Celebrations Around the World

For the last three years I have organized an event called Celebrations Around the World at the girls' elementary school. I was not the originator of the event; I just agreed to be in charge of the PTO-sponsored evening when Adah was in first grade, and I've been doing it since.

Celebrations (as we fondly abbreviate it) is a great activity where volunteers who have lived in, visited, or just have an interest in another country set up a table with interactive, kid-friendly information and activities. Then all of the students and their families are invited to come for an evening of cultural experience and fun.

The whole thing is relatively easy to put together from my position. I ask for volunteers, find out how many tables they need, create some "passports" for travel, send home fliers, and then set up a few hours before it all begins. We usually get 5-10 high school volunteers to help set up and then assist at the tables. Once the event begins, I'm pretty free to tour around with my own kiddos and help them with crafts, taste the foods, and enjoy the costumes and music that are on display. When it's over, down come the flags, out goes the trash, and the tables get folded and rolled aside for the janitor.

Despite all the organizing and coordinating I do to get everyone and everything there on time (and that includes the after-school care of my little ones while I'm at the school setting up) I never have the wherewithal to bring a camera. Thankfully, my friend Marisa does. And this year she took lots of photos and sent me some so I could finally have documentation of my Celebrations Around the World efforts.

Everyone enters the gym and can pick up a passport for the evening. It's really just a folded piece of paper with some official insignias on the outside and then a list of all the countries represented that evening on the inside; it also includes some relevant clip art and hello/goodbye in the native languages of the countries. As the children visit each country, they can receive a stamp on their passport.



From there everyone is free to travel at will. You can spend as much or as little time at each table as you like. Repeat visits are allowed. This year, we "traveled" to Thailand, Italy, Germany, Japan, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic, and French Louisiana. We also had some exotic reptiles from regions of Africa and South America (read: snakes).

We probably get about 100-150 people attending. I always think I'm going to carefully keep track of how many passports we copy and how many are left, but someone always gets to cleaning that up before I can count. Plus, we never know how many parents and kids are there who don't take passports. No matter. Everyone seems to prepare enough materials, and I enjoy the great time to see and meet other parents and learn new things rather than worry about counting all the heads.

 

My family & I tasted Japanese candy, sauerkraut, Thai spring rolls, and gnocchi with pesto. Other years we've had rice and beans from Costa Rica, empanadas from Argentina, French bread, and Egyptian cookies. This year the kids made Mardi Gras and Carnival masks, as well as Indonesian shadow puppets. Those were a big hit. That's Gunnar's silhouette making his crocodile move in the photo below.

 

Adah took a turn with her puppet, too (below). Maggie loved this station, also, especially because it was run by one of her teachers, Mrs. Petrick. It was the first place she went after getting her passport.

 

My children rarely come home from Celebrations Around the World remembering many facts or figures about the countries they "visited," but they've always come home having tried something new and different, and usually having learned a story or custom that excited them. We look forward to Celebrations every year. I don't mind planning it, but think it would be fun to do my own table if someone else wanted to be in charge another year . . . (hint hint to any of my local readers).

Mormonism 101

Hi, I'm Jillaire. I'm a stay-at-home mom. I have a masters in American history. I'm a balloon twister. I'm a Mormon.

So begins my profile at mormon.org. It's a website meant to introduce the people and beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to people who are not members of the Church. It's also a great resource for Latter-day Saints for learning how to simply and succintly explain our beliefs. If you're not a member of the Church, I encourage you to visit it. You can click on the "Our People" link and then search for profiles that match your own demographic to read about people from your background who are Mormons. If you are a member of the Church, I encourage you to create your own profile and to also spend time on the site reading statements on belief and answers to FAQ. It will prepare you to answer questions when your friends and neighbors ask.

Another great resource is this article at the Church Newsroom site: Mormonism 101, where I discovered this cool "infographic." Most of the statistics come from Pew Forum studies.

I

I'm one of the 14,131,467. I'm proud to say that "I'm a Mormon." Following the teachings of Jesus Christ that I learn at church and in my own studies at home makes my life happier and makes me a better parent, wife, friend, and person.

Hoopin' and Hollerin'

Adah played her first season of basketball this year. The local recreation leagues start in 3rd grade. It wasn't as popular as soccer and baseball, and our town could only field two teams of 3rd and 4th grade girls. So the season consisted of playing the other White Salmon team and two teams from Stevenson (20 miles west).  We actually only got to play against the other WS team once, which was disappointing, but in the end, maybe better; those girls have to go to school together and be friends after the games, right?

Adah's team, the Tigers, did really well, only losing two games during the season. There was one team in particular that they played (not our local girls, of course) that had kind of rotten sportsmanship. Adah's team persevered as politely as they could.  The final week of the season was a make-up of the "Jamboree" that was supposed to have kicked off the season but got canceled due to the snow/ice storm-induced power outage in January. At the Jamboree, the Tigers had the satisfaction of winning both of their mini-games, including beating the poor sports who were roughing them up on the court.

You can see, here, that she's really into what the coach has to say.  Luckily, I think she had just been subbed out and needed her water more than the coach's next instructions.

 

The league had man-to-man defense rules, so the referees would have the players line up facing each other after substitutions or at the beginning of quarters so everyone knew who would be guarding who.

Going up for the rebound . . .

This was one of Adah's best games. She really was stuck like glue to her girl on defense.  Offense wasn't her forte--they actually had a really good ball handler on their team who could also be a little bit of a ball hog, so Adah didn't touch the ball much on offense--but she did score in her first and last games of the regular season.

 

Go, Team Tiger!

Cute little hoopster.

 

Safeway Not the Safest Way Today

This morning a nice gentleman in the Safeway parking lot and I backed into each other with our cars. My rear window was completely shattered and the whole hatchback door got pretty well dented.  Sigh.

I had dropped Gunnar at preschool and met my friend Andrea at the preschool so I could take her two-year-old with Holly and me on a few errands while Andrea went to the doctor.  We rendezvoused in the Safeway parking lot shortly after 10:00.  Andrea stood by, waiting for me to pull out before buckling in her daughter, and witnessed the collision that followed. I heard a large bang and it took me a minute to realize that my back window was missing.  I immediately rolled down my window and asked Andrea, "Was that my fault?"  She thought it might have been kind of mutual; she could see it happening but couldn't do anything to stop it.  The other driver actually said he saw her standing there aghast and wondering why she had that look on her face.

The other driver. . . . He was very nice. We approached each other with outstretched hands and the whole thing was very cordial. I've never been in this situation before and didn't know what to do.  We exchanged insurance information, names, license plate numbers, and then each called our own insurance companies. He waited patiently and answered some questions that my agent had.  He was driving a Toyota Tundra (big truck).

As Andrea and I examined the accident scene, she pointed out that the glass on the ground was much closer to his truck than mine. I paced it before I finally left and it was ten steps from my car and only about 5 from where his had been.  That shows me that I'd been pulled out much further than he and makes me think that maybe I was less to blame.  ???  We'll see what the insurance adjusters decide, right?

The worst of all this is that on Thursday morning I am flying off to Tucson, AZ to visit my friend Erika, leaving Damon and the kiddos here at home. Damon will need the van to shuttle everyone around to the homes of all of my nice friends who have offered to watch the kids while I'm gone and Damon's at work.  It's going to be such a pain. I hope it can be fixed quickly.

There are a few bright spots of the day on which I'm trying to focus:

1. Even though we woke up to a dusting of snow (and yesterday it poured rain most of the day), at the time of the accident and since then, the sun has been shining and the skies dry.

2. Andrea was there. She helped keep Holly happy in the initial moments after the crash, took her into Safeway for a cookie, and then offered to just keep her until preschool pick-up time so I could finish with the insurance company phone call, buy some fix-it supplies at Wal-Mart, and get my groceries.  Also, there was another preschool mom in the parking lot who also helped move Holly's carseat and offered help transporting kids, if necessary.

3. The shattered glass in the back of my car gave me a great reason to vacuum my whole car, which has needed it for quite some time with all this wet winter weather.  It's super clean now.

4. Holly fell asleep on the way home from preschool and stayed asleep in the car while I brought in groceries AND while I vacuumed the car! She didn't wake up until I'd already vacuumed all the seats and floor areas. Then she played happily in the yard while I finished up in the very back where the real mess was.

5. We have insurance and will be able to afford the deductible.  It's a bummer to have such an expense--who ever wants to pay out?--but at least we have that money in the bank.

When I picked up Gunnar from preschool and walked toward the van, I told him about what had happened. "Was it an accident?" he asked. When I told him that it was, he said, "You need to say 'sorry.'"

More photos of the damages:

Broken glass in the "trunk" space of the van:

My awesome temporary vinyl and duct tape fix-it job, completed after getting Adah and Maggie from school:

 

Oh, and I guess I should have said this before: Holly and I are fine. I have a little bit of lower back pain, but don't expect it to be problematic.  Still, I mentioned it in my official recorded statement to the insurance company, just in case....  SIGH. What a day!

Follow-up Note: The insurance companies both concluded it was a 50-50 at-fault siuation, so they'll be splitting the bill. It's in the shop today and the nice place (Apple City Auto Body) is even giving us a free loaner car since our insurance doesn't cover it. What a relief, since only four people fit in our truck.

Spoiled?

Holly's learning to say quite a few words, including her name, which comes out as "Holl-ah."  However, over the course of the last week, when we point to her or her picture or ask her to say, "Holly," she very clearly says, "Baby." Hmmmm.