Mary's little lamb?

We have not actually met Mary (but since Brandon has met a princess I'm still holding out hope) but we did find her little lamb at school. Just up the road from us is the Titirangi Rudolph Steiner School where, to the chagrin of many of you, our children will be going to school. Last week we walked up and to our wonderment found the quaintest school I've ever seen. The school itself was not as nice as most of the ones my work has sent me to, but what it lacks in fancy it makes up with character. Just outside the school is a fenced in pond area where we saw a couple of sheep carelessly grazing and some ducks lazily floating. As soon as we neared the fence the sheep came sprinting over and stood just near enough to see if brought food, but far enough so as not to be giving out any free petting if we hadn't (and we hadn't). The ducks graced us with there presence, and some very fat chickens began a quick pace wadle toward us as well. We were charmed at how quickly we were greeted and were discussing how the kids must get to feed them when a something caught our attentions. We both quieted and turned our heads trying to decided what we were hearing. Almost in unison we said "Do you hear snorting?" Laughing, we turned out attention to the far end of the pond to find a very fat pot-bellied pig grunting his way toward us. I think he was probably trying to run, and had most likely started out when the others had, but due to his large gurth his pace was very slow. He had is eye set on the goal and was not waivering his path for anything so a chicken and a couple of ducks had to dive out of the way so as not to be slowly trampled to death. The sound of his grunts told us that he was going to be a tornado of anger if had come all that way for nothing. Fortunately, he was too tired from the run and we were able to leave with our lives. We have been saving up left overs and plan to return with our appologies.

The parents of the school have opened up an organic store just inside the entrance of the parking area to the school building. So today we decided to walk up and check it out and to also get a feel about what the animals were fed. We thought that the school was trying to pull off a quaint, rural feel with it's farm animals, green house and organic store. However, as we drank our organic coffee, the mom running the store for the day explained that "Rudolph Steiner" is a philosophy of learning that focuses on teaching the whole child, as compared to say Americans who only focus on passing the TAKS (WOW, I just sounded like my husband. That's a little scary!). We have decided that we must continue with our scheme of upgrading through the houses our landlord owns in order for our children to get attend such a flavorful school.