Preschool-related post

Every Wednesday, kids can show up at the playground adjacent to the preschool for an informal play date. We brought sidewalk chalk alone last week, and had a lot of fun.


Superheroes:
And from earlier this month...This is a scene from our preschool walk-a-thon. We walked down to the farmer's market, where they held drawings for several raffle prizes. After the walk, everyone met up back at the school for the end-of-year picnic. The weather cooperated, and we had a lovely day.

Our Dad's Day tradition

Here's a picture post in honor of Father's Day, featuring my boys, out and about in Port Townsend.
PT is our destination of choice for Father's Day, though it is 10 shades of awesome any day of the year.
Hope all the dads out there had a great day :)

Are you ready?

Silas is ready for summer! School ended last week, but we have much to look forward to. He goes to cooking camp (at his preschool) next week, and nature camp at an environmental learning center in August. He'll also be participating in the 4th of July parade with the rest of his preschool, and our little family will hopefully escape to the ocean for a few days as well.

I've got a few more preschool related pictures to share, so stay tuned.

Foulweather Bluff fieldtrip

The weather could not have been better for Silas' school field trip to Foulweather Bluff a few weeks back. A short hike through the woods led to this tide pool, ripe for young ecologists to explore:

Silas touched an anemone with his science finger:

They found some newly hatched fish in the shallows by the eel weed. Silas was one of the lucky few who manage to pick one up. Whenever the children handled animals, Teacher Debbie was careful to say "This is the kind of environment it came from so it must like living there. Put it back in its environment." But the kids couldn't resist putting the fish in slightly deeper waters, just a few feet away. There was just no stopping them from "rescuing" the tiny things.

Silas stands proudly where he released his baby fish:

Teacher Debbie examines some seaweed with Silas and friends:

One of the more curious finds...I thought this was trash actually. It looks and feels just like a rubber tire. But Teacher Debbie schooled me. This is the sand collar of a moon snail, made by the mother snail from sand, tiny eggs and mucous. The collar protects the eggs from the shifting tides.

A sun star. We counted at least 18 appendages.

A sand dollar in each hand:

Jellyfish:
Other non photographed animals: eagles, sea stars, geoducks, hermit crabs, horseshoe crabs, etc. etc.