School, hikes, ice cream

 A few weeks ago Jack had a dude afternoon with Dad and went on a hike with John and Nate.

I'm not sure how much hiking actually happened, but there was probably a lot of investigating. 

 And there was ice cream.

We also recently went to the Spring Spruce Up at the school playground.

We put together a see saw.

The Spring concert was a week and a half ago.  Jack's class sang four songs, and there was a lot of dancing/movement to go along with the songs.  Here he is on the far left doing I don't recall what.

Jack has about three weeks left of Kindergarten.  Today he asked the first grade teacher if he will have homework next year and apparently she replied, "Of course!"  Jack seemed neutral about this revelation.

- S.

Lately

Way back during April vacation, Jack and I went to the Lynn Museum for their free family day and stayed for Curious Creatures.  We saw some turtles, a rabbit, a snake, a flying squirrel, and a chinchilla as seen above.  Jack was ready to go when the tarantula came out and I agreed.

Now that it has finally been warm out, we've been trying to clean up the yard.  Jack has become quite adept at using the big clippers and took out a large (mostly dead) azalea by himself.

And he looks cool doing it, of course.

The following week we cut down a tree out back and Jack helped cut up the branches.

 When not doing yard work, Jack has been building with Lego, playing with the "Bruder house" that Nana built, or watching Pink Panther cartoons which he recently discovered on YouTube.

Jack has also started swim lessons again and seems to enjoy it so far.  He has about five weeks of school left, has been signed up for various camps for the summer, and is on track to start first grade in September!


 - S.

Hike

We have been to the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary for a handful of events at this point, but have never taken advantage of the hiking trails there.  Saturday morning we did just that since the forecast for the rest of the weekend was pretty dismal.  There were some nice surprises and we will definitely be back.

Starting out.  All sticks are lightsabers or guns.

We climbed to the top of the observation tower,

discovered a makeshift shelter,

and checked out the rock grotto.

Jack and dad took the hard way to the top.  I took the stairs.

- S.

Easter

I neglected to post anything about Easter.  We had a nice, quiet day at home which included lots of Lego and some candy for breakfast.

Jack at the Y with an only moderately creepy bunny.

Coloring eggs.

The basket.  The large plastic eggs contain Lego pieces.

 Derrick and I hid some eggs around the living room for Jack.

Here is Mr. Pickle getting tossed aside to find a plastic egg, also filled with Lego pieces.

 A few of the hidden eggs had candy in them, much to Jack's delight.

- S.

Science Fair and Rocket Car

 Jack's school science fair and ice cream social was last week.  Jack's class did a group project about clouds.  Despite this project seeming like it was thrown together at the last minute, Jack did retain some information about clouds that he was able to pass on to us.

Begrudgingly posing in front of the project.

 Detail of Jack's example of three different types of clouds, cumulus, cirrus, and stratus.

Unrelated to the science fair, Jack brought this project home recently which I thought was pretty cool.

For their unit on transportation, the kids were given some paper shapes and asked to create a vehicle of some sort.  This is Jack's rocket car.

"My rocket ccar 

haas engines an

d wheels."

- S.

Maine

Recently we went up to Maine to visit Grampy and Gail and play in the snow.  

It wouldn't be a weekend without Lego.  Added bonus - Lincoln Logs!

Making custard for ice cream.

 Packing the ice cream maker with snow and rock salt.

A little cruise with Grampy.

Snowshoe time...

...and sledding!

- S.

Hike

As we come in from the second round of shoveling today, lets look back at February 24 when we went on a hike in Lynn Woods.  It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and there was no snow on the ground.  This was a unique day in that Jack didn't start complaining he was tired and asking when we were leaving 30 minutes in.  He stuck it out for about two hours and we covered a few miles, saw two towers, and the Boston skyline.  

There was much pointing.

Stone tower.  Jack at the corner for reference.

Still a collector of sticks.

Steel tower, more pointing.

Jack not caring about the Boston skyline.

 Family snack break.  It was sunny.  Jack refused to wear his sunglasses.  

Someone decorated a tree in the middle of the woods.  Cool find.

Now back to snow.

- S.