Skylar playdate

Poor Skylar has had to endure 2 hours of sitting quietly for the past year as Cairn goes to piano class and then Andrew goes to class immediately after.

Well, this year we have found a friend that loves to have her over on Thursday afternoons for 2 hours.  I pack Skylar's lunch and drop her off and the girls have lunch together.  Then they play with dolls, do art projects, play school and just do lots of girly things together.

Skylar returns from A's all filled up with friend time and she didn't have to sit for 2 hours.

Happy happy girl!!

Flag ceremony, piano, playdate and mechanics

We were out the door early this morning to go to flag ceremony.  One of the families in our homeschool group owns a hotel (Best Western Lakewood) and they are doing some renovations and today was the groundbreaking.  They are changing the theme of their hotel to like a "Night a the Museum" with dinosaurs.  They brought in a model of a stegosaurus from Illinois, they had a large sandbox filled with fossils, Mr Bones, and a jeep from the Jurassic Park movie.

Cairn carried the flag so she is in the front.

 She also clipped the first ring on.

 And she raised the flag.

 The troop did a fabulous job and I was very proud of them.  They were able to adjust very quickly and in the cold.  We practiced with carrying a flag in on a pole and posting it.  They had to carry the flag through sand, hang it and post it.  They are ready for anything thrown at them.

After the ceremony, they did a groundbreaking of throwing some shovels of sand and then the kids got to dig for fossils.

After we hung out and talked with all our friends, (the event turned out to be mostly homeschoolers and their kids) we ran home to eat lunch before Andrew's piano class.

He knew that as soon as piano was over he was having a playdate with K.  First question when we pulled into the garage, "How long until K gets here?"

K ran into the house and the two boys starting playing right away.  I caught them playing in the "rocket" and had to grab a picture.

Grandma's car broke down this morning so Dad had to tow it home so he could work on it after work.  When Dad announced he was going to work on the car, Andrew ran over and demanded I help him put on his pants so he could get outside to help Dad.  Then he went into the laundry room to put on his shoes.  I heard him say, "ooops wrong foot."  All by himself he did his shoes and then out the door he went.  A while later, I grabbed the camera and this is what I found in the garage.

They even had to go to the part store to get a part.  "Mom, we are leaving for the part store to get a fuel filter."

I was wondering if he was asking me for the keys but then I remembered he is only 3 1/2 - I have a few years before he is driving to the part store by himself.  For today, I will be happy it was only his shoes.

Playdate!!

We had a weird start to the day.  Cairn was up first (after Dad left) so none of us even saw Dad.  I woke up at 8, Andrew was up at 8:30, and Skylar was up at 9:30.  Late mornings caused a late start to school and we never really got back on track.  Cairn was the only one who got all her work finished.  We didn't make it to park day but Andrew did go to his playdate.  Cairn was a little upset about that - she didn't think it was fair that Andrew didn't finish his work and still got to go.  I tried to explain that he needs this playdate - it isn't  just a fun thing.

The playdate was fantastic.  Andrew and K did mostly parallel play as they would at this age but Andrew really like K.  I thought he would want to play like he does with his sister with making up stories and making car noises and such.  But he didn't.  They played in the dirt, they played in their sand.  They rode bikes and bounced on a bouncy ball.  Then they went inside and played with K's cars.  Andrew checked out his room.

After an hour, we left and Andrew talked the whole way home about his new friend.  Skylar had piano tonight so I was gone with her but Andrew even told Dad about K without any prompting from me.  He is very excited about a friend.  We set up another playdate for next week and Andrew can't wait.