4 years, 3 months/2 years.

No-nap Graham, no-nap Connor, and I took our first trip of the spring to the Prospect Park Zoo, where we had a surprisingly (given the no-nap status of all participants) wonderful time looking at the farm animals.  Connor was very excited to see the chickens, sheep, and goats, but was scared of feeding anyone.  Meanwhile, Graham blew all our spare change on food for the zebu.

4 years, 3 months/2 years.

Today, Connor and I chaperoned Graham's school field trip, a nature walk in Prospect Park, led by Glenn, who works in bird conservation.  Graham and his school friends made their bodies into trees, examined fallen robin's eggs in the grass, and learned to identify poison ivy.

4 years, 2 months/2 years.

Thank you Will for orchestrating a wonderful Mother's Day for me, complete with plenty of alone time (a massage, shopping, and sushi!) and family time (picnic in the park and ice cream and presents at home)!

Wishing a very happy Mother's Day to the most important moms in our lives, Grammy and Nana!  We love you!

4 years, 2 months/2 years.

2015: playground fences.  2035: Kilimanjaro.

4 years, 2 months/2 years.

We spent a beautiful Friday playing with friends--jumping with Charlotte at Carroll Park, attempting strange gymnastics moves at PS 321 with Mikkel, and having a pizza party on Klara and Annika's stoop.

Thank you Nana for the t-shirts!

Therese's e-mail of the week, entitled "All ladybugs are not ladies":

Hi All,

This week started with a Jackson Pollock inspired spring mural. We talked about what colors we might see outside in spring and where. We used blue, yellow, red, orange and purple. The children painted without touching the paper (mostly). We listened quietly as we painted to see if the sound of the splatting paint reminded us of anything. "Rain!", someone exclaimed.

In addition to our constant observation of insects in the yard, we found a dead baby bird on Monday. We examined it closely without touching though a couple of friends really wanted to touch it. We turned it over with a stick because the children wanted to see its belly. There were many questions and answers about how it died. The children had guesses: it fell out of its nest, the mama was carrying it and dropped it, it got sick, its friend was sick and gave it the sickness, or a squirrel was babysitting it and dropped it. We read Lifetimes, a wonderful book about life and death. Two children said they had grandparents who had died. One person was super sad and cried a little for the baby bird. We moved it to a safe place, out of reach, and the children later saw ants crawling on it. We talked about scavenger insects and how they clean up dead animals and use them for food. It was a long conversation which continues. The next day, we found his "sister" as someone put it.

We made red ladybugs with black spots. We read Are You A Ladybug and added legs and goggly eyes. We sang a ladybug song. We ate ladybug snacks. We read that ladybugs are lucky. We read The Grouchy Ladybug and The Lazy Ladybug. We also read    about a pirate whose pet parrot dies. He cries.

We read Growing A Garden and created colorful flowers for Mothers Day. We looked for shapes in the flowers, and colors. Some people glued their flowers to their blue skies picture from another sunny day.

We have been having the children write their names to sign up for turns on the swings. Some can write their names but those who cannot are happy to "make their mark".  It is all a part of pre-writing.

We thank you all for the gorgeous flowers!! We feel appreciated.

Next week, butterflies and bumble bees.

Have a funny sunny weekend and a Happy Mothers Day. You have produced quite a lovely bunch of offspring.

4 years, 2 months/2 years.

4 years, 2 months/2 years.

After diligently using a dump truck to haul chalk eggs around the playground all morning, Connor and Graham put on a synchronized jumping show using their little chairs as props.

Connor's main interests right now are labeling and different types of vehicles and colors.  This means that every walk through the neighborhood is peppered by exclamations of "white van!," "excavator!," "school bus!," "ambulance!," etc.  He has a remarkable ability to identify blue Honda CR-Vs and yells "our car!" whenever he seems one.