High Tea

It is high tea time at school ! After helping with balloons and decorations with flags, I am curious how everything is going to be. Last year, in order to celebrate the summer arrival the kids performed in a musical. I didn't help because I don't like/cannot sew. This year I have prepared many sandwiches.

 Well, the opening: two grannies were playing popular songs to welcome the guests...

And the parents started to arrive and enjoyed the music while waiting for the kids. Big expectations.

There they come bringing to the long table some extra cookies, sandwiches and cakes, helped by their teachers.

Some waiters were wearing self decorated aprons...

...while the chefs were wearing appropriate self made hats.

The grandparents didn''t have to do a thing, just enjoyed the good weather while having a chat and were pampered by the cutest and helpful waiters.

For the grand finale there was a chocolate fountain. (=lots of little dirty hands giving their family members sweet hugs) 

The Dutch educational system also demands more participation from the parents and family than as usual in other countries - at least that's what I have deduced from bombarding foreign parents with questions my conversations with other foreign parents from America, France and Italy. These same parents also mentioned that the Dutch have a very strong sense of community/doing things together and putting the kids in the center of their lives.

This educational system for the small ones is not boring at all. The lessons are very playful, and demand creative solutions/response from the kids. I have noticed that with all the preparation for the high tea event some kids retained some of the English words they have learned (such as: tea, cake, hat, pie) even days laters. Some retained more difficult/longer words such as biscuits, sandwich (es), cucomber and chef cook. (Hmmm, I bet you think it an easy thing, don't you ? Hey, we are talking about 4 and 5 year old kiddos !)

LJ HOLMES PRESENTS: OBSESSION

Life has been good for

Joanna and Jared Dresden, and soon they are about to begin a

new chapter all the way across the Country.

Along with their adorable daughter Jilly, they are going to spread their wings,

soaring from the

cold but known shores of

Maine and the

family inn they have managed for well, it seems like

forever, for the uniqueness of the

California Coast.

Excited,

eager,

happy, and

looking forward, they place their inn up

for sale.

So much joy, so much

wonder, so much

magic for this happy family

of three...until...

A month before the move Joanna and Jilly's world gives out from beneath them.

Jared is killed in an apparent car accident.

How does one go on when the center of your world has been ripped from inside you like that?

How can she and Jilly leave the familiar, the places, the small family inn that gave them

an anchor in these troubled storms?

They couldn't!

Joanna

cancels the sale, dives

back into running the inn, and tries to find some level of

acceptance for what is beyond acceptable.

Life doesn't stop moving forward no matter how deep the cavern of pain within you. A single woman now, she has no choice, but to seek

outside help to make her inn work.

His name is Rick, and he comes on board as her handyman.

Rick's arrival on the scene causes Joanna's close friend,

the

Sheriff of High Bluff, Maine to step in eyeing the younger man with suspicion, distrust and something more. Rick is trouble!

Joanna sidesteps the Sheriff's cautions.

Quickly, too quickly, a relationship begins

blossoming between Joanna and the handyman making some wonder at his sudden appearance in High Bluff and Joanna's life.

With it comes rumblings...

vile rumblings.

Was Jared's death an accident?

When a neighbor tries to rape Joanna and is later found

murdered, the rumblings escalate. Two deaths, so close together.

Was Jared's death accidental;

who murdered the would-be rapist, Is there

a hidden agenda behind Rick's arrival in Joanna's life so soon after Jared's death?

OBSESSION is coming. Be ready to grip the edge of your seats and gnaw the skin form your lower lip.

OBSESSION by

Sally Royer-Derr, amazing cover by

Muse Publishing's very own

Cover Art Goddess, Delilah K, Stephans, is heading your way on July 15, 2011 from the

Muse It Up side of Muse Publishing, Inc,

Can you feel your heartbeat beginning to race? I can feel mine.

Until its arrival follow

Sally Royer Derr at her WEBSITE, her BLOG, and her Muse AUTHORS page.

Also keep an eye on the Muse SALE page for

OBSESSION.

We have a motto we live by here at Muse

~BUILDING THE TEAM TO ACHIEVE THE DREAM~
Join us in our dream...become a cherished part of the team.