friends and familiar faces

Have you heard of this book? Charlie’s class read it recently and he came home talking about it and shared it with me. He asked me to play with him and invited me to just come hang out with him. We then played foosball together and laughed and had fun, doing something I didn’t expect to do. I, of course, had 100 other things I “had” to do, yet I stopped to play and was so happy afterwards, mostly because he was happy and also because I had fun sitting on the floor and enjoying my kid. Afterwards he asked if he had filled my bucket? It’s a connection to the story that teaches children the meaning of bucket filling and bucket dipping and encourages positive behavior. I loved that he was thinking of ways to make me happy.

So today we were at his school, and giving our family friend, Darryl, a tour of the school. The kids were excited and proud to show him around. Charlie wanted to show him his classroom door that was decorated with the book cover and mini buckets that each student wrote on and decorated, explaining how they filled someone’s bucket. Charlie wrote about how he filled my bucket by playing my favorite game with me. I love it!

Darryl said that his son also read the same book and shared that with him. What a small world.

Watching the kids give Darryl a tour and showing him the art displays, music rooms, food tech, design tech, Dutch and humanities classrooms was very touching to me. I love that they were proud of their school and that Christian was taking pictures so he’ll remember it after he leaves one day. They filled my bucket today!

This picture is a piece of art from outside the Dutch classrooms.

It was very comforting having a friend from home come and take the time to drop in on his way to a business meeting in Delft. We enjoyed making dinner together with the kids and afterwards went for a walk to the park and played until bed time. I love that Darryl was open to just flow with the kids and enjoy just being with our family for a few hours, and played outside until near dusk. Thanks for coming, Darryl and for the British treats! But now you’re making me miss home!