Survived...

The end of the school year is always a crazy time. We had the ice skating show (which included the dress rehearsal on the previous Tuesday) on a Friday night, followed by the gymnastics show on the Saturday.

Davina, who doesn't like Irina, cried throughout the entire show. When Irina introduced her, she asked her why she was crying and everyone went "awwwww". What bugs me is that Davina's actually a strong skater, the best in her small class but doesn't like the disapline of being in the class. I shouldn't have made her do the show but I was afraid that on the night, she would have been upset seeing her friends in their fairy/princess costumes.

Talia was a dalmation and Ronnie was a wild boar for the Lion King. I had to get creative with his tusks. He refused to wear any sort of mask (as one of the other skaters did) so he just sort of tucked the tusks under his black cap. I looked on the internet and saw that boars clearly have straight tails (I guess Irina is not the big Boar Expert) so Ronnie had a straight one with a fluffy end, like the one in the Lion King.

Talia lead the pack (pun intended) of dalmations in formation. I was quite proud but part of it is that she's all legs. Yes, she's tall but when the two older ones sit, they're not that big. They're all limbs. Every time they do an exercise in ice skating, they're so much faster but that's only because of the long legs. One push does the work of two for another child their age.

Luckily the gymnastics show was much easier, including the costumes. Davina only wore a skirt and Talia wore the team uniform. Davina fell with her umbrella at one point and everyone gasped. She jumped up laughing so then we all relaxed.

We skipped the annual 4th of July party at the Consul General's because it was at the same time as the gymnastics. Daniel insisted on going out to dinner that night, despite the fact that the next weekend had nothing... He wanted it to be a surprise but I guessed that it was the Buerehiesel in the Orangerie Park, where our reception was held.

http://www.buerehiesel.fr/EN/EN_infolegales.asp

We went early so it was quiet and the service was quick so we were home by 9:30. The next day we vegetated.

The last week of school was uneventful. They luckily got their report cards on the Tuesday so we got it over with and they enjoyed the last day. We think both Ronnie and Talia can do better. Talia had a strange year with the exchange teacher from Rosock. He was a hard grader but then the French teacher hardly did anything. Also, there were only 6, than just 5 of her grade in a mixed class with older kids. She was separated from her friends and almost 2 years younger than the rest.

Ronnie is not very neat with his work, rushes through things and makes silly errors. This is very frustrating as neatness is super important in French schools and the rushing is something that can easily be cleared up. He had Joseph, a teacher Talia had in preschool. I'm not that comfortable with him but Ronnie definitely did better with him than Talia.

Neither are bad students but both could be better, especially Talia. I think I need to get more German for them, since there are fewer and fewer in the program and a bigger porportion who are native speakers. Makes it a bit more challenging.

I've talked about switching them to the English program at middle school but both of them say no. The Sections International are not bilingual, only 6 hours a week of English but it's geared towards native speakers, like themselves. They would basically be abandoning the German. I asked them "Do you want to stay in Bilingual because of your friends or do you really want to continue German?" They both said that they actually like learning German, and that switching would be "boring". Oakey-Dokey. Not sure if I'm buying it but I'm cool for now... I wont have to make any decisions until next spring.

Sure, I could help more with the homework, yada, yada, yada... I'm not thinking about it anymore...

Now summer. The kids are signed up for ice skating the 3rd week of July, right before we leave. My sister-in-law is coming next weekend for a week. I ordered a sewing machine from England. Sure, it would have been more convenient getting it here but the same model that I bought for under 300 Euros sells for over 350. That includes shipping... So it arrived and I LOVE it. I had to play with the tension but I already made dresses for the girls. Well, finished except for the button holes. I haven't tackled that on the machine yet... I kind of missed sewing (and didn't know it). The last thing I made was a maternity top when I was pregnant with Ronnie, so that was over 10 years ago.

I was worried that Davina wouldn't like her dress but I actually have the opposite problem. She wont take it off! I don't have pictures here (next project) but I did post one on Facebook, for those of you on my list.