A Weekend with Ian

Having Curt and his family live locally is so nice - I get to see his family frequently, and this weekend was no exception.

 Friday night I needed to work late, so the family brought dinner to me and we ate in my classroom.

 Lisa did not want to say the prayer.

 It was fun having everyone in my classroom and eating dinner at the half round table.

Craig picked up dinner from a new restaurant, The Creek, in Buck Creek, which is about two miles from Hershey.

 Ian loved the chicken nuggets.

 After dinner, Lisa, Curt, and I tried to draw trains for Ian (he loves Thomas the Train.)

 Boompa helped Ian with his dry erase marker.

 Reaching waaaaaaaaay up so he can draw where the adults are drawing.

 So my attempts at drawing modern freight engines was a bust and looked more like dolphins...

Vanessa texted me a comparison picture and she's right, my trains are dolphins.

I got out my tub that is chock full of M&M collectibles - gifts from students over the years. Ian had a blast pulling out the cars and lunch boxes and other acoutrements that I've been given over the years.

After a while he came walking over to me with a puzzled look on his face, and his cheeks puffy. He garbled something, and then spit these out into my hands:

Oh, dear! Some pretend M&Ms Cara Seigel made me out of Sculpy fifteen years ago - they're not real but they sure fooled him! I thought I had them stored in a closet, not in the tubs.

Saturday morning, we had a painting party at Curt and Vanessa's. I watched Ian, and Vanessa floated between the painting and caring for Mila. Craig, Lisa, and Curt did the bulk of the first coat of paint in an upstairs bedroom.

Ian and I read from one of my favorite books, Eric Carle's Today is Monday.

And Ian made up a game where he rode his stuffed pony, fell off and bumped his head, and then needed me to kiss it so it felt better.

He must've done this fifteen times or more! But I didn't mind.

He played in the tent that Vanessa made him.

Ian points out Boompa's and my shoes.

Today, they came over for dinner with us, and while I don't have any pictures, we played the player piano, danced, played with the garage, and had fun.

Three days in a row with Curt, Vanessa, Ian, and Mila. Are we lucky or what??