International day/night

This spring our school had it's first International day/night.

One of the things that always amazes me about US is how interested and amazed everyone around us is about where we came from and our culture. Our kid's school teachers, coaches, etc, emphasise always how cool it is that they are part of two cultures and speak two languages.

As a result, our kids seem to think it is very "cool" to have parents who grew up in a different culture and be able to spend summers with family and relatives at another part of the world...

I was glad that they were very enthusiastic about the international day/night idea. After all, sometimes kids just want to "fit in", they don't like the idea of being "different" from everyone else. So I was pleasantly surprised that they wanted to go for it all the way. They went to school with traditional outfits and helped me to prepare for the night part...

After school, we had tables prepared with things that represented Turkey and sample food. Our table was at the cafeteria and we served two kinds of Turkish food: "Simit" which something in between a sesame bagel and a pretzel and "Baklava"...

Kids had "passports" and had to go to each table and get stickers or stamps from them. Each table had some sort of activity to entertain the kids. We had lots of evil eye beads and kids got to make some good luck charm bracelets...

There were a total of ten countries represented and everyone got to experience a small part of that country...

We all had great time... The international night will definitely become a tradition at our school...

Open house...

Last Thursday was open house at kid's school. My husband was out of town but I got to see all the fun things that kids have been working on...
I will let the pictures speak for themselves...

Valentines day parties...

On Valentines day, both kids had parties at their school. The got dressed in reds took their valentine treats and headed to school after a good breakfast. Since I knew they would be eating candy and sweets all day, I made a point of making eggs for breakfast...
My handsome boy... Not sure what the meaning of the look is...

My cute girl in her signature hair style (side bun) with a flower that came all the way from Hawaii from a good friend that we miss a lot...

Oh my, do I see some hugging going on... That must have been a total mistake...
I told Korman that was a very "cool" sister hug. He seemed to take pride in that...

They had snacks and made fun crafts...

Below you can see the whole idea about Valentines day in her face...

Korman - finally the citizen of the month...

This has been a tough year for Korman at school. He has been having hard time to focus and listen sometimes and once in a while gets in trouble for talking too much, not paying attention, etc. He is doing great academically but seems to take his time to adjust socially. We are very lucky; he has had great teachers that truly understood how boys mature differently than girls.

When he was announced as one of the citizens of the month few weeks ago, he was ecstatic, and we were just so happy for him. He came home and told name that he cried when they announced his name, he was that happy....You can imagine how thrilled I was for him.

We went to have the Principal's breakfast and enjoyed muffins and OJ.

The big sister was also there to support and congratulate him...

It was a proud and lovely morning... He is growing into a wonderful and caring boy...

Cookies for school party...

The second graders at Sude's school had a winter party before the Christmas break. I had the task of making cookies for all three 2nd grade classes. 70 cookies to be exact.
Baking the cookies was not a big deal. I used the same recipe that I used for scrabble cookies. It is from Bake at 350...

http://dailydoseofdomesticbliss.blogspot.com/2010/12/scrabble-cookies.html

I had a great helper to decorate them who was excited to show her decorating skills to all of her classmates.

When we were done... We lined up all of our creations on the counter. We used a chocolate circle that I got from Trader Joe's at California to decorate the stockings in addition to icing and sugar.

Everyone enjoyed the sandwiches, cookies, and hot chocolate...

School play

Sude and Korman has been practicing for a play for the last few months at school; Snow White and Seven Dwarfs. Since they are young, they only had parts as forest animals and witch's little helpers.
They had such a great time...
What was interesting also to see how nervous Korman got... He really stressed about the "performance", about forgetting his lines (which were only 3), and what everyone would say, etc...
We were quite surprised how stressed he was since he is such a stress-free guy. But I guess they all got a little stage fright...
Here is the kitty cat...

And the skunk (I think)...

I love this picture... Me and the future stars of our family...

Well, on second thought...

They are already stars in our household...

Citizen of the month...

Sude is doing such a wonderful job at school. This month she was selected as one of the citizen's of the month. To celebrate, I headed to the Principal's breakfast at the library where they recognized all of the citizen of the months at her school.
Sude's two great friends were also picked, who are sisters and our neighbors...
There was lots of hugging and celebrating at the library that morning for sure...

She is such a great student and daughter. We are very very proud of her...

Lunches for our school teachers...

Our kids eat lunch at school so early... At Kindergarten they used to have lunch at 10:45 while I was still probably having my morning coffee...

Now one of them has lunch at 11:15 and the other at 11:30... Still way too early for me but a little more reasonable...

I love the teacher's of both of my kids and the parents at our school make a point of treating the teachers to lunch once in a while.

In the past it has been so hard to pick up something and be at the school that early. Most of the restaurants don't even open till 11:00. So, this year I have decided to take the matters into my own hands and make lunch instead of buying it.

My menu consisted of homemade soup, panini sandwich, and a chocolate treat.
This sandwich has been a hit with both of the teachers. It is so simple and quick...

Here is how I made it...
Better listen carefully since it is so complicated...

Take two slices of sourdough bread
Spread mustard to one of them, or both, up to you...
Then line cheese, sliced turkey, and arugula
Put the other slice of bread on top and spread a little bit whipped butter.

Press it in the panini maker and you are done...
I made a little basket with cups, plates, and silverware. It was a great opportunity to get to know our teachers a little better. They spend so much time with our kids, I wanted to know more about their lives and what makes them click.

First day of school...

The summer went by very very fast and without knowing it, we are back to school. This year I have one 1st and one 2nd grader. They were up bright and early, ready for school...