This week has been tremendously full of emotions.  Saying (temporary) goodbyes to dear friends, being filled with joy through talking to loved ones, working with wonderful but draining kids, and trying to get into a rhythm of daily life amidst changes.  Yes, you can most assuredly say that this week has been a roller coaster.

After spending a week in English at a wonderful conference, I was launched right back in to nonstop French.  That is, after all, one of the reasons why I am here.  Over the past three days, I've been helping with a Kids Club in the area.  It was a circus theme, so I painted a whole lot of little faces like tigers, bunnies, lions, dragons, and-because girls will be girls-princesses and butterflies.  Don't really going along with the theme, but it was cute.  On the first day, the kids rotated between three stations of gymnastics, juggling, and ribbon/scarf dancing.  I led the ribbon group and my, oh, my, it was like being in first grade again.  In elementary school gym class, we would have units on scooters, ribbons, tumbling, and all of the fun things little nuggets do.

On the second day, the kids chose which group they wanted to be in for the show they would be putting on for their parents on the last day of the Club.  I got a group of the elementary school kids who were super excited to play with the ribbons.  After letting them play for a while, we got in a circle and each kid got to pick one thing to do with the ribbon.  After every kid picked something, we put it all together and created a routine.  The scarf dancers would do their routine in the middle of the circle while the ribbon dancers made figure eights, lassos, serpents, spun around in circles waving their ribbons high in the air.  After we practiced a few times, I could tell they were getting bored, so we jumped around like different animals whilst twirling our ribbons above our heads, getting them tangled around our arms, and just had a grand ole time.

On the last day, after hearing the end of our story for the week, painting faces, making posters for out circus, and practicing once more for the show, parents arrived to watch the production on which their kids had worked so hard.  The kids did a great job and they were so proud of themselves!  It was a major success, and such a joy to be a part of it.