Our weekend

Okay, so we did not exactly have the Ayyám-i-há celebrations we had planned! It all started Wednesday night with Rylan waking at 3:30 a.m. with a bad stomach flu that kept both him and I up the rest of the night. My poor boy was really, quite miserably ill, so of course, we cancelled all activities for the first day of Ayyám-i-há and stayed home for him to rest and recover (well, except for in the car when I had to cover him with towels and give him a tupperware (you know, just in case), so we could go pick up Dad from the airport!). So, yeah, the first day was pretty bad.

Then, as some of you would have seen on the news, we were woken at 5 a.m. Saturday morning with telephone calls and a tsunami warning siren, so again our day’s activities, including an Ayyám-i-há party were cancelled… Friends of ours in evacuation zones came to hide out at our home for the day (since we are up high on a hill), and we watched as cars slowly lined our streets and people climbed out, bringing with them their beach umbrellas, chairs, coolers, pets, and music to spend the morning out of their homes during the evacuation period. Despite the worry, the day actually had a very festive feeling to it...our neighbourhood turned into the beach for the day…and we were all much relieved when the tsunami turned out to be nothing more than a few average sized waves…

Somehow amongst all of this chaos we managed to enjoy each other’s company, have fun with presents,
Bake choc chip cookies for neighbours and for Ramtin to take to his office.

Sing Ayyám-i-há songs, study the Ayyám-i-há prayer, and decorate it.

Enjoy a beautiful sunset from our porch.

And Sunday we actually managed to have a pretty cool treasure hunt that kept the kids searching through the house, giggling with fun, followed by a family picnic, enjoying the island, playing with friends, and stopping for yummy ice-cream.

Oh, and in case you are wondering…Damian LOVED his nesting dolls from Rylan. In fact, I think they may have been his favourite present from the weekend. He has carried the littlest doll around with him pretty much since he opened the present. Just the kind of thing to melt a mama’s heart!