Kindergarden

Aubrey got to meet the three kindergarten teachers at orientation this week.  The whole event was a little disappointing for Aubrey.  T mistakenly told her that she would get to see a classroom with  this years kindergarten students in it.  Well- although the event was mid-morning that did not happen.  Thank goodness we got a short ride on a school bus!  When we got on the bus, Aubrey pondered sitting in the first seat but then marched to the back seat.  Who knew that we have a back of the bus type kid???  Afterward, T did causally mention that next year when she rides the bus from home to school, she should sit in the front of the bus and let the big kids sit in the back. 

Soccer Clinic

Saturday morning soccer clinic has begun!  Leland loves watching the kids and kicking his ball around.  Aubrey likes some parts and is less excited about others.  T is not sure what to think about this soccer mom roll of watching from the sidelines. 

Sampling amphibians in streams

We have been practicing our amphibian finding skills in the neighbor's stream every few days throughout the month of May and are completing regular water changes for the green frog tadpoles Aubrey is raising through metamorphosis.  Aubrey is mastering her skills at netting (and kissing) green frog tadpoles and stream salamanders and Leland could throw rocks for hours.  Here is a video from one of our first visits to the stream. 

Letters and Numbers

Faces

You make faces.  I can make faces too!

 

Connecticut

So here is a post about life in Connecticut; written by a wildlifer.  Deer are ridiculously abundant in CT.  So much so that although T really would like to plant new bushes in front of the house, it seems like a rather silly idea given that the deer ate the rhododendron from our front yard (a plant that is mildly toxic to deer).  Below is a photo from our neighbors yard.  Can you see the deer browse line?   Can you believe that some of T's students are so accustomed to this look that they actually did not know what the term "deer browse line" referred to? 

 This weekend the weather was beautiful, so what did we do?  Spent several hours hand pulling Japanese barberry from our property.  But we made good progress removing this invasive plant (that grows like crazy because deer won't eat it. It also supports elevated mice populations and deer ticks).  No photo proof of our effort.  Kids also helped the neighbor clean up after he cut down a tree the snow plow killed this winter.

Then Aubrey found this trillium.  T wonders how many more would appear if we didn't have a family of deer living in our neighborhood.  T has a feeling that the previous owner really liked trillium, maybe planting them everywhere, but we may never know since deer also love trillium.