October birthdays, Columbus Day & International Day at School

It's International Day at our school this morning.  Samuel is representing the Philippines.  He is wearing the colors of the flag and has a wooden bowl that my brother-in-law brought me back from the Philippines along with some rice--safely sealed INSIDE a plastic bag in hopes that it won't spill all over today--and some coins from the country.  I also printed off and colored a flag and glued it to a chopstick.

 Simon chose Australia and is back from a hunt in the great Outback!!!! lol

 Seth is Canada......red shirt and a flag.  7th. graders don't get into all the props I guess.:)

 Callie wanted me to take this picture and show it to her aunt Sarah in the Philippines.  She made a play-doh cinn. roll and an Easter basket with eggs during one of her art projects.

 For Columbus Day this year, Callie made a fun after-school treat for the kiddos. 

 Putting the sails on....

 Adding the 'fish' to the coconut 'water'.

 All completed and ready to eat after school is out!!!

 A donut-shaped cake.  He just requested that it have sprinkles and M&M's.  I baked it in a bundt pan and it turned out looking like a 'donut'. Or at least that's what Callie told me.

 Simon, our 11 year old. Very excited with a toy gun from his older brother.  We purchased a used student trombone for him for our gift.  We found it on Craig's List and the guy met us at a restaurant half-way between our homes.  Simon didn't have a clue what we were doing and was VERY excited when he found out!!!  He just started trombone in band this week.

 Seth wanted a cake with candy on it. That was simple enough---thank goodness!! His birthday fell on a Sunday this year.

 Officially the parents of a teenager!!!!

 The expression on this picture was too good not to post....

 A creative gift from Simon.  He put some fun snacks for Seth in a plastic tote and decorated the lid with.

 For Seth's 13th. birthday gift we purchased a trumpet for him.  It is a Bach Stradivari and we found a great deal for it off of Craig's List.  We drove to Michigan and back to look at it.  Seth was very excited to finally have his own instrument.  Thankfully, a relative had loaned us their trumpet for the past 2+ years for him to use.