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.

Grandma and Papa at the zoo

This may be the longest stretch I've gone without blogging since Silas was a wee baby. Well, I needed the break apparently. To begin the game of catch-up, here are a few pictures from the zoo, which we visited while Grandma and Papa were in town.

Grandma bought Silas a pair of sun glasses, so he could be "just the same as everyone else" (his words, not mine, the little conformist):
The zoo has a great play area, complete with a cool slide. We could have spent all day right in that area and I think he would have been content.
The zoo's awesome view of Mt. Rainier:
One of my favorite things about this zoo is it's Red Wolf program. Red Wolves were driven to the point of extinction over the past several hundred years and only existed in captivity by 1980. This zoo's breeding program helped save the species. They are now on the way to recovery and have been reintroduced to the wild. We got to see several while we were there(a rare treat as they are not active during the day and like to keep their distance). There are less than 300 red wolves alive today, but at least their numbers are going up rather than down.

I've got some pictures to share from Silas' school field trip, and I promise not to go another month before posting them :)

Mother's Day Tea Party

Thanks to my understanding boss, I was able to "escape" an all day meeting for several hours today in order to attend Silas' preschool Mother's Day Tea Party.

The delicious lunch was prepared by the children. When I got there, Silas led me into the room and right to our designated places (marked by our personalized place-mats). After the main course, the children all brought their mothers dessert, and then helped clean up.
We had a printed menu listing our lunch and tea selection, and on the back were quotes from each of the kids, listing thier favorite things about thier mothers. Silas' read: "I like to play with her. We play the bus game. We drive buses around. She cuddles with me at night." Yep. That sounds about right :)

I was also delighted to receive a beautiful flower brooch that he had made for me.

Thank you for a wonderful early Mother's Day, Silas!

Hop to it

The Easter Bunny hopped on by, hiding some eggs, and an Easter basket for Silas:
Have you ever tried to find a chocolate Easter bunny without dairy? I didn't actually succeed, but I did find a chocolate Easter bear that, according to the ingredients list, was milk free. He gobbled it up later in the day with no apparent ill effects other than a tremendous sugar rush, but what he was most happy about, was this:
After sorting through his goodies, we proceeded to the egg hunt, which took place inside this year, due to the fact that kiddo was pretty sick.
Easter also brought this astonishing site:
While the moment did not last long, there was only a minimum of growling. Was it just an Easter-Day Truce, or the beginnings of a slightly less hostile relationship? We shall have to wait and see.

Olive goes to school

Today was Pet Day at Silas' school. Before Olive entered our lives, I never would have thought about participating in such a thing. Sobin, my dear, dear kitty, is vicious and unpredictable when put into circumstances in which he is unfamiliar. He has to be sedated before vets will treat him. It is that bad. But Olive is mild mannered, in comparison, and I thought she might do nicely. Silas was so excited that Olive would get to see his school.

It turns out, we were the only ones crazy enough to bring a cat to Pet Day. Olive was momentarily adventurous (or perhaps was just looking for a means to escape)...
...before sequestering herself in the corner, where she stayed until I loaded her up in the carrier to bring her back home.
She did, however, let the children come up to her, say hello, and pet her. No children were bitten or scratched and they all seemed genuinely interested in her. So, all in all, a successful outing for kitty.

Silas got to tell his teacher and some of his friends all about Olive:

And it just so happens that Silas is Person of the Week this week:

My favorite response is the last one "When I grow up, I'll help Dad clean his yoga studio." Perhaps I can convince him to add "I'll weed the garden for mom" to the list.

Keep em' coming

Still trying to finish up Wisconsin posts...

Grandma G and Si:

I call this the Ancestry.com trip, since a lot of time was spent teaching Silas about his family tree:

Silas, pretending he is one of Uncle Steve's dogs:

And...hanging out at Grandma and Merlin's house:

Art project time. "I have clown hands!"

Finally (for this post anyways), Alden and Silas were reunited, and enjoyed a game of fishing.

Moms and babes:

And that's were I'll leave it this time...

Wisconsin trip 2011: K..z Cousin

Since the last post was dedicated to Silas' cousins on my side, this one is dedicated to his cousin on his dad's side. This picture cracks me up, every time I see it. They look like a circus act. Josh is 22 years older than Silas. He's got some growing to do to catch up with this cousin!

Wisconsin trip 2011: McC cousins

Let's start with pictures of the cousins, shall we? These are all cousins on my side (ie. my sister's children). Adam helped Silas put together a Lego set.

They were very proud.
It was Adam's 10th birthday while we were visiting. 10! Welcome to double digits, nephew.
Silas' youngest cousin, sporting the well worn sweater I made for him.
Bouncing on Grandma's knee:
More goofiness:
Silas loved playing in the "fort" my sister's kids built along the stream in their back yard.

Carefully crossing the bridge:
So much more to post...but that's all for now.

Wisconsin 2011 trip: starting with the end

I've got a couple hundred pictures to sort through from out trip to Wisconsin. I'll post more soon, but to start us off, here's the last picture taken while in Wisconsin: My sister and I and all of our offspring. I love our goofy kids.