Taking the Scenic Route

#80 Spring is here! *Ahh-CHOOooo*

Robert followed Zach home from work (Robert is a contracter working on some computer stuff). He hates taking the interstate in his van, so there is usually a little lag even when they leave at the same time, so we just hung out for a few minutes while waiting for him.

I like these pictures of my wonderful husband

There is something about this one that makes him look very Italian

And the evening programming festivities commence (with Chili)

#79 One of Zane’s favorite people. He was paired with M. at ST for a few semesters. She doesn’t go there any more, but we still get the kids together when we can.

#77 Stalking the Stockings. I feel like I am back in my cloth diaper buying days, with a window constantly open and refreshing to see if any covers have been stocked. So far, no luck.

#76 A few of my favorite things, part 5: A little Spode Christmas dish from Zach’s paternal grandparents. It is small and usually resides on the window ledge above our sink. Right now it holds eyedroppers, but when I wore my wedding ring, it held that when I did dishes (needs to be resized so I can get it on my finger)

#75 A few of my favorite things, part 4: A wooden spoon made by Zach’s mom. She carved it in 2000 for Zach.

#74 A few of my favorite things, part 3: Kitchen things from Zach’s paternal Grandparents. Both Grandma and Grandpa used to cook, and Zach remembers them using these when he was a kid. The whipped cream maker is particularly interesting to me.

#73 A few of my favorite things, part 2: Great Grandma’s Bowl. It is a large, heavy pottery mixing bowl and my mom said she remembers it as a permanent installation on her Grandma’s counter. She kept it full of flour and every morning she would add ingredients to the top of the flour, mix in enough flour until it felt right, and then make bisquits from it.

#71 Three Helicopters. I heard a horrible ruckus outside and was surprised to see a helicopter convoy. I suspect they are military because they were very, very loud. I heard that Obama was in the state that day and wondered if it was him, but I couldn’t see the helicopters well enough in the glare of the sun to know if it was or not.

#70 Maze love

We went to meet some friends from ST at Exploration Place. When we walked into the main hall, I knew we were going to have problems getting Zane past the room into the rest of the building. The big hall was filled with mazes, Zane’s obsession for a while now. He happily traced or walked the path through every maze in the room.

Zora, my social one, made “friends” within minutes of being there.

Zane did play with Zora on the singing see-saw (it had balls in that ran through chimes as you moved the see-saw up and down)

This is a reproduction of a maze that is in his favorite book about mazes. He spent a lot of time working this one out.

Eventually Justin and Rose caught up with us. The lady in this picture (I can’t remember her name any more) was one of the counselors at Camp STARR at Heartsprings last summer and knew Zane too. Justin is about a year older than Zora and they often play together after his ST. (Zane’s session is right after Justin’s this semester)

We did make our way to a few other displays before ending up in the toddler play area.

Zane really liked the tornado booth. Figures.

I didn’t really get any photos of the play area because I was too busy keeping track of kids and talking to other parents. I did meet another mom new to the country who was wanting her son to be evaluated for autism. She was really excited to see Zane (he was looking mighty autistic that day) and quickly broached the subject, relieved to find somebody who could point her to resources. In Japan she was a SpEd teacher, but had no idea how to access resources here. Needless to say, by the time she left she had a pretty good list of resources. It made me feel like I was there for a reason.