Sunday

Our trip to doggie park this morning became a nature walk. We talked about pine trees versus spruce trees and collected samples. We walked in the middle of a grove of huge spruce trees where there is a "sanctuary" inside. We found a tree to climb.




Here is our collection, although some pieces never made it home: pine and blue spruce needles (We also saw green spruce. Kevin noted the difference before I pointed it out!), spruce cones -- open and closed and eaten by a squirrel. We also found lots of squirrel nests in the trees. Kevin found a burdock!

Then we were off to church. Kevin decorated his nametag with a pink angel which he said represented Mommy. He said that I was the purple angel, since purple is my favorite color.

As is typical even in his own church, he wanted me to stay with him in his church-time class. Since I have never been involved in the education program of our church, I really had no idea what it was like. The teacher read the story of Jesus healing ten lepers and only one said thank you, using one photo to illustrate the story. That story that could have been easy to illustrate with small figures or puppets, or role playing. Then, the children were given 2010 calendars to color -- each month illustrating a Bible story, but they were not told what the January story was which they colored. TWICE Kevin told his teacher, "My Mommy died. She is in heaven now." The teacher heard him, but did NOT say a word in reply! Then it was free play time. What? Why couldn't they have done a thank you song or played a game or role played the happy former lepers? It was definitely more babysitting than teaching. They lined up to go back to church too early and had to stand there for about five minutes.

We went to lunch at Cora's -- which has awesome fruit presentations. Kevin loved his waffle covered in fruit.

A closer look...

Since Thursday, Gankie and his thumb have been indispensable. I asked him if he was trying to look like a nun from The Sound of Music!

Cora's gives out free fudge pieces.

The Blacks invited us over this afternoon to see Kevin and for Kevin to play with their toy poodle Sasha. They gave him a large bag full of little toys! I hope they all fit in his suitcase tomorrow!




Kevin asked about Aria at lunch, so I told him that I would show him pictures of her on my computer. He loved them! He noted she lives in a beautiful house, has two nice big, yellow dogs, and her Christmas stocking is identical to Mommy's (an angel playing the harp)! He commented on how much he liked her and misses her.

Tonight, Kevin ripped red tissue paper into strips and tied them everywhere around the house. He told me that he was decorating my house. Here are pictures of five of the millions! (I'm going to have "fun" getting rid of all of them in the days to come!)





He wanted me to play more Christmas carols on the piano tonight. Then he asked for Sound of Music songs.

While at Blacks, it started to snow and stick. By tonight, we have about one inch covering the ground. We prayed that it will stay until morning so that we can slide down hill! Kevin also prayed asking God to tell Mommy that we love her and miss her.

At the beginning of the week, I suggested to Kevin that Guinness could sleep with him. He was not overjoyed with that idea! However, he is so used to Guinness now and loves him so much that I thought it just might work tonight. After we read our bedtime story, I called Guinness in, he jumped on the bed, and I said "Goodnight." I expect they both will snooze peacefully until morning. Guinness will want to wake up before Kevin, so we will have to be diligent to not have Kevin awake at 7 AM too!