Gardner Village

A couple of weeks ago both Libbey and Sonia had mentioned that they wanted to take the kids to Gardner Village to see the witches on display and look at the shops. We had arranged a day to go but sadly little Lexie's schedule was all mixed up so Libbey and the kids weren't able to join us. I rode the bus and Sonia picked me up and we headed to Gardner Village.

This was my first time ever going there, it looked like a really fun place but as it was a Friday afternoon, there was no school, and it was hot I don't think it was as fun as it could have been...Mom and I want to go back sometime in the middle of the week and explore it again. I enjoyed being with the kids, we looked a couple of stores and had fun finding all the different witches that they had on display.

This was my favorite :D Who doesn't love a giant Halloween cake?

After being there for a couple of hours with Sonia and the kids they left and Mom, Aunt Linnette and Heidi came so we got to explore a little more. It was fun getting to know Aunt Linnette and Heidi better and to spend some more time with Mom. I enjoyed the day but was very tired by the time we went home, my feet hurt the most and were ready for a break.

REAL-Salt Lake

So I finally made it to my first soccer game. Several weeks ago I got a forwarded e-mail from Nathan asking if anyone was interested in handing out fliers at a REAL soccer game the following weekend in Salt Lake. Nathan and e-mailed both Kyle and I so I called Kyle to ask him if he was interested. He said he was and suggested that we make it into a double date (yeah...NOT!). So I was put in charge of e-mailing the guy and Kyle was supposed to find the dates.

I got confirmation from the guy that we were able to come and then called Kyle back. He had found a girl and a guy, but the guy asked if he could bring his friend with him. Saturday afternoon came and the girl that was supposed to be coming was sick and couldn't come so another friend of Kyle's was going to come. So in the beginning it was supposed to be me, another girl and two guys, in the end it was me and four guys!

We got there and were told what we were supposed to do---basically hand out fliers to everyone about this program where you can order food from your cell phone and then they will deliver it to you for a fee at the games. Kyle and I were able to quickly hand ours out. After we were done all we had to do was pick a place and order some food and have it delivered to us.

One of Kyle's friends "stole" my camera and by the end of the night I had over 200 pictures! You are lucky that I edited and only put a few :D

KMI

I wanted you to have a look at what I do every Tuesday during my middle class. Several months ago the school purchased a program called KMI. Each child is given a binder with a list of different boxes that they should work on. Inside the binder they will find a little book and then some kind of activity. They work through the book until they are done and then I will sign it off, assigning them a new box. Under each category of activity there are different levels of difficulty, going from 1 to 12, currently the 3 year olds are 1/2, 4- 4/5, and 5-9/10. When they finish all the boxes in the level they are working on they will go to the next level.

The kids really enjoy doing them, even those that do it everyday after school (remember education is super duper important over here!). Every Tuesday morning when I walk into class they will say "today we do KMI!!"

Sandy

Katherine

Charlie

They each do their activity on a mat, to help keep their stuff all together (I have to check each box before it can be put away every time to make sure that we don't lose pieces)

Half of the boxes

The other part. I pull out the 3 year olds for them, some of them could find their own boxes but it would take too much time so it's just easier for me to find them all.

Rosy

Zoey

Alice P.

Fiona (being good and waving her hand when she was ready to show me the page instead of yelling "teacher, teacher" over and over)

Jimmy

Cindy

Shawn

Iris

Meggy

Sam

Ruby

Max

Cake Collection

There are so many different kinds of cakes that you can get here in Taiwan and just as many different designs. I have decided to make a collection of just the birthday cakes that I have at the school.

Alice P.

(Ice Cream Cake)

May 25, 2010

Jason

May 10, 2010

Elaine

April 21, 2010

B. Ethan

April 9, 2010

Sandy

April 8, 2010

Ray

March 26, 2010

Rain

March 15, 2010

Sam

March 2, 2010

Strawberries for Birthdays!

Have you ever noticed that when you spell Strawberry backwards the end of it says WARTS? I just did when I was trying to come up with a creative title for this post. Tuesday was Sam's Birthday and we celebrated with a super yummy, super big cake! To say that there was strawberries on the top is understatement...there was STRAWBERRIES! on the top of the cake, all neatly and beautifully placed.