Abraham-osaurus' 3rd Birthday!

Sweet Abraham seems to be interested in anything that roars loudly and destroys its surroundings in a matter of seconds.  His 2nd birthday party was a monster theme, and now as he's turning 3, he's into dinosaurs!  It's actually quite fitting considering his personality.  So what's left for next year... dragons, lions, tigers, bears?  We'll just have to see where his little personality takes us! 

One of my favorite 80's hits is Walk the Dinosaur!  "Open the door get on the floor.  Everybody walk the dinosaur.  Boom Boom Aca Laca Laca Boom!"  Am I crazy?  Tell me you remember this song.  Needless to say, when Abraham showed interest in dinosaurs, I ran with it for his 3rd birthday theme.  If you attended his recent party, you were probably singing this song for several days afterwards,  seeing that it was on repeat during the whole party!

Abraham insisted on wearing his dino hat (Thanks Papa and Mimi!) before blowing out his candles.  Under the pressure of appeasing him while all eyes were on the birthday boy, we were searching for this darn hat like crazy people!  FYI, this cake was super simple.  Check out how to make it here!  Also, the rock gummies were ordered on Amazon, and I made the invitation using Powerpoint.

Dino bones were made with pretzel sticks, mini marshmallows, and white chocolate.

Dino digs were made with chocolate pudding, Oreos, graham cracker crumbs and dino gummies.

Dino PBJs were made with cookie cutters also used on the craft table.

Dion pinata/center piece and Meri Meri serving wear were ordered on Amazon.

The kids loved the Dino Dig game!  I filled a mini pool with sand, and they used shovels and rakes to find the dino bones below.  Warning: Messy in an apartment but oh so fun!

Coloring walls and pin the spine on the dino are easy create your own activities, except that is, when searching for kraft paper in Morocco.  The florist, who stakes out a corner on a nearby street, sold me something similar that did the job.

At the craft table, we played with Melissa and Doug dino stamps and puzzles, play doh with dino cookie cutters, a dino sculpture, mini dinos, and  hatching dino eggs. (Much thanks to Uncle Casey and Aunt Diana's Amazon GC!)

The reading tent was full of dinosaur themed books.

Dino suckers and masks were also purchased on Amazon (my one-stop-shop since living overseas).

Our fellow Olmsteders, the Saunders, joined us just days before they moved back to the States.  It was fitting since we met them at Abraham's 1st birthday party shortly after moving to Morocco!

On the eve of Abraham's actual birthday, we celebrated the end of his baby days and the beginning of his little boy days by camping out with dad in the playroom.  Gabriel celebrated his 3rd birthday with this same big boy treat.  In the morning, Abraham devoured his oatmeal with sprinkles and even got to celebrate with his friends at school.  After school, we wrapped up our celebrations at the pool.  It was a beautiful day!

Abraham with his best friend, Youssef.  Aren't they adorable!?!

We want to thank all of our friends who helped us celebrate Abraham's 3 years of life and all of our family who were there in spirit!

Sweet Abraham,

Happy 3rd birthday!  Oh, where did my baby go?  Love You Forever has taught you that you'll always be my baby, and you remind us of this when we brag about you being such a big boy.  I'll take your sweet cuddles in the rocking chair as long as I can, but I also can't get enough of your blossoming personality!

Your favorite color is orange.  Your favorite food are grapes.  Your favorite songs are Somewhere Over the Rainbow and Walk the Dinosaur (I may have influenced that one a bit).  Your favorite movie is Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and your favorite dinosaur is the triceratops (possibly influenced by your hat above).  You love swinging, zooming around on your scooter or new balance bike, reading, coloring on anything but paper, building forts, rolly pollies, making fish faces, and screaming at the top of your lungs.  Abraham, your shining spirit has added a level of love that our family will forever cherish.

This past year you have begun to communicate more with your words, which is always amazing to witness.  However, I see the baby in you relying on your brother, your cuteness, or your stubbornness to get your point across.  Also, you've been living in an Arab country and attending a French preschool for the majority of your life.  Those little wheels must be spinning with multiple languages and cultural experiences.  When I think of all of the amazing places you have been and all of the beautiful and not so beautiful things your little eyes have seen, I can only imagine what must be going on in that smart mind of yours.

You are one tough cookie who can charm the socks off a snake.  Thankfully, your teachers are no longer reporting hitting and biting, although Gabriel continues to get his fair share at home.  Your sweet nature continues to shine through in your sincere apologies and your adorable wonder.  Curiosity and amazement are captured in your dramatic expressions and often narrated with a whispered, "Oh my goodness!"   

We love watching you interact with your "broder".  You make it quite clear that you adore him, even though your piercing screams throughout each day seem to tell us otherwise.  You continue to adore your daddy more and more but you're still a momma's boy at heart.  However, you told us the other day that you actually prefer Gabriel over both mommy and daddy.   I love you and your perfect place in our family.

I am so thankful to be your mommy and can't wait to see where this 4th year takes you.  I pray that you grow to be a strong man of God: strong in your mind, body, heart, and spirit.

I Love You,
Mommy

Olmsted Ladies' Trip 2013

Palma De Mallorca, Spain

First Picture, Back Row: Claire Henry (scholar, Romania), DeDe Musa (wife of Jamil, Morocco), Liz Kreitlow (wife of Brian, former scholar in Montenegro & now living in Germany), Jen Hensarling (wife of Brian, Belgium), Carrie Flammia (wife of Bobby, Italy) Front Row: Susan Murphy (wife of Patrick, Germany), Gina Senkowski (wife of Neil, Germany), and Megan Anderson (wife of Mark, Bulgaria)

Here's to General Olmsted's wife, Carol!  Girl, would I love to hear your stories!  Each of the 8 women in Mallorca had such unique but sweetly familiar stories of their own, and we all quickly bonded over Spanish wine and great conversation.  This year's annual Olmsted Ladies' Trip was another one to mark down in the history books.

I began my journey stuck in sitting traffic for over an hour and a half.  I remained calm... for the first hour.  Jamil and I figured there had to be something tragic up ahead, but it was just unreported, middle of the day construction between the two biggest cities in Morocco.  Jamil sped to the front door of the Casa airport, and I ran in like a crazy woman.  Although I seemed to get checked in at the airport with no problem (FYI, arriving with less than 40 minutes until departure for an international flight seems to be no big deal around here), I noticed that my body was shaking as I finally sat down at my gate.  In my frantic/relieved state, I began to cry tears of joy to be getting the heck out of dodge and tears of sadness about leaving the boys.  I pretty much could have stamped "I desperately need a girls' trip!" across my forehead.

Needless to say, we had an amazing time exploring the Spanish Island of Mallorca.  It was just the perfect amount of adventurous exploration and therapeutic relaxation!  I left refreshed, with strengthened friendships, thankful for girl time, and grateful for being apart of the Olmsted family.  Much thanks to the amazing Jen Hensarling for organizing this year's festivities.  She did a great job!  Once again, we missed all of the fabulous ladies who couldn't join us this year.  If at all possible, I highly recommend hopping on board for future Olmsted Ladies' Trips!

Puigpuyent
Our gorgeous villa rested in the mountains of Puigpuyent surrounded by nature.  We hiked and relaxed by the pool with strawberry mojitos.  We even hired chef Pepe to join us at the villa for a cooking class.  After 7 hours, we had complete dishes for the remainder of our trip!  Our menu included braised endive with brown sugar and prawns, pork with creamed sobrasada sauce, a mixed paella with pork and seafood, and both salmon and chicken croquettes.  We enjoyed listening to Pepe speak Spanish and the intensity he brought to the kitchen.  Although I'd love to replicate these dishes, I think the recipe we all walked away remembering was a simple, but oh so delicious, aioli spread!

Many of the pictures in this post were taken by my talented friend, Carrie.  Thanks!

Soller
The charming beach town of Soller was a hit!  We hoped on board an old fashioned train from Palma into the city and then onto an adorable trolly that took us straight to the ocean.  The port is surrounded by a breathtaking mountain range, orange groves, and ancient olive trees.  If you love oranges, you've come to the right spot!  The famous Mallorcan pastry, ensaimadas, can be found here with orange filling.  Orange juice and orange ice-cream dawned the walkways, and fresh oranges were everywhere!  After walking along the boardwalk, we grabbed lunch at Ses Olivares.  This restaurant (dish pictured above-left) was recommended by my friend, Natalia, whose mother lives in Palma.  We gave our compliments to the chef, and he kindly complimented us with two more pitchers of sangria!  

Palma

We planned on visiting Palma, Mallorca's capital, on our final full day.  Why, because there was a fabulous beer festival along the port!  A Spanish vendor took a lovely group picture of us, so we of course needed to get "just a regular picture" of the person who took our group shot.  We convinced ourselves that it was completely normal and giggled about it the rest of the night.  At Beer Palma, we snacked on hor d'oeuvres and local beer before heading to a chic tapas restaurant.  We did miss some of the charming Palma shops and cafes that are open throughout the day.  However, we opted for some extra pool time at the villa and took advantage of seeing the city at sunset and beautifully lit at night.  It was the perfect last hurrah for the 2013 Ladies' Trip!  I doubt I'll be able to make it back across the Atlantic for next year's adventure, but maybe some of the state-side ladies can get together.... until next time!