Since I know that the grandmas are needing their fix of kid pictures, here are a few to tide them over.  I will do my best to get the camera out more in the next few days.

Here you can see Ender hugging the dog.  Except it really looks like he is attempting to strangle the dog, and it doesn’t look like a dog, but instead, a yellow-eyed demon from the depths of the underworld.   In other words, a typical Ender picture!

And here you can see Addie giving me her best smile.  “Addie, dear, please give me a real smile!”  “This IS a real smile, Mom,” she says through gritted teeth.

And last but not least, here are the two little darlings washing the dinner dishes for me.  Since Sudakker does so much around here, I make sure that the kids don’t get too used to such treatment.  Of course, I have to accept that the dishes will not be clean, the floor and countertops will be dripping wet, and a fight will break out at some point in the washing cycle causing me to chase them both away and finish the job myself.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to mention just how happy I am with the school that Addie and Ender are attending.  The curriculum in Addie’s class is challenging but not overwhelming.  The learning structure is an integrated approach where all subjects overlap and are joined together by a common theme, so the kids are learning a science concept, writing about it, studying poems about it, studying spelling words from that topic, and doing mathematical exercises that relate to it.  In addition to the regular subjects, the children get to learn Hindi or French (we chose Hindi), and study a musical instrument.  Ender chose Keyboard and Addie chose Guitar, and they both will perform in the band!  Reading books come home with Ender each night, and Addie has about 30 minutes worth of homework in various subjects every evening.  Starting mid-september, the children will have their choice of an after-school activity as well, an extra 45 minutes of learning in a topic that interests them.  We can’t wait to see what the choices are!  Both Addie and Ender seem very happy with the school, and have many new things to tell me each evening when they arrive home.  Knowing how happy they are there makes me feel much better about moving them across the world.  The only thing missing from this school are their friends back home.  We miss you all!