Three more parties!!

In the past week I have helped plan and carry out three great birthday parties. The one last weekend was for my friend, Jacki, on Tuesday KJ turned 5 and had a party with all her preschool girlfriends, then last night KD celebrated his 13th birthday with his group of friends. They were all wonderful, but I am glad to have little break from planning parties (until Greg has his on April 23rd). Below are a few pictures and details from the three of them.

For Jacki's party the ladies met in the newly remodeled student center on campus for pizza, cake and a movie. The atmosphere is so nice now with the comfy couches and wooden floor...we had a great time being together celebrating our friend.

Here is KJ sharing cupcakes with her classmates on Tuesday right before preschool was dismissed. She enjoyed the attention for the most part, although she did resort to her artificial sneezing a couple of times during the singing.

The girls loved putting on their greenish blue frosting "lipstick"...

One little boy even got in on the action :-)
After celebrating at school, the six girls and I walked home where we were joined by KJ's other little friend, Kiri, who is not in preschool with her. The seven girls had lunch and then some play time inside and out (with the hose, water guns and water balloons). Then came cake and ice cream and presents. After that it was already time to head back to school where the girls' parents picked them up. Overall, it was a very successful party and KJ was happy, to that's what matters most.

Then that evening we went out to celebrate as a family. KJ picked McDonalds as her choice of restaurant. Once we got there I discovered she only picked it because she thought she could order pancakes and was quite bummed to find out they only serve them at breakfast! Silly girl .
When we got home KJ opened her gifts from us. They weren't anything big (since I had spent almost $20 on the mermaidia doll on the top of her cake, I figured I couldn't afford another big gift! lol!).. She seemed pleased with the things she got even though they weren't much to speak of.

Then, finally tonight, for KD's birthday party, he and his friends spent 1.5 hours playing indoor soccer and basketball in the gym. Afterwards they showered and came to the student center for pizza, cheesecake and a movie (sound familiar?:-)

Then KD invited three of the boys to spend the night with him where they watched another movie before heading to bed. I have no idea what time they went to sleep but they slept til 9:30 so not half bad all things considering :-)
I still need to post about KD's band concert and his drama production, which both took place these past couple of weeks, but that will have to wait until another day. We are officially on Spring break now, and tomorrow we are headed to the nearby zoo and waterpark. We decided to spend the night and enjoy a relaxing time, so we won't be home again until Monday evening. Then Tuesday evening we have a free night's stay at a nearby hotel so will be enjoying that as well. I will post about both of those adventures later in the week. In the meantime, hope everyone has a great day!

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Saturday night at the movies...

Saturday night we had an movie night on campus. We bought snacks, applied generously the mosquite spray, and headed to campus to watch the movie Shrek at the outdoor "theater". It sprinkled a good part of the time, so we covered our heads with sheets and blankets, but fortunately it amounted to no more than that or the movie would have been cancelled. There wasn't a large crowd of people there, but I think overall it was a success and the kids had a good time hanging out and watching the movie outdoors with their friends. KR is already asking when they are going to do the next one so obviously she loved it!

KR and her friend keeping the rain off:
KJ and L, her pre-school classmate and friend:

KR and her friends. The three girls on the left are in KL's class and are all staff kids:

Watching from on top of the soccer goal:

Obviously not too excited about having his picture taken...

European Fair

Last Friday KD had a European Fair in his Social Studies class at school. The students had taken several weeks to create their projects in different stages and this was the day they were going to show off what they had accomplished. KD and his partner spent their time learning about Beligium. They created a time line of the country's history, the flag, a map and other interesting facts (Did you know that after the US, Belgians are the most enthusiastic collectors of discount coupons in the world? And that the average person in Belgium consumes up to 22 kg-48 pounds- of chocolate annually?). They also had food (Belgium Waffles) and a model of something found in that country. They chose to make the Atomium seen here (you can read about it here):
And here over KD's right shoulder:

Parents and other classes were invited to attend. It's always fun to see what the kids come up with and the food they make is a tasty treat.

KR filling out her map page during her class visit:

KD and KR enjoying some sibling love: :-)

Chapel

On Thursday KR's class put on the weekly chapel (for grades preschool through 4). They had a cute message to share about Easter and how Christ died for our sins and then rose again. Overall they did a pretty good job despite some of the songs being a little rough! lol! Of course, they were as cute as can be as little rabbits:-)

She had a little duet part with her friend. I missed part of it and the camera kept going in and out of focus. I finally zoomed out a little and that helped, but it still won't stay in focus very well in low light. It's probably unrealistic to expect perfection, but I wish it were a little better. Anyway, I thought I would add it here anyway, for the grandparents! Enjoy!

I thought about adding one more little video from the chapel, but this one took me over half an hour to load and I'm just too tired to wait on another one! So sorry...maybe later!!

NJHS

On Friday KD was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society (NJHS). They had a little ceremony explaining how students are chosen for this honor and then they introduced the new inductees. We are so proud of our middle son (even if he had not gotten this award we would still be proud of him. He's one special boy.). He was surprised he had gotten inducted this year as he didn't think he would. Even though this will not go on his official transcript (as far as future colleges are concerned), it's still a great honor and he will always have his named engraved on a plaque in the Dalat School office! lol!

Here is KD signing the book after the ceremony.

All the new inductees had the chance to light a candle.

Here are all the 7th grade inductees (out of about 40 students).

KD with his best friend, who also got inducted.

These pictures were taken with my new camera and I must say that in low light (on automatic setting) I don't think it does any better than my old one. I will have to work on learning how to adjust for the low light etc...so that perhaps I can take better pictures in the future.

Lunch time conversation...

Today KJ had her friend, K, over after school. We were sitting enjoying our lunch when her friend (age 5) used a word that I find a little crude so I mentioned to her that it was probably not the nicest word to use to describe the situation she was talking about (she had apparently heard it on a video on the computer at home but I don't think was aware how bad it sounded).

KJ pipes up: "Hey, K, did you know that 'square words' are bad words?"

She then turned to me and asked, "But, mommy, are circle words and triangle words okay?"

I about fell out of my chair laughing. Of course, I had to assure her that circle and triangle words were fine and that really "square words" are just as okay to use as triangle and circle words. Isn't that just too cute?

I just had to share it here before I forget it :-)