Happy UAE National Day!

It was such a busy week last week.  Graham had his 44th National Day celebration at school on Tuesday and then, Charlie had his in his school on Wednesday.  I managed to borrow a couple of thobes (National dress for the men) from a friend.  The boys looked so cute in them!

It's too bad Charlie didn't want to wear his to school.  Maybe next year :-)  But Graham was all excited about wearing a thobe to school.  Technically you're suppose to wear sandals but we figured Crocs would work too:

I, on the other hand, ended up buying a couple of Abayas. I'm glad I didn't trip over mine because they go all the way down to almost touching the ground!

As for Graham, it didn't take him long to figure out how to run in the thobe:

Jump...

And sit like a local Emirati!

There was a lot going on at Graham's school.  There was sand painting that Graham always enjoys doing!

You basically pick out a picture and peel of each section and pour colored sand over the sticky part.  Tada!

There were also some traditional dancing:

Graham got to sit in a police car and play with the sirens and loud speaker:

And there's always a camel on site during these celebrations:

Like I said, always a camel onsite! The one at Charlie's school was quite verbal. This one sounded like it was growling!

Charlie opted for face painting at his school:

Captain America!

"Show me your muscles, Charlie!"

As for me, I opted for some henna.  It only took the lady a few minutes to do this:

And once it dries, it starts to peel off.  I decided to just clean it up so I don't have henna stains on anything else. It's quite tricky not to smudge the pattern when the henna is still wet!

Quite pretty!  And the color has gotten darker these past couple of days.

The boys will have a few days off next week for the UAE National Day.  Can't wait for a little break in the routine!