fri, 3/19...day 78

The light coming through the trees was so gorgeous this evening when I picked up the boys from school. It *almost* makes the pain of switching to Daylight Savings Time worth it. (Almost. :P)

It was tricky catching a glimpse of Cory from so far off, as he was busy running back and forth from the tire swing to a pile of leaves in the sandbox. Had some little imaginative game going with a couple of other kids at Extended Day; I'm not sure exactly what.

But it was pleasant to have a few minutes to watch them and take a few photos before heading off to the freeway and home and the rest of our evening.

thu, 3/18...day 77

I don't know where all the big cardboard boxes came from, but they were sure fun for the kids to play with today.

Love that my boys go to a school where they can experience the magic of creative play like this, and that it's all part of the school day.

wed, 3/17...day 76

St. Patrick's Day, and green, green, green everywhere!

It's funny to see something that is so important to another country become so widely honored in our country when it really has little to do with our history or our culture. Why choose this saint? Why this particular holiday? Just strikes me as odd.

Except that it's awfully fun to find green clothes to wear and apparently, lots of people need an excuse to eat corn beef! :D

tue, 3/16...day 75

Colleen, Cory's class TA (or lunch teacher, as they used to be called), took new photos of the kids and mounted the pictures beautifully in their cubbies. One close-up, one "action" shot. They're really nicely done. I took a photo of Cory's but my pocket camera is not focusing well for some reason, so I'll re-do tomorrow with my regular camera.

In the meantime, here are Cory and several classmates looking through the pile of "plan books" to find theirs so they can write their "plan" for the morning. Cory isn't crazy about plan books normally but today he was excited because he got a brand new one (filled up the old one, I guess?).

mon, 3/15...day 74

I picked up Niall from school midday and we headed over to the travel medicine clinic to hear about all the shots and meds that we need for our trip to Africa (coming up in a little over 2 weeks - !).

The good news was that the doctor didn't think we needed Yellow Fever shots. My sister thought we might get a lecture on that, and she thought they were unnecessary (for Malawi, where we're going). But we did end up getting a fair number of immunizations anyway: three for Niall and (he liked this part) four for me. :-)

Niall was completely nonchalant about the shots. Really surprised me! Up until now I've had to talk him through the anxiety and really work to keep him relatively calm. But this time he just sat right down and chattered away through all three shots. You just never know with kids, do you?

sun, 3/14...day 73

Happy Pi Day!

I was inspired by Niall's class Pi Day and looked up a bunch of fun pi-related t-shirts online (aided by my friend Sue pointing me to a Web site!). These are a few of my favorites.

They have all kinds of other fun math and science shirts there too. Good thing to keep in mind for Christmas! (I know - thinking waaay ahead here. :D)

sat, 3/13...day 72

After I dropped of Cory at gymnastics, I headed over to Grandma's to pick up Niall. We got back to the gym place with lots of time to spare, and instead of going back inside to watch Cory, we decided to take a walk.

The gym is located in an industrial building, set among many others, so it's not a great place for walking. But it was a lovely morning, with big puffy white clouds, and we strolled around looking at various buildings, equipment, retaining walls, and more. At one point, Niall noted that the clouds over our heads were forming a neat square shape - not that common for puffy clouds. I think he had geometry on the brain. :-)

And here's Cory at the end of his gymnastics class, when all the kids sit in a row and get stickers, stamps on their hands, and a little bag of animal crackers. I remember the same ritual when Niall went to this gymnastics place six years ago - quite the tradition, I guess. The kids do enjoy it, and it's a nice way to slow down and wrap up after all that physical exertion.