Yellow Noon Mommies

Paisley is in "little kindergarten" this year and she is in the Yellow Noon class.  Because of this, I am part of a group called the Yellow Noon Mommies.  Indonesia has a tradition of women's gatherings called an arisan.  It started as a way for women to get together and lend/borrow money.  At monthly meetings, each woman brings a set amount of money and one lady gets to take it all home with her.  As it ends up, you give and receive the same amount each year, so I guess there's really no point in it.  But, for one month, you feel like you hit the jackpot.  These days, the money tradition still continues, but most people use the arisan as just a time to get together and enjoy being with friends.  Our Yellow Noon Mommies arisan started a couple of weeks ago when one mom invited the whole class over for a pool party.  The following week, another mom had a birthday and invited us all to celebrate with her.

 Another tradition I got to be a part of at this party involves food!  We placed a line of banana leaves on the floor, piled rice on it, and then surrounded it with other traditional Indonesian foods.  All the moms sat around and ate.  So fun!

 At the end of the party, all of the moms had to get together to take pictures.  It was a little embarrassing when the moms all decided we should take a picture with everyone looking at me!

 These are some pictures of the birthday lunch.

This past week, the teachers had a workday on Tuesday, so the moms got together and decided to take the kids to Pizza Hut for a cooking class.  These are the words I heard to describe the day . . . nightmare, chaos, disaster.  Yep, that's what it was!  The kids were just running around the restaurant (while other customers were trying to eat), yelling and blowing up balloons.  Most of the moms were just sitting in a room off to the side.  Oh, it was loud and crazy!  Then, they took 6 kids at a time back to the kitchen and let them put toppings on a pizza.  It took about 5 minutes and they were done.  Back to running around and screaming.  

The day before the "cooking class," the moms sent a message around about the dress code.  Now, not a dress code as in what we are allowed to wear, but what we should wear to match.  So, I thought we were supposed to wear a polo and jeans.  That's what the message said, anyway.  Well, I don't own a polo and had to go buy one.  When the kids and I show up, NO ONE else is wearing a polo.  Oh goodness!

 This is the mom who won the money at this meeting.