Charles' Ethiopian Adventure: Blast from the past: Abu Dhabi October

So most of October I spent in Abu Dhabi with my sister Emma, her husband John, and their three children - Evelyn (6), Hyrum (3), and Rosemary (1).

There were a lot of friends' birthday parties. I mean seriously, either they have too many friends or everyone's having babies at the exact same time of year.

Friend's birthday party #1: This was Peter Pan themed and included quite a few themed activities including bombing the pirate boat with water balloons. Evelyn had to leave part-way through for friend's birthday party #2 (so hard when you're double booked with important meetings).

Friends' birthday party #3: This was held at an indoor amusement park-type place, which was (1) in a mall (because everything's in a mall in the UAE, duh) and (2) I think was designed by a five-year-old on crack. Seriously, between the outrageous colors, the slightly off famous children's characters, the omnipresent flashing lights, the candy, the cake, the roller coasters, and all the other screaming children, I think the goal is to give kids seizures...and I'm not sure you'd be able to tell in there if a kid was having one.

The party room in back was clearly "under the sea" themed, which is why you can see Winnie the Poo by the yellow fish on the left side of this picture?

One-armed sorta looks like SpongeBob. Pokemon?

Ariel's got some problems: (1) Doesn't really look like Ariel, (2) I assume the artist couldn't draw hands which is why both are hidden (unless...did Ariel recently lose her hands in a freak accident and she's hiding them behind her fin and in her hair so as not to scare the children? That's what I like about Ariel: always looking out for the kids), and (3) she's so heavy they were afraid she'd fall off the wall unless they propped her up with a fish and some shells.

Ah yes, the obligatory underwater candy and baked goods.

This is what you get when someone designs an amusement park by copying other parks without understanding the purpose for everything. "Why do you have this ruler?" "Well the ride manufacturer just threw one in for free, so I was like 'cool, free ruler.'" "Do you have a height restriction on this ride?" "A what?"

That's right, an honest to goodness yellow submarine.

Hey look, it's Evelyn!

Hey! I know her!

Look! There she is again!

I don't know what this bear did, but it must have been bad.

Really, the rides are forbidden to "children being visibly upset?" Between the candy/cake and the execution of Winnie the Pooh up there, I'm pretty sure all the children are going to be "upset."

After the five-year-old rave, I blacked out and didn't get any pictures of birthday parties 4-56 (all numbers approximate).

Eventually, we reached Evelyn's birthday party. Hurray for turning six! Yeah, they look sweet, don't they? Do not be fooled! You'll notice in the picture that Rosie is running for the hills...fine, crawling for the hills.

Six-year old boys I understand; I used to be one. Six-year old girls? I mean, Evelyn is great, but random, other six-year old girls? I'm lost.

Also, you want to have an uncomfortable experience - try being a twenty-something guy hanging out for an afternoon with 8 six-year old girls and their mothers. At some point, you realize all the mothers are looking at you like "who's this creepy guy hanging out at a little girl's birthday party? I know that's not her father. Who is that guy?" That point? About 10 minutes in, which is as long as I lasted before following Rosie's lead.