Ash carried a camera around with her yesterday and documented all sorts of things she saw. She’s got it strapped to her already this morning (8 AM) and plans to take it to church. Looking forward to going through hundreds of pictures again tonight. :) Here are some that made me smile.

Evan was envious that Ashlyn got to take Casey the box turtle to the pet show at her school. Over dinner a few days ago, he said that he wanted to take Casey to school too. I told him that they only way he’d be allowed to do that is if he was able to teach the class about the turtle. He thought about that for a little while; that typically is way out of his comfort zone. “But, what do I say?” He said. So, we practiced. He got a nice little repertoire about how we know Casey is a girl, what she eats, how she hibernates in the water….Then, we emailed his teacher. She was excited about the idea and said it could be the kids “kidwriting” topic of the day. Evan will teach them about the turtle. Then, the kids will have to journal about it. He was pretty excited about it–a little nervous too. “What do I do with it when I get to class?” But, he was all smiles when we got to school and everybody wanted to see what he had. I wish I could be a fly on the wall and hear his presentation. Probably best that I’m not there–I’d probably be snapping pictures like crazy and crying at the same time. I’m so proud of him for doing this. 

Big day around here on Friday. Evan took Grammy (Mark’s mom) to school on Friday for Grandparents’ Day. I am not sure which one of them was more excited. They had refreshments for them and then kids all sang some songs. Then, the first graders took their grandparent around to three different stations to do different activities. Apparently, when it was time for Grammy to leave (it was only for the morning), Evan was a bit sad. We hadn’t prepped him that it wasn’t all day. I assumed that they discussed that in school. So, he was disappointed that she didn’t stay for recess and lunch. But, it was fun nonetheless. And, it was good that it was over by 11 because she could then scoot over to Ashlyn’s school to watch the Pet Show which is always great entertainment. Some of you may remember that during last year’s preschool pet show, not only did I have scratch marks all over my forearms from wrestling our cat Mojo into the carrier, but she got so freaked out that she pooped in the carrier at the school, stinking up the whole darn place and my car afterwards. So, try to imagine how pleased I was this year that we now have a box turtle and Ashlyn wanted to bring her. Thank you, Ashlyn and turtle Casey, for making my day a whole lot easier. The teacher writes down exactly what the children say about their pet (or stuffed animal) and then reads it in front of the crowd. It’s always entertaining to see the poor frantic animals up there and then hear the funny things the kids said. For example, Ashlyn explained how we take the turtle outside and watch her push a ball with her arms and head. Hmm….don’t remember ever doing this, though it would be sorta funny. If we do it, I’ll be sure to blog about it.