Heritage Day

Last week, the second grad class celebrated "Heritage Day".  It was actually a very cute celebration of different cultures at the school (although admittedly, his school is not very "diverse").  In preparation for the day, Ethan had a different "homework" project each week...and it was all on display in the classroom.

Here are a select number of Ethan's projects:

A doll representing an ancestor from Russia, and what Ethan would bring, if her were emigrating.

A poem Ethan wrote about himself

Family "Artifacts"

After the classroom tour, all the kids brought a food item that represented their heritage.  Of course, by the time I signed up, all the side dishes and desserts were gone....all the stay at home moms beat me to the list....leaving me with "main dish".  I tried not to be dismayed..and seriously thought about going to Ikea and buying a bag of Swedish meatballs...but in the end, decided on bratwurst.   Funny enough, brats are pretty unusual around here, unusual enough to qualify for heritage day, anyhow.  So,  I grilled them in the morning and brought them to school in a crock pot with just a little bit of beer in the bottom.    Well, they were a huge hit!  Ha! I was proud of my ability to pull it off.

Overall, it was a nice celebration, and good to see the kids thinking about their ancestors and they way things used to be.  Of note, I will be saving everything for Alaina!

Happy Mother's Day!

Only time for a quick post with some photos--we had a very nice Mother's day today.  We hosted brunch at our place-and the weather cooperated nicely!  I was on call but luckily was able to celebrate with the family.  

We are getting old!

A few weeks ago, when I was at my parent's home, I was reminded of my entrance into middle age.

My dad had installed new light bulbs in his powder bathroom.  But instead of soft yellow light, these bulbs, which were positioned on the medicine cabinet above one's head, were a glaring, bright white.  The image on the mirror was really quite jarring!

I had in the past plucked a stray grey hair or two from my head, but overall had not given much thought to "going grey".  I clearly was just in denial, however, as  these lights seemed to magnify grey, and I found more grey hair on my head than I ever knew existed.  Quite a depressing wake up call.

To follow that up, last night, we attend a school fund raiser for Ethan's school.  It had a "Studio 54" theme, so everyone dressed in their best 70's attire.  I didn't really have much 70's attire, but I did my best with a dress that was slightly 70s.  Jason dug up an old gold chain and a big-collared shirt.  It was really quite a disgusting costume.

Anyhow, we went to this party, with a bunch of middle aged people, like ourselves, who all had kids ranging in age from 5-14.  And suddenly, surrounded by all these people pretending to be hip young people from the 70s,  I felt VERY old.  Because of course, we are not remotely young, or cool, and just beneath the costumes and sunglasses, everyone was actually quite wrinkly.  We were just a bunch of greying old moms and dads.

Well, that's life, I guess.

I suppose better old than dead!