International Festival 2011

Last weekend, the school celebrated its culture at the International Festival. It was so fun to see all the kids dressed up to represent their countries! The festival started with a Parade of Nations. You could see everyone's spirit in their costumes, face paint, football jerseys, and accessories. Throughout the day, there was plenty of food and entertainment. Parents banded together with their patriots to host food booths. Children and outside performers took to the stage. There were carnival games, dunk booths, and lots of running around.

I co-hosted the USA booth with two friends. We had lots of American volunteers all day, and we were able to sell about 400 hamburgers, a few hundred hotdogs, too many chocolate chip cookies and brownies to count, and a "Candyland" of American candy -- ring pops, fruit by the foot, tootsie rolls, smarties, etc. We even had Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, and Root Beer (all hard to find sodas in CH). Not that we're competitive or anything, but rumor has it that our sale blew away the competition with both gross sales and net profits!



C.J. gets into the U.S.A. spirit!



Abbie sang with her singing club:



Brendan took a turn in the Dunk Tank when they ran out of teachers. Rumor has it that his teacher has special plans for Brendan during his upcoming Field Week -- all thanks to Brendan's attempts to "dunk the teacher".

ICS Summer Concert

Brendan and Abbie both had starring roles in the school's concert last night. (Note, I said last night. Pretty timely blogging for a change, eh?)

Brendan played the clarinet with the 4th grade band. He really enjoyed playing the theme to Jaws.





Abbie sang three songs with her singing club. They started with a German song, moved on to Singing in the Rain, and finished with a clear favorite -- it was the first time I'd heard the song, but she'll be singing again on Saturday at the school's International Festival.





We brought C.J. along to cheer on his siblings, but he got bored, sent us a text message, received no reply, and decided to walk home. Oddly, the child doesn't seem to know what all parents know -- there is absolutely no reception in the Main Hall! One week in, and I can already appreciate the joys of having a teenager.

There's Something in the Soup

Brendan participated in the school's spring play this year. As part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the school, the play was written by one of the students to review ICS through the years. Brendan was a "gloomy" current day student at the beginning of the play. He appeared again in 2008 to be part of Matt's Cooking School where he did a song and dance routine to "Be Our Guest." Brendan was so enthusiastic about his part. He just glowed after his performance. He did a fantastic job! One of the best parts of being involved in the play was the camaraderie between the kids -- spanning grades 4 to 12. Brendan loved getting drawing tips from "Matt", an IB art student, during rehearsal downtime.