Spring!

Well, I definitely know it's spring here as all the parkas and winter jackets have finally disappeared. On May 1st exactly some Tunisians started wearing shorts and all the winter coats disappeared. Even though the weather had been quite warm before that, they seem to go by the calendar instead of the temperature. The colour of clothing has also changed as you can now see colours other than black. All these and the high 20 degree weather are signs that spring has sprung in Tunis!
We have been having a lot fun with this warm weather. Last week the girls and I went swimming in our pool on 3 or 4 of the days. It was a little chilly to jump in but was refreshing once we got splashing around. Hunter is getting more confident swimming and floating in her tube. She always has her life jacket on and climbs in and out of the pool herself. Today she climbed on her tube, pushed away from the edge and just floated around the pool. She started getting nervous as she floated toward the deep end but kept her cool and floated for a couple minutes before I fished her out of the deep end. She was quite proud once she got out. ;) Elli isn't able to go in on her own but is happy splashing around the edge or just getting dunked in if the water is a little cold for Travis or myself to get in.
The girls and I have found a sandy area down by the sea where we like to stop in the morning to play. We can walk about 10 minutes (at the most) to the sea in front of our house and the girls have a great time building sand castles and running away from the waves. Next time I will just put them in bathing suits as their clothes get soaked anyway. We don't have a nice swimming beach near us but this works great to give the girls their fix of sand and sea during the week. We do see boys from the local schools swimming in the sea everyday. We can take the train to a beach in Sidi Bou Said but we haven't learned to take the train yet and have to find the beach. We have met a woman (through her blog actually) from Ireland with 2 kids a little younger than our girls. She said she goes to the Sidi Bou Said beach often so one day we will go with them for a play.
Hunter and Elli and I went to visit Les Thermes d'Antonin (Baths of Antonin (or Antoine, I think)) here in Carthage. I had walked through them when I was here in November and knew the girls would enjoy walking and climbing around the ruins. They had a wonderful time! We stopped to have a snack at the start and then the girls had a great time running and picking up rocks and walking into underground tombs/ rooms. And once we got down to sea level to the baths Hunter thought it would be a great place for Hide and Seek. I agree! The girls also found a stage to have a little concert on.
Hunter dressed like Hannah Montana and Elli was dressed like Miley Cyrus. Elli's poor little cute shoes were quite beat up by the end of the trip. And so were her knees.
But it was a very fun time, nonetheless.
I think Hunter even understands a bit of the history and how old all this land is. Last week she told me, as we were going for a walk, "Carthage is the most powerful city in the world, because I am the most powerful girl in the world and I live here." So there you go. That's how she sees things.
Last weekend we went to Bizerte which is about an hour north of Tunis on the coast. At first it didn't appear to be such an interesting little town but as we walked we found the Medina, the old town. We didn't have time to go in but we walked through the harbour. It's a very busy, interesting area and we plan to go back again some weekend soon.
Tomorrow Travis is playing in a gold tournament in Hammamet with some other Canadian guys. On Monday, he will travel down to Tataouine for 3 days to look at stuff in the field. On Thursday he will fly back here and then we will all drive to the west side of Tunisian to Tabarka where Travis will going out to the field again on Friday while the girls hang out at the hotel or discover the town. On Saturday Travis will stay with us and then we will drive home later on Saturday. So it will be a busy week for Travis. The girls and I will have to find more things to do to keep us busy. The wife of Travis' coworker is here this week so we might take her down to the Souk (market) in the Medina one day and maybe find something else to show her another day. It's hard to entertain too much with the girls, but we'll see what we can show her.
The past couple nights we have gone out to eat and Hunter has told me how nice it is that I get the day off. So, while Travis is gone I plan to find a few more fun places for us to eat and take a few more "days off". Ahhhh... even a few meals not cooked by me, makes a difference.

The BEST days!

The weather has been beautiful lately and we are sure enjoying being outside! The girls and I have been taking walks around the neighborhood throwing grass in the sea, wandering through ruins and going to cafes for lunch. And sometimes stopping for ice cream.

We don't get too far from home on foot as the little legs I travel with get tired and distracted easily. But we have gotten used to taking taxis around and so are starting to venture out a bit more. On Monday we met with a group of women for coffee. They are officially called the "BG (British Gas) Group" but it is really just ex-pat women getting together. It was nice to finally get there and meet some more women. Unfortunately there weren't any other big kids there but the girls drank their OJ and played by themselves and were great. Hunter was such a big girl, making conversation with two of the women, introducing herself and Elliot and telling them how old she was. I was so proud of her!

The weekend gave us gorgeous hot temperatures so we spent our first afternoon by the pool.

The girls had a great time floating and dipping in the pool, although it was still a bit chilly for Mom and Dad.

On Sunday, Hunter wanted to go to a park, so we went to a park in Sidi Bou Said and played for a little while. We were there early enough, there weren't a lot of other kids there. We stopped at the Salon de The for a snack and then played a bit more before heading to the beach. It was about 27c on the beach and the sand was a little hot on our feet. We don't really have any beach toys yet but the girls had a great time finding shells and playing in the sand.

Hunter did grab an old bottle but we got her to put that aside. Ick! Travis was pretty excited when he saw a guy with a KTM fixing his bike so went over to see if he could help.

He was impressed to see the guy in full gear, fixing his bike in the sand. They ride at the beach every Sunday so maybe Travis will make some new friends!

On Wednesday, the girls and I hopped in another taxi and headed to the Medina! I was a little apprehensive as I didn't know how the girls would do in such a busy place with many nooks and crannies. But they did FANTASTIC!!!

It was a lot of fun actually.

Luckily it wasn't too busy, but there were a few tour buses down there so at times we were surrounded by a lot of traffic. However, nothing got broken and no one got lost!! And we came away with a few little prizes. And I got my shopping basket that I've been wanting since we got here.

It was a long few hours and we were tired but the girls thought it was all very interesting. And when we got home, most of the rest of our furniture was delivered. We still have two chairs coming. And the delivery guy actually told me it would come, "tomorrow or after tomorrow"!! And surprisingly, it didn't come "tomorrow" so who knows when we will get it. Oh well, we have a few more seats in the house now and the house is starting to look more like a home each day.

I'm not sure I wrote about Hunter's haircut 2 weeks ago. I finally decided to take the plunge and just go to the hair salon down the street. I thought we agreed on a few centimetres, shown by our fingers but apparently that wasn't a guarantee. Hunter ended up with an Orphan Annie haircut!!! I didn't quite cry as I was sitting and watching it all happen but I was close. I couldn't believe we had just gone in for a little trim and she got about 4 inches taken off. And I know I said NO to bangs but she sure got bangs. Oh wow!!! Well, at least Hunter was ok with it and only commented that it would be a while before she has a pony tail again. But at least it's easier to brush now!

So, needless to say, I am taking my time trying to find an English speaking hair dresser for myself!