Fun City

It's that time of the year again when kids restless at home. Summer time here in Doha is needless to say, challenging to keep the kids busy. With their tons of energy, hyper-kids are really a big concern to deal with during the heat.

During the Home Centre sale, we tried the Fun City play area. We left the kids in the area and we were not satisfied at all with the place. First of all, there is only one attendant and some kids are crying already with no one attending to them. We were only away for 15 minutes and the kids were already upset. Since we already paid for the entire hour, we decided to hang out with the kids inside the play area. The kids didn't enjoy the area one bit. We tried to go to the place where there are balls in the second level of the play area but the place is totally wobbly and unsafe. Well, at least for me.

I am wondering who these play areas are maintained or inspected for safety purposes. God forbids, these place could break down when kids are playing here. Goodness, please not.

this is a good slide but it tends to be a bit crowded especially during summer!

the not so happy Turknoys!

who checks the safety of these play areas I wonder? 

FIRE!! 

we would have enjoyed if Mommy was not too concern about the place breaking down on us. 

This is a nice alternative to play areas. Station cars - no need to use token. Safety guaranteed.

there is such thing as free ride! ;) 

I suppose we should explore other things to do during summer. Reading is always an option.

Keep exploring!
 

Giggles Nursery

Giggles Nursery Doha! This is Kerim's first Nursery and how he loved the place!  It seems not so long ago but actually it was already almost one and half  years since then. He stayed in the nursery for almost twelve hours everyday back in 2011. 

If only the place is accessible for us now. The place is pricey, like any other nursery in Doha but it was all worth it. The staff all love children - which is really important if you are working in the place full of children. The management values cleanliness a lot - which is again really really important for children. 

We are considering summer school for Kerim in preparation for his Pre-school for September and if Giggles is close to where we live and work, we would again consider the nursery. 

Here are some photos of the Turknoys enjoying the facilities in Giggles Nursery: 

it's a small world!

Sigh - it is always fun to be nostalgic. The kids have grown way too much already since then.


Keep exploring!

Dining Out in Doha: Dairy Queen

Breakfast. Ice Cream. Birthday Party. Open 24 hours. That's Dairy Queen. We used to love hanging out here every morning back to the days we were still pretty much a couple, no kids. Those were the days. When we got invited to a birthday party here, we were reminded it's not a bad place to hang out with kids as well. They have a play area the kids love.  And of course, ICE CREAM!


We like the space allocated for birthday party and actually considering the kids' birthday party here. If one of those days we feel lazy like taking the kids to McDonald's play area, will consider taking that 10-minute drive to Dairy Queen as the play area is much better than McDonald's. And it's something different. Something to get the kids going hyper during Doha summer. Not excited at all for that, though.

Swiss Mushroom Burger +  fries +cola = sluggishness and fat tummy, yummm!

while eating burger, kids are burning off  their energy - awesome!

and then eat again! 

waiting for the birthday party to start!

a quite spacious area for a simple birthday celebration - great! 

Keep exploring!

Dining Out in Doha: Why McDonalds

We know that McDonalds is so NOT healthy. We don't eat at McDo everyday but we do go occasionally especially now that summer season is upon us here in Doha. There's really not much choice.

There are benefits of going to McDonalds. A LOT of benefits actually. Our top three benefits which are our favorite to take advantage of are:

A typical McDonalds Play area 

1. PLAY AREA.  It's almost similar to the indoor play area in the mall and it's FREE! The slides are even higher and nicer than some of the slides all over Doha malls. There are similar play areas but we need to pay at least QR10, and when we're really unlucky, that's the per hour rate. Well, we rather hang out in McDonalds and enjoy the play area than pay that much.


2. LOCATION. LOCATION. LOCATION. There are lots of McDonald's all over the city and it's accessible. The McDonalds in the Airport Road is just five minute drive away from us. It's easy to be spontaneous when it's that close. Kids want to watch TV all the time? Bribe them and take them to the nearest McDonalds. (I know, if you are vying for the Parent of the Year, kindly stop reading now and tolerate our personal parenting choice  - we do acknowledge that we suck anyways!)


3. HAPPY MEALS! The free toys are getting more educational lately. Maybe it's the lack of kids movie who will sponsor the happy meals toys but we are LOVIN' the science toys and characters the past month in McDonald's Doha. The kids are learning a lot and  it even became their favorite toy.

we simply love the Madame Alexander books - these characters are  perfect for reading book

we loved this CRAZY SCIENCE TOYS; shame it ended last week but we were able to get three toys!

This cute contraption is our favorite. Hooray for free useful and education toy! 

Yes- we may be trying to justify our visit to McDonalds. Let's give them the benefit of doubt that this might be true:

believe it or not - going to McDo is  hard habit to break!

Keep exploring!