Happy Birthday to the best brother in the world!

First of all, Happy Birthday Matt! I'm sad that I can't be with you today, but hey, just another excuse to party when I get back to the States, right? For those of you who don't know him, my "little" brother is three years younger than me and about 7 inches taller...so he can definitely pay me back now for ordering him around like he was my personal slave when we were little. Of course, if you do know him than you know he's really a "gentle giant" who wouldn't hurt a flea (although I bet he'd kill a giant cockroach for me if I asked him to). Here's a great shot of us the Christmas before last (taken with my brand new digital camera).

So, remember those pictures I was going to take of my student teacher? I finally got around to taking some. She's been full-time for two weeks now, with just seven more days to go. It's been fun having a break from teaching, but I'm really looking forward to getting my class back! Of course Denise is going to be a tough act to follow. Last week she did a unit on cookies, and come on, how do you top that? She even made cookie dough with them during center time, and sent them home with cookies on Friday! I feel sorry for the kids, having to go back to boring ol' Miss Sterling again. I am doing a farm unit, so maybe that will hold their interest. I actually got really ambitious (I blame it on all my free time) and drew a barn for our bulletin board! I'm going to let the kids decorate it with torn tissue paper, so we'll see how it turns out.

Here's Miss Johnson, holding the kids in rapt attention (well, except for Federico)

The number one reason why kindergarten is so much fun...you get to bake cookies!

In other news...my housemate Dovanna and I had a ball (no pun intended) shopping for formals this weekend. Why in the world would I need a formal dress in Bolivia you may ask? Well, SCCLC is, after all, an American high school, and what would April be without prom (well, Junior/Senior banquet, since we do have a strict no dancing policy)? Actually it's not even Jr/Sr because grades 7-12 are invited, along with all faculty, staff, and family members! Oh well, the more the merrier, right? Hans surprised all of us by asking Dovanna to go with him, so she's in on it too. I'm not going to describe our dresses...I'll just say that, according to Dovanna, mine is "elegant and graceful," while hers is "wild and crazy." The big day is April 14th...don't worry, I'll have tons of pictures. =)