end of the school year

The end of the school year is fast approaching and my kids schools are (obviously) having major parties. At Netiv Meir, the girls school, they had a chesed day where the parents baked/brought food items and they sold them to the public while having a nice ancient times type festival. The school rabbi was dressed in a robe and headdress and had his own music tent where he played music and told stories. There was the tent of Avraham Avinu where you could sit on cushions on the floor and see some skits and eat free food (as is appropriate in Avraham's tent). There was also arts and crafts and skits. The end of the evening was supposed to be the girls choir and some speeches. The evening seemed fairly well organizaed until the performance at the end. It was called for 8 and the girls in the choir were lined up next to the stage by 5 to 8. The parents and rest of the students were sitting and waiting. and waiting. and waiting. At 8:30 the principal walked onto the stage to start the performance and he couldn't find the teacher who was supposed to be helping. Finally at 8:45 they started. We kept our kids up late and figured what's an extra half hour. They'll enjoy it. But it turned into an extra hour and a half.

Apparantly this is normal in my kids school.

The girls started swimming lessons and they are doing very well, from what I hear. My oldest can swim without a banana and number two is doing excellent with the banana. No, I don't understand the whole banana thing either.