Meet Flat Stanley

This posting is for Mrs. Flusche and her adventurous Multi-age classroom at Jenks West Elementary in Jenks, Oklahoma! Less than a week ago I recieved a manilla envelope and inside it I found a new friend. His name is Flat Stanley and from the note that accompanied him he appears to be quite the world traveler!

Tanner and Gavin were very excited that Flat Stanley flew from Oklahoma all the way to the Kingdom of Bahrain. He is our first guest to visit from the United States! We quickly packed the car and set off on a whirlwind adventure driving Flat Stanley all over our new country.

We hope you have as much fun "touring the island" as Flat Stanley did, ENJOY!


MARHABA! (welcome) This is a map of the Kingdom of Bahrain.


Flat Stanley could not believe that there are camels in Bahrain!


He asked if he could ride one of the camels but the owner said they were getting ready to eat their lunch, maybe next visit!


We were hungry so we decided to eat a local favorite meal called schwarma at Leabnese Oven.


Tanner and I enjoyed looking at the pictures of all the interesting foods on the menu.


This is Mr. Abdul, he is a friend of the Flusche family.


Flat Stanley eating Schwarma with Tanner, his Daddy and Mr. Abdul.


Tanner and Flat Stanley having a great time at Mr. Abdul's Uncle's carpet shop in Adlia.


It's so much fun to play atop a tall pile of carpets!


Flat Stanley purchased this beautiful carpet! I wonder if it's a MAGIC carpet, what do you think?


Tanner and Flat Stanley posing on the outskirts of his neighborhood.


Flat Stanley in Arad with the city of Juffair in the distance.


This is where Tanner and Gavin live. Their home is called a villa.


This is the street where Tanner and Gavin live.


This is the back side of Tanner and Gavin's neighborhood, there is a mosque about 4 villas down their street.


Shhh... little one sleeping


Flat Stanley enjoyed taking afternoon naps with baby Gavin!


Flat Stanley out on a drive, with one of many pearl statues behind him. Bahrain is known as "The Pearl of the Gulf".


This is Flat Stanley outside of the Isa Cultural Center and Library.


The beautiful building on the left is the Grand Mosque with the Isa Cultural Center on the right.


The Grand Mosque at sunset.


Flat Stanley enjoyed tasting some local favorites, Tanner and Gavin's Mommy treated him to kiwi lime juice. Yum-Yum!


Can you find Flat Stanley? He was enjoying a game of Hide-and-Seek in Tanner and Gavin's villa!


Tanner taught Flat Stanley how to play pool.


Flat Stanley enjoyed going on a bike ride with Gavin and his Mommy!


Most of all Flat Stanley enjoyed hanging out listening to stories about our family.

The Flusche family would like to thank Mrs. Flusche's class for introducing us to Flat Stanley. He was a wonderful guest and we would be pleased to welcome him to our home again in the future. Happy traveling Flat Stanley!

Happy Easter 2010

What a beautiful day God gave us for the celebration of His Son! We enjoyed a fun family day and even attended service at the only Anglican church on the island.

The night before Easter Tanner, Mommy and Daddy died Easter eggs. We thank a friend of Katy's for sending us an egg dying kit from the States... as you can imaging Easter eggs are not commonplace in a Muslim country. Tanner enjoyed coloring on the eggs with a white crayon prior to dying and placing silly eye and smile stickers on the finished project. I'm glad we were able to share this fun Easter tradition with Tanner this year.


Tanner and Daddy dying Easter eggs


Tanner and his great creations

The day began with a VERY excited Tanner who discovered that the Easter Bunny did indeed hear that we moved to the Kingdom of Bahrain and remembered to put the Flusche villa on his world wide egg hiding tour.


Tanner and Gavin Easter morning


Tanner and Gavin checking out their baskets

The Easter Bunny displayed quite creative skills in his egg hiding ability. The EB hid all the bright plastic eggs on the first floor of our villa and challenged Tanner to reach and search!


Funny bunny, soooo silly!


Gavin on the hunt


Tanner looking for eggs

The Easter Bunny filled Tanner's Easter basket with an Ironman coloring book, Lego Jr. Magazine, a new Quiksilver T-Shirt and an asortment of KinderChocolate products (his favorite candy that is manufactured in Germany). Tanner's hidden eggs were filled with M&Ms that looked like little robbin eggs, Tootsie Rolls, Hershey Miniaturs, and little do-dads like egg shaped errasers and stickers.


Tanner's Easter basket loot


Tanner showing off his find

The Easter Bunny placed a cute Easter Egg Hunt board book, butter biscuits and glocowafers in Gavin's Easter Basket. Gavin's plastic eggs which were all "hidden" in the foyer were filled with Cherios... he couldn't have been more excited when he found out the "balls" had food in them!


Gavin investigating his basket


Gavin loves the butter biscuits and glucowafers the EB left for him


Gavin inspecting his Cherio filled egg


YUMMY - Cheerios!

After a fun morning of egg discovery and pancakes we attended St. Christopher's Anglican Church. Since arriving on the island we had been out on many excursions to try to locate this church. Paul finally found it the day before Easter.

The cathedral was packed with a congrigation of about 80-90 people. There were many families with children. The church even provided an egg hunt prior to the service. I enjoyed the service and apprecited the traditional style of worship that we miss from our home church in Tulsa. Poor Paul, spent the service walking a fussy Gavin in the courtyard and fellowship room. We look forward to trying St. Christopher's again on a regular Friday worship service when the nursery is open.

Following church we enjoyed the company of our friends the Smitts. The Smitt family is made up of Angela (Mom), Franchoan (Dad), Marco (age 5) and Luca (age 2). Tanner met Marco in his class at Nadeen and we all hit it off immediatly. The Smitts arrived in Bahrain from South Africa in Janurary, our families are both "new" and experiencing some of the same quirky things about this country simutaniously. They invited us over to their apartment for lunch and an afternoon of swimming... it was so much fun that we ended up staying for dinner and drinks as well. Fabulous day had by all.

We hope you had a wonderful and blessed Easter filled with friends and family, God Bless.

Base Easter Celebration

The day before Easter both the CDC (Child Development Center) and MWR (Moral Welfare Recreation)teamed up to help make Easter magical for the children of NSA Bahrain!


The egg hunt


Tanner hunting for eggs

The celebration started with an Egg Hunt at Liberty Pavilion where the hunt was set up in age groups. To add an extra element of fun, there were a few "Golden Eggs" hidden in each age bracket. The lucky children who found one of the Golden Eggs won a Dove chocolate Easter Bunny. Our Tanner found one of the Golden Eggs in the sand pit and he couldn't have been prouder! ;)


Golden Egg Winners


Tanner with his Dove Chocolate Bunny

This was Gavin's first egg hunt and he thought the plastic eggs were very interesting. He liked that the eggs made noise when he shook them. Gavin enjoyed watching the other children about his size run to the eggs and was very excited to see what they were doing.


Gavin's first egg hunt


Gavin levitating eggs

The Easter Bunny and his friend Alibaba (only in the Middle East right?) made guest appearances entertaining the children and posing for photographs.


Action shot of Tanner with Alibaba

Alibaba was a hit, the children enjoyed the balloon animals, hats and swords that he made especially for them. Both my boys got in on the fun with blue swords, you know, nothing says "Jesus Has Risen" like a 14 month kid swinging a sword given to him by Alibaba at his Dad and brother (laugh).


Tanner and Gavin with their balloon swords


Gavin defending base against the "Daddy Dragon" ;)

Many of the Navy's finest volunteered to help MWR serve the families hot dogs, chips and other goodies. All in all I can say with certainty that this was the best base Easter celebration we have witnessed in our almost 10 years of service. Big thanks go out to CDC & MWR for making the day special for so many kids!


Gavin's pooped out from a long afternoon of fun... nap time!!