District Art Show

Ethan's class had a showing at the Region's art show. His work is over his left shoulder. They were inspired by Matisse.

Happy Earth Day

Ethan's class made bags for Earth Day and then cleaned up the school grounds.

Happy Easter

We spent the weekend in one of my two favorite places. Yesterday we headed to the farm to see Gramps! We are happy he is back in the north. We colored eggs, then went out exploring in the ranger and found lots of frog eggs. There was only one tadpole that we could find, but by the time we're there again there should be thousands judging from how many eggs.
Later we took a walk with Tom, Heather, and Jonathan to see if we could find any leeks. We didn't but Tom found one of his fungi, so he was happy. He also got to "dunk" Ethan in the lake, which made Ethan a lot happier than it made me. (He didn't really, just pretended). Aunt Jean and Uncle Bill came over too and Amber came after work so we had a big crowd for dinner.
 Jonathan stayed over, so we had breakfast with him and Gramps. Ethan, Jonathan and Amber played some games, and we also went for another ride on the ranger to show Amber the frog eggs. We made a ham and had a big lunch. Gramps shouldn't need to cook for a while. After that, we packed up and headed home. I'm sure we will be back soon.

Ethan and Mama Day!

I do not have Good Friday off. Instead we get a floating holiday of choice, so I decided to take off Wednesday to have an adventure with Ethan. Since it was winter weather again, we headed to New Haven for indoor activities. We started with a visit to the Peabody. We checked out the new dinosaur eggs exhibit, witnessed a puppet show, played mini golf and made a monkey mask. Ethan even got to hold a walking stick bug! Do you notice that he is a label reader? The rare breed of museum goer who actually pays attention to the stuff it took the staff hours to write? I'm so happy about that.

When it was time for lunch, we headed over to park near the Yale Art Museum and had lunch at Atticus which is also a bookstore. After that, we checked out the art museum. As you can see, as I was taking his picture near the lion relief, dated 600BC, he reached up and touched it. I was mortified. I tried to remain calm, and the guard didn't even say anything, so I'm assuming I handled it ok. And he didn't touch anything else, so I guess that's a plus. We contemplated some of the art, checked out the Van Goghs and Matisses, which Ethan has learned about in art class, and also wandered up and down the amazing spiral stair cases. We had a great day out.

Eggs and Balls

It's time again for the annual Easter Egg hunt. This year there was an extra special event, the opening of the newly renovated play scape. No more teeter totter, no more sandbox, no more baby swings. Now we have lots of large plastic bits. I'm always astounded that the playgrounds renovated for safety reasons have places where kids could free-fall about ten feet. The thing I'm most sad about, besides the sandbox, is that it used to be the quiet park, the one where you could go and have a nice, quiet, relaxing ride on the swings. I guess we'll have to switch to the next oldest.

A little bit after the egg hunt, it was time for soccer. Yes, that again. They all have a team associated with a country since it's a world cup year. Ethan's team is Mexico.

School Work

Ice Cream Season!

Last night, after the birthday party and hectic morning, James and I had signed up to attend the school fundraiser. That was a rookie mistake. It started at 6:30, we left after 11 and it wasn't over yet. They finally fed us around 9pm. Anyway, we were tired. But that did not stop someone from barging in our room at 6am. So by mid-afternoon I needed a treat. We still hadn't been to Rich's since they opened. Well not officially, we got take out once, so we headed there. After that, we had to go to Ethan's soccer kickoff. This year they are honoring the world cup by each representing a nation. Ethan's team is Mexico.

Busy Saturday

 

We had a few errands to run and one of them was to return something to the mall. When I mentioned it to Ethan, he informed me that the new Lego store was open. Gotta love the first grade grapevine. I knew, but hoped to avoid it. No dice. By the time we got out of the line and headed to our last stop, we barely made it through the inexplicable traffic jam on 84 to get back to his friend's birthday party in time. I think Ethan especially enjoyed being eaten by a lion. He also helped build a giant incredible hulk.