Innkeeper to Mary

After being an angel in our church's toddler group nativity play last year, Alathea had high hopes of being chosen for Mary this year but was asked to be a Bethlehem innkeeper instead.

Here was our first attempt at a somewhat feminine innkeeper's look. (Alathea's speaking to a lady from our church who's 90+ and until a few months ago helped weekly at the toddler group.)

Then Alathea discovered this velvet robe and prepared to say, "No room!" in it instead.

(Our vicar and a "donkey" relay the story of Jesus' birth to the children.)

But when the girl chosen to be Mary didn't come in time for the children's reenactment of the story, Alathea quickly switched parts.

Here she is querying Gabriel's news and singing a song about the Christmas story.

Thanksgiving Tree 2013

The girls have really gotten into our Thanksgiving tree this year, wanting to put up a new leaf each day. This is the first year we've done the tree that Alathea was largely able to write for herself, so that added an exciting new dimension to the experience.

"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Sophia's Year 2 Assembly

Every year Sophia's class takes a turn at leading their school's daily act of worship. This year the topic was the importance of thankfulness, illustrated by the parable of the ten lepers in Luke 17:11-19, in which only one of the ten men who was healed comes back to thank Jesus. (Sophia narrates part of the parable in the video below.) So the children thanked God in the assembly for a number of things, including the many talents He has given them. Sophia demonstrated one of her talents by playing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" on the guitar:

Rainbows

I'm not keeping up very well on the communication front lately, as the first half of our autumn term has been quite mad. But here are photos of the face-painting the girls got, among other colorful things, at a party at a nearby church.