Basketball Girl

Grace Swim

The dive

Breast Stroke

Rugbyr run

Tidal Waves Cover Up

Last day of sewing class and Gracie was looking for one last project.  She enjoyed the giraffe dress so much she decided to make a swim suit cover up.  Her teacher suggested they personalize the cover up (again, the nightgown pattern) with the name of her swim team.  They also made a wave pattern to go with it. 

In class, this was supposed to be the back of the cover up, but G likes it better in the front!  She wore it to the swim meet on Saturday morning and made quite the splash! (Ha!)

Giraffe Dress

On Thursday, Gracie took a pattern for a simple nightgown to class along with some fun giraffe print fabric we found Wednesday after class.  It is a cotton knit fabric that she had not worked with before.  She made the cute little nightgown, but came out of class without being thrilled with it. 

Once she got home, she put the gown on along with a fat, black belt she had in her closet. (Fans will recognize this belt from last year's poodle skirt costume!)  With the belt on, we no longer have a slightly frumpy nightgown- now we have a rather sophisticated dress that makes Grace look older than she is!  Viola!

Now she absolutely loves the new dress she made!

Summer skirt

Gracie took a sewing class last week.  We signed up way back in April for this Teen 2 class and she was really looking forward to it.  When Monday came, we went to class and found out she was the only student enrolled.  We were thrilled that they didn't cancel the class and Gracie had a week of private sewing lessons with a really nice lady. 

They started the week making a small purse with a zipper.  On Tuesday Grace made pillow letters that spelled out her name.  Tuesday after class she picked out some really cute fabric to make a skirt.

The crab print is too cute~ I want to take her to Maryland for a crab cake!

Adorable!

Spirit Finder Lady is Cuckoo

Check out the Haunted Video....local Spirit Finder lady is at 4:40 minutes in

Driving up the Margalla Hills

 Note the Barking Deer sign at 2530 feet...breathtaking view or just poluted.

 Kind of fuzy pic but note the overcrowed taxi-bus going up the mountain

 Nice lookout

Seats in the back are full but if you have to sit on top then you get better wind to cool you down.

Tree Top Restaurant at the Manal

 They serve ostrich steaks here but they are not tiny sized like the model chic on the counter.

 Herer is a yummy Lebanese salad

 Jalepeno chicken is very yummy

 Lamb chops are the bomb

Lebanese mixed grill cooking at the table on habachi

Misc Transportation in IBad

 Tricked out bus going down Attaturk

 No street lights = Chaos

 Packed up Mehran going to Grandma's house

 4-40 AC and a couple of burkas going down the road

 750cc motorbike usually seats 4-5 family members

 Random jeep

 Hold on buddy; no room inside to sit.

 The ladies ride side saddle here

Traffic light that works!

Grace Swims

It has been another summer of swimming for Grace.  She swims in the Girls 11-12 year olds this year so she is on the younger side of the group this summer.  She is pleased to be asked to swim in the "A Meets" for breast stroke.  Last Monday she had a personal best for breast stroke with a time of 47 seconds!

Here she is during warm ups.  She is just about to dive in.

Here she comes with the breast stroke! 

Picking tomatoes!

 

Gracie shows off one of our summer tomatoes! 

DC Fireworks

We had a cookout in the heat with our neighbors on the evening of the 4th.  Then we piled into four mini-vans and headed for Arlington. 

Five families from our neighborhood sat together along Arlington National Cemetery to watch the DC fireworks from a distance.  We sat between the Air Force Memorial and the Pentagon. 

We had a nice view of the fireworks and the Washington Monument without having to fight the huge crowds at the National Mall.  It was a nice night.  Happy 4th!