Sebastian at Peden Farm

Joe's mom just sent me some some photos of Sebastian's class at Peden Farm. Joe is wearing red boots, Will is the tallest of the four and Tent is wearing the green jacket. I think the little girl is Kate.

They look so little in front of the tractor.

Slug!

Sebastian was very excited about the slug he found in the garden. He carried it around for quite a while.

Zeus watches on

Potty Training

We have started potty training Sebastian. It hasn't been easy, but he is excited about his new underpants.

Mother's Day at BABS

BABS had another Mother's Day Tea this year. This was the best turn out yet! The kids even had a chance to run around in the dance studio upstairs. It is a beautiful open space.

Mermaids

On the way home we stopped by the Mississippi river in the Quad Cities and had a lunch at a funky riverside restaurant.

I took a photo of the mermaid because Sebastian is currently obsessed with mermaids. He has and Ariel mermaid from the Little Mermaid (basically a barbie with a tail that comes on and off over her legs). He takes it to school every day.

Iowa city

I recently went to an Academic Advisors Administrators conference for the Big Ten schools. It was a working conference with only thirty people in attendance. I learned quite a bit about the big ten advising and administration.

Iowa City was quite nice, although we were so busy I only had about an hour to explore. They took us on a boat tour of campus and we saw lots of destruction from last years floods. They need to demolish and rebuild several buildings, which is pretty difficult during the current financial climate.

More from Julien's classroom

Julien's school recently had a learning festival which is University Elementary's big event of the year. Sebastian and Julien made snakes from old ties, ate cupcakes and bought a few books at the book fair. We also bought a few plants that people had donated, including a may apple (I was excited to find a wild flower!).

Outside his classroom there were displays of the kids work. Julien was quite proud. In the photos of the paintings Julien painted the unicorn (upper left corner) and the upper of the right abstract paintings.

Classroom picnic

We headed back to the class room an hour and a half early and had a picnic in the class room. There were two "girl" blankets and one "boy" blanket. I enjoyed the kids, although they came up with a few gross food combos including oreos opened with meat and cheese added.

After the picnic the kids had free time in the class room to play games. Upon this announcement several kids exclaimed "chess!" enthusiastically and ran for the chess game. That gives you a sense of what the class and school is like. There is a very active chess club. I played checkers with Julien. We had a few helpers join us.

In the evening I asked Julien what he liked best, Peden farm or the picnic and free time in the class room. He replied joyously "Picnic and free time!."

Peden Farm

I volunteered to help out for Julien's class field trip to Peden farm. Unfortunately, it was a very wet, rainy day, although there was no thunder. Julien and I spent the morning with Zach and Ryan. The baby ducks and chick were the favorites.

Favorite Flower

Julien illustrated this poem at school this week. I love the drawing, especially the flower waving an American flag.

Happy Mother's Day

Julien and Sebastian wish Grandmum Kathy and Grandma Jan a happy Mother's Day!

Easter egg hunt and more

We had Tracy and Jim and their kids, Peter, Jake and Dale, as well as Lane and Kevin and Ada over for an egg hunt and Easter dinner. There was lots of big boy energy! The bigger kids were good about letting the little kids collect the easier to find eggs.

We had a good non-traditional dinner of brats and homemade cheese cake (thanks to Lane).

Dying Easter eggs

On the Saturday before Easter we died Easter eggs. Sebastian discovered for the first time that he really likes boiled eggs. Julien, on the other hand, used to like them, but not any more. Sebastian was particularly enthusiastic about egg dying.

Samurai Hat

With the help of the North High School Japanese Club, Julien made samurai hat complete with his name written in Japanese. Although he would not wear it at the festival, he wore it everyday for about two weeks at home. He put it on first thing in the morning, wore it to a friends house for dinner, wore it after bath, etc. He hasn't been wearing it lately, but he did bring it in to show and tell last week.

Flea Circus

The flea circus was really fun. This was the first time I had ever seen a flea circus. Julien was almost convinced that there were actual fleas. The guy doing the Flea Circus, Joe Lee, designed the set design for the Alice and Wonderland production I directed many years ago.

Blooming Lotus

Bloomington had a kids multi-cultural festival, Blooming Lotus, a few weeks ago. Julien was the perfect age for it and was ready to try out activities at all the booths. He even tried Buddhist monk sand painting, which was very hard to control. Sebastian had fun at first, but many of the activities were difficult for him and he got a bit worn out.

Badminton and volley ball

Grandmum thought it would be fun to play croquet, but we could not find a croquet set in any of the stores. We were, however, able to find a badminton/volleyball net. We all enjoyed playing backyard games.

A quiet moment at home

As usual there was lots of reading and snuggling. In this photo I believe Kathy is reading National Geographic to the boys. Notice Julien with his trusty Racoony.

Tired

Sebastian eventually got tired. He was not happy to be carried, but eventually he fell asleep in the carrier.