“Crush” is the wrong word, but Art does have a special excited place for Joanna. So do I. She has always maintained a genuine interest in our family, my welfare, my sister and my dad’s siblings despite my dad having died now over 20 years ago. It’s really quite wonderful, especially now that my own mother is gone. I’m glad that there is someone in town who can be grandmotherly and take the boys out or be that person who is just so interested in them in a way their own parents can’t sustain. Thank you, Joanna! You are giving us all a great gift! So, when Art had an end-of-the-year sharing event at Kindergarten and said grandparents or anyone can really come to see his Memory Book I called Joanna. I kind of knew she would come, and Art was excited to show her his class and his teacher. I was excited, too.

Left page says, “A diamond is a diamond until you add a string. Then it is a kite.” Right page is a “Scientific Drawing of a Flower”. Kindergarden ain’t milk and cookies no more!

And here’s a photo Ben took on the tilt-a-whirl at Como Town in St. Paul. Joanna had four tickets and offered to take the boys, all three of them.

Reaching new heights.

This was really fun. At REI members get a free trip up the climbing wall and so I took the kids over and up they went! Art climbed with a lot of thought and excitement. He looked like a pro! He went up about 20 feet before getting sort of stuck and feeling too scared to go higher. But I have a feeling he’ll shoot up to the top in just a few more tries.

Every person has to practice a short descent involving walking down the wall with “pizza slice” legs before climbing up. This took Lewis several tries to master and he was extremely serious. None of the smiles and obvious joy Art was showing. Finally Lewis clumsily groped his way up a good 10 feet before saying somewhat quietly, “I’m done,” and expertly coming down. He later said it was SUPER fun. I guess you can’t judge a book by it’s cover!

Pizza Slice legs.

Church.

Today we had church in a new temporary home, Heart of the Beast Puppet Theatre. Last week the building was destroyed in a massive fire. It’s not fair to compare the two spaces, but HOTB is dark with no natural light and everything is black. Just like a good theater should be I suppose. It’s a temporary home, though. Here are a few photos.

Our friend Al doing the smudge at the beginning of service. His enthusiasm is irresistible, even though I don’t really know what the hell he’s talking about.