Thomas bravely auditioned for the school play and got the part of Sir Harry, one of the main characters.  Theater is a new thing for him, so we were impressed with the courage he showed to be in front of his peers, teachers, and parents performing.  They started practicing in December two days a week after school and that continued until the two day performance in February.  Thomas even had a solo singing part which is something he's never done before either.

In the play, Thomas' character had a love interest with Lady Larken (Valeria who was a sophomore).  They both sang solos to each other.  "Yesterday I loved you" will forever be in our memory, especially the many times we laughed as we tried to give advice for Thomas on how to deepen his voice to hit the first note of the song.  ;)

Thomas P., Valeria, and Thomas

As soon as we arrived at the theater to watch the performance, friends of Savannah ran to her squealing with excitement that she was there since they don't get to see her much with homeschooling (Georgina, Maya, Zara, & Polina).

Prince Harry and Lady Larken having a little fight.

Reading their letters of apology and love they were sending to each other.  Valerie and Thomas had solos in what turned out to be a little love song for these characters.

Mr. and Mrs. Martin were awesome!  They put so much time and effort into putting the school play together and I know they exercise a great amount of patience with the kids.  I loved how patient Mrs. Martin was in helping Thomas learn his solo singing part.  She gave him the confidence to do it and he did!  The Martins were wonderful to work with Savannah last year too in Annie.

Thomas and his good friends David and Elise.

Yay for Thomas!  The performances are over and he did well!

Thomas' memory: "David and I thought we would try out for the musical. We hadn’t done anything like that before so we thought we would give it a go.  Ms. Martin said we were originally going to do a Dr. Seuss musical but then she changed it to Once Upon a Mattress, the Princess and the Pea. I was glad we switched because I didn’t want to do the Dr. Seuss one.  David got the main role as the prince and I got to be his knight, Sir Harry. I actually had to sing a solo. Luckily the songs and lines I had to learn were easy enough. David on the other hand was not expecting to get the main role. I had a love solo with a 10th grader… I think the best thing from the musical was that I got extra time away from Jaden to hangout with David, haha. I even got to miss two days of school." :)

Centralais is a new food court like place that opened up in one of the Central Market's old zeppelin hangers.  The five hangers have all focused and specialized on a type of food like meat, produce, fish, etc. that you can buy unprepared.  So it's fun to actually have a food court there with a place to sit and eat food already prepared.  We heard about the changes and thought we'd use our Valentine's day dinner to explore them.

We were surprised by the variety of food and the prices.  They were decent.  The art was fun to look at too.

A dessert place had jack fruit.  I had never seen this fruit or tasted it before.  It looked like a large armadillo to me.  The fruit was an interesting texture and seemed like a cross between a few fruits.  I wouldn't say it's my favorite, but it was good enough to help bring my blood sugar up while I waited for my chicken wings.  :)

This chicken wing place became our favorite.  Spicy wings, garlic and Parmesan cheese, caramelized brown sugar and green onions.  Soooo good! 

We left the warmth of Centralais and took a walk into the cold, dark night to watch the little birds sit on the ice.  It made us cold just looking at them. 

It's always a nice evening being together, giving our taste buds new flavors, and being in Riga!

It was fun to plan an outing with Jamie and Chad and their cute family.  We should get together more often, but kids have sports, families travel, etc.  But we enjoyed going bowling on this particular Saturday at Riga Plaza mall, and the Chinese food we got afterward.  

Ella and Nik are adorable.  Savannah and Rhea can hardly get enough of them and their cuteness!  Ella is in 3rd grade and Nik is 4 years old, learning at home with her mama.

Of course the girls had to help little Nik bowl when it was her turn. ;)

Afterward we enjoyed being together a little longer by playing some arcade games and air hockey.

And of course there's always candy to be had.

We enjoy being with the T family.  It's fun to have them at church on Sundays too!