Lukas ran in his first race this weekend! The race is called the North Star Ramble, loosely based on a book called "The North Star" written by a children's book author, Peter Reynolds, who lives in our town about a boy who "runs after" his dreams. Anyway, Lukas had a blast and we did too as we watched him. He ran the 50 yard dash in the 4 year old (and under) group. The girls ran first and then the boys. We believe that he actually won the race, and our video footage seems to record that, but of course, all the kids are winners at this age and received ribbons and goodie bags just for crossing the finish line. Here are a few photos of the warm-up session, the race and after the race. If we're still living in Dedham next year, I think Lukas will want to participate again and Isabel will be old enough to join him.
Lukas doing jumping jacks
Isabel doing jumping jacks :-)
Lukas running a part of the obstacle course before the race
Isabel running a part of the obstacle course
Isa jumping over hurdles in the obstacle course
Lukas (and his friend and neighbor, Connor) looking a little apprehensive
The girls are getting ready to run, while the boys try to keep their hands warm (it was a crisp morning temperature wise)
The countdown has started (from 10 to 0) and Lukas is getting ready
An photo from the official photographer for the race--the boys are in the lead
A very proud Isabel, a very happy Lukas and a very disappointed Connor
This month has been full of the kids using "costumes" in their imaginative play and I find it adorable when they "dress-up" so we snapped a few photos to document the cuteness!
Isabel playing chef. This outfit was actually given to Lukas by his Yiayia a couple years ago, and he wore it a few times. Isa gets a lot of use out of it now. She is quite the cook and often plays with the kids' kitchen chopping wooden food, making coffee and baking cookies. She never fails to warn us that the oven is "wary hot" (very hot).
With a big brother in the house, a little girl cannot resist mimicking him and dressing up like a "worker".
This photo makes me smile for so many reasons! They each created their own outfits and were happily playing together when Olli snapped this photo one morning. I love that Isa has the "European shoe-sizer" on her left foot and arms crossed while Lukas has his hood up and is wearing his home-made tool-belt along with his construction vest. By the way, the Boch jackhammer he is holding was something he purchased with $2 of his allowance money at the Salvation Army store a few months ago.
This is how they chose to dress in order to walk to the library last week. Lukas made sure to have his "cell phone" and blue "note-taker" with him. Isa carried her purse (stuffed full of fake money and her sunglasses) the entire way there and back.
Isa in one of the dress-up outfits I got her for her birthday (both dresses are courtesy of the Salvation Army store and the accessories are from Toys R Us)
Just in case you care to know, the yellow ring on her right hand is from the dentist. She had her first appointment last week and is quite proud of her special prize and delights in putting on "my wewoh wing!" (my yellow ring) as she calls it. We were told by the dentist that she has a cross-bite and an overbite (like I did as a kid--ugh!). She successfully gave up her pacifier for good (it had been relegated to her bed for several months already) a few days before the appointment so hopefully at least her overbite will disappear when her permanent teeth come in!
Apparently, from Isa's point of view, the advantage of a having an overbite is that it's easier to stick your tongue between your two front teeth when you smile! :-)
The kids enjoyed two Easter egg hunts this weekend! We took them to a large "hunt" at the Dedham Community House on Saturday morning and then we had our own smaller hunt in our own back yard on Sunday. Both kids had a lot of fun!
All of the white dots on the field in the background on the photo are Easter eggs! Isabel had the luxury to "hunt" at a slower pace in a separate section for toddlers. There were far fewer eggs available to pick up, but less "stress" and competition.
In this video, you'll see Lukas gathering eggs. Lukas and Olli worked out a plan for him to run straight to the back of the field to begin picking up eggs there so that he would have the opportunity to get more eggs overall. The plan worked and he came home with a basket full of eggs! (Thankfully, there is only one piece of candy in each egg.)
Lukas hard at work gathering eggs
Isabel after her "hunt" was over--admiring the "Easter bunny". She wouldn't approach the person dressed up in the bunny costume, but repeatedly waved to him from a few feet away.
Hunting/Gathering eggs in our own backyard
Isabel has progressed in her understanding that one should continue to hunt for eggs until they have all been found, rather than sitting on the grass and eating the candy after finding only one egg (like she did last year). This year, every time she found an egg and put it into her basket, she yelled, "I see more!"
Isabel staying focused on the task at hand. :-)
Lukas was still the champion egg-finder and found 13 eggs in our backyard.
We really want to make sure the children understand the true meaning of Easter so I did the below activities with the children yesterday and today (although, I'm sure only Lukas will have any memory of these things.). I got the ideas from "Thriving Family" magazine and an online article from Focus on the Family. Last year, we baked "He is Risen" rolls, which is also a fun activity.
At breakfast yesterday, before we did any of the activities I had planned, I asked Lukas what we celebrate at Easter and he answered, "That Jesus died on the cross and is risen!" If he learned nothing more from the other activities, I'm thankful that he already understands the core truth.
Before we dyed eggs, we talked about 6 characteristics that describe Jesus and wrote them in crayon on the eggs. Lukas came up with all of them (however, some with a little prompting from me. I'll let you guess which ones those were.). In total they are: Savior (Lukas decided this egg should be red for Jesus' blood), God's Son, Risen, Loving, Son of Man, and Sinless.
Today at lunch we talked about the Easter story and read verses related to each part from my childhood Bible (written at a 3rd grade level) for better understanding. Here's what we discussed: 1) Bread crumb: Jesus ate dinner with His friends (Luke 22:14-15) 2) Cross: The next day, Jesus died on the Cross (John 19:17-18) 3) Strip of cloth: He was wrapped in cloth and placed in a tomb. (John 19:40) 4) Rock: A stone was placed in front of the tomb. (Matthew 27:59-60) 5) Empty egg: Jesus' friends came to the tomb and saw the stone had been moved. The tomb was empty! (Luke 24:1-3) 6) Candy: Jesus is alive. That's the sweet surprise of Easter. (Matthew 28:5-6)
We used the "Easter Bunny" as a symbol for what Christians should look like, act like and be like. Hopefully, when you click on the photo above to enlarge it, you can read about it in more detail.
We were invited to Lukas' school on Friday to observe the children singing and dancing to some songs that they learned during their Medieval Unit. According to their teachers, the children have enjoyed this unit the most out of the entire school year so far. In the imaginative play area, the children played in a painted cardboard castle, dressed up with princess clothes, rode stick-horses etc., they made authentic breads and stews from the period and read some fairy tales. (Olli has a video of Lukas in a dragon costume and Isabel wearing "glass slippers" from the imaginative play area on his Facebook page.) Apparently, the children played knights and princesses on the playground as well and Lukas was the "protector" of the girls/princesses and would fight off the evil intruders with this pretend sword. It was so much fun to see how excited the children were to share what they had learned the past few weeks!
During this song, the children "magically" turned these glittery balls they had made into animals (masks they made) and danced out the verses to the song about the various animals they were representing. Lukas was a a dog (of course!) and his job was to sleep during his verse.
This video shows the song (in German) that I described above. The kids are singing the equivalent of "abracadabra" in the beginning and then come the animals. The verses are "fly, fly, all ladybugs fly, 1, 2, 3 all ladybugs fly, everyone is there; all lions roar..., all dogs sleep..., all monkeys climb..., all birds chirp..."
Lukas is promenading with his partner, Elisa, for this Medieval dance. He is holding a self-made sword and his partner has a self-made scepter.
During this dance, the children essentially walked around in a circle, bowed to each other, and then turned themselves around. Here is Lukas' partner bowing to him and then Lukas answers with a bow.
After the children demonstrated this dance with each other, they invited one of their parents to dance with them (Isabel wanted to join in too, so she's also in this video clip).
Lukas' preschool class from left to right: Aliena, Elisa, David, Lukas, Timmy, Kamila, Alina Isabel (Moritz, Lukas "best friend", was missing that morning). They're getting ready to sing a four-verse-long song about a king and a royal ball. Lukas was delighted to sing this song to us at the dinner table several days in a row leading up this performance so we can also sing this entire song by heart. :-)
