Potty Mouth has Moved!

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We look forward to sharing more adventures with you.

Team Potty Mouth

Muh-thaaa

Need I say more?

Guy Fawkes

Fawkes burns in effigy on the pyre behind us.

Charlotte drives the pink princess car at the fair.

For three days we have heard the boom and sizzle of fireworks outside our home, the warm-up to Guy Fawkes day, which is celebrated on Nov. 5 and inspires the otherwise subdued Brits to go forth and light bonfires and set off pyrotechnics. They are celebrating (as Harry explained to me at breakfast), "Guy Fawkes, who tried to bomb the King."  It's actually not a bad approximation of the truth.

Andrea and Harry drive duo.

On Nov 5, 1605, Fawkes and his co-conspirators planned to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the thrown.  Fawkes placed a store of gunpowder beneath the House of Lords. An anonymous letter was his downfall and the plot dismantled. Fawkes became synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot. His effigy is often burned on a bonfire, accompanied by fireworks.

After enjoying the family fair on Midsummer Common, joined by our friends Mila and Eduardo and their daughter Andrea, we gathered at 7: 30 p.m. for an amazing fireworks show (so BIG, so bright, so incredible to be standing nearly beneath it). After the last firecracker popped, organizers lit a HUGE pyre. Our first Guy Fawkes experience.

CIS International Festival

Shannon and I pose before the throngs arrive.

The American offering.

It was our school's first-ever International Festival, hosted at the upper school, and largely run by the diverse group of families that attend Cambridge International School. I volunteered to handle America (ably assisted by Paul) and our good friend Shannon Houde, a fellow American, whose son Max attends nursery with Charlotte. Her husband is Quebecois, so she spearheaded the Canadian contingent of our North America effort.

And let me tell you, it is not easy to divine strictly American delicacies (to be sampled by.....400!). What is America but a melange of every culture. But I think we hit the bulls eye with Toll House chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin pie topped with cream, Cheese Whiz on Ritz (our joke item, which by the way, the French contingent did not get at all...) and the hands-down favorite/controversial item: Root Beer soda.

Ms. Easy and Ms. Nichols sample the pie.

"Is it really beer?" asked many of the children. I tried to explain the addictive nature of root beer to those who'd never tried it and wrinkled their noses at the smell. But funny, they kept coming back for more (one girl reappeared no less than 4 times, "sneaking" a total of 15 cups for her friends sitting at a craft table. I counted). But my favorite comment, overheard, was a delightful little boy who brought a friend over to sample this new discovery.

"It takes a lot like mouthwash," he explained to his 8-year-old companion. "But it's quite lovely."

The Koreans served a delicious rice wine!

The finishing touch to our display was a power-point presentation about America, a self-deprecating romp that included some very funny quotes and factoids.  

"Very little is known about the War of 1812 because the Americans lost it."  ~Eric Nicol.

The puppet theater.

Charlotte and her puppet Angelina take the stage.

The event was a big success. In addition to  our food stall,  there were delicacies from all around the world - stinky cheeses from France, sweets from Australia, Spanish wines and dishes, Korean BBQ and dumplings, Indian  food galore, and a slew of activities for the kids, from drumming (led by a musician from Guinea), puppet making courtesy a puppet theater, Asian fan decorating, and Chinese Calligraphy, Japanese mask making, polish dancing, the list goes on. It was a great representation of the cultures at CIS. 


The evening closed out with fireworks on the property. We're very proud of our new school.

Eating Crow

This year's Smith Barnes offering: A Bat, Thomas the Tank Engine and Cyclops.

In a word, I am embarrassed. Just a wee bit, feeling low for all the disparaging things I said about our would-be English Halloween. Perhaps basement-low expectation were in order. But how surprised were we that we had so many trick-or-treaters at our door on Halloween that had we not dipped heavily into the kids' candy, we, the Americans, would have run out. RUN OUT.

Indeed, we heard reports from folks on the street that they'd never before seen such an embrace of the festival and were barring their doors lest they be banged down. We do live in the city and we do live in a neighborhood that's heavily populated with young families. We got a lot of visitors whereas some of our British friends still got nary a knock.

But kids galore there were. And Harry and Charlotte delighted in handing out candy before taking a spin around the block to gather more. We met slews of parents and were even invited to a back-yard party for a BBQ. That's the spirit!

It was a lovely experience, relieving much of my anxiety about ripping the kids out of America during their prime Halloween years (yes, I love it that much).

So three-cheer Cambridge. I'm eating crow, for sure.