A Diamond Jubilee

I've said it before: the best part of living abroad is the exposure the kids get to International culture. The imported foods section of one of our grocery stores has a little flag next to the label/price of each item identifying its country of origin and Conrad and Vivi have a lot of fun looking at them, identifying some, naming the friends they have from each country, what languages they might speak and on and on. (Who needs Pre-School?) But mostly it is a lot of fun to learn about their friends' cultures from their friends themselves.

Some of you may or may not have noticed that this past weekend was the 60th Anniversary of the Coronation of the Queen of England. Not an event my children would normally have celebrated in our life in Indianapolis but, as you know Toto, we don't exactly live in Indianapolis anymore.

One of our weekly highlights is a standing playdate with some friends on Tuesday afternoons. One of the families, my friend Lisa and her boys, is British and as they had offered to host this week Lisa decided to use it as an opportunity to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee. We started with a yummy chocolate cake made by one of the other British mums. All of the flags decorations were made by Lisa and her boys.

Vivienne plays in the Royal paddling pool under the bunting of Union Jacks.

Conrad decorates his crown.

His official coronation!

Vivienne makes a crown and a Union Jack~

Queen Vivi asks: Badminton on the lawn, anyone?

The Royal subjects pose for photos;

(Lollipops for anyone who stands pretty for the picture!)

After dinner and bath that night I turned on the tv to find the BBC's live footage of the Queen's motorcade heading to her luncheon at St. Paul's Cathedral. I asked "who wants to see the Queen?" and Vivi and Conrad came running to watch. I was trying to explain to them what a motorcade is when Vivienne asked "Is that the Queen in the front on the motorcycle?"

All in all, it was a really fun day. The kids enjoyed all of the activities and I enjoyed chatting with the British mums, as they shared their "Do you remember the Silver Jubilee?" stories and sang some of the songs appropriate for the occassion. At 84 years old, Queen Elizabeth is an amazing woman. Congratulations to her on this momentous occasion~