school carnaval picnic

this year, samil started pre-school. i was against it from the beginning - but amalio insisted and we ended up sending our baby our into the world. alas, every week i learn more about how to be patient and understanding, and so far, i haven't killed anyone (mostly because amalio is the one to go to school for most things...)

i am used to the different organization here. i'm used to the tardiness of everything and of not actually planning anything. especially in schools. but when it concerns my kid, i'm less willing to deal with it.

so, when the "back to school" night meeting was held for around 300 parents and the school had neglected to rent a microphone/sound system and didn't have seats for everyone, i knew i was in for a long year (or 12). i got up and left that meeting.

the christmas show started two hours late. on report card day we weren't allowed to take the grades home with us. (and who grades in pre-school anyway?)

last monday we received a note - have a page of paper - in samil's lunch pack. "as you know, our family day picnic will be this weekend." as i know? because my four year old tells me these things? or you actually expect for them to tell me this stuff? "please supply the following foodstuffs."

that was the only information we received. please send three packs of paper plates. being good parents (and my new goal to actually leave the house occasionally) we figured that it was probably at the school, and we'd go for lunch - what else would three packs of plates be for?

amely was hungry. really, she wanted chips. but stood there for awhile and told everyone how hungry she was.

 samil makes this face now. it's like the "duh mami, why would you even ask me THAT?" face.

 amely really was hungry. she cried for awhile when she finished begging everyone waiting in line for food. we waited in line for at least 30 minutes because.... the school has numerous classrooms with two doors, but of course (of course!) they used the smallest class with only one door to host the food tables - can you imagine the chaos? it was insanity. a fight almost broke out when a lady tried to cut in the front (and i wasn't involved!)

  who knew i could love BEETS? beets? really? potato salad with beets is the love of my life.

 the school took the opportunity to celebrate carnaval escolar (school carnaval is less crazy than traditional-in-the-streets carnaval) these little guys were "mother hen and her chickies" and their costumes were made from recycled plastic bags (one thing the school does really well is re-using and re-purposing for things like this)

 amely played in the playground while samil ran around like a madman with his little friend, Fausto.

 what school show in the dr is complete without belly dancers? the principal told them to "be careful, i don't want to be shamed by you" - but the dance was very well organized and serious (unlike most dancing going on nowadays)

we watched a basketball game.

 the principal had no need for embarassment with the belly dancers, but then these girls came out and humped the floor. those black tights are fishnets and a few of them had nothing else on under their up-cycled plastic skirts. gross. where were their parents?

 these "lechones" are one of the principal characters of carnaval. each region of the country has a distinct mask.

 overall the day wasn't bad - in fact it was quite nice albeit super disorganized. we left in the middle of the dancing and headed home, thinking the kids would sleep. ha!

(in regards to my new goal of getting out - on friday night amalio and i went to the movies to see Sherlock Holmes - i LOVED it, he didn't - saturday night we had a lovely get together with my "mami friends" - and sunday we did the picnic and unfortunately had to go to a funeral -- more on the funeral and my mom friends in later posts_