Saturday, January 9, 2010

Happy Birthday Maya, and Happy Opening Ceremonies Logos!

Greetings again, loved ones.

Today was a very special day in two ways, it was Maya's 6th birthday and it was also the official Opening Ceremonies for the new Logos International School Campus.
From logosgrandopening

Last night before going to bed, Lesley made up a bunch of Happy Birthday signs, so when we hauled Maya out of bed this morning, she was very excited to see the well wishes all over the walls. Also, yesterday, we went to the best toy store in PP, and spent some of her "birthday" money to buy a special toy. As much as I pulled her to the barbie section, she was pretty fascinated with these action figure toys and watches. It's from an asian cartoon out here called Ben 10--very popular. The character Ben can turn into 10 different aliens-cool. So, we wrapped those up for this morning, and had her "open" them over a quick breakfast of nutella and yoghurt!

THANKS, X-Stream! Quick interjection: The XStream group from SOA sent us a Christmas package that was full of licorice and Tim's and NUTELLA for Julia and the girls. So, Nutella is being consumed at an alarming rate both morning and night here at our house. Who invented that stuff? I mean, it's basically cake icing that you can smear all over toast and claim it to be a meal??? I don't get it, but the kids sure do and they're loving it! Thanks guys, we appreciate it a ton!
From logosgrandopening

Out the door we whipped to get to Logos for a 9 am Opening ceremonies program. Lesley had to direct the elementary choir with 2 worship songs (15 kids out of all the Gr 3-6's showed up to practice, which was a poor turn out, but if Jesus can feed 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish, why can't we make beautiful music with just 15 kids?) Dean was the MC and host for the event, so he was up late last night putting the finishing touches on his speeches. He did a great job and the event was really nice, and very touching actually. Khmer dancers, Korean dance, high school choir. Very nice.
From logosgrandopening

From logosgrandopening

We had the head of Asian Hope fly out for the event, and when he saw the school driving up, he said he had tears in his eyes. It really is a sight to see, especially when you've been on the end of working toward it and waiting for it for so long. The builders were honored, the education minister was there and lots of parents, staff, students and general interested ex-pat community. A Special thanks to Dan was expressed for the vision and tenacity to see this through. Food was also baked up by the Asian Hope girls home (dozens and dozens of cookies) and was free refreshments for all. (That was quite a highlight.) All said and done, it was over at 11:30 and all the staff headed for a meeting, to prepare as best we can for the traffic mayhem that is going to ensue on Monday morning! :)
From logosgrandopening

We then had an impromtu birthday party for May. We nabbed Sophie and Tabby to come over after the ceremonies, and they had lunch with us (Kraft dinner, big treat) and played for the afternoon (sometimes more with Julia than Maya!). After a bit of down time with Tom and Jerry, we headed off to Pizza company for a birthday supper. Maya was quite happy with the day, although it was pretty low key for her, but kept asking if she was already 6. Yes. Then she would say, "next is 7, then 8, then 9..." SLow down, May, not too fast, ok? 6 is enough for now!

We took lots of pictures of today, so they should be posted some day soon. Just a quick entry today. More to tell you after this week, maybe after Monday, to depict some tales of complete mayhem, or a rather smooth transition! Time will tell which it will be. We're already expecting the power to fall short, once all the kids get in there, and all the air cons are turned on! And hopefully the pool will be ready to use--it's currently losing some of it's green color, as it's being treated! :) Should be interesting. We're all pretty excited, though.
From First Staff Meetingg at the New School

Ok, lots of love to all, and will talk soon!

See all 37 pics here

2 comments:

Heather said...

Very very fun. Took me right back to that day for us six years ago. There will be "building pains" to be sure - for us it was no bell or PA system for weeks and weeks - oh yeah - and WHO BUILDS A SCHOOL without a flag pole.

But hey it all works out and you will forever be a part of making it happen which is pretty amazing.

Take the time to stand back and enjoy amongst all the running around!!

Just watched the Flames beat the Canucks in a shoot-out. It was an Abby Heat player called up who scored the winning goal. As sad as I was, it had to be a pretty big moment for him, so it kind of mitigated my disappointment.

Happy Birthdy to Maya!!

The Weiss Family in Cambodia said...

Thanks for the note Heather. As a note, we still don't have a flag pole and we are working on that as the government would like to see the Cambodian flag up very quickly. Our PA system is not really working at this time but it should at least allow us to talk to all areas soon. We are without running water or power for at least half of the day but we are very close to fixing the water issue. Gotta love Cambodia. Blessings.
Deano