Busy Saturday School Day!!!

This past Saturday we had a school day where each of the older four children needed to be at school for a different reason.  Abby and all of the kindergarten (preschoolers 3yrs and 4yrs)  had the spring performance in which she had been practicing for us at home for months!  Joshua, and the rest of P1 (US kindergarten) grade 1&2, had an open house so that parents who were at the spring performance could come and check out what their children will be doing next year.  Grades 3 (Emma) - grade 5 had a swim gala, and the middle school had their academic fair.  Whew!  It was a lot to keep straight in my head since they all needed to report to school at different times.  And in true Hong Kong fashion, it was stressed that attendance was mandatory.  But hind sight is 20/20, and next year I think I will have the olders sit and watch their little sister:)

We took two taxi trips to the school.  Shift #1 was myself, Joshua and Emma. After I dropped them off, it was my job to stand in line to get into the theatre for Abby's performance.  There was an advantage to having been there early, because I was first in line:) But those of you who know me expected that, right? About 30 minutes later, shift #2 was Andy, Abby and Grace.  After Andy dropped the other two off, he floated to see if he could see Emma swim before he joined me.  And yes, we chose to leave Sarah at home with Marina.  While I love when we can do things together as a big family, she is a much happier baby when she can nap in her own bed.

When Andy finally joined me, there was a line of about 75 people. And to be discussed later, lines in Hong Kong are not the most organized, or followed, without elbows out, so I was glad to be in the front.  Abby's performance was, as expected, absolutely adorable!  When you watch 3 and 4 year olds sing two verses of Amazing Grace and a scripture song from Joshua 1:9, with movements included, it just melts your heart.  She had such a wonderful time.  And it still causes me to pause and give thanks, during events like these, that my daughter is the only western girl (one boy) in her class, and yet, it has never phased her.  This was definitely a concern of mine when we chose this school(protective mother instincts), but it has been such an amazing experience for all of my children and we feel it will serve them for the rest of their lives to experience being in the minority.

After the performance, we collected Abby, checked out the end of Grace's academic fair, peeked in on Emma, and went to observe Josh's class. It was finally 12:00pm when we finished our morning and had the security office call our taxi.  As usual, taxis are a crap shoot for us.  Sometimes one of us (me or Andy) can jump in the front and distract the driver enough that they don't really notice that five others are sliding in the back seat.  Many times, it is dependent on how quiet our youngers are, so we often prep them before the taxi arrives.  Luckily for us, this was a good day, and we were able to take one taxi home.

While it is a bit of a pain to wake up on a Saturday morning for school, I have to say that it is a small price to pay for what our weekends usually look like here...family centered, swimming and/or hiking, with no yard work (no yard), and Andy's home and not traveling.  Yes, we will take the challenging changes because they come with positives, as well.

                                                       Abby in her spring performance

                                               
                                              Emma with her friends - on the green team!

                                                   
                                                  Grace and her partner for academic fair