Schools and Fools

We have been busy. Lots of activities, very little blogging. Time to catch up! Though we were on spring break last week, before that we had been having a lot of fun at school-related events. First, there was the Fun Run for Hayden's school.  I went to volunteer and even ran a few laps with her. The kids ran around and around the playground area and got beads for every lap - there were LOTS of beads by the end of it. I think Hayden ran 11 laps! She was very proud! 

ready set go! If you can find H, I'm impressed. I think you can only see her ponytail.

about half way thru - still running fast! She didn't stop for a water break till 7 laps!

carefully counting the beads

Second, we had fun celebrating April Fool's Day. It just happened to be the day that Molly was supposed to provide snack so I tried to come up with something tricky for 2 year olds. What do you think of my orange slices?! :) The teachers said the kids thought they were funny - one kid was kind of disturbed by them but couldn't stop eating them! 

speaking of Molly - this is how she hides sometimes these days. Just tucks her head down and shakes as she giggles!

 We also played an April Fool's Day joke on Hayden's class - but no pictures. She took in brown E's for snack. and brownies! She went around with a pan filled with E's cut out of brown paper - then subbed in real brownies after the joke had been played! I did one final joke on the kids' at dinner time. Watch and see....

Then right before spring break, we had a big day - a field trip for Eliza (to be covered in next entry) and Multicultural Night (MCN) for Hayden.  MCN was big for our family because I had signed on to be in charge of organizing food for it. So I was officially on the planning committee and concerned about the night's success. All kids were invited to create a display about a country. After going over the various connections in our family (Netherlands, UK, Germany, France, Finland), Hayden chose Finland. We found a sweet bread recipe (pulla) to make and then we went about researching Finland. 

 

We made the bread the Saturday before and it turned out beautifully! (alas no pictures). We polished off a loaf and a half and saved the other loaf and a half for sharing on Multicultural Night. For the display board, Hayden did an excellent job taking notes and helping pick out photos to put on the board. It was a fun project to do with her!

We were especially proud of the Finland connection part of the board that we were able to put together thanks to a letter from Granddad. Here's what it says:

Hayden is part Finnish! Her great-great grandparents were born in Finland around the turn of the last century. Her great-great grandmother, Fanni Hirvasniemi, immigrated to the United States in 1916 when she was 19 years old. Her great-great grandfather, Kaarlo Juntunen, immigrated to the USA in 1909 when he was 18.  They lived in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan where there was a large community of Finnish immigrants. When Hayden’s great grandmother started school at age 4, she only spoke Finnish! Hayden still has distant relatives in Finland, though she has never met them.