Happy Anniversary

to us. 16 years and counting. Or is 15? Either way, it's been awhile. I was awakened by a very chipper Anisa earlier this morning who had been busily crafting last minute anniversary presents with Ruhi. I was presented with a glittery candle holder and candle, a woven leaf crown and a paper cone filled with fresh blossoms and wrapped with a flowery vine. So sweet. Baba seemed to miss out on the gifts, but he really, really doesn't mind.When Mehran returned from his hike we took the children out to lunch to celebrate the day and came home and spent the afternoon playing games together. Hi-Ho Cherry-O (many, many, many rounds) and Uno Stack-O. Bayan has still not quite grasped some of the concepts involved in removing one level in order to build another or maybe it was just that he was trying to get the tower to fall... who's to know? Anyway it was a wonderful way to spend the day. Here's hoping we have many more.

Adventure Land

New Years Day was spent at a fun park with Mehran's family. Not Disneyland, but not bad. There was boating, canoeing, rock climbing, bouncy castles (well - sort of), mazes, mini-golf, motorized cars, huge slides and water slides. There was even a tractor driven 'train' ride around the park where the kids kept a sharp lookout for further attractions, unfortunately all they found were golf greens. They, unanimously, felt that was rather unfortunate. But at least there were the slides. Bayan loved the big, wave slide the best while Anisa and Ruhi preferred the water slides.(He even hauled his heavy carpet off-cut up a mountain of stairs so that he could go down again and again and again.)

Some of my favorite moments included:

watching Bayan watching Mehran attempt to scale a rock mountain.

Watching the girls enthusiastically wait for turn after turn on the water slides and have a brilliant time going down.

Watching Mehran attempting to take the lazy route in bringing the picnic baskets, coolers and lunch bags down to the shaded lawn on the lower level of the park. He didn't wish to walk down all the steps so he thought it would be easier to take the slide down to the bottom while carrying the pile of lunch items on his lap. He neglected to account for the bumps in the slide and that while loaded up and going fast he would hit them harder. With the first dip the lid to the cooler became airborne, pieces of ice flew high overhead while others landed square in his lap and along the slide behind him. By the time he arrived at the bottom he was sporting some soggy shorts and a very moist shirt. But he avoided the stairs and that was the whole idea, so despite the fact that he was showered in melting ice, he was happy and pretty impressed with himself.PS. Note the people on the steps who have stopped to stare...you would think after fifteen years (today was our fifteenth wedding anniversary) I would be used to Mehran's shenanigans by now. But I find that we continue to reach new heights of embarrassing (albeit completely hilarious) public displays. You know I really wouldn't change it or him for that matter - well, maybe a few things... Anyway here's to fifteen more years. At least.

13 years

Yesterday (today if you are on US time) Mehran and I celebrated our 13 wedding anniversary. Perhaps celebrated is the wrong word. We acknowledged the day by first counting (twice) how many years we have been married. You know it has been awhile when you are not actually sure and you have to double check to make sure that you have, in fact, counted correctly. We started the day by waking up at the crack of dawn (OK, maybe it was more like 8:30, but due to the late night and being frequently woken up by one small boy it certainly felt much earlier) by Mehran's dad and brother enthusiastically pounding on the back door. They had come to harvest the rest of the plums and apricots from our fruit trees and were attempting to outsmart the birds by getting started early and working away in the intense heat. The birds never showed. Weather that was because we were there or because they had better sense than to be out in the sun on such a hot day remains unclear. I am tempted to believe that they are far smarter than we give them credit for. Regardless the plums were picked by a rumpled, bleary eyed crew who, despite the heat and the fact that we were climbing trees in our pyjamas, managed to fill 4 large boxes of fruit (which Mehran's dad gleefully confiscated. They love making jam. Lots of jam. And dried Persian lavashak, but mostly jam.) 2 large pots and 2 medium sized colanders (which I commandeered. These will be eaten fresh or chopped and frozen for making fruit smoothies. And that is precisely what I spent the next four hours, give or take, doing. Washing. Chopping. Freezing).

I did take a short break to comfort a bruised and unhappy Bayan who got hold of Anisa's cup of water and promptly poured it across the floor. The tiled floor which, as you can imagine, gets slippery when wet. He had a spectacular wipe out as he scurried (as only toddlers do) at top speed towards the living room. The resulting "thud" and resounding cries brought Mehran and I both dashing from various parts of the house. Mehran, being closer, got there first. I was just in time to see Mehran's sprint turn into a wild, cartoon-like, running on the spot (as he skidded on the water), before both legs (one after the other) slipped out from under him and he landed on his bottom at such speed that he was propelled across the room into a decidedly wet and unhappy Bayan who was then knocked down. Again. Thankfully, aside from some minor bruising, no one was seriously hurt.

While I was busy freezing fruit, tending bruises and comforting bruised egos, the girls were busy in the front room creating a make-shift rocket ship from an empty vacuum cleaner box, recycled aluminium foil, an assortment of paper scraps and sticky tape. Here they are on their way to some far flung, distant galaxy, on a mission to help aliens collect space rocks. The buttons on the front were Ruhi's idea. Although Anisa insisted on adding her own special knob for "blast-offing."

Farzin and Elham came by for lunch and we spent the rest of the day at home, trying to avoid the heat. We ordered pizza for dinner and Mehran and I watched "Wild Hogs" (Mehran's choice. Not my style, but good for a laugh) after the kids went to bed. Maybe we'll all go to bed early tonight... Talk about life in the fast lane.