Baby Shower for Paula

I believe in living life in Oman fully, to the very end!  I may have crammed more into the month of May than advisable to maintain sanity, but here's to crazy!  :)  I have been glamping and boating, and helped with a week-long celebration of Staff Appreciation at my kids' school.  I hosted the Bible Study Fellowship leaders at my home this morning, a group of 18.  But yesterday, I hosted my first baby shower in years!

I hosted the baby shower for my good friend, Paula, of Ninja Turtle Birthday Party fame.  

It is not easy to host a party when most of your party stuff is in storage in Chicago.  It literally took a village to pull off this shower.  It was a total group effort!  Luckily Shatha, one of our friends, owns a flower shop, Little Shop of Flowers.  It is located right next to where Dairy Queen used to be, in Shatti.

My friend, Kristi, must do some heavy-duty entertaining.  She loaned me 35 white plates, forks, cups and saucers, and tablecloths.  Oh, and a coffee carafe.  Debi loaned me an electric kettle (which I never even knew existed till moving to Oman.)  At least I brought my iced tea dispenser from home.

This is the Pinterest picture I gave Shatha's flower shop.  But a request for no pink flowers.

I received three beautiful arrangements.  Nice how Jennifer matches the candle holders!  :)

Quite a few ladies brought food.  It started out as a 'normal' brunch menu, but turned more international.  :)

I bought blue and white gingham and cut it into two squares and two table runners.  I took them to be hemmed at a tailor for sake of time (remember crazy May schedule.)  He only charged me 2.5 rials, or $6.50!  

So the theme of the baby shower was baby blue and camo, short for camouflage.  The baby's father is a former Army Ranger.  Now trust me when I say there is nothing camo to be found in Muscat!  Luckily we had a few things imported from the US by Debi.  But I also found this amazing picture (on Pinterest, of course) of these camo cupcakes a couple of weeks before the party.  I had never seen anything like this before!

Natasha took them to Gateau Bakery, in Ghubra.  He did an wonderful job pulling off the camo cupcakes.  They were so moist and delicious.

Debi made a diaper cake with ribbon from Hobby Lobby, in Texas.  However, the blue gingham curling ribbon came from Lulu's!

Paula (and Lukas)

I caught beautiful Beata with a full mouth!  I just wanted to get a shot of the inside of the camo cupcakes.  :)  Beata is from Hungary and this was her first baby shower.  Actually, Paula has a very international group of friends.  It was the first baby shower for a number of them.  I didn't realize that baby showers were not more universal.  

Paula, Natasha, Debbie

Frannie and Shetha

Let's imagine that bowl of chocolate is a working chocolate fountain.  We had a fountain disfunction. Cute camo plates came from the US.

Debi just happened to go to Texas in April for two weddings and came back with a suitcase full of camo plates, napkins, ribbon, baby clothes, and Spanx.  Yes, Spanx, for a friend  (not me).  No matter where you live in the world, a woman needs control. 

I told Paula we couldn't have a shower without any shower games.  The newbies were expecting it.  We played a baby version of Pictionary, and it was a lot of fun.  Funny seeing how competitive these sweet ladies could be over guessing 'changing table'!

Then Paula opened the baby gifts.  Baby Lukas will be one well-dressed baby!

As guests were leaving, we noticed smoke.  There was a brush fire across the street!

This is the first fire truck I have ever seen in Muscat.  And to be honest, I have no idea what the number is to get a fire truck.  I don't think 911 will work here.

Here's wishing the Bowlin family the best with the arrival of baby Lukas!

It was a fun shower!  So what is left in May?  Bible study, a farewell brunch, Prom, a dinner party, and a dream vacation to The Maldives.  Not all that much.

Glamping in Oman-- Desert Nights Camp

(Warning:  This is a long post with lots of sand pictures.)

I have really been expanding my vocabulary the last couple of weeks.  First, Savannah introduced me to the term "promposal".  That is when the guy plans some elaborate way to ask a girl to go with him to prom.  Case in point:  this is how Austin asked his girlfriend, Jess, to go with him to the prom.  

It's a little hard to tell,  but there is a question mark after the M.   Austin wanted to set the candles outside at night, but I did remind him that the slightest breeze would wipe them all out.  Jess said yes!

My next new vocabulary word?  Glamping!  Mary is the one who first told me about it.  Never heard it before.  I Googled it, and it seems to be a popular term!  Short for glamorous camping.  What can I say?  My way to camp.  :)

This is my last full month in Oman.  I have few things left on my Oman bucket list, and seeing Wahiba Sands was top of my list.  Best place to do it?  Desert Nights Camp.

It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Muscat.

Here is our fearless foursome!  Hubbies were not so interested in glamping, so we went without them!  Mary, Debi, Me, and Catherine.  Thanks go to Mary, who volunteered to drive.

It was a pretty straightforward drive to Desert Nights Camp.   Clear directions and more information are found on their website:  http://omanhotels.com/desertnightscamp/location/

This unpaved road to the camp was the only tricky part of the trip.  Parts were extremely bumpy and parts were very sandy.  Luckily Mary had some prior experience driving in sand, so she knew enough to keep driving, and not to stop.  One of the recommendations for driving in sand is to lower the air pressure in your tires.  ... not gonna happen with four women. 

This was one of our deluxe suites.  Technically, it is a tent.  The top is fabric.  The rest, very nice!  Tile floors and air-conditioning.  There were even robes and slippers.

The living room

Our rooms had their own bathroom.  Unlike other desert camps.

There is a whole list of activities and excursions available.  First thing we did was to go dune bashing!  For those of you who have never heard of dune bashing, it's when you go in a four-wheel-drive vehicle and race up and down (and sideways) on the sand dunes.

Not sure if you can tell, but we are at the top of a steep dune, heading down!  Think roller coaster.  So fun!!

Here is a short video of that trip down.  Unfortunately, the sound got lost, which was the best part.  I will fill you in.  There may have been some screams.

Sand!!

I should have mentioned earlier that May is really not the best time to go desert camping.  I have been trying to plan a trip, but things kept coming up.  But there was no way I was going to leave the Middle East without seeing big sand dunes.  It was105 when we left Muscat, but really, it was okay.

These pictures were taken on breaks from dune bashing, which was done in an air-conditioned vehicle.  :)  The sand, however, was hot!

This is a great picture.  It shows just how close these drivers get to the edge of the dune.  There were a few time that I swore we were going to roll over sideways!

After dune bashing, we rested in our rooms.  Then we were to meet at 5:30 to drive to the top of the dunes to watch the sunset.  This is what rolled in while we were resting.

But we went to the top of the dunes anyways.  The cloud cover did make the temperatures drop, so it was pretty comfortable.  Our driver told us these soft sand dunes go on for two thousand miles and several countries.

All set to capture the sunset.

We decided to sit and wait.  Amazing how quickly the sand cools down.

The wind started picking up.  I really regretted not taking out my contacts and wearing my glasses.

Too many clouds for a good sunset.  Oh well.

There was quite a group of us on top of the dunes.  After it started raining, we had to wait our turn for a ride down the dune.  While I was waiting, Debi got these pictures.  The boys and the camels were gone by the time I got down.

I love love this picture.  Camels and Omani boys in their dishdashas.

It was a pretty fierce little thunderstorm that blew through.  I never dreamed to pack my umbrella!

A dinner buffet in included in your room price.  We sat outside, and it was very nice, with a refreshing breeze.  We also enjoyed live music.

After dinner, we were treated to an amazing lightning show over the sand dunes.  Again, one of Debi's pictures.  Mine didn't come out at all.

Breakfast buffet the next morning, in the dining room.  Debi had been desert camping before, at another camp.  She said Desert Nights was far nicer.

This is where we sat and ate the night before. It really was a beautiful camp.  In a sandy kind of way. 

Mary and Catherine went sand boarding in the morning.

Then we all went on a camel ride.  Another thing on my bucket list.  Here, the boy is feeding the camels.  He told us this was from a tree in the camp.  The camels preferred it to the wild bushes outside of camp.

Here it is!  The picture of Wanda on a camel.

Here I am, trying very hard not to fall over on my face!

So ends our trip to Desert Nights camp.  We were there less than 24 hours, and really, that is enough time to do just about everything.  A real highlight of my time in Oman!