Sparky's Back in School and in Class

I decided to sign up for a basket weaving class...(Now, Sparky, you know you are REALLY getting old when you sign up for basket weaving, says E.)  Hey, I use to love Longaberger baskets..collected them, sold them, and so I thought I'd like to learn how to make my own. It was an all day class, with a lunch break that was quite different from the norm. More about that later.....

The class today was for a market basket....the teacher, Nancy Johnson, was from South Bend, IN where I lived for over twenty years, and raised my girls. Her kids went through South Bend schools, and it was great to reminisce about places in South Bend while we were taught how to make a market basket. Here's the process from left to right:

My finished basket

It was a lot of fun, and not as hard as it looks! The basket still needs to be stained and ends trimmed up, but it looks pretty good, I think!  We took a break around 11:30 today, and while our small basketweaving class of five ate lunch and continued working, I headed over to Evergreen Elementary School to have lunch with some second graders.

The school wanted some seniors to come over and have lunch with kids as a reward for "caught being good" in their "I Rock" program. If the kids got a certain number of points during a certain time period, then a reward was planned. This month it was have lunch with a guest. We were treated to a free lunch, and a table set with a tablecloth, flowers, and the best little company you could have, five little second grade girls. One of the other volunteers from the Palm Creek activity office happened to get five little boys at her table.  We sat and chatted about anything and everything going on in their lives--school, home, etc. We commiserated on how the juice for the day was frozen solid. But most of the talk at my table was on sisters' hair and what color it was dyed at the moment, and what they like to do when they get out of school for the day...(hit the swimming pool). The other volunteer said that her little boys all wanted to talk about horror movies.....sterotypes start young, don't they? We really enjoyed our lunch today with the little kids...I hope I get to do it again some time....see you later.....