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Today was a bit slow getting to Little Red. Kai opened up this box of words and couldn't stop until he had something.

 

It rained for much of the day. At the end of the day he had this to show me.

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Today was a garden day at Little Red. They are busy watering the garden and then picking green and yellow beans again. We ate the beans tonight.

These pictures have been fun lately as Kai has hidden between the teachers, Lexi and Easton. You can barely see his head.

Around 2PM today when I went to get our CSA, I drove past the lemonade stand in the front of the neighborhood. I recognized Beau, Kai's classmate in 2nd grade. He said they take cash and Venmo. When I came back home, I told him I would bike by in 10 minutes to get lemonade.

I liked the name of their stand.

The stand is called "BEE'S LEMONADE" the name stands for Beau, Elena, and I think Eleanor, the three "owners" of the stand. I asked them how long it took for them to think of the name, they said "about 3 seconds." I love their logo of the bee drinking lemonade. I gave them $3 so each kid could get a dollar.

My bike ride took me out on Capitol View Road and out by the corn fields.

At Little Red, Kai was busy making art with Audra.

In the evening Heidi caught the sunset at the UW Display Gardens.

It might rain tomorrow. 

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On the weekend I tried to get out to view the scrapes, a wildlife restoration area they built about 5 years ago. I was curious if they were dried up. Alas, they are not, but they are certainly drying. Still quite a few frogs though.

 

Everything was so nice and green on July 10 when I took the photo with the drone. It hasn't rained in a long time.

I picked up Kai at Little Red. I found him drawing a table, and decided to take a picture.

The drawing he made today was that of a Villager, a Minecraft character.

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Today's field trip took them to Orchid Heights Park. I like their playground, but it looks like they also incorporated a walk to the spring that comes out of the hill. It is a nice walk.

 When I picked up Kai later on, there weren't too many kids there, but he did enjoy showing me some Uno.

I'm not sure why, but he wanted to show me these three cards, and then take a picture of them.

At home, Kai and Heidi read a book. At this point in the book, they were quietly observing whatever they could sense with their eyes closed...like sound, smell, etc...

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I have very little content for today.

It was very steamy when we woke up.

I wanted one picture of Kai. I told him I needed a picture for the day. He was wearing only underwear, so I blurred it out. Not sure if he was happy I took a picture, but I needed more than a steamy window.

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Another indoor day.

Kai and I watched St. Walter's Church this morning.

 Today, Heidi and Kai finished "Oz, the Great and Powerful"

I went for a walk out back. I was hoping to see the tiny ponds they made for wildlife. I wanted to see if they have dried up yet. The paths around the property have not been mowed yet, so I quit walking after I realized there would be no reprieve from the waist high (or higher) prairie grasses and flowers.

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 Only a few photos today. I don't believe Kai got outside.

One of the things we need to do is make a card for Dr. Amy as she is retiring at the end of September. I am not sure if Kai is drawing or working on the card here.

After I went to Woodman's I decided to swing by Sunset Ridge on the way back, just to see if it looked different.

no change here

I know they are talking about re-doing the map of the USA this summer, but it remains untouched.

Earlier in the day, I was able to video Heidi practicing her wonderful piano skills.

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Only one photo today.

It was a typical day at Little Red. They had "science experiments" on their agenda today, but it sounds like it was more of a free choice day.

Here is their "wolf den" they built. The blocks were there, but arranged them so it blocked outsiders from getting in. Him, Evelyn and Dax built this. Kai said his old friend Emma would also be welcomed into the group.

 

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Today was a garden day. It normally is too hot, smoky, or wet for the garden, but today looked perfect.

 

The kids always like to pick weeds (and carry them to a pile), water plants, and then pick the produce. At least we didn't get any zucchini today. They are starting to show up at work in our common areas as donations to whoever wants them. We basically have as much zucchini as you want these days.

Kai picked mostly yellow beans. He said he was picky about what beans he picked.

At Little Red, Kai is fascinated by these small playing cards. I'm not sure why, but I think he thinks they are trick cards, or have something magically different about them.

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Today, Haven's Petting Zoo came to Little Red. I got a picture when I dropped Kai off this morning. They were putting up fencing. I saw a few chickens, Kai said they had alpaca, some cows and a few other animals.

 All the classes had some time with the animals. Silver Room had their time around 11AM. Playing with  playdough here.

Here is the group picture from today.

Perhaps they will send pictures later of the animals.

At the end of the day, Kai was playing chess with Mr. Easton. Mr. Easton was just learning chess. They were not able to finish the game, so we took a picture of where they were in the game, in case they wanted to resume tomorrow.

In the evening we went to Jason's Deli. We had not been there in about a year. Kids eat free on Wednesday, so yeah, let's go on a Wednesday.

The ants were busy carrying away these potato chips. Hope they like barbecue flavor.

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Summer break is about half done, let that sink in.

Today at Little Red they went to the Monona Terrace for "Mad Science" - it was some type of science presentation. Normally there are large groups from various daycare providers there. I believe it is also open for the public.

 At lunch, they went to the Madison Children's Museum again. They have a lot of various crafts there. You can make a lot.

I'm happy we are playing Sorry this Summer. It is a game that I had not played for at least 35 years, so fun to rediscover it. Tonight's game, we both needed a "1" to get all four of our pawns to Home. Kai (yellow) drew the 1 before me (Blue).

He created this "K" in Minecraft tonight.

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Each day we have an art calendar page to look at. Most days it is a painting and many times it is in a private collection. Today's was this luggage that we could actually visit in Minneapolis. We are thinking on when we'll make the 4-hour drive to the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

 We also had our visit to the ENT.

After the appt, we drove Kai to Cross Plains. One thing they were doing were face paints. Many kids got Minecraft theme or a skeleton. Kai asked for a comedy/tragedy mask.

The weather was just a tiny bit sprinkly and windy, but our neighbors got their house all re-shingled.

Our house will likely get done sometime in the next month. I am wondering if any of the excessive heat and air quality issues put them behind schedule.

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My new favorite website is https://map.purpleair.com/air-quality-cigarettes-per-day

It gives you the air quality as an equivalent of cigarettes per day.

Here is our current number at 9AM.

With that, no time outside today. We played a bit of Sorry and Marble Run.

I wanted to watch World Cup soccer. I thought it was funny they had Muppets for part of the halftime show.