Ashley's school pictures!

This was a funny experience!  My only frustration with Ashley's school is that they aren't always as detailed or upfront in communication as I wish they were.  I wasn't told until the last minute that the pictures weren't going to be taken at school so we had to go somewhere different that day.  The flier said that they were to wear a dress and bring a change of clothes to wear something for what they wanted to be when they grew up-well that was changed to another day (and was going to actually happen at school). 

Then I was told to bring Ashley in her school uniform (school t-shirt and any bottom that we choose) and she would change into the other stuff.

Then I found out that she was supposed to go to school for the rest of the day after pictures-which meant changing back into school clothes and that the driver and I would stay to drive her to school.  It has always been sort of funny to me that on the kids shirts and all the ads, billboard signs, etc there is a picture of a school bus yet they don't actually have a bus!

So we get there about 5 minutes early in the uniform.  Her teacher is there and we are waiting for other classmates and found out 1 forgot and 1 can't come that day and as others are straggling in (remember Philippino time-everything takes longer than you think it should here), the photographer decides to start taking individual pictures instead of waiting on the whole class to do the class picture first.

So I change Ashley into her dress-I couldn't believe that she chose the blue teapot dress-I gave her 3 or 4 to choose from (and I was happy to live with whichever one of those that she chose)-but was shocked that she didn't choose a pink option. 

I had NO idea they were doing the cap and gown thing-one of the teachers told me they had ordered them from the US and they had a rainbow of colors for the kids to choose from-now comes in the pink.  Ashley was very bewildered by this weird long big dress and funny hat she had to wear over her clothes and at first was very unsure about it.  But as you see below, she warmed up and the pictures were cute. 

So then they took the pictures in the teapot dress and then other students pictures-many of whom were not so sure about the cap and gown deal.  Then it was time for the class picture of all who were there.  At one point 2 out of the 5 were crying and some just looked very serious the whole time.  It was funny to watch them.  You just never know what you will get from kids this age.  The girl standing in the back of the last class pictures wasn't there that day but got photo-shopped in.

Her preschool is on the philippine school calendar.  They end in mid-March for the school year.   Then her school will start again in mid-June so Ashley will miss about the first 6 weeks of school.  The Philippine school calendar is like that because it is hottest here in April and May and most public schools don't have a/c.  Her preschool does though.  All that to say that I'm sure there will be good stories from her upcoming End of School Program.  Each class has a Broadway musical as their theme-I cannot say enough times how popular singing, dancing, and karaoke is here!  Ashley's class has the musical Annie.

Yet another funny experience in the Philippines!

 Andy, Bjorn, Teacher Boom, Zoey, and Ashley

 Yanna finally was convinced to join the group

 And here is Lia standing in with them!