Day 41-happy Valentine's Day

   February 14-As American expats living in Iceland, we can have the best of both worlds.  Our celebration of Valentine's Day today is a great example of that, since we chose to celebrate it more like Americans and less like Icelanders.  Iceland has slowly adopted the celebration of Valentine's Day from America over the past couple of decades, but more as a true couple's holiday.  Consequently, when we first told Icelanders that elementary-aged children celebrate Valentine's Day in the States, we got some strange looks.  Once we explained that the celebration is not linked to romantic feelings at that age, people were a little more understanding.  
   So, the Hays family celebrated Valentine's Day in our own special ways today.  We all wished each other happy Valentine's Day in the morning, Sally whipped up a crepe supper (yum!) in the evening, and Joslyn made all of us beautiful Valentine's cards.  We have also been told to expect packages of Valentine's cards and goodies from family members in the States.  Since those packages have not yet arrived, we figure that we will get the opportunity to celebrate Valentine's Day for at least a couple more days!  Sally and I decided that our supper and movie in Reykjavík on Monday night counted as our Icelandic-style Valentine's celebration as well.
   Right after school today, Joslyn headed over to Sigurlaug's birthday party.  Sigurlaug's mother, Björg, teaches knitting to Alex and Icelandic to Joslyn at Varmaland, so she knew that Joslyn is the only girl in 4th grade.  Since 4th and 5th grades are taught in the same room, Joslyn has the opportunity to interact extensively with the 5th grade girls, but Björg thought that she would also get along well with the 3rd grade girls, including Sigurlaug.  This was the first birthday party any of kids had gone to that was not at Bifröst, so we got to drive around and find the place to pick up Joslyn.  Since Sigurlaug's family lives on a farm less than a mile away from Varmaland and since Björg drew us an excellent map, we had no problem finding their place.  The family raises sheep on their farm and Björg offered to have the kids out to see them at some point.  I think that the kids will love that.
   Joslyn did really enjoy herself at the party.  It sounds like the party was like the other parties that the kids have attended here, most of which have been very similar to birthday parties in the U.S.  The kids ate pizza and cake, played hide-and-go-seek, and watched Chicken Run.  The movie had been dubbed into Icelandic, but Joslyn has seen it enough in America to know what was going on.  She chose to spend most of that time playing with their kitten and petting their dog.
   When Alex got home from school, she ran off with Brynja and Þorgerður for a while before they all returned to our apartment to play Settlers of Catan.  After Brynja won that game, Þorgerður headed for home, while Brynja stayed for supper to try crepes.  Apparently, Brynja goes to bed significantly later than our kids, because we finally had to send her home at 8:30 so Spencer, and then the girls, could get ready for bed.