Independence Day

They practiced their dancing/ marching for at least a month.  Zaky said a line into the microphone, ha had memorized for at least a month and half. I had to buy Anna Lena her own little track suit so that she would match her class.  And for all this effort and work the kids put into this day, all we get as parents are some pictures off Facebook, enjoy!

Painting pine cones

Last year JuJu and the kids started the new tradition of painting pine cones. And when that turned out so so we dumped a lot of glitter on them and they became awesome!

So in preparation we collected a massive amount this fall. The other day we poured a lot of paint and sat down to paint a lot of them.  These little guys get a lot of paint on themselves, the pine cones too. We still have most of the bucket so will see if we paint more.

Horse show

These were taken before stepping in the horse poop

Saturday hike

We drug the kids out last Saturday to go hiking.  We had to promise them the DVD player in the car as we were cutting in on their English TV time.  The hike was beautiful and the temperature was awesome.  The kids were a bit whinny, until it started raining/ haleling.  As I hid under the trees the boys tried catching the hale stones in their hats.  After about 10 minutes we decided to turn around and head back to the car (from the top of the mountain.) No one was terribly wet, but all were very muddy.  The downside to the mud was we had a meeting with a guy that eve in as we were passing through Sidon.  A mother moment followed:

We had 30 min to wait in Saidon, luckily there was a horse show on the beach, free for viewing on the corneash.  Unluckily the kids didn't have shoes on (I brought clean clothes but not a change of shoes). Barefoot kids and horse show = Zaky stepping in a big patty of fresh poop.  We found our friend at the bus station, then took him to McDonalds for a quick meeting.  Hopefully no one noticed my kids went in, played, ate, then left, all without any shoes or socks. WAaa WAaa WAaa ...

Parent visit

Parents visited Zaky's class last Friday. It was great he is doing well, enjoys school.  He doesn't much like school work, but the other stuff. His teachers are helpful, his tutor is awesome, and his behavior is great most of the time.  He likes to tell stories, this was the only "complaint".  So I'm afraid he is following in his mother's footsteps: in that his contributions are sometimes long running or unhelpful for th e benefit of the whole class : )

Painting helpers

No more leaky roof this winter.  You'll notice the 'paid' helpers in the background. Bill did a lot of stressful supervising, BUT he let the boys help the whole day, and they loved it.

Birthday girl again

Last Friday they celebrated all the birthdays of the kids who's birthday is in the summer. Of course Bill was super busy this last week and I attempted to read the note home from school on my own, so I didn't understand it fully. The teacher said "you don't read these notes!!" I quickly called Bill who was on his way to school for Zaky's parent day, rushed out bought a small cake and plates, snatched Anna Lena from class and changed her clothes. Poor little lady was so confused, I left her crying and waveing goodbye for these cons time that day. But I picked her up super happy and loaded up on sugar.

Cold weather cuitness