The Schellenbergs.com

Wanted to send a message home to Grams… Love you, Happy birthday!

From Ryan, Jen, Daniel, Thomas, and Rosie

Last night Jen and I had a date night. We got a call at about 4 pm that our kids were having a blast at friends place and that they wouldn’t be joining us for dinner that evening. then, about an hour later, we got another call saying that they were not really interested in coming home at all. NO KIDS!

Jen and I quickly changed and got ready for a night out on the town. Most things in Doha are closed till 6 because of ramadan, so we had some time to plan. We decided on Dean and Deluca and then off to a movie. Jen and I shared a goat cheese and pear panini sandwich and we each had a salad (very weight watcher friendly I might add) I had an americano and she had her tea.

Dinner was great. reasonable service, good conversation, great food. for those who are wondering, Villagio has awesome bathrooms too. hey… it’s important.

following dinner we went over to the cinema and watched the new Leonardo DiCaprio movie – Inception. Everybody and their brother have already seen it so the cinema was fairly empty. all in all, a great night.

Oh. one more thing, the kids are out again tonight! a prearranged sleep over means they are out 2 nights in a row and we are like teenagers again… Just waiting for the restaurants to open and we are taking in a sushi feast!

ok… so I have been neglectful. Apologies. I was on holidays last week and we did a ton of awesome stuff here in Doha.

One of the coolest things was the release of baby hawksbill sea turtles.

We went up to one of the beaches north of Doha where the government is organizing turtle protection activities for the state of Qatar.  Apparently the project is very successful and they are finding the transmitters that have been attached to the turtles in places from Cairo to Indonesia. Quite the swim if you ask me.

anyways, the pics.

Daniel is showing off his little dude.

And Thomas doing the same

 

Bit of a closeup

 

 

Thomas loved watching them go into the water, he was a big helper

Just after this was taken, Daniel jumped cause if you look closely you can see a turtle crawling over daniels foot… Scared the big man…

Happy Easter!

we are celebrating Easter on Saturday this year. The day started with a big Easter egg hunt and will finish off with a giant Dinner. Jen is making 2 turkeys, some blunt nosed deer and all the trimmings to go with. As is usual, we invited a small army to help us process all this food. We asked people to bring something that is traditional from their families celebrations. This year we have South Africa, Newcastle, London, Ethiopia, south western USA, North eastern USA, and Canada present. It’s always interesting to see what shows up at the table.

For starters, Here’s how our morning started:

The Boys showing off their Easter Bunny Bags

 

The Easter Bunny Came!

 

 

The Egg Hunt Continues

 

      

 

 

Thomas, Grab that one!

 

 

 

Mom mentally prepares herself for the day

 

 

 

Thomas mentally prepares himself for the day.

 

Little bit of Arts and Crafts!

 

 

Perhaps a few too many photos?

 

This is as close to smiling as she gets.

 

It rained yesterday and today!  Thomas was out enjoying it (who knows when it will happen again).

Of course you need the camel pack when you are out for a 10 minute ride in the rain.  It’s important to keep hydrated when you live in the desert!!!

love

-jen

 

He didn’t take the mouth piece out of his mouth the whole time

 

Had to tie the straps up so he wouldn’t get then caught in the chain

Goof

Lovin’ the splashes.  Look at the speed….<grin>

I had one pulled over on me last night. Jen planned a big surprise party at a friends place. Martyn hosted a big party for all our Qatar friends. (both of them). No, there were kids, adults, teenagers, tons of people all gathered for a yummy lasagna, Cesar salad, Jen made a huge cake with the apple logo… It was a ton of fun.
One of the more questionable gifts I received was a bachelor survivor kit. Contents: bottle of Jergens firming hand lotion, box of tissues and a bite guard… seems a bit violent if you ask me! Jen splurged and got me the new Sony E-Reader. I think the only reason I was able to behave at the party and not sit in the corner and play with it was that it didn’t come fully charged(bad Sony)
Thanks to everyone who came. I had an absolute blast.
thanks jen!

So… Qatar’s national day is December 18th. it celebrates the day that the Emir fought off the otoman empire and the brits. it was established only a few years back, and they have been stepping up the celebrations in the past few years. Doha is a city that seems to be struggling like a teenager, trying to find itslef. Not being able to go back packing through europe, it is kinda left to it’s own devices.

This past national day had doha decorated tot he hilt. 80 story buildings were transformed into projection screens with animation and movies projected onto them. they had water screens spaced about every kilometer along the corniche also acting as movie screens showing diferent scenes from around doha.  They had the national anthem playing form a sound system that ran the length of the 7 kilometer stretch.

We got to the corniche at about 8, in preparations for a 9 pm start. we found a good spot and set up camp. the boys had their little video players and I spent the time chatting with Liezel and her girls(mainly about school girl shoes…)

9 came and went. then 9:30. at 10, we decided that we’d pack it in if things haddn’t gotten started by 10:30. at 10:10, the event began, and what an event it was. there was 20 minutes of sky fillign fireworks that were all diferent colours, adn diferent shapes. they had small ones that threw long trails of sparks and blossomed into flowers synchronized with the massive ones that shoot hundreds of feet into the sky. Thomas liked the fact that  these fireworks made clouds that were cool shapes, and daniel liked the big ones that when they boomed, it rumbled your stomach. there were points that the whole presentation area was filled with sparks. they had fireworks that blew up showing hearts, circles and other shapes.

it was incredible.

For the finale, they just let everyting else go… it was crazy. form the 5 (I think) fireworks platforms, there was a 10 minute barrage of explosions in the sky… anyone in our party over the age of 7 was speechless… thomas was amazed with those clouds. Daniel thought each one was beter than the last.

It was quite the evening. we didn’t get home till 12:20, and the boys had passed out in the car, but it was an amazing evening.

Well done Doha.