international day

Wednesday, October 28, Caitlin, Grant, William and I left the house early to catch the International Day parade at ISB. Before classes began, the school kids lined up on the playground then paraded the halls, many in the traditional costumes from their countries. It was fun for the little kids to wave at their brothers and sisters and the kids they know from church.

I took the little kids home, then Xiao Chen came and I went back to ISB. I got to take two groups around the International Day exhibits. First I took Bethany and her friend. When they were done, I met the three girls in the cafeteria for lunch, then I took Mary and her friend to see the exhibits.

This coconut pudding was delicious!

The Canadians are competitive types. They had a hockey challenge for older kids and trivia questions too. Ben won a scarf because he could name a state that bordered Canada. Of course he said Maine.

This Nativity set is from the Philippines. They had the children write their Christmas wishes on paper stars and place them on a Christmas tree. Then the children received a Philippine coin. They passed out a kind of corn bread to eat.

They gave the children (and adults) jeweled stickers to wear on their foreheads at the Indian exhibit. Bethany was so excited.

Olivia is by her good friend from Japan.

This Finnish exhibit was one of my favorites. They had delicious chocolate samples and passed out little pieces of paper with Santa's e-mail address.

Bethany said International Day was the best day ever.

fine with five

Mary is quite happy about her birthday breakfast!

Tuesday morning, Grant, Caitlin, William, and I took cupcakes in to Mary's class. Her classmates sang to her in English and Chinese.

We played with Mary during her break time. After her class went back inside, Grant and Caitlin wanted to swing on the bigger kids playground. There is so much to do outside at ISB.

William enjoyed the sand and the kids' size chess pieces. The trees were almost looking like fall. We don't expect much color here. Maybe it's too dry or too polluted. I don't understand why. But this year I see a little more color.

Mary was unhappy with me when she got home from school because she had understood that her iceskating party was that day. Sam was trying to help me out so he said,"Mary, we're not iceskating today but we do have some pumpkin seeds to eat."

Sam and I laughed at that, because, of course, Mary was not impressed. I was grateful that Sam was trying to rescue me. Later in the evening, when we were heading out to dinner, Sam was trying to put Grant in his carseat and he said, "Mom, How do you do this everyday?" I told him I hoped he would forgive me for the torture tactics I had to use to get him in his carseat when he was two.

We met the Sevy family at the Hungry Horse for dinner. Then we went home for present opening and cake. Happy Birthday Mary!

roasting seeds

When we lived in Guangzhou we really missed Halloween pumpkins. We only found them too round, too pink, and too small. I found these at Jenny Lou's the first week in October. We enjoyed them all month. The clubhouse gave us three more to carve and return to add to their decorations on Halloween. Carving pumpkins was our Monday night activity.

bat and bear

Rob borrowed a camera lens over his birthday weekend. He loves photography and enjoyed capturing details with the lens.

That was Hunter's eye.

rob's birthday

We had a busy weekend, with Maya and Asher, Hunter, and the Carrillo boys over for a sleepover on Friday night, Sam off to a boyscout campout, a voice lesson to teach, friends' birthday presents to buy, two birthday parties to deliver children to, Sam home from the campout, stuff to put away, Rob off to an embassy related webchat with Sam accompanying him for a boyscout merit badge, Rob and me off to try to buy some presents for Mary and have dinner at the Japanese restaurant before we picked up Sam and Ben to head off to ISB to see their production of Neil Simon's Fools , which was excellent, by the way.

Sunday was Rob's birthday. After church, and a quick nap, Rob spent most of his day in the kitchen cooking with Sam. Sam worked on the homemade pasta, and Rob made the icecream.

I was in charge of baking the cake. Grant was the taste tester.

While Rob was away hometeaching in the evening, the kids made "surprises" for their Dad. I was impressed by this "tribute in blocks" that our quiet creative genious, Ben, put together. The blocks on the floor spell out Happy Birthday.