Chess Tournament

In his small chess tournament at school, Ivan thought he would be in second place and Kyle would win.
But, he tied Kyle for first.

Congratulations, Ivan, you still can’t beat your parents. . . yet. But you are a king of 1st grade chess players.

School Concert

So proud of Ivan for performing with his school music class. He didn’t do the hand motions as large or with as much enthusiasm as his classmates. But he smiled a forced smile stayed with the group and didn’t panic about performing in front of the whole school and a crowd of parents. For Ivan, that’s pretty amazing!  He also wasn’t excited about going on the Brownie Scout letterboxing scavenger hunt, but he did and he had fun. This was his team who named themselves “Teal Rainbow Thin Mint.” He did not like the name “except for the Thin Mints.”

Rainy Saturday at the arboretum

So few people and so many things blooming.
Lovely smells and mud – good mix.
And when Ezri fell in the pond, she was already damp.

Fragrance Garden

Our favorite drainage pipe to climb through and play “pooh sticks”

These are called Snowballs. They smell almost as good as lilacs – which are also starting to bloom.

Trolls are being built by a Danish artist from reclaimed wood. We stopped to chat and see the troll in progress.