Fridays are Good

Greetings!  How is everyone's Friday?  Great I hope.  I write in present tense because though mine is over, I know yours is still in progress.  :)  I really do love Fridays.  I always have.  I guess there's the anticipation of the weekend--even if there's nothing planned.... there's the possibility. I was a little lost when I first became a stay at home mom with children that were not in school because I would get excited about Friday and then realize it really wasn't any different than any other day.   I was off anyway, and at the time, Brad was buried in Residency, so he worked regardless of the day.  So Saturday and Sunday were literally just like any other day.  It's fun to be able to anticipate the weekend again with school aged children and a husband with normal work hours.  

We had a good Friday.  I met with the PTA moms and we finished covering the last of the 600 new books for the primary school's reading program.  Then I returned home to find that Charity, my wonderful housekeeper, was feeling VERY poorly so I picked up Brad and he came home and checked her out and fixed her up with meds that will hopefully make her feel much better soon.  Then we returned to school to pick up 2 very happy and excited girls.  The school was quite a sight.  All the children were wearing red as well as the  teachers that were dressed up in red, black and white and looked like they were going to a fancy dinner.  I saw 10-15 of the secondary kids (jr. high and high school) and all but one of the boys were wearing suits and the girls were dressed up with the red theme also.  Everywhere you looked, students were carrying handfuls of cards and flowers.  

As the assembly ended, Samantha runs up for her initial hug and excitedly tells me she got a valentine with a flower and a chocolate (this is from mommy and daddy, but she didn't have any idea).  I let her know it is from us, and she's gratefully throwing her arms around me again and then quickly runs off to play with friends in the minutes to spare before walking to the car.  Kaitlyn then comes and very happily presents me a card she has made on the school computer and has attached the flower that came on her valentine at school.  

I then retrieve Olivia from her admirer's arms (Victor--Kaitlyn's classmate that comes and hangs out at Olivia's stroller talking to her, squeezing her cheeks and legs, every chance he gets. He's the cutest thing.  He loves babies and Olivia isn't sure what to make of him.  She's used to little girls fawning all over her, but this little boy intrigues her.) and we head home after returning Brad to work.

Kaitlyn and I are working on one of the kid's inductive bible studies put out by precept ministries, so we worked on that for about 30 minutes before 2 of the 4 Allen girls dropped in for the afternoon.  The girls immediately all jump into bathing suits and beg to swim, but being unable to watch closely, I suggest they go ask Emmanuel to squirt them with the hose.  They happily comply (the real goal is just to be wet).  As I am baking cookies, I routinely check out the window to see 4 squealing girls and Emmanuel equally enjoying their silliness.

After what ends up being a brief play period at home, we all load up and head back up to school for a PTA movie matinee fundraiser.  This was a movie primarily aimed at the younger kids and their families.  We showed "The Iron Giant" (which I've never heard of, but all the mom's of boys thought was great). The year 5 and 6 students (4th and 5th graders) sold food to raise money for their class trip and the drama club sold drinks to raise money for their upcoming production.    We ended up leaving halfway through the movie, I think primarily because I quit buying concessions at that point and secondly.......there were no princesses in the movie....after all, what good is a  movie if it doesn't have a princess or princess-like character?(or dog)  :)

Julia and Bradyn went home not long after we returned home and then we had pizza and movie night with our friend Karla.  She and Brad made home-made pizzas and garlic bread sticks (my favorite of course) and the girls settled for one of their movies they've watched many times over (we didn't have time to go rent one with everything going on). Now everyone's tucked in, including Brad, and resting up for a good weekend with few plans.  Well, that about wraps up our day, and my eyes are getting heavy so I think I will join the rest of my crew.  

By the way, Kaitlyn has been asking for her own blog, which I have now set up.  She'll be at zambianzoojr@blogspot.com.  I have placed restrictions on viewing her blog so bear with me as we figure out how to let our friends view while keeping others out.  Please let me know if you try and are unable to look.  

We love you all and will be in touch soon!

Love,

The Zookeeper