Picture smorgasborg

After our trip to Texas, I got to drive to mom and dad's to get Saba. I got to see mom and dad briefly as well as Jenn and her kids who came out to make me a fabulous French lunch. Her host family from France who she is still very much friends with, had sent a package from France for Christmas and I got there in time to get some crepes Jenn cooked up! There is nothing like the crepes in France. I've got recipes, but they actually use different kinds of flours for the different crepes. They have restaurants with all crepe menus called creperies and they are so amazing. The make salty supper ones (my favorite was ham and cheese) and they make desert ones (I liked hazelnut) and they even made flambe ones (ones made with liquor that they set on fire and YES- they were my absolute favorite!) Isaac was being so cute and growing up so fast. I'm glad we get to see each other more often than we did in Texas, but the visits are so fast and short that it seems like we actually have less time. And we've been terrible about skyping. We used to do that regular, but the kids get so unruly on it, it's not very enjoyable!! I've figured out that short skype visits can be sweet, but I have to remember when I've scheduled them! Anyways, Jenn and I haven't gotten on a schedule for them yet!

Victoria and her boyfriend Tyler got to visit with us some one evening and Emora was quite taken by them.

I love love our kid's school. I am slowly learning some of the reasons it is so special. For one thing it is a community school, not a public school, which means that they have a special emphasis on the community. This includes many, many activities in the year to involve the whole family. We get lots and lots of parties, festivals and family activities to share with the school community. When you live in a small town, this affects most of town! So when we go, we get to connect with a lot of people we have met, which is part of what is helping us feel like we have our place here. This was a Hawaiian party at school. We were invited to dress Hawaiian and bring a picnic lunch to share with our child(ren). I got there with my trio and look who all found us! They had a cute hut where Hawaiian looking ladies made pretenda coladas (coconut slushies- that were so yummy).


Another fun thing they have been doing is wacky snacks- letting kids and staff try things like pomegranite or humus on sweet potatoe sticks. We recently went to a world literacy night at the school. They had a table representing a place in the world with kid books based on that area, decor, flag and snacks: fortune cookies, sushi, pineapple, humus and flat bread, chips, salsa & sour cream ... They had games where we matched flags and country names and countries with words of greetings and pages of literacy activities to do at home, a map with stars on the countries we were exploring through food and reading. Then when we left, every kid got to take home a free book! So amazing.

We went to a program today at the library celebrating Robert Munsch stories and literacy and the kids each got another book! I was calculating how many books the kids have gotten this year from programs and I'm sure we're at 20 or more!

Yesterday we got to go to another special program- Brian presented his music and the chapman stick to the grade 1s and 2s. It was fabulous. He did so good!

The music teacher was laughing at herself a bit. She told us that Ivan has been saying that his dad plays a Stick for a couple of years now, but that she had never heard of it and didn't realize it was an actual instrument. When he told her he has a cd, she didn't know he really did play and have a cd and that it's a real instrument. Brian had Sheena come over and play some on the guitar so that he could explain the differences and how Emmett Chapman came up with the Stick. Another teacher heard the sounds and popped in, requesting for him to do a presentation for her grade 7&8s. He is also teaching bass now in town. He's been on the roster for a year, but suddenly he has 3 students. So he is really enjoying getting more into music since he has been here.