1st Day of Preschool

Today was Dylan's first day of preschool. He has visited a lot when we have gone to pick up Andrew but that is not the same as staying all day long. We have been talking about it for several weeks and we visited the classroom three weeks ago. As we walked in, he started to demand to be carried. I had my arms full of the stuff he needed for the day so he had to walk, fussing as we walked along. Once we got to the door, he didn't want to go in so I carried him in and showed him around a bit. I finally had to leave him crying with one of the teachers (a teacher who had Gina as an infant and preschooler and Andrew when he started preschool). I knew he would be fine but it is always hard to leave them crying.

I picked him up in the late afternoon. They were playing in the garden and when he saw me, he bounded over with a big smile on his face. Apparently he had a fine day though he sounded grumpy when he described how only one boy got to paint. I think he will be just fine.

Letterboxing

Since we were going on vacation in Montana for a week, I wanted to come up with some different things to do with the kids. My dad lives south of Missoula, about 5 hours from Glacier NP and 5 hours from Yellowstone. It is a very pretty area called the Bitterroot Valley but unless you love to fish, it isn't obvious where to take kids for fun. Several friends have tried letterboxing where you get clues to track down a box containing a stamp that is used to record that you found the box. I got directions for two letterboxes before we left.

The first letterbox was in River Park in Hamilton, about 20 miles north of Darby where we were staying. It looked like a nice park on the outskirts of town. The park is also a moose habitat so there were also signs with information about the local moose and warnings about what to do if you encounter one. The directions took us along the river with a lot of "walk 120 paces toward the river". It worked most of the way but at the end we couldn't find the willow tree in the clues. It was a very pretty area to explore though and the kids had fun throwing rocks into the river. I'm sure they were making enough noise to keep any moose from coming in our direction.


The part the kids loved best though was playing on the swings after the long walk.

The second letterbox was along Lake Como, closer to Darby. We had already walked along the trail on a hike several nights before so we just followed the same path. Dylan was fascinated by all the motorboats on the water. We found the rock slide area, and then the tree with four trunks, 9 paces to a broken rock, a short climb up the rocks and voila, there was the box. However, I had managed to forget to bring a stamp pad or any kind of writing instrument to record our visit. So we settled for a picture of Gina holding the "Gone Canoeing" stamp that was in the box.

Theater Camp

For the past two weeks, Gina has been going to theater camp and she has been really enjoying it. I wasn't sure how she would like it since she didn't know anyone else, but every day when I would pick her up she would say it was fun. Each day they start out with classes on improvisation and other games and then in the afternoon, they work on their lines for the play, make the sets and props and work on their costumes. The play for this camp was Thumbelina and Gina got the part of Dora the Dragonfly, one of Thumbelina's friends. At the end of the two weeks, the kids put on the performance at a local park. Some of the kids were very enthusiastic about their parts. Gina knew all her lines though she sounded a little wooden. When she would practice at home, she would only say the lines without much expression or she would be very goofy about it. She loved singing the song at the end though and showed a lot of expression. In the end, she excited about doing it again next summer.

Good bye Preschool

Today was Andrew's last day of preschool. He has been looking forward to this day for weeks, mainly because as he told me: You don't take naps in Kindergarten. He will miss his best friend Colin though. They both light up when they see each other. It is really cute. His teacher made him a crown too for the last day since he won't be in preschool to celebrate his 5th birthday.

Three weeks ago was the preschool graduation ceremony. It is a very low key event. The kids sing a few songs, the director says a few words and then they hand out the certificates to the kids and flowers to the teachers and staff. Half of the kids have been together since they started in the Infant I room.

And in two weeks, we start all over again when Dylan begins preschool. He can't wait.