia as a gift from mamma's sister. The story of the ball is also a quite unique one - when mamma's sister and her husband bought the ball and got back to the car, suddenly her husband started to laugh really heartily. Upon examining the ball, he had found out that although it had "LATVIA" written on it, it had come all the way from Pakistan, where it was made! So the ball just ended up travelling across the world one more time all the way back to its country of origin.

In the afternoon, Uzair went to play outside the gate with his football. Not long after, he came to mamma and asked for her help because his ball had stuck up somewhere. When mamma came out, to her great astonishment, she found the ball right in the middle of the huge cactus-tree in front of the gate!!! How in the world did it end up there??? Only Uzair knows. :)

Making roti

When in the evening mamma heads for kitchen to cook roti, both Uzair and Hafsa are eager to join in and make their own rotis. Mamma has to admit that their work is really good, because their rotis even blow up on tawwah, indicating a skillful craftmanship of rolling! Even more, they are experts not only in cooking rotis but even in making their own sweet parathas!

This time, Hafsa has got the spotlight of photo-session, while she is rolling her roti. She is using her toy roller, which is just perfect for her size. Dough is real, though, and will be cooked, after she finishes working on it. Before the dough gets to the tawwah, it goes through a myriad of different shapes in Hafsa's hands - but that's all a part of the 'serious' work session for creating her own roti.

Catch the fly!

Uzair and Hafsa are always full of ideas for inventing their own games. Mamma has even lost track of all the names they give to their games. Today, they came up with yet another new one - catching flies on carporch with their toy buckets. The trick is to approach the fly sitting on the ground slowly, slowly and then quickly put the bucket over it. They spent a good hour today busy in this new fun game! :) All that was left for mamma amidst their happy laughter was to feel sorry for the poor flies...