Fourth of July Parade

This year instead of watching the 4th of July parade, Ben, Jillian and I were in it! Ben's preschool decided to have a float. My dad let us use his truck and trailer (thanks, Dad!), which we decorated to reflect the parade's 50's theme. Ben and a few of his friends were a rock band, and the rest of the siblings and parents were the groupies. I drove the truck! We were right behind the "Basset Brigade" (Basset Hounds walking with their owners). The dogs kept stopping to sniff people and I was constantly afraid I was going to run over one of them! But all in all, it was a smooth ride and the kids had fun. It was such a different perspective being in the parade rather than watching it. I had no idea so many people came out to watch!

Jillian passed out candy, which she ran out of after the first few blocks! The parade is a mile long, and I'll bet the people at the end don't even know that candy is ever given out. Everyone always runs out by the half way point at least!

The fabulous Teacher Ellen and the Preschool Rock Band!

Preschool Celebration

I like the way Ben's preschool celebrated the end of the school year. Instead of calling it "graduation", they called it an "end of the year celebration". Teacher Ellen created a memory book for each child that she presented to them and then Teachers Ellen and Tifanie sang the "goodbye song" one last time to each child. It was very sweet.

I Believe I Can Fly!

Ben was chosen to be "Kid of the Week" at preschool. We're supposed to make a poster showing five things he's great at, so we were taking some pictures this afternoon. I never knew he was great at flying!

Other things he's great at:

Catching frogs (and being really gentle with them, he says...notice the crushed leg...)

Riding a bike (super sized training wheels!)

Cooking (Tie-fighter Ties from the Star Wars cookbook)

Building "rocking cool" lego ships

Dancing (to Electricty by OMD, of which he said "This is really good music, mom!" I agree!)

Beach Field Trip

Ben's preschool class took a field trip to Lytle Beach today at low tide to search for sea creatures. They found all sorts of interesting things, like this beautiful sunstar.

Mace's Dad, Peter, showed the kids how to spot a geoduck...watch out, you might get wet!

Teacher Tifanie (a.k.a. Aunt Tiffy) found a giant seastar!

Teacher Ellen turned over rocks to find crabs. The kids would yell "Crab Festival!" when there were lots of crabs scrambling to get away. Ben found a crab...it was dead, but he still wanted to keep it.

Warning: the following video contains a scary crab

Ben's Mother's Day Poem

Ben's preschool class had their annual Mother's Day Tea party yesterday. I forgot my camera so I don't have pictures...hopefully I'll get copies from someone, but I loved this poem Ben gave me and I wanted to share it with you!

MY MOM

By Ben, May 2008

My mom mostly works on the computer.

She washes dishes.

She cooks food.

My favorite is hot dogs with ketchup.

For fun my mom goes on a date with my dad.

My brother and sister take care of me.

She watches moms and dads movies sometimes.

She reads.

She plays on the Game Cube with me.

My mom has yellowish hair.

She's tall.

She likes to wear fancy clothes when she's on a date.

I love her!

My mom doesn't get mad that much.

I would buy my mom a jewelry from Jared because it has all these jewels.

It would be mostly white, like diamonds.

She would wear it on a date.

I love Dad.

I love my Mom!

I love her to infinity!!

Without my mom I woudn't be born.