School Vacation Week

During his vacation week, Nathan visited campus with me. We watched as crews built oozeball pits for Spring Fling weekend. Katie explained oozeball to Nathan who couldn't quite believe it, but he was also intrigued. We told him that if continued to go to school and more school, then one day, he could also play oozeball too.

The highlight of his campus visit was hanging out with Aunt Katie. After we had lunch, they drew in her office and chatted. Nathan also made sentences with the word magnets on Katie's file cabinet and tried to read some of the uh...creative...sentences which her officemates had constructed. Thankfully he was more interested in identifying words he knew than asking for definitions of new words. Then Katie reminded me that I had given her that magnetic word kit years ago.

We met up with friends at a dairy farm. Does the farm serve fresh ice cream? Of course! Our ice cream karma must have been very good because someone was scooping up cups in the off-season on a weekday. (Usually it is pay-by-honor.) Their ice cream is very rich, and it tastes even better on a lovely day when you're sitting next to friends on a well-worn wooden bench and watching cows graze in the fields.

After watching the cow-milking and visiting their favorite calf, a female named Candy Cane because she was born on Christmas Day, Maya and Nathan did crayon rubbings around the farm with their friends. (We usually carry crayons and paper, handy for times like these when helping feed cows lasts only so long. Besides, Maya and her one-year-friend raced right out of the barn when a cow mooed very loudly.) The farm offered plenty of interesting textures for crayon rubbings. When a farm worker noticed the kids at this site, he explained that it was a hitching post, and Nathan is holding the ring for horses. We wore leis and had a fun, relaxing afternoon with our friends. Memorable quote from my friend: "Don't color the barn!" White barn meets enthusiastic kids with crayons.