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A very smoky day. The preschool originally was going to the garden and Lakeview Park, but with all the rain, the garden was out and with all the smoke, outdoors became canceled today.

smoke on my drive back home after morning drop off

Since it was all indoors today, the kids got to move from their room (Green Room) to the Blue Room and Silver Rooms. They got to interact with different kids and play with different toys.

in either the Silver or Blue Room

playing Gaga Ball inside in the green room

When I picked up Kai, his Green Room teacher (Ms. Nina) made sure to mention to me how the other teachers thought Kai was really kind, considerate and a good friend to those in the Silver and Blue Rooms. It was especially nice because those kids are younger than Kai. I guess you can never hear that enough.

Here is the last picture of a hazy day from the top of our hill (I mowed the lawn today and had to take grass clippings to the hill).

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We'll rewind to some pictures from yesterday that did not make it into the blog.

At the Monona Terrace, they occasionally have events for children during the summer. Kai missed the first event at the terrace since we were on vacation, so I was happy he could make it this time.

Mad Science

There are a lot of groups that go to these. It sounds like some kids from the audience were picked to help the scientist. Kai was not a picked.

Here is the group photo.

On the way to the Wisconsin Veteran's Museum, they stopped at the Capitol to use the restroom. They ran into State Senator, Sarah Keyeski. I always like it when politicians show kids around the office, especially if it is not planned.

I had to look it up on the map, Sarah's district is north of Madison in the Wisconsin Dells area.

group photo

Now on to today.

Today was "Mess Fest" - it was rainy all day, but there was no lightning, so all was good for making a mess with silly string and some whipped cream.

I'm not sure what this gunk is

Kai and Dax

the only rule was no spraying in the face

We did our normal evening things (it has been raining all day). I thought it would be fun to secretly record Heidi practicing piano. I think she sounds great.

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Today was going to be a bit of a whirlwind for me. My supervisor is retiring and I had a bit of running around to do. While in the office, I spoke with someone who lives near work. He said the new splashpad next to work was operating. I had to go out and look while I was getting my car.

It isn't the best splash pad, but it is better than nothing. I will see if Kai wants to try sometime.

I ordered the cake from Costco a few days ago, I was picking it up today. At Costco I saw the beginnings of Halloween. You can always be three months early.

A few photos from the retirement party. I had a front row seat, so I got good pictures.

I had a good part in putting together the party, including the PowerPoint slide with pictures and graphics. I'm happy I got to do it, but I'm happy it is over.

As part of the Happy Meal, McDonald's has little mini-McDonald's toys. Heidi got a grill from McDonald's. We'll incorporate into our play at some point in time.

We did some math homework - this time learning to read a clock.

Kai put together a LEGO figure as I read "James and the Giant Peach" tonight.

As a side note, I was hoping to get more pictures of their adventure at the Monona Terrace today. Perhaps they will mail them out tonight so I can put in the blog tomorrow.

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A fun start to our Monday. We were getting to Little Red a little late. However we saw some of our friends taking care of the chickens on this hot day.

 

After dinner, we had some homework. For our writing, we can either work on grammar, or write a how-to. Here he is at work on his "how-to"

Here is how to create a sand castle.

you need a shovel, moist sand, and a castle mold

For reading, I've been working on reading "James and the Giant Peach" by Roald Dahl. Once we finish the book, we'll watch the movie. Here is the picture of the peach rolling off the cliff.

Tomorrow they go to the Monona Terrace for "Mad Science: Fire and Ice." Sounds like fun.

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Today we got off to a quick start with the 8AM mass at St. Bernard's Church. Our plan was that if we could get that taken care of, we could grab breakfast from Panera and go to Allen Centennial Gardens, which is a summer "have to" do.

I packed coffee and yogurt, so we only needed sandwiches to complete our meal.

we like the big umbrella

 

One thing I figured would happen was a photo competition between Heidi and Kai. Here are some photos.

At home, we were talking about the limbo. It was quite hot outside, so we set up some tape (our limbo bar).

After finishing some of his math homework, we played upstairs. It had been a while since we did Picasso tiles (magnetic tiles).

Here is our eggplant dinner.

In the evening, Heidi went out for a walk. She said the moon sliver was quite big. When I got out there, I didn't see it for the longest time, but here it is right on the horizon.

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Today is swimming Saturday again. Today it was just the two boys at the sailboat class. They both are quite good.

Ms. Marie runs them through the backstroke, front crawl and then some type of dolphin move, following by diving for rings. I thought Kai had his best swimming session ever. She rarely has to ask him to make corrections.

 On the way to Mike and Marilee's 50th anniversary party (real anniversary is August 30) in Woodstock, IL. The journey there takes you through a bunch of corn and soybean fields, and this farm which has over 5,000 cows.

The Woodstock Country Club was nice and laid back. From my perspective, I think we got to see a lot of the people we've wanted to see that we would normally see at Christmas. 

Here are some pictures from our table.

Heidi and these other ladies were part of the wedding, so they got the original sash from Aunt Louise's basement.

I took this picture from afar, I'm not sure we'll ever get the original shot.

I thought it was neat that they planned for Kai and the other two kids at the party to get a LEGO to put together. Kai was really quick in getting his skid loader made.

After the late lunch, Kai and Bjorn and Bergh went out for a run with a few of the adults on the golf course. I thought it was funny when a lone golfer was trying to finish up his round and they were out playing in front of him.

Here are some other pictures outside.

Here is a picture of a picture of Heidi Beckman, aged 2 year and 7 months.

Kai took a few other pictures of pictures.

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A bit of a whirlwind of pictures today.

One of Kai's teachers, Nina is really good at face painting. She made Kai into a skeleton, but he sweat off a lot of it by the time he got home. She seemed to be really good at painting tiger faces.

 

After I picked him up, we ate and did homework and headed out to play. It might rain tomorrow, so today might be a good outdoor evening.

Him, Ardro and Namro liked to bike on the basketball court and play the game with the hockey pucks.

They chased Namro around the neighborhood, here they are coming back.

When we got back, we noticed Ardo's shoes were on backwards, so we decided to try it ourselves.

As it got later, they decided to play Minecraft - just imagining. Here Kai is chopping down a tree.

By this time, they saw a few fireflies. Catching fireflies is on our list of things to do, and we're running out of time, so we decided to do it tonight.

It was a bit windy, so it wasn't the easiest to catch them, but I think they each got at least 8 fireflies.