Tag Archives: odin

day 2518: The Last Day of the Last Year of Kindergarten.

day 2518: The Last Day of the Last Year of Kindergarten. I.

sigh. the day finally arrived. odin’s last day of kindergarten. a bittersweet day to be sure. of course, odin is nothing but excited because not only is it the last day of school, but the Summer Birthday Kids also collectively celebrate their birthdays.

the parents of the Summer Birthday Kids are also excited because they get to have a special morning with the kids where we hang out with them in the play yard before the bell rings and go for the children on their morning walk and watch a special little celebration filled with laugther and songs and stories.

as is quite typical of a waldorf education kindergarten morning at his school, odin begins by climing his favoritest tree!

i’ll bet he’s climbed this tree every day for the past two years ( for those that don’t know, in a waldorf school kids usually don’t start first grade until they are seven, so odin is finishing his second year of kindergarten ).

day 2518: The Last Day of the Last Year of Kindergarten. II.

he’s looking for a caterpillar that he discovered in the tree yesterday and was very eager for us to see it, but alas, the caterpillar had wandered off.

day 2518: The Last Day of the Last Year of Kindergarten. III.

looooooots of running and laughter in the morning. it’s seems like A Proper Way to start the day and i can’t imagine it any other way ( sitting at a desk?! ).

day 2518: The Last Day of the Last Year of Kindergarten. IV.

then we went on a walk and watched the children empty their compost into the compost buckets and even got a little tour of the greenhouse where the older kids are growing all sorts of green things for the school garden.

day 2518: The Last Day of the Last Year of Kindergarten. V.

and then it was time to take off the outside shoes and light candles and listen to songs and a wonderful story told by Miss Shannon about birthdays and make music and watch odin walk over a “Rainbow Bridge” laden with silk scarves to mark the passing of The Kindergarten Years ( no cameras allowed for that part 🙂

’twas, indeed, a wonderful morning.

day 2516: (Almost) The End of Kindergarten (and Another Trip Around The Sun for Poppi).

day 2516: (Almost) The End of Kindergarten (and Another Trip Around The Sun for Poppi).

when i was growing up i always extra enjoyed having a may 25th birthday because it came just around the time the school year was ending and the unofficial start of summer, memorial day weekend. all kinds of awesomeness happening all at once.

now, my approaching birthday reminds me that odin is almost done with another school year, ending his Kindergarten Years, and i’m another year older ( and certainly not getting any younger ).

which is all good. it is The Way of Things. though i sure wish i could bottle of the feeling of walking together to school with odin nearly every day of The Kindergarten Years.

he still wants to hold hands, for now. when he’s not riding his bike.

day 2516: a shell for Miss Shannon.

day 2516: a shell for Miss Shannon.

it’s hard to believe that odin is approaching the end of The Kindergarten Years at school. he’s already super excited to start first grade but he’s also a little sad to be saying goodbye to his kindergarten teacher so he decided to give her a special little gift – a shell from the shores of maine that we collected on our vacation while possibly in search of jasper.

he quietly gave it to her after we walked to school and they exchanged a glance that made me quite sure she really appreciated the thoughtfulness of his sweet gesture.

day 2503: documenting the first harvest of asparagus!

day 2503: documenting the first harvest of asparagus! I.

odin and i gave his mother a camera for mother’s day, but i think there’s a little confusion over just whose camera it is! but he has good instincts – when i said it was time to go pick our first harvest of asparagus from the family garden, he asked to wait a minute and ran inside and grabbed his, er, her camera 🙂

day 2503: documenting the first harvest of asparagus! II.

i’m impressed with his ability to manage the camera and the plate while composing the shot 🙂

here’ a little video he shot while picking the first harvest.

and less than 20 minutes later it was being enjoyed at the dinner table.

day 2500: Scenes from a Happy Mother’s Day Morning!

day 2500: Scenes from a Happy Mother's Day Morning! I.

happy mother’s day!

odin was up very early putting his new finger knitting skills to good use as he wanted to make his mother a Very Special Bracelet before she woke up. he’s getting so good with the required eye hand coordination that i have to ask him to slow down to take a good picture.

he can crank out a nice 4 string bracelet or bookmark or whatnot in very short order while i still struggle with the basic concept of how to finger knit.

day 2500: Scenes from a Happy Mother's Day Morning! II.

the finished product! he thought it would be a nice touch to take the picture with it shaped like a heart. i like his thinking. i’m sure his mother will love it.

now, let’s see, if i can get him to work 12 hours a day making bracelets and bookmarks…

day 2500: Scenes from a Happy Mother's Day Morning! III.

then it’s time to wrap up a super secret gift we both got for her that she’s been wanting for A Really Long Time. odin thought it would be fun to wrap and color the entire box to make it super special.

day 2500: Scenes from a Happy Mother's Day Morning! IV.

i love, love, love that he whistles while he works. and a kind-of lonesome cowboy tune to boot that i can’t remember the name of at the moment.

day 2500: Scenes from a Happy Mother's Day Morning! V.

to this day i still marvel at the wide assortment of colors in the modern box of crayola crayons and can’t help but feel like i got shorted as a child.

we briefly debated whether or not cerulean blue could be an acceptable substitute for indigo when coloring a rainbow.

day 2500: Scenes from a Happy Mother's Day Morning! VI.

aaaaaand done! just moments before mama comes downstairs to what will hopefully be a big surprise 🙂

day 2497: The Last Day of Gymnastics.

day 2497: The Last Day of Gymnastics. I.

well, at least the end of this session of gymnastics. it seems impossible to believe odin’s first gymnastics class which started three months ago is over already! hi. ho. i’m sure there will be lots of biking and swimming and who-knows-what to take its place over the summer until classes resume in the fall.

maybe by then i’ll figure out how to take better pictures in the athletic center 🙂

day 2497: The Last Day of Gymnastics. II.

apparently i need to reassess how high i think he jump on the trampoline while framing the shot.

day 2497: The Last Day of Gymnastics. III.

odin gets some tutelage on how to stoop and swoop his foot down below the balance beam before lifting it uuuuuuuup and over the safety cone.

i am quite confident i would have fallen off at this point but he stayed standing and made it to the end.

day 2497: The Last Day of Gymnastics. IV.

and i’m also quite confident that i could never, ever pick a point on the floor to focus on while lifting up one leg and leaning over without falling flat on my face.

while his classmates might look underwhelmed, i am mighty impressed 🙂

somehow i managed to not get a single photograph on the uneven bars! booo!