Al's Pals graduation

Harrison's Friday morning class is Al's Pals and their last class was today.  I have always thought that graduations for preschool, kindergarten, middle school, etc. were absurd and unnecessary.  Now I know why they do them.  It was a really cute celebration of each child.  I even found myself getting a little emotional.   The theme for their class was "we are special, we are stars".  The kids were all supposed to walk in and to their seats in an orderly fashion.  That went out the window as soon as Harrison saw me.

The curriculum uses puppets to teach.  Al is the one in the middle and his shirt has stripes on it.  After the first class, Harrison decided he wanted to wear striped shirts like Al for every class.

Miss Stephanie and Miss Nancy were his awesome teachers.  One of the things they said about Harrison was how he showed empathy toward others and tried to make sure everyone was cared for.

Harrison is special!  He's a star!

more fun with water

I usually don't like to add anything extra to our morning routine but a few days ago we made monkey bread and delivered it to the fire station on the way to school.  They were just getting the pumper truck out for a systems check when we got there and let Leo help pull the levers to release the hose & run water through it.

 We only had a few extra minutes in the morning so we came back later that evening.  The boys asked if they would get the hose out again and then proceeded to run through the spray.

The pumper truck had just come back from a house fire and needed to fill up the tank so they let Harrison help do that. 

 How awesome is that!?!  In the video Leo says "good job Harrison".

All the fire fighters on B shift are great but Miss Karen is the one that really does a lot with the boys when time allows.  That night when we were getting ready to say our family prayer, we talked about if there was anyone we needed to include in our prayer.  They said Miss Karen.

fun with water

Technically this is fun near the water or fun in the sand, either way it was fun.  This was a quick outing on a Friday after work.

 It's getting to be motorcycle weather again so Jeff wanted to clean his up and get it ready.  The boys were happy to help and wanted to wash some of their vehicles too. 

Can you tell Leo got a haircut?  He loves it.

 Everyone was pretty wet by the time they were all done.

field trip

Harrison's preschool had a field trip to a farm (really it's a park with farm animals and gardens).  We had to meet Jeff there as Leo & I had Kindermusik and then came back to pick up Harrison.  Leo was devastated that he couldn't enjoy the farm so I promised to take him back.

Harrison had a great time with his classmates.  I even let him keep my camera to take pictures.

It was raining the day we planned to go back but we did it anyway.  Leo had a blast with his umbrella and rain boots.  He jumped in every puddle he saw.

We even discovered this little beach.

When it was time to go, one of the albino peacocks would not leave our van.  I kept trying to chase it away but it just kept circling us.  Leo calls all birds eagles.  He was telling the eagle-peacock to go home.

picking strawberries

Picking strawberries is such a fun family activity that I try to make it a priority every May.  I'm so glad we could squeeze it in last weekend!  What made it even more fun was going with some friends.

 I was really proud of what a good job the boys did.  They only picked red strawberries and had very few rotten or bad ones in their baskets.  They didn't trample any plants and picked the full time we were there.  Of course they ate several along the way.  How could you not!

  There are three phases of fun when we go to this farm:  picking the fruit, eating the homemade strawberry ice cream and riding the ferry.

 This time I remembered to bring bread to throw off the back of the ferry for the birds.

 It was a beautiful and fun day!

Mother's Day

Harrison's preschool did a special Mother's Day snack time.  They sang us some songs and presented us with this paper along with a sprouting plant from seeds they planted.  I love these kinds of questions and answers.  I was surprised that he told his teacher my middle name instead of my first name.  I love my age & weight!   Everything else was pretty accurate except for what makes me laugh.  When I asked him why he said that he told me that was something he saw while watching Caillou.  I guess he thinks Caillou's mom and I find the same things funny.

On Sunday I got to pick the things I wanted for Mother's Day so I chose sleeping in, Jeff cooking all the meals and going on a nature walk as a family after church.  I got everything I asked for and more.  The boys gave me breakfast in bed, cards and gifts.  The best gifts of all were feeling rested and spending time with my family!

At the end of the trail was this awesome tree.  Harrison is always on the lookout for a tree he can climb.  He finally found one.  Leo even wanted to climb it.

Our goal was to walk to the lion bridge.  After two and a half miles we decided to just drive there.