Swim carnival and beach house and every day stuff too

It's been a good week. I mean, Fiji is not making a departure easy on us! It's been so beautiful lately! It's been especially hot, but gorgeous. Last week on Thursday we had swim carnival. I was on the committee to get it organized, so man, I'm glad it's over. It's sort of like field day in the States, but it all takes place in the pool. I think it's pretty common in Australia and New Zealand too. The kids loved it. I was a time keeper so it meant a lot of hours in the sun for me. Afterwards we all treated ourselves to Snowy House. It was so nice to sit in the aircon and eat cold stuff!

On Saturday morning the embassy held their annual Easter egg hunt. The kids had a blast, as always. Afterwards we headed off to the Beach House for the night, a backpacker resort about 1.5 hours away. We had a perfect Saturday, sitting by the pool and ocean and watching the sunset. The kids ran around happily for hours. Sunday morning we played games and took a nice beach walk. When it came time to go, Tricia and I seriously debated staying an extra night. I had already been weepy that morning about leaving Fiji in general, so it was very tempting to stay an extra night, but in the end we were responsible and headed home for school and work the next day. We also planned out our remaining months, planning something fun every available weekend we could. It was lovely.

A few touching stories or funny moments from the week-

I was upset with kids for something that was partly my fault, but I was still going on and on about my frustration. Andie stopped me and said, "Mom, I'm really sorry. We should have gotten out of the pool when you asked us to. I know how hard you work to make this family run smoothly and it wasn't fair to you." I was speechless. I don't know if she is just amazing intuitive or super manipulative or both, but I was nearly brought to tears. My sweet soul - Andie.

On Friday her class ran assembly. They focused on educating the school and parents about children's rights. It blew everyone away. Andie has convinced me to no longer drink nestle products as they use child labor and child soldiers. She has even emailed her principal about stopping the sale of their products at the school canteen. These year 4 students amazed me. They were able to pull off a super heavy topic with maturity and compassion. To top it off, Andie got the communicator award at the end of assembly!

Zoë started a recycle club on Monday. She's visited all of the year one and two classes to recruit members and has written out plans for the next four weeks! I'm encouraging her to get an adult involved so they can actually get some action behind it, but I'm so impressed with her organization and drive!

Lastly, Zoë asked me today if in the olden days people wore shoes in the house. I said that it probably depended on what part of the world they were in and inquired what prompted the question. She said she noticed on Full House that people wore shoes in the house! Olden days- Full House. LOL.