Baku Formula One 2018

This is the third year that Baku has hosted Formula One (and I drive a good part of the race track daily to take the girls to school, haha!). The girls saw the stands and road barricades all being setup and they kept asking when they were going to go watch the car race. We were hoping it would work out for Jason to take them, but unfortunately he wasn't able. :-/ Thankfully I was able to take them and we had a lot of fun before Madi got sick towards the end and we had to cut the weekend short.

Thursday

The festivities started Thursday with a Pit Lane Walk. We headed there after school with some of our friends and it was crowded! But we made our way through, saw some of the race cars, and enjoyed visiting.

Friday

I went ahead and took all three girls to school in the morning, but picked Madi up early to get some solo time with her. We headed to the kids area and Madi got a chance to drive a go kart, play in the bouncy house, make some paintings and a sock puppet, see some of the practice rounds, and enjoy the fountains with me. Afterwards we picked up her sisters and made our way back down for more fun.

We made our way to a secret viewing place that I cannot share with you and met up with friends to have prosecco and watch more laps (because that's actually all a car race is...haha). We also ran into the President of Azerbaijan's daughter! Overall it was a pretty exciting day that ended with pizza and a movie for the girls after a long day.

Saturday

Madi woke up with fever and we had to adjust our plans. She seemed to be better after a round of medicine so we headed to breakfast and ran into last year's Formula One winner Daniel Ricciardo!! The kids all had loads of fun and it seemed like the rest of the day would go as planned without a hitch.

Unfortunately though Madi started to feel bad again and so after the first Formula One race we decided to cut the weekend short and make our way home. The girls had still had loads of fun the past couple of days and I wanted Madi to be able to get some rest.  ☹️

We ended up taking her to the doctor Sunday and getting a strep throat diagnosis so I know we made the right decision. We got a chance to relax on Sunday and thankfully Madi started to feel better after starting antibiotics.

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Easter 2018

We were so thankful to have my mom here fore Palm Sunday and then Easter. (And the girls' baskets were much better filled with all the goodies my mom brought!).

We recycled Christmas dresses to use on Palm Sunday and the girls waving the palm branches was equally disastrous to last year. Evy got tripped and started crying, Olivia refused, and Madi was a better participant overall, but still didn't seem thrilled. I'll save you from the video where I caught on camera Evy being trampled, haha.

We spent the Saturday before Easter dying eggs and decorating sugar cookies. It was lots of fun and the girls enjoyed having Grandma's help!

We let the girls open their Easter baskets and then attempted some family photos... I need to practice using the selfie stick. Madi grabbed it after my sad attempt and took a great picture of me, Grandma, and the twins. Apparently the next generation is born with these skills us old people are lacking.

After church we spent the afternoon at our dear friends' home where we enjoyed an Easter egg hunt and such delicious food!

It was also my mom's last full day with us as she left early the next morning. It was so amazing to have her here and we are sure going to miss having her in Baku. :-(

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The Month of March

We arrived back in Baku after our site visit to Doha and prepared ourselves for a month without Jason. Thankfully we only had to get to the middle of March before my mom was here visiting for the rest of the month!

1. Zoey was quite happy to get us back home, but protested unpacking. (Maybe she thought we were leaving again?)
2. Evy asleep on the car ride home after school. It's been an adjustment for them being in Montessori.
3. Liv asleep another day after a trip to McDonalds where that beauty was in the happy meal.
4. Who knows who will be having dinner in our house. A puppy and two princesses that evening.
5. Bedtime shenanigans.
6. The best dinner ever for an expat. My friend gifted me pizza rolls and since my un-American children wont even try them I felt no guilt in not sharing.
7. Ladies curry night out. Food was amazing and we laughed a lot - much needed!
8. Kathleen. I am sure going to miss this sweet friend when we move. 
9. And Grandma's here! She of course needed her hair fixed by these three.

We surprised the girls again with Grandma's arrival!

We took advantage of a sunny (and more importantly not windy!) day to test out the scooters around Fountain Square and just enjoy the afternoon.

Grandma brought a Moana microphone, which has been a big hit in our house. Lots of performances.

1. Madi and C got a chance to spend the morning together at the beginning of the school break and scootered over to Sunset for breakfast.
2. And they wore their matching pajamas. They always ask for a pajama party and that's not always the easiest in the evening so pancakes and pajamas for them. 
3. Zoey loves Madi snuggles...
4. I attended a sweet friend's baby shower that was wonderful!
5. Grandma has lots of sleepovers with these sweet girls during the school break.
6. We started swim lessons for the twins. Liv is still a bit hesitant and I've been getting in the pool with her, but Evy is no fear and doing great!
7. There are much softer places to lay than a box of office supplies...
8. Kathleen helped me out and took Madi to Wonderland with her guys and snapped this sweet photo of her during lunch.
9. After they'd been inside the two of them played together outside the rest of the afternoon!

Third culture kids. Last summer we told Madi she was going to the US. My mom asked her over FaceTime if she was excited to go to America and Madi retorted "I'm not Grandma. I'm going to the US." Whoops. Now she pronounces "tomato" wrong. We have a lot of work to do...

We loved having my mom here most of the month, but we were so sad we didn't get to see Jason...especially since his birthday was March 18. The girls made this sweet video for him and we will for sure have a make-up when we hopefully see him in April. 

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