January 2016 (the first half)

So it's a funny thing I just (ha!) learned about blogging: writing posts full of pictures is a lot faster than writing posts full of words alone. Duh!  It still seems like a bit of a cop-out strategy to me BUT it seems to be helping me get back on the blogging wagon, so I'm not going to complain.

Early this month, we snuck away by ourselves AGAIN (we have had more dates
in 2016 already than in all of 2015) to go see Star Wars.  I liked it a lot, so much
more than any of the Amidala/Sith Lord installments, Ewan MacGregor notwithstanding.  

Then we attended the Qatar ExxonMobil Open with the boys, which was lots of fun.
Again, none of us had been to a professional tennis match, but we all enjoyed
ourselves and loved the ridiculous, over-the-top swag.

The boys were pretty enthusiastic cheerers so we had to discuss proper tennis
watching etiquette with them, but once they got the hang of it, they did fine.

And E lost yet another tooth.  And then J lost his fifth a few days later and
he's so over it we don't even have a picture of that one!

Before break was over, we went to our favorite park to enjoy the fabulous
winter weather here and make the most of our dwindling vacation.

And once school started, we attended a free science event, which ended
up being the usual bounce castles, face painting, and coloring stations with the
added bonus of a "mad science" demonstration involving lots of dry ice and bubbles
the boys could hold in their hands.  J's picture even made it into the
Qatar Foundation monthly glossy newsletter, which was very exciting.

Also earlier this month, the husband went on a department retreat and
somehow managed to find a mortar and pestle, because of course he did!

And he and E wore matching bow-ties to church on Friday recently
and felt the need to chronicle their awesomeness!