Eventful February

Oh February! It's the shortest month, but still pretty eventful for our family. We celebrated Valentine's Day with friends and enjoyed some other fun (and not so fun - hospital) things.

1. Fancy malls around Doha - this one is the Mirqab where a robotics event was being hosted that we decided to attend. 
2. So the robotics event was actually just legos for the older kids and then making vests for the younger ones, but after waiting for the event for almost an hour (because clocks don't work in Doha) we definitely weren't leaving without doing the activity. 
3. The finished products of their robot vests!
4. We visited Red Lobster where Olivia cleaned an entire plate of fried shrimp and the girls got to meet a live lobster.
5. Finally getting around to hanging some of our chandeliers from Baku and scenery pictures from Norway. Love it!
6. Peacock on the upstairs patio - it's quite amazing to see them glide up onto the roofs.
7. This sweet from from Baku (also transplanted to Doha) and I got a chance to catch up during her week off with a delicious Dutch lunch.
8. Evidence of the delicious Dutch sandwich complete with cheese my neighbor brought me from Amsterdam. 
9. A delicious dinner and movie with friends. The meal was superb and the projector outside was a win allowing us adults to converse inside peacefully.

1. After two years of making and canning salsa, I finally decided to give selling it a shot. Here's what 10 liters of freshly made salsa looks like. 
2. And here's what it translates to in canned jars for sales. 
3. I designed a label and got a website running for those friends in the Doha area that would like to give it a try. www.s3homemadesalsa.com
4. A fun birthday party at the arcade.
5. Shimmery and stylish new backpacks from our dear friend Emma in Baku.
6. Our camping trip got cancelled last minute due to extreme wind forecast so we had s'mores over the fire pit instead.
7. And let the kids "camp" on the carpet with a movie. 
8. Aren't they adorable?!
9. And our girls slept in the tent in the playroom to console them missing camping in the desert. Hopefully we will get to try again one day soon!

1. Loved seeing the American flag and Qatar flag together in celebration of National Sports Day.
2. We had a few birthday parties this month and the girls enjoyed decorating the presents with stickers and drawings.
3. The most tolerant cat ever. (See video below.)
4. Evy shot out of bed early excited to help me make lunches.
5. Swinging fun at a favorite playground closely.
6. Hanging with the birthday boy at the same playground.
7. This month we finally got all three girls in for dentist appointments! They were champs - here's Madison getting an exam and cleaning. Yay for no cavities and getting her new back teeth.
8. Evelyn did very good as well and needs to brush more on her back teeth.
9. Olivia was also great, but we need to keep an eye on her. She's already showing signs that she'll most likely need braces in the future and also has something called cross-bite that will need to be corrected. :-(

The other things that happened this month was our first hospitalization. Evy had a cough since last November that mysteriously disappeared when we went to Sri Lanka and returned less than four days after returning to Doha. 🤔  The cough didn't have fever accompanied with it the majority of the time, but then she did spike a fever one Wednesday. It disappeared for 24 hours, but then Friday she woke up with very labored breathing that had us decide to take her in to urgent care for a chest x-ray. They immediately hospitalized her after confirming what they suspected - bacterial pneumonia.

She was a trooper and logistically it worked out for us to tag-team and spend alternate nights at the hospital with her. We had lots of friends offer help or meals and we greatly appreciated knowing that we have support here in Doha in an emergency. Evelyn was thrilled with her pink room and was thankfully discharged just a couple days later and got to spend a week at home with me.

1. Zoey hanging with Madi's other favorite cat.
2. The girls had a birthday party this month for one of their closest friends. When the mom said her daughter would love something homemade I panicked, plotted, and then painted (or rather the girls did). We taped off her name and let the girls go crazy painting it. 
3. Here's the final product. Love how it turned out!!
4. At the birthday party they had the most adorable cookies you could paint yourself! Olivia had a blast.
5. Madi and her two besties loved painting and eating the cookies equally. 
6. The mom was so sweet and sent us with cake and food and a cookie for Evelyn to paint in the hospital! It cheered her up emmensely since she was sad to miss the party. 
7. Sister snuggles while missing the third one. 
8. Exhausted Evy after having to run a couple necessary errands with Mommy.
9. Lo mein. All three girls love it and we've discovered that once a month the Malaysian embassy has a food market where we can buy the noodles and freeze them to make ourselves. So good!

The month ended with the most adorable International Day Parade and Potluck celebration at the girls' school. It was amazing seeing all the different country attires and listen to the children sing songs they've worked hard to prepare for all month.