Cole Says Goodbye to Preschool

Yesterday was Cole's last day of preschool and today was the end of the year party. Heather won't be quite old enough to start next year, so it seems strange that after 4 straight years of bringing first Wayne and then Cole to this school, I won't have to go there next year. It will be nice to bring them both to one school, but I'll kind of miss the friendly faces at preschool.

Wes took a half day so that he could attend the potluck party. Heather was sick today with a painful cough and she was very drippy and runny, so I ended up staying home with her. We figured since Wes had arranged a half day, he might as well be the one to go. They got to the party quite late because he had flat tire on the way home from Hardwick.

Cole with his teachers Miss Denise and Miss Debbie. Cole had a lot of fun in their classroom. Remember the chickie that hatched? and the birdhouse he made? We'll miss their fun and interesting ideas. They did a great job preparing him for Mrs. Dudley's kindegarten class.
Usually these end of the year parties are quite crowded, but it looks like by the time they got there the crowds of little kids and parents had cleared out.
Cole with Cheryl who works in the office and is probably the nicest person in the world. She greeted us every morning as we walked into the building with a cheerful, "Good morning Cole! Good morning Heather!"

And on a random note, I found these pictures on Wayne's camera from a recent fishing trip to Shadow Lake. I didn't know they existed or I would have posted them sooner.

As I recall, they didn't catch anything, but had a lot of fun.

Memorial Day Weekend Part 2

Today we headed to the cemetery to plant flowers and have a picnic. This is one of Wayne's favorite days of the year, along with Green Up Day and Christmas. He really loves planting flowers, spreading mulch, getting dirty. Meanwhile Heather, dressed in her fairy princess dress, shows off her knowledge of the alphabet.
Wayne and Cole get to work planting some flowers for Grampie.

Wayne loved these little pruning sheers of Joanie's.

Planting some flowers for Ellie.

By this time Wes and Cole had gone to get sandwiches for our picnic.

Heather supervises.

We took a break for lunch. It had gotten very windy and chilly so we all put on jackets and sweatshirts. At this point, I brought Heather home for her nap and Joanie, Wes, and the boys did some more planting at Westlook and then they were headed to the Barton cemetery.

Memorial Day Weekend Part 1

First of all, I want to start off by wishing my Dad a very Happy Birthday! Sorry I wasn't there, but hopefully I'll make a trip soon. Happy Birthday Dad! We love you very much.

Saturday started of with the usual t-ball game at 9:00 a.m. You've seen plenty of t-ball pictures so, I'll spare you this time. Then Sunday the project was building timber frame dugouts at the Glover baseball and softball fields. Glover Recreation, Old School Builders, and a few community volunteers were on site to get the job done. The most enthusiastic volunteers were under the age of 8. Here are Wayne and Asom pounding some wooden pegs into the beams. They did a good job!
It's going up...

And there it is, minus the roof and some sides. They had to put together four of these.

Luckily, there was a horse in a nearby pasture for entertainment.

Wes had to leave the ball field to go with Joanie to his Aunt Pearl's funeral. I went home with the kids to give them lunch and let Heather take her nap. Then we went to Aunt Elaine's house to wish her a Happy Birthday and bring her a little gift. When we got there, we found Kathy sitting on the porch with Barbie who had just awoken from her nap.

Claudia and the 18 month old Sophie.

Elaine with her birthday group. Michael was also there, but he was taking a picture of this group with his camera. I wish now I had offered to take the picture for him so he could get in the picture. Heather was in an ornery mood and refused to be part of the group, stating firmly and with a scowl, "No! I don't WIKE to be in pitsers!" Which is completely untrue.

When we left, Cole asked how long Barbie would be staying. I told him "about a week" and he said, "I hope I see her again, because I falled in love with her."

He wears his shoes on the wrong feet and his heart on his sleeve.

Outside

I let Wayne stay home from school today because he's been feeling miserable with a springtime cold. The warm day and sunshine seemed to make him feel a lot better because he was able to run around outside while he and Cole squirted each other with water guns.

Look closely at this picture and you'll notice that not only does Cole have his shoes on the wrong feet, but he doesn't even really have them all the way on his feet. I'm telling you, Cole and clothing do not get along well.

I couldn't decide which of these pictures of Heather I liked best, so I just put them all up.

When she swings like this she says, "Wook Mommy. At me. I'm fwying!"

Where are Wayne and Cole?

Here is the entire student body of Glover School. See if you can find Wayne. Cole is in there too, because this is going on next year's school calendar, so next year's kindegarten class was invited to be in the photo. Have I mentioned yet that Cole's class will consist of himself and two other kids? Yup. Three students signed up so far. Two boys, one girl. They're sitting right beside him to his left (your right) Anyway, click to enlarge and see who you know.

"I Never Want to Leave This Place"

Saturday we went to Susie and Dennis' house for Matt's graduation party. There were a few rain showers on and off, but they have a beautiful house and there was tons of food so it was a lovely party. Between rain showers we had several chances to get outside with the kids to explore the pond and the rest of their amazing grounds. My camera batteries died right before the party so I didn't have time to charge them up. I didn't worry about it because I knew that Sandy would have the party covered for her blog.

But when Dennis brought out the Big Toys, I remembered that Wayne's little $15 ebay camera had been in the car so I was able to get this:

I hope you like it because I had to go to the library (after picking Wayne up from school) and use their "high speed" to upload it. I also have a video of Cole driving the excavator, but even with the faster internet, it took too long to upload and Wayne got restless. He wanted to get home and catch frogs.

After his turn on the excavator, Cole said, in all seriousness, "I love it here. I never want to leave this place." Susie was delighted with that and told him that he and Wayne could come back for a "summer camp" and drive the excavator, dig holes, catch frogs...

My Happy Mother's Day

I really think Mother's Day should happen more often. At least once a month.

Wes got up with Heather at 5:30 so I could sleep in. I lounged in bed until almost 8:00 when the whole family came bounding into the room with a tray of homemade waffles with our own maple syrup, orange juice, coffee, and this giant balloon. Cole said he picked it out himself.

Wayne made me these three cards. He says there is one more that he wants to give me later. The ones on the left and the right he made on the computer. They had to go all the way to St. Johnsbury to get ink for the printer to be able to print them out. Wayne also made a calendar on the computer with a picture on each day - pictures that he had taken himself with his own camera. He did it all by himself.



Cole gave me a penny and a piece of chocolate from his Easter bunny. If you know Cole, then you know that giving away anything sweet is like giving away gold.

Yesterday there was another T-ball game. Wayne was the catcher.
Wayne and Dante between innings. I feel like this picture of Wayne is a foreshadowing of what he will look like in about 10 years.

Fintan is not 5 yet so he is not able to play T-ball this year, but Cole is happy to have him at the games to play with while waiting for his turn at bat.

Wayne and Ben.

Wes gives Ben some advice on the pitcher's mound. The kids don't actually pitch, the coaches do. I think Wes had his shirt on backwards. Maybe Cole helped him get dressed.

Poor Cole kept yelling, "Daddy! What do I do?"

Back at home, it was clouding up but still warm enough to have lunch on the porch. Heather started out the day wearing tights with this dress. Then she wanted to take the tights off. Then she wanted them on. Then she wanted them off. Then she wanted them on again, off again. Then she wanted tights on again, but not the same ones. It had to be different ones. Then she wanted to take her diaper off and wear a pair of underwear that Estelle had left here, but when it was time to pee she wanted the diaper back on and refused to try the potty, crying, "NO! I don't wike it, da potty!" It was a long day. I really needed that breakfast in bed this morning.

Ben was over.

Happy Mother's Day!

Here's a link to a funny NPR Mother's Day radio story that Joanie told me about.

Artistic Genius

Well, Cole may not exactly be the world's greatest artist, but when we walked into the preschool building for their annual art show this evening, it was like walking into a real art gallery with colorful paintings everywhere on display.

The "spin art" display. Cole points out his own.

Heather was particularly taken with this light table with painted glass tiles.

This one is Cole's.

They made bird house feeders.

Cole was worried that no one would like his because he was absent on the day he was supposed to paint it, but then he was delighted to see that the teachers had placed a real bird's nest inside it.

There was a video of a skit they had done in class projected onto the wall.

Some peek-a-boo pictures.

Can you guess who this is?

Yes, it's Cole. I'm telling you, he's going to be an actor.

SF stands for super friend. Whenever a teacher catches a student doing something nice for someone (being a Super Friend) the student gets to wear the cape. Each child had made his or her own SF emblem.

Painted frames and painted faces. Cole did not want to have his face painted that day.

But he sure is distinguished looking.

This is Mat Man. He was on display with a little song that the kids sing about him. He's the preschool and kindergarten edition of Handwriting Without Tears. The students practice drawing him in class. He's made of big lines, little lines, big curves, and little curves, and those are the same strokes they learn to make when writing upper case and lower case letters.

This is a book that Cole's teacher, Miss Denise had made. Each page shows a picture of a student and tells something that child is great at doing.

Yes, he sure is.