Angry Birds, Sling Shots, and Exploding Marshmallows

It all started with cake decorating. Mackenzie, who turned 12 this past weekend, has recently developed a passion for creating fun cake toppers. She stumbled across some photos of elaborate Angry Bird cakes which gave her an idea for a birthday theme. The girls started the day before the party by making angry birds and bad pigs out of fondant.

If you are up on your apps, you know the pigs stole the birds' eggs. The birds get angry and retaliate by sling shooting themselves towards the pigs. Each pig is worth about a gazillion points.

On party day, the girls filled up 100 water balloons and decorated them to look like birds and pigs. Then they walked down to the parkway by the Corniche and got to work.

A giant water balloon sling shot.

The girls discovered it was more fun to pretend they were the pigs

instead of just the little green water filled balloons.

Missiles were flying everywhere.

All birds and pigs survived. Even some boys picnicking nearby had to join in the fun.

It's surprising how many Angry Bird themed gifts are available right now.

The edible masterpiece.

The official candle blowing out session.

I have no idea who that crazy looking girl is right behind Mackenzie.

Then it turned into a dance party.

Exhausted, the girls settled down to watch the movie "Chicken Run",

which happens to be about angry birds.

I managed to go to bed around 11 and slept soundly, thinking the girls were done for the evening. Of course, with a house full of 12 year olds, this couldn't really be the case. Rumor has it they were up until 3:00 am, scrambling eggs and exploding marshmallows in the microwave. Surprisingly, the kitchen was relatively clean when I woke up the next morning.

Then I stumbled acros this photo. So maybe our dog Helen helped keep it clean.

Good thing she has a stomach of steel.

From 3 to 9 am, 11 girls and 1 dog slept soundly in the living room.

Morning on the balcony

P.J. Can-Can

I love the diversity of the students at ACS. For example, just the friends at Mackenzie's birthday party are either originally from, have lived in, or have parents from the following countries (I'm sure I'm leaving out lots of countries that I don't even know about): U.S., Venezuela, Columbia, England, Italy, Greece, Russia, Taiwan, South Korea, Guam, and Jordan. The best part is that they all get along so well and helped to make Mackenzie's birthday party a big success.

Mubadala World Tennis Championship

The Mubadala World Tennis Championship took place in Abu Dhabi on the last three days of 2011. I started playing tennis a few years ago and had been looking forward to this event for a long time. I ended up buying a three day pass, Hannah volunteered all three mornings, and both girls joined me for most of the afternoon matches. Despite my best efforts, John was not in the least bit interested.

We watched free organized clinics, casual pick up matches, and warm up sessions in the mornings and ticketed official matches in the afternoons. Three solid days of tennis resulted in over 500 photos from the three of us. Realizing that not everyone is as interested in tennis as we are (such as John), I'll try to narrow it down here.

Roger Federer (Current World Ranking #3 from Switzerland) in a morning clinic with kids. The man in purple to Federer's left is Mackenzie's tennis coach, Peter Wessels, from the Netherlands. We learned, after we signed her up for tennis this fall, that he is the #1 player in the UAE and plays tennis with Federer when he's in town, which is a lot because Federer owns a home up in Dubai.

There were lots of activities off the courts including a tennis village, interviews and autograph sessions. People would stand in line for a signature for hours.

 

 

 

Official Match: David Ferrer (#5 from Spain) vs. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, (#6 from France). Ferrer is up and coming. Tsonga is a big cutie with a mean serve. He clocked 217 earlier in the match. Ferrer wins.

 

Hannah and a friend hanging out in the stands.

Gael Monfils (was #7 earlier this year but is currently #16, from France) warming up. Note the biceps. He's incredibly flexible and makes some amazing shots backwards, or through the legs, or ending up in the splits. He's an entertaining guy on court with a bit of a french potty mouth.

 

  

Official Match: Novak Djokovic (#1 from Serbia) vs. Monfils. Monfils winds up his serve like a corkscrew, but it wasn't enough to fend off Djokovic's speed and power.

Mackenzie with a friend that got to do a clinic with Federer earlier in the day.

More clinics and warm ups the next day:

         

Monfils                                              Ferrer

 

          Tsonga                                       Rafael Nadal (#2, Spain)

Tsonga and Monfils (unfortunately just out of the picture) in a casual pick up game on a warm up court with Zayed Sports City and Abu Dhabi in the background.

 

Official Match: Federer vs. Djokovic. Federer is still the crowd favorite, but Djokovic wins.

Official Match: Ferrer vs. Nadal

The players are always in the air. Here they're keeping warm before playing.

 

Nadal's shoulder has been causing trouble. Ferrer wins.

 

Day Three Official Match: Federer vs. Nadal. But this is not for the #1/#2 spot that they were trading off until Djokovic started beating both of them last year. This is for #3/#4. Nadal wins. It was still great to be able to see the two of them play against each other.

And yes, for the record, it's true. Nadal really does change shirts on court after matches.

Final Match: Djokovic vs. Ferrer. Djokovic wins. He's a powerhouse.

Awards ceremony, Abu Dhabi style.

 

Mackenzie, Hannah, and another friend that volunteered post-match, showing off their autographs. Hannah got all six signatures on her volunteer jacket. Her friend got all six on her over-sized ball (the balls are sold specifically for autographs). Mackenzie got one autograph - Federer's, which looks nice next to a signature from Tony Hawk (top skateboarder) that she got earlier this year.

The three of us really enjoyed the tournament. I've never been to a professional tennis match before, partially because tickets in Chicago were either too expensive or impossible to get. Here it wasn't too hard or too expensive. I bought my 3 day pass about a week after the tickets went on sale and was able to get tickets on the sideline 6 rows back from the court, centered on the net. The event sold out, but we were able to find tickets as needed for the girls. The stadium holds 5,000 which feels pretty intimate for tennis. Spectators can hear the judges and players calls on the court. It's also nice to hear the crowd cheer in (by my count) four different languages: English, French, Spanish, and Arabic. There was probably some Serbian in there too that I didn't catch. Hannah wants to volunteer again next year. Maybe Mackenzie and I can figure out how to get into one of the clinics, for the thrill of being on the same court as the tennis superstars.