Skate/school

He's up!


He's down...


Backwards swizzle


Kola teaches grandma about cars


Grandma answers questions about owls


Grandpa teaching his craft


Ethan's class - future illustrators?


Deep into the Fall, we're fully immersed in schools: Kola's preschool, Ethan's elementary school, gymnastics, art class, skate school, and starting tomorrow - soccer classes. There's so much learning going on around here, I had a dream this weekend that I flunked the kindergarten geography entrance test and they had me taking classes at Ethan's K-5 school. It was harder than you think, but at least I could get a glimpse of what's going on in there. Ethan's in school about 14 hours a week, but we get about :20 minutes of recap. Lucky for us, K's and E's schools are very welcoming to visitors. As you see, I brought a couple ringers in! Grandma visited Kola's school with screech owls from the field museum and grandpa took the reins for me (I'm a member of the art appreciation committee at E's school) to teach face drawing to Ethan's class. Both kids were very excited to show us around, and Ethan made sure Grandpa saw his locker.

Skate school has been fun to watch, and the kids like it. The only casuality was Kola's bike helmet, which got pretty cracked up with falls. His first day on the ice was mostly spent horizontal in various poses, but he got a lot of practice getting up;) He was a great sport about it and still wanted to go back. He's improved a lot but after about a half hour he's pretty "wiped out." Ethan has definitely built on his skllls from last year and excels at backward swizzles!

Aside from my duties social secretary and backpack/homework tracker, I am now chair of the Greening Advisory Committee for our village's park district. If you've been reading for a while, you may recall that I started this committee a year ago as a working group to draft the park district's first environmental policy. We've now formed an implementation team to enact the policy, which I think is pretty exciting and can make a difference in so many ways.

Sig has a new boss at work, and that seems to be going well. And all of this just reminds me we have lots to be thankful for! Thank you for keeping in touch with us. More soon! xo b/s/e/k