Monday, March 21, 2011

Sleepy Sophie

This is me with Sophie, the daughter of my friends Jeff and Bethany. She was born in October. Sophie is a real cutie and also a good sleeper! The picture above was taken when she was only a couple months old.
Last weekend, I went with Bethany, and our friend Kristi-Anna, to Jeff's basketball game. It was a fast-paced, exciting game in a loud gymnasium. But Sophie managed to fall asleep in my arms despite all the action. And then Kristi-Anna dozed off for photogenic effect!

International Family Fun Night

International Family Fun Night is an annual highlight at ICSV! This year I helped in the Korea room, hosted by my student, Chris, and his family. They did a wonderful job decorating the room with traditional Korean items and information about their country. They even brought a Korean game, similar to Jacks, which Chris taught to kids who visited the Korea room.
These boys sport traditional clothes from their countries. Timothy is a former student, now in 8th grade, from the Philippines. Chris is a current student from Korea.
These girls demonstrate how to play this Korean drum. Later in the evening, they performed a musical piece in the talent show using this drum and a traditional harp instrument.
We're celebrating ICSV's 25th Anniversary this year. Two of our staff members baked and decorated this giant cake for the International Family Fun Night festivities. Way to go, Reesa and Nicki!

Book Character Costume Party

March is Book Month at ICSV and we're doing all sorts of fun activities to celebrate books and reading. We recently had a Book Character Costume Party. All the elementary kids and teachers dressed up like a book character - both fiction and non-fiction "characters" were present. The costumes this year were some of the most impressive I've seen in my four years here. Check out the Sears Tower in the picture above! And Julia won first place in the costume judging for her Star Wars character costume. Well done, Julia!

At the end of the party, all the book characters assembled in the school cafeteria for bug cupcakes! The teachers had so much fun making these and the kids loved eating them!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Beth's Baby Shower

This week we helped Josh and Beth celebrate the upcoming birth of baby Noah. Both Josh and Beth are sports fans, so the shower was appropriately sports themed. We even decorated baby bibs with team logos. Josh and Beth got lots of nice items to help them care for their new baby.

Reesa and Nicki baked and decorated this cake for Beth's shower. It was adorable and yummy!

Quilting - Sew Fun!

Quilting has become a very fun hobby during my years in Vienna. Here's a baby quilt that Amanda, Carrie and I sewed together for baby Izaak, son of our friends Brian and Betka. We've been sewing a baby quilt for each of the staff babies born this year. Each quilt is different, allowing us to learn and/or practice new quilting techniques. This is quilt 4 of 6. It's a regular baby boom around here!