Way Overdo

For the last few days Amira and I have been staying at my dad's for the Thanksgiving holiday and will be heading back up there today for a couple of more days. While there, we ran across Amira's first day of "big kid" school pictures. I had used my dad's digital camera since mine was broken and we finally got around to sending the photos to myself, which now in turn I'll share with all of you. :-)

Then my dear friend MixedUpMe shared with me something that she does for her stepdaughter every year on the first day of school. She would have her make a sign reflecting the grade she was going into and then snap her picture holding the sign to later put in a scrapbook for her.

Thinking this was a wonderful idea and now the end of the first day of school, I quickly found something to make a sign the next morning (2nd day of big kid school) and had Amira hold the sign up for a snapshot moment......of course it's all blurry but who cares it was captured on the second day of school.......LOL Next year, hopefully, we'll be better prepared. :-)

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Feast

Yesterday was Amira's class Thanksgiving Feast, and what fun it was to be a part of their activity.

Part of their class assignment was actually preparing food for the feast, as well as creating pilgrim hats for a parade around the school. :-)

Once the kids put on their pilgrim hats they marched outside and lined up until the other kindergarten class could join them. After a few moments the other class appeared dressed like Native American Indians banging drums. It was so cute to see the two groups intermingle and parade throughout the entire school singing a song that goes like this:

Five fat turkeys are weeeeeeeeeeee,

We spent all night in a treeeeeeeeee,

When the cook came around,

we couldn't be found!

So that's why we're here you seeeeeeeeeeeee!

After the parade we returned to the classroom where the children were assigned stations to finish the preparation of the Thanksgiving Feast.

I was assigned to the sweet potato station and what a hoot that was to see the kids totally enjoying smashing the sweet potatoes.

Following the preparation of the food was the task of taking everything out back to the picnic tables and dressing the table for the feast. The kids seemed to enjoy decorating and setting the table and did so in such an organized fashion. Considering we were right next to the playground with toys tempting to take them away from their assignments, they remained steadfast on their tasks.

Probably the most interesting part of this entire feast was the fact that it was vegetarian-----meaning no turkey. Can you believe that!!!!! That seems so un-American......LOL However, apparently it was decided upon to make it a vegetarian feasts because one of the teacher assistants is a vegan, so they were honoring her.

Coexist

The word coexist in of itself sounds so lovely and wonderful and yet seems to be one of the most difficult things for us humans to accomplish on this planet. Why is that?

I've heard and read so many things indicating how different the east and the west are from one another, yet I never seem to see any definitives on this subject matter….more vague than concrete. Moreover, it seems whenever there is an expounding on this subject matter its more about the differences rather than the similarities. I wonder, just wonder, if we discussed and shared our similarities if we wouldn’t discover how much we are alike rather than not.

Part of the equation that seems to be so finely intertwined and at times difficult to tell the difference is cultural upbringing and religious teachings, and I think this causes confusion.

For the sake of discussion, please share what you feel are the similarities based on your experience or knowledge between the east and the west.

Cherokee Parable

An old Cherokee was teaching his grandson about life.

"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Halloween 2008

Well holding true to how most of this year has progressed along----strangely unpredictable---we spent Halloween with a mixture of events.

The day started our dreary and slightly wet but did not detour Amira's kindergarten group from attending a school field trip to Fog Willow Farm which is a pumpkin patch. Aside from feeling like we were driving to the end of the earth, it was a beautiful drive in farm country.

This place was so well organized and structured. My hat off to the owner and their employees because it was so efficient and amazingly operated. It was the last day of the season tours and I'm sure after thousands of screaming, high strung kids from all over they were ready for it to be the last day; however, their professionalism never led onto their possible exhaustion.

They had stations set up to teach the kids about farm life. We first visited a station where the kids were able to bundle hay. Then we were off to a tiny petting zoo where they could feed goats hay. Followed by selecting our own pumpkin, then onto a hay ride around the farm. After the hay ride, we went to an area where the kids could milk a simulated cow (now that was funny, but for liability reasons I understand why they did it), then to see some cows, a miniature horse, chickens, baby bunnies and an Alpaca. Lastly we had a picnic under some old oak trees. One of the best parts of the whole trip was the rainy weather held off long enough for us to enjoy the wonderful day.

Following the field trip, Amira had a doctor's appointment for her 'kindergarten' check up, which consisted of weighing her, measuring her height, listening to her lungs and asking a series of questions along with dreaded immunization shots, which I don't necessarily agree with but because the school requires them to keep your kid in school we had to do it. Well actually you can enroll your child in school without their immunization; however, should their ever been a breakout of anything then your child is immediately sent home even if they are not the cause of the breakout.

During the physical examination part, Amira told me that she liked doctors, but after the injection lady injected her 5 times through nearly inaudible words she uttered that she didn’t like doctors. Of course, I had to explain that this was a requirement of her school for her to attend there and that the doctors do not intend to hurt people but rather help them to remain healthy. However, it doesn’t matter what you tell someone whose just received 5 shots, they just want to cry and be mad. So, she cried because it didn’t feel good, and I cried because she didn’t feel good.

After leaving the doctor’s office we returned home to get ready to go to my brother’s house for the evening. We were not only celebrating Halloween but his birthday as well.

When we arrived at his house there was a Tinkerbell sighting.

And as unusual as this year has been the trick or treaters were no different. Usually there are hundreds of kids that come through the neighborhood gathering candy, but this year there were only a handful of kids that were out. Makes me wonder if the below capture doesn’t truly depict the Halloween season for this year.

All in all it was a good day with the exception of now dealing with Amira having a low-grade fever due to the immunization shots. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr