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Big changes

The last 2 weeks have been INSANE!  The school year is coming to end.

Last Friday we had Abschlussfest which is basically a good bye party for Andrei which started at 5PM, Anton and I left around 9PM while Chris, Andrei and Ilya came home around 11PM.  The kids put on a concert which included recorder playing, singing, English theater, dinner, slide show presentation, a gift for the teacher, and lots of running around.  Andrei had his  It was a great way to end the 3 year adventure at his current school.  We have honestly love his teacher and his school.  I adore the idea that he had the same teacher who saw him mature, grow and learn instead of getting used to the new teacher every year.  


Last one on the right



Anton had a party on the same day at his kindergarten but it was just a general kindergarten party with lots of people bringing random foods so partially because of his nut allergy and the love of Germans to their nuts and partially because we had to get ready for Andrei's party, we only stayed for 30 minutes.  Anton will also have his Rauskehren this Friday.  Rauskehren is a sweeping out/graduation party so tune in next week to see how that will go.  My baby is going to 1st grade :(  He is ready and excited.


On Tuesday Ilya had concert and sleepover at school.  Apparently he slept from 1AM to 5AM.  Let's just say Wednesday he was one cranky kid.  The video is a little too big to post here but  here is the link https://youtu.be/DBkC6HkiLYI - make sure to watch until the end!  

Biggest news is that on Monday we decided to pull Ilya out of his school.  For the last 3 years he went to a tiny private Russian-German school where his class was averaging 6 kids.  He was really catered to (all the kids were), he participated in extra curricular art classes for all 3 years, at different times he did dance and theater, his Russian has gotten SO MUCH better (he is still extremely shy about using it though).  Because the school is so small, all the parents know each other and it's honestly been a great experience overall.  However, there was always a small glitch within the school - administration.  At this point the school rent contract is coming to an end on October 31 and as of right now there is no new location for the school to move to.  The current location of the school works for us - it's in town but barely and we don't usually have to deal with too much traffic, it takes us about 20 minutes to get there by car.  The most likely scenario is that school will move further into the city and we would have to deal with driving to school for an hour (or more) and that means that I would have to spend nearly 3-4 hours in the car each day.  Not realistic, not fun, and not good for our family either.  After a lot of thought and consideration, I finally told the director that we were done.  I already went to our local school and applied there.  Secretary was a little puzzled by the request to change schools with only 4 days to figure out the details but did compliment me on my German!

So next year all 3 kids will be in 3 new schools.  Yes, I am a little terrified but hoping for good outcomes.  

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