Hi, everyone! We've been having a great time following the Vancouver Winter Olympics! Have you watched them at all?

We were in a group of 14 kids (3 girls, 11 boys) having a "Home School Week" together at our Guest House, Feb. 16-20. It was so good to learn about the winter sports and celebrate the victories of the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, and Australia as well as Canada and the U.S. together with friends of those countries and more. (Our friends from New Zealand and South Africa were good sports the whole time.) Now we're back at home and following events with a broader perspective.

We can't get internet access to video in Thailand, but our Guest House had ESPN: so guess where you'd find us before breakfast and after supper every day! We played street hockey and even found a skating rink in Bangkok. At the end of the week, each child received a gold medal (chocolate inside, wow!) and a certificate for some accomplishment during the week. I've posted the ones for Nate and Pete here but I'm not sure if they're large enough to read. Pete's is because he was under incredible pressure in goal during a street hockey game, and amazed everyone with his focus and skill. Nate's a great goalie too but was getting a little bored in goal for his team... It was so good to see how well the boys can still skate after our weekly times in Canada. Thus Nate's certificate for the best balance on skates. He was an inspiration to the other kids, nearly all of whom were trying it for the first time.

I am so proud of how much the boys are learning. While we can't get direct footage of events, we've loved Time's great website of "how they train," and Apolo Anton Ohno has become a bit of a hero for his example of giving out all to get his personal best. We've watched a video of how the medals were made and made our own.

If you want to see some of the boys' drawings of the original Olympics and modern winter sports (how they're choosing to use their free time), let us know.

So that's it for this week.

Love to all, Brenda