cherry trees and toads

william went off to sfo today, which is the after-school program also run full-time in the summer.  it's his last day before starting school on monday so it was his last chance to get back into the swing of things, danish- and school-wise, before danish school begins.  his brother, meanwhile, stays home with me for another week before heading back to preschool.  he's not too keen on this idea.  he's been missing his classmates and his teachers all summer long, but it's the way it's worked out.  but i emailed his teacher to find out if we could come for a visit and she said, 'of course', so i called this morning and over we went.  

but first, he painted... 

then we picked a jar's worth of cherries to take over to his school to give as a gift.  and at some point after we got there, i found myself standing under a cherry tree... ah well...

when he got in, one of his three main teachers was there and gave him lots of hugs and told him how happy she was to see him.  he started wiping his eyes to, i think, hold back tears.  it was really sweet to be reminded of what a good class it is for him.  he played outside, one of his other teachers came back from a field trip with some of the bigger kids and so he went through another round of hugs, then she told me he could stay and eat lunch with them and so i went and got some much needed groceries in the meantime.  later, we made pesto, and even later, we ate it while william told us of his day at sfo and a play date he had afterwards with one of his good friends.  they caught (10, if you ask greg) 25 frogs (and toads) and 1 salamander and he said he pet one toad for so long that it would hop up to him and walk from one of his shoulders to the next.  now, it's 8:55 and i'm nearly positive at least one of our boys is asleep.  so we're making progress.