Mission Bay, San Diego

This past weekend we met up with my cousin Merna and her family and her good friend Mimi and her family. It was a beautiful and sunny day and all the kids had a good time. There were 6 kids all together running like a pack of wild animals.

Here's our picnic area.

The kids are enjoying corn and apple juice.

Check out this Carl's Jr. moment. This is my cousin Merna and her 3 month old baby, Jad. Can you see the ketsup on the baby's beanie?

Here are the kids playing in the sand.

The white rabbit came to visit. We learned that the rabbit was rescued as a baby from a box at a gas station. She's come a long way.

The rabbit was a big hit.

Lego Land

Maya and Sahara met up with their friend Olivia at Lego Land the other day.

Here's Olivia with her mom, Laura.

Here's Maya and Sahara on the slide.

Another view of the slide. Can you see Maya at the top of the slide?

Maya starting hanging around a new friend she met at the play ground.

Here's Maya and Olivia playing together.

Escondido Children's Museum

We visited the Children's Museum the other day. This is what the place looked like 5 minutes after the girls got there.

Sahara is standing next to the little house.

Maya is cooking in the little kitchen in the little house.

Two cooks in the kitchen.

Maya is working on the pizza and Sahara is cooking the toppings.

We got one of those frogs that grow in water.

This is pretty gross. I can't wait to throw it out.

Mixed Plate

I have a bunch of random pictures to share...here's Maya eating some mini waffles for breakfast.

The girls have learned how to eat zeit and zatar. For all you non-Arabs, that is pita bread dipped in olive oil then dipped in spices. Maya and Sahara have watched their grandparents enjoy this traditional breakfast and have quickly picked it up. Take a look...

It might look like they are eating dirt but I assure you it is very yummy.

Today we planted 20 sunflowers. The girls helped put dirt in the pots, then one by one placed a sunflower seed in the pot, then watered each one after mom covered the seed and patted it down. These sunflowers should grow 6'-7' very quickly. So the girls have a new job of caring for these sunflowers as they watch them grow. We will keep you posted on this project.

I haven't mentioned the new addition to our family yet but last week we adopted a beta fish we named Shiva, the destroyer. The girls look forward to feeding her every day. This fish has been a great source of joy lately.

Maya and Sahara helped me harvest avocados today. It was pretty funny, all the low hanging fruit is gone so we got creative and I held Sahara up over my head and she grabbed the out of reach avocados. Then Maya collected the avocados that fell to the ground. It was a lot of fun.

Now that the weather is warming up and the flowers are blooming like crazy the girls have been picking flowers. We take Bella, our yellow lab, on a walk every day weather permitting, and we make several stops to pick flowers along the way. This is in addition to the constant flower picking around our house. Here's a picture of Sahara fat baby hands holding an African Daisy.

This was the sunset last night. Now that it's warmer, the girls have been spending the majority of their days outside. It was hot enough to fire up the jacuzzi and play with the girls in the water. We have not been able to do that in a while.

Sunny Days Are Here Again

Thank goodness the sun finally decided to come out and play. We still have the sniffles, but that couldn't stop us from heading out to the Wild Animal Park to enjoy some of this wonderful sunshine and warmth.

Great news this Spring, there are seven new lion cubs. A huge increase compared to the two cubs they had last Spring.

Mama lion is checking out Maya. We both agree Maya looks good enough to eat.

Watch out Maya !!!

Sahara didn't want to miss any action.


Feeding the ducks is a big hit with the girls.

We emptied our wallets of all the change we had for duck food, and it still wasn't enough. Next time I will bring duck food with us. There will be no duck left unfed.

The meerkats have their own manor at the Wild Animal Park.

The petting Zoo was a lot of fun today. The animals were happily sun bathing and didn't mind any of the rough petting from the girls.

Rainy Days

What do you do when the whole family has a cold and it's rainy and cold outside? Easy...we pretend it's Summer.

Here's Maya with her sun glasses. All we need is the sun.

Here's Sahara with her sunglasses upside down.

Here's Maya playing with finger puppets.


Daddy got the girls an awesome play house. Here he is assembling it while the girls are already playing in it.

Here's Maya checking out her new porch.

It fits just right.

Here's Sahara putting sand in her mailbox. This house includes a sink (no running water of course) a counter and shelves inside. The girls managed to drag all of their toys into the house once it was assembled. It was pretty tricky trying to get all of it out once they were done.

Here's Sahara smiling despite having to be indoors for a week straight because of bad weather and a cold. She doesn't mind as long as she gets to run around naked.

Maya's smiles are so sweet, you almost don't notice the crooked bangs.

What's Up ??

Well I'll tell you what's up, it's Maya and Sahara. They are bouncing up and down like little monkeys on the loose. Check out the footage below from Gymnastics class.

I figured out what Maya and Sahara's list of favorite things are. Not necessarily in this order...

1. Be naked

2. Jump, especially on the couch and/or trampoline

3. Play with dirt

4. Play with water

5. Binky (Sahara only)

If we could do the above list all day everyday, the girls would be in heaven.

These past few weeks the girls have been learning how to use the potty by themselves. I didn't include any pictures of this for obvious reasons. They enjoy taking their close off, by themsleves. Then taking off their daiper, by themselves. And, well...you get the idea. With the use of a stamp as a reward, the girls have been successfully using the potty to go "pee pee". They are even telling us before they have to go. So we are very happy around here that maybe one day we won't need daipers anymore.

In addition to this the girls have been talking quite a bit. Maya likes to say "EBITA" which everyone knows is earnings before interest, tax and amortisation. And they both like to say, "Allah", after every cough and sneeze they hear. FYI, Allah means god. I thought I would mention that just in case.

Well, that's the latest with the twins. I promise to be more consistent with my postings from now on. (Sorry Grandpa Epi)