This week I’ll write about our month of September 2021, which started out with a new school year, and Varun being away.
School’s Back!
This month began with a brand-new school year for both the girls. This year, both the girls will be going to school for the whole day. And, unlike last year, they will both get to enter the school from the same entrance. I won’t have to go back and forth between two ends to drop them off and pick them up!
Abigail has actually ended up skipping one of the classes they offer, which is for 2+ to 3 year-olds. She is going straight into one of her sister’s favorite classrooms: Frog Room (or Green Room). We thought she would have the same teacher too, but they have switched the teachers around a little bit, so Abigail will have a new teacher all to herself. She will most likely be one of the youngest in her class, but the teachers think she is up to the challenge. And by the way she talks and acts, most of the time anyway, I agree!
Sara Gail is now officially in kindergarten! I can’t believe the time has flown by so quickly and she’s just grown up so fast! Since she is in kindergarten, Varun’s company will be covering the cost of school, thankfully. But, we are still covering for quite a bit of Abigail’s fees. Since Sara Gail is a big, grown-up kindergartener now, I wanted her to be able to wear the same exact outfit that I wore on my first day of school! I’ll have to ask my mother to dig up the picture she took with me on my first day of kindergarten so we can compare! Time certainly does just fly by! In this school, this grade level is called the Cheetah class. Luckily, she has her best friend in class with her still, along with a few other classmates that she knows well. At this point, they are still only having small “bubbles” in the classrooms made up of 6 students each.
This year, the COVID protocols are still in full swing. Everybody in the public areas needs to wear a mask, the kids all need to wash their hands and have their temperature taken before they walk through the sanitization booth and towards their classroom. I feel a lot safer knowing that they are so cautious, but the girls still do miss the little things, like playing on the playground with me. We’ll just have to see where the year goes, in case any of these restrictions do eventually get lifted. But, for now, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
This year, Sara Gail now has the responsibility of doing homework every night! It’s really not too overwhelming, only a couple of small worksheets, but I’m really impressed with what they are teaching her, and how well she is doing! The teachers are trying to insist that the kids do the homework themselves, without our help. But she does ask me to be next to her when she does most of the work, especially the French worksheets. All in all though, she is doing amazingly!
As you can tell in a lot of these photos, I had to take pictures of the worksheets with my phone and submit them for Sara Gail online every night. So, it’ll be a busy school year for both of us! Abigail is kept plenty busy in her class and is enjoying every minute of it!
Overall, the school year started off really well, even though Varun wasn’t able to be here to see it. The girls are really excited to start a new year with their teachers and friends, both new and old!
Swimming
Even though our schedule is getting a little busier because of school starting, Sara Gail is still continuing with her swimming training. This month, she has had a few opportunities to swim with the other kids on her team. She has been really intimidated because some of the kids are in their mid-to-late teens, but they don’t swim with her, at least not in the same lane. Even the whistle to start the practice had made her a little nervous. But, she has stuck it out just the same and is determined to officially be on the team as soon as she can be!
Abigail is having her own fun playing and swimming around in the smaller pool, and even in the big pool sometimes too! It’ll still be a few more weeks before the swimming lessons at the school begin for her, so for now, she is having fun and swimming on her own when Sister has her own lessons. Her favorite thing to do right now is to go all the way to the bottom of the pool and take her sweet time coming back up to the surface. It’s terrifying for me to watch, but she just loves it.
Since Sara Gail is doing so well, and the two of them are just inseparable, I always try and give them at least a few minutes of play together before we dry off and head home. My babies are both water babies now!
Gymnastics & Ballet
This month, as always, the gymnastics classes are continuing and Sara Gail is continuing to improve and get stronger every week!
I can sense that Abigail is starting to get a little jealous and antsy herself, though. I would love for her to take a class at the same location where Sara Gail does gymnastics, maybe even the gymnastics class itself. But, they are only taking on children from age 4 and up, so Abigail will just have to wait. However, I was able to find another school that will be offering classes to students outside of their normal daily program, so I will be signing up Abigail for ballet there. I was waiting, rather impatiently, for a few weeks to hear when these classes would start. Then I got a call from someone about ballet classes. First they mentioned Sara Gail, so I corrected them and said Abigail. We got all ready to head out for the class which was going to be on Saturday morning before gymnastics. It wasn’t until I got to the new ballet class with Abigail that I realized that I had been mistaken. The person who called me was calling from Sara Gail’s old ballet lessons that she had been taking when we first arrived in Ghana. I had taken her out of this class when COVID first arrived here because I did not like how they handled the pandemic. They mostly seemed to care about the money, not the safety protocols that needed to be put in place. Plus, they were expensive and intensive classes, since they are the only school certified with the “Royal Academy of Dance,” in England. So, I quickly drove Abigail back home and profusely apologized to her for being mistaken. I felt so bad that she still had to wait her chance to start her ballet classes, she is so excited.
But her big sister tried to cheer her up. We are all waiting as patiently as we can for our little ballerina to start her own special classes!
Michigan Football
The fall in our house isn’t only about a new school year starting, but also a new Michigan football season starting! This year we had to start the season with Varun away. But that didn’t mean we weren’t going to watch the games or get all dressed up in our Michigan gear!
Understandably for their age, sometimes the girls did get bored. But, when all else fails, and you want to enjoy a Michigan game in quiet, sometimes you just need to let the kids play with your hair! It wasn’t as peaceful a watching experience as I would like, but it was at least quiet, for the most part.
The girls and I were much happier once Varun got home to watch the games with us. And it was a fairly good start to the season for our team as well. I have fun every year getting the girls excited about watching the Michigan football team play!
Varun’s Birthday
This time Varun was away did feel like an eternity for all of us. But, about halfway through the month he did make it back home. He always loves to surprise the girls by showing up at school to pick them up, once he is finally back home.
This year, though, he did make it back home in time for his own birthday! The girls were so excited to have him back, as was I! I did what I always do for everyone’s birthday and tried to surprise Varun with decorations all over the house. The girls loved the balloons themselves, especially the ones that fell down so they could play with them!
Varun and I then decided to go out for lunch together while the girls were in school. We went to a really nice restaurant right behind his office, which definitely helped him avoid traffic and stick to his busy schedule at work. The food was good, and of course I had the best company.
That night, the four of us went out again for dinner to a little Italian place near our house which has the best pizza and gelato in the city! It was a really low-key birthday and there weren’t huge gifts that were given, but those are his favorite type of birthdays. Plus, he actually got to be home to spend the day with all his girls!
Food
This month, as with every month, the work was on to keep cooking up delicious and nutritious meals for all of us. It does help to be able to go to the stores every Friday and get all the groceries in person, rather than having to order online. But I do still miss the market, maybe I’ll go back again one day. One of my favorite shops to go to is the fish shop. I try my best to rotate all the different meats the girls get, and that includes seafood. So, there is a local fish shop where I buy the fish fresh – about as fresh as you can get! This week, they had a huge red snapper in the catch! I didn’t take it, it was a bit too big for me! But I had to get photographic evidence to show the girls!
]Sewing
With the girls back in school, I had a bit more freedom to do some sewing projects again. The first one I had to complete was the girls Halloween costumes. I had finished most of them this summer at my mom’s house, but there were a few last-minute details that I had to finish. Mainly, I needed to make a necklace for my little Moana! I am just so thrilled at how well this costume turned out! I found the absolutely perfect fabrics to make the top and dress match the movie and I had so much fun putting it together! Abigail was so excited to get the necklace when she got home from school. Sara Gail was even a bit jealous. But, thankfully, I still have enough materials to make her a matching Moana necklace too!
Even though school had started, the girls did have one holiday that they were home for this month. Between all the Ghanaian holidays, and American holidays, I feel like the girls are still home a lot! But we found a fun little craft to do to try and make some painted-leaf trees. The girls are always happy when they have paints in front of them!
Finally, this month while I was out shopping, I heard a racket going on near the shopping mall. I look across the very busy street to see that there is some sort of concert going on. They were a bit far away, and I only just caught a photo at the very end, but it was really cool to see local musicians out playing and singing in the open!
That’s all for this month, come back next week to read about our adventures in October. The girls got to go trick-or-treating around our neighborhood, and I finally got to get out and do some fun things for myself!
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