School's out for the holidays

As always, the last few weeks of the year are busy, busy.  Regan missed 3 days of the last week of school and Anna missed all five - due to colds.  But we managed to get everyone well before the holidays.  This time can also be a time of good-byes as families sometimes move over the holidays.  Jane, sadly, had to say good-bye to her friend Callum.  We're all sad to see this nice family we've loved getting to know leave Abu Dhabi and move back to their native South Africa.

Also, as usual, I didn't do a great job of taking photos of all our events.  Soccer season got up and running in December, too, at our school  Jane is on a 2nd and 3rd grade team and Regan is on a 4th and 5th grade team.  It's good fun and the weather is amazing for letting the kids run around a bit.  Meredith isn't old enough yet.

We had a fun wrap-up gathering of Regan's mother/ daughter book club.  Our group has been together for nearly a year and it's a neat group of readers.  A friend of mine and I started it and we capped the group at two girls per school so the girls (and moms) didn't all know each other beforehand and it's fun for the girls to share different school (and homeschool) experiences.  It's been fun to see the girls get to know each other better over the last year.  We've selected books through December of next year so it looks like we'll be together a bit longer.  We've read some books you would expect and have gotten exposed to books we never would have chosen on our own.  Regan's unexpected favorite book was Skellig - we've read serious books like War Horse and Rickshaw Girl and fun books like The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles.

One of the biggest events at school  Breakfast with Santa.   As a board member I was flipping pancakes for a portion of the event but was still able to enjoy crafts with the kids, a family photo with Santa, listening to the elementary choir and lots of playtime with all the kids' friends on the playground.

Meredith and Jake made an attempt to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels - but we're still working on that!

Our special helper, Ms. Leah, has a December birthday so we had fun surprising her with a mini-party and some pampering gifts.  She got an outdoor table and chairs so she can sit outside and enjoy this nice weather plus a few other smaller things.  The girls loved decorating the cupcakes and having an excuse to eat fun treats.

Now off to sleep in since school's out for three weeks!

Jane enjoys some hang time with Aicia while waiting for the game to start.

Regan's team.  She's the one with the ball and her friend Rudaina
is also touching the ball. 

All smiles for the photo but Jane is quite sad that Callum has
moved back to South Africa.  Luckily his mom and I are facebook
buddies so Jane could send him a virtual get-well when he cut
his foot as soon as he got back to South Africa and had to get stitches!

The girls in Regan's mother/ daughter book club.  This was after a deep
discussion of Rickshaw Girl where they learned about a poor
Bangladeshi family.

The elementary choir at Breakfast with Santa.  I'll have a family photo
soon of us with Santa but this is the only other photo I took (terrible!)

Meredith's attempt at no training wheels.  She was a
little nervous so they went back on.

Happy Birthday, Ms. Leah!

Cupcakes!

Meredith saved up her allowance for months and finally saved
enough to buy McKenna's crutches and cast.  Yay, Meredith - we're
proud of you for sticking with it.