Mardi Gras Parade

One of the neat things about living here is that you can be half way around the world from the USA, but still participate in things that happen in the USA. A couple of the moms put together a parade and luncheon for the MZIS and YPJ school kids. It was lots of fun.

Mersades made this mask in school, and mom had fun with her hair!
Gabrielle and her classmates.

The Native Papuan Dancers.

Some Australian Dudes.....Ha Ha. Just kidding! Teddy, Gavin, and their friend Sean. Sean is from Australia.

Mersades and a couple of her friends/classmates.

The YPJ school has a marching band. They started off the parade. The music they played was great.

This was a couple of weekends ago, but I wanted to get it in before the next post....which will hopefully happen tomorrow. :-)

You all have a wonderful day,

Robin

Visiting Kindergarten

Since I have a certain person.....ah Weeeeeezor.......who keeps reminding me I have not updated my blog in such a loooooooong time, I thought I would forget making dinner and post these pictures. So if Chris ties me up and throws me in the closet....hopefully he throws in my book also.....it is all on your head, Weeeeeeeezor!!!!

These pictures are of Gabby and her kindergarten class showing their parents what they have learned so far in their math unit with the YPJ (Indonesia) kids.
This first picture is Gabrielle with her teacher Ms. Phyle.
This picture is Gabrielle with some of the other kids. She wasn't paying attention to me. I guess that is good, she was listening to her teacher......

Here Gabrielle is playing a math game with the Superintendent of both the MIZS schools. Mr. Barney (Where is his purple suit???)

And of course her best teacher of all :-) MOM. We had a fun time. It's good to be able to see all these neat things the kids are doing.

So Ms. Weeeeeezor, here is you blog post. I need to go make dinner now. I really don't want to spend the night in the closet!

Enjoy,

Robin

Congratulations Ryan and Katie!!!

This morning I woke up to an email stating -Katie and I are getting married. I'll skype you later...maybe. WHAT, maybe?????? I skyped him right away! No details, but hopefully we will be able to make it back for the big day. HINT-HINT We will be back this summer!

Congratulations to the both of you! Have fun planning the wedding.
Robin

Valentine's Day

It has been such a long time since Chris and I have been out on Valentine's Day! Usually by the time we paid for a babysitter, drove at least 3o minutes to get to a restaurant, paid for dinner, drove back home, it really wasn't worth the effort. We would have just as much fun hanging out with the kids and saving at least $100, than going out for dinner just because it was Valentine's. But this year was different..... at least we thought so.....
We can't drive 30 minutes to a restaurant! Impossible!!! It only takes 5 minutes to get to our one and only dining restaurant in town. Mersades is almost old enough to babysit for us. But just to be sure, we had a friend's daughter come help out. (You know how boys can be...) So far so good...Right? Now going to the Lupe (restaurant) it usually cost our whole family around $50 to eat. That's with drinks and the whole shebang. So we figured we would get by, with a nice meal, for around $30 to $40, at the very most. (That price would also include drinks.) Right???? Wrong....Unknown to us, this was a Valentine's wining and dining experience. One that we would never forget!
Now just a little extra before we get to the pictures.... I grew up in South Dakota. We ate meat and potatoes. Hardly had Mexican or Chinese....once in a while Italian...in the form of pizza or spaghetti....but nothing too crazy! We changed up our meals with a choice of steak, roast, or hamburger, and our potatoes were mashed or baked. You get the picture???? So now, this is what I faced at the table this Valentine's dinner......

Ok, so Chris maybe not that edible.......or maybe...... We will leave that alone! :-)
The first round... I wish I would have written what we were eating down, but that my have been a little tacky, Ya Think?!?!? I do know that it was shrimp, crab, some green thing, grass??, and a sauce. I did try everything!!!! I know family members.......get your jaws off the floor!!! Actually the crab wasn't that bad. Although I think my throat was swelling shut :-)

Second round......tomato soup with a heart shaped chunk of bread. Again, not bad, but I don't like soup.

Third round..... Some kind of mushroom sauce in a flaky pastry bowl shaped crust. Add a little tree, a red ball, and more sauce on the plate. What's with all the sauce. It just makes things mushy!!! Again I did try it...Yeah for me!!!

Fourth round...... The Main Course! Now when we get beef at home, it is a chunk of meat! Not .2222756348 oz. of meat. How does that fill you up?? Oh, and the potatoes....the three balls in the bottom right corner... And of course, more sauce! I will definitely be a toothpick by the time I get back to real food if I keep this up! Hmmm, maybe that isn't such a bad idea......

Now for desert!!! Presentation awesome! Looks like something I could have made :-) It was vanilla and cherry ice cream with a cake covering roof and again more sauce!!! I believe it was pistachio. This was ok, but I am really a plain Jane girl. Vanilla alone would have been just fine! But again, awesome presentation!

After dinner drink..... I will let you think what you want....

So for $75 I got a taste of crab, a taste of soup, a taste of pastry and mushroom, a taste of BEEF and potato, a taste of ice cream, and a taste of Chris......oops, sorry....TMI ;)

Seriously, it was a great evening! It was nice to talk to Chris without being interrupted, and thankfully no drinks were spilled! I was a great Valentine's Night!

Looking forward to next year,

Robin

PS Anyone want to give me a job as a restaurant critic????

1st School Assembly

A couple Friday's ago, the kids attended their first school assembly. The assembly is mostly for showing the parents what the kids are learning with their units of inquiry, but is also for handing out awards that the students achieved. Well I am happy to say, that I was stunned when three out of four of the kids received awards! (I was then stunned by the one who didn't get an award!) They had only been at school for two weeks. Good Job kiddos!
Here is Gavin dressed as a doctor. His class is learning about the human body, and they put on a very funny play. Calling Dr. Gavin....
Here is Gabrielle and her classmates singing a song about recycling. (I must say I am glad it is done, because it is one of those songs that is flying through your head at 2 o'clock in the morning!)

Next is Teddy...he and his class gave a presentation on their math unit that they are doing with the YPJ kids. YPJ is where the national kids go to school. Even though there are two schools, one for the international students, and one for the national students, they do a lot of interacting with each other.

And finally, Mersades. She had to read a book report that was based on a book that one of her classmates wrote. Writing books in 5th through 8th grade....how awesome is that!

On to the awards....

Gavin is accepting his award from Principal Williams. It was a Teacher's Award for a "wonderful job settling into a new school and class." Good Job Gavin!................I mean Dr. Gavin!

Teddy also go a Teacher's Award. (I didn't load that picture.) But it was for "showing an understanding of the relationship between reading, thinking, and reflecting upon aboriginal art."

The final picture is of Teddy and Gabrielle accepting their Principal's Award. It is called the "Open Minded Award".

Teddy-"for being open minded about moving here and playing and meeting other cultures like the Papuans during recess. He also respects his friends' ideas and likes to try new things."

Gabrielle-"for being open minded toward trying new activities and making new friends." So congratulations you two! Great Job!

So just in case you are all chomping at the bit to email me and ask me where they got their "open mindedness" from, save the finger strokes...... it was me!!! Ha, Ha, Ha!

God's Blessings, we have been blessed with awesome kiddos!

Robin

Auzzie Day

On Sunday, the Australian's celebrated Australia Day. I think it is like our 4th of July, but I am not one hundred percent for sure. I could go ask someone, but then I would never get this post done. So if you want, just pretend...
This first picture, the kids, along with some very big kids, had a tug of war. It was Auzzies vs. everyone else in the world. I think Mersades and Teddy participated in this. Teddy is the front person on the right side, and Mersades is about four kids back.
They also had face painting. This was for the young and old. I just have some pictures of the young. The first one is Gavin with his friend Austin, and then I think you can pick out the next two.

Next up, the men's tug of war. Sorry to say, the Auzzies won... Can any one pick out "Carhart"?

And finally the women... Even sadder to say...the Auzzies won...but we had them going for a bit.

So that's it. It was a fun day. The rain even waited for us to be done having fun. The minute we got home, it started pouring!

Have a good day, mate!

Robin