April brought a lot of activity and changes - the girls had their spring break fall over Easter which was amazing and we spent time playing with friends, exploring and kayaking, and enjoying the beach amidst rumors of lockdown. About mid-month Qatar went into its 'second wave' and instated another strict lockdown and the girls' school went online full-time again. 😢
Thankfully they kept the desert open and we've been fortunate to have some adventures exploring a new area we hadn't been called Aamriya as well as seeing foxes at the sinkhole we explored last summer! We also headed out to see the 'super moon' at the Eye Rock and got come great photos there. 🌕
- Enjoying the final weekend of the drive-in before it closed for the season. It has been a fabulous covid-friendly activity for our family and we hope they run it again!
- Cece awkwardly laying on the sofa and the table 🙄
- ☕️ + 🍸 = espresso martini. Yum!
- 5. 6. Kayaking on the northern tip of Qatar with friends!
8. The "gold frame". Qatar has a contact tracing app that's required to enter everywhere. Once you are fully vaccinated, it changes to have a gold frame around it.
9. Awkward Zoey laying in Madison's school drawer while she has an online lesson.
- The girls did a drawing tutorial and I am amazed at how their foxes turned out! 🦊
- Cauliflower soup FTW
- Madi was chosen to be class reader and did wonderful!
- Enjoying the dirt lot in front of our compound
- 6. Our family hit the bike trail early one morning before school
8. Olivia headed to her 'food challenge' to try peanut butter. It didn't quite turn out as well as we'd hoped (she didn't have an anaphylactic reaction, but she did get sick). We are thinking it was just due to how much pb she had since it was a new food and not much else in her stomach, but we will follow up with the doctors for the next steps.
9. The final coffee in the mall before all restaurants closed for dine-in and the month of Ramadan starting.
- Another early morning bike ride, but just Madi and me.
- She loves to bike and is looking forward to training for her race next year (it got postponed this year).
- My first ever risotto!
- Beach fun!!
- They enjoyed the morning of having the beach to themselves on the last day they were open during their spring break.
- Beach clean up - these girls are disheartened by the amount of pollution everywhere and always make sure to ask for a bag and gloves to clean up when we go out. ❤️
- Enjoying a quiet moment of breakfast and a book before the chaos of online learning.
- Since all pools and beaches closed we pulled out our backyard pool and got it setup for the girls!
- Preparing for Ramadan - it's a month of holy fasting in Islam and during that time the one shop with alcohol is closed and restaurants (if they were open) do not serve alcohol. We made sure to stock up, haha!
We had a lot of fun in April and are thankful for the opportunity to get out and explore, however, it has been a bit challenging going back to online learning and the kids are missing their friends. We are focusing on the positives, but are looking forward to things hopefully opening up again soon after Ramadan finishes towards the end of May. 🤞🏼