Ayyam-i-Ha and Birthdays!

School has been keeping us extremely busy lately. It will continue to be hectic for the rest of this semester. This is James' last semester and he's trying to focus on finishing on time (before he starts work in August). He's trying to continue writing his thesis, but he's also doing other things like drilling his stalagmite, regular visits to the lab, preparing and teaching classes, etc.
I'm in the middle of a semester of intense writing- paper after paper after paper!

We just had a nice breather this weekend though, when we spent a couple days with the Ruhes.

They are a family of musicians:





I think Sasha enjoys visiting with them. What do you think? : )



Sasha and Aman playing Guess Who?



Anna and James decorating the house:



Dinner in the making:




Sitting down for dinner:



With her cousin, Anika (they're four months apart).



Aside from the spelling, Sasha wrote this all by herself!!



Opening presents!





We celebrated Colin's birthday:



They even sang me 'happy birthday'!



Hanging out:









These were taken other days. Here she was playing with some kids at the Baha'i Center while I was in a study circle.



Her teachers took this one at school in the playground:



Practicing her writing. (can you tell she chooses her own clothes?)



Making dinner all by herself! This recipe is flexible enough that if she put too little or too much of something (which she often does), it was still good. She was so excited to do this all on her own. Thankfully she's very cautious of the hot stove.





This is one of her favorite dishes. It's sort of an alfredo sauce with pasta. Since only I make the dish for her, she has coined it "Alfredo a la mami"!