Balloons - our best idea yet.

Andryte writing...

The kids were absolutely NUTS today.  We started off our day early to go to the kids' end of the year awards ceremony/performance.  We were late and cranky because my coughing fits had kept us up all of last night (Emilija finally gave me Niquil to keep me quiet).  We saw some of our friends receive awards and before we knew it we were back at the children's center - EXTRA early...some of the kids were already waiting for us.  The center supervisor had invited her tenth grade homeroom class to the center to have some cake (because tenth graders get recognized at the end of the year). We spent some time getting to know them and then were left to our insane group of kids.  

I'm really not even sure what happened today at the center...I just know that it was crazy and pretty out of control.  The same art teacher had the kids make decoupages once again.  It seems

 like they have been doing this same type of art project for quite a while.  Not everyone could do the project at the same time, so there were lots of kids on the loose.  We amused them by playing the piano, taking out Twister, teaching them how to play the flute (Vija brought her old one), and leading them in a game of Pictionary with clay.  The kids loved the game at first but because they had to wait so long for their turn to come along, they got bored.  So then, we had the BRILLIANT idea of bringing out the balloons.  They were the long ones that can be shaped into animals.  At first we just gave them to a few kids to keep them occupied.  A balloon then popped and fifteen others raced upstairs.  It was CHAOS.  Everyone was begging for more balloons and asking us to shape them into all sorts of animals.  The constant squeaking and popping of the balloons seemed to really stress out the art teacher.  Eventually most of the balloons popped and we stopped blowing more up.  

The kids finally calmed down.  Vija herded them all into one room and we played with a few of the kids at a time...Emilija and I played chess and checkers with Aurimas and Vija took out her flute once again.  By the time everyone was ready to leave we were EXHAUSTED.  Today we learned an important lesson.  In order to avoid utter chaos, we need at least a little bit of structure.  Today we had too many things going on.  Tomorrow we plan to have a more detailed schedule and to take the kids outside for a bit so that they aren't as energized when we return to the center.  

We were planning to make our own dinner, but our host family had already prepared some chicken noodle soup for us.  It was delicious, but we were still a little hungry so we experimented with bread, butter, and garlic, eventually making fried bread with a butter-garlic dipping sauce...not much of an experiment but it was very tasty.  

Now it's time to take some Niquil and go to sleep.  Labanaktis!