More birthday fun

Birthdays are always celebrated in school here, and the birthday boy or girl always brings a treat for all of the kids in their class. Ilianna's birthday was celebrated in the last half hour of her school day on Thursday. I was also invited and when I arrived, her group and another group were playing outside. When I was taking a picture of Ilianna, alot of the other kids ran over and wanted to have their picture taken as well!

Once inside, we had a drink and a cupcake, and Ilianna was given a couple of presents from her classmates and leaders of the group. The first present was two cars, so once she had opened that, she didn't want to open the second present, but a few minutes later she did. It was a puzzle with different animals.

Above, in the beginning of this blog, is a picture of the poster that was hanging on the door to the classroom. It has a picture of a sheep in the balloon, which is Ilianna's symbol. Every child has an animal symbol that is repeated within the group; on their chair, their personal cupboard, and their coathook. The poster is telling people that they are celebrating Ilianna's birthday today, a fact that all the children in her group had been told throughout the day.

When we came home that afternoon, Ilianna opened up her last presents from the day before, which were from her Pake and Beppe here in Holland. It was an ironing board and an iron. Right away she got to work ironing her pyjama's!

In the weekend we had more company; Omme Germ and Tante Esther, Grytsje and Miriam, Omme Klaas, Tante Sigrid, Femke, Frerik and Tjisse, all on Saturday afternoon.

Friends of ours, Marc and Geke with their boys Jesper and Matthijs came on Sunday afternoon, along with Sybo and Jantine and their kids Ryanne, Sigrid and Robert. Ilianna played nicely with all of the kids and opened the presents almost quicker than we could grab the camera! She's getting the hang of it now!! Christmas should be a breeze this year!