yellow

do you want to bet that william was the only one representing the badgers on the first day of school today in denmark?  

well if you did, you'd be wrong.  because he brought four of these shirts back with him and at least one of his friend's also wore it today.  i think we just made history.

i've been a little nervous about what monday morning was going to bring for little henry.  all weekend he'd say things like, "is it a school day today?"  and i'd answer, "no, it's the weekend." and he'd respond, "okay well then we'll just visit it."  he really is awfully anxious to get back to school and his friends.  but, as i mentioned in a previous post, he's got another week before he goes back.  how was it going to be when william got up, got dressed, put on his backpack and rode off to school and henry didn't? part of me thought he'd just go anyway and leave me scrambling after him (and for those of you who know henry, you know that's not out of the realm of possibility).  fortunately i think he was too tired to consider anything like that.  he just laid down on the floor and acted non-responsive until i tickled him.

later we went on a walk.  he was the leader...

he brought us here, across the road behind our house... he told me he would take me to a farm and was surprised when it was all in gold when we arrived, since the last time he'd checked (presumably in may) it was green...

on our way back we found a caterpillar by the side of the road and decided to move it to a tree, but it was so defensive when we tried picking it up that we had to use a piece of concrete (all we could find) to transport it on...

my two minute google search makes me think it's a yellownecked caterpillar, which seems to get the label of 'pest'...

this is one of my bad habits.  i'm a very equal opportunity bug saver.  if you're a yellow jacket drowning in an enticing bowl of sugar water, you better hope i'm sitting at a table near you.  just ask william.  because i did this.

early afternoon and we have dragged out the kiddie pool, filled it up with water from the kitchen sink and thrown in some little green army men and makeshift boats.  here's henry, done with the pool, making faces at his reflection in the window...

around three we walk (again.. i do the walking, he does the riding in the burley) to the school to pick up william.  we find him practicing hockey with some of his friends and he tells me he's going to be on his school's hockey team.  (not... as far as i know... an official team.)

he brings his school books home and i am tasked with the job of putting a paper bag cover over his one textbook (which is exciting for me because i haven't done that since middle school).  that's when i realize paper bags are not really a thing here, but i find a small one that was used for a gift last christmas, two christmases ago??? 'to william, love gramma kathy & woof' it says.  the precedent is set.  i tell him now he can write all over it!

i flip through his books and am delightfully amused at the drawings... (and if you want to see how near to english, danish vocabulary can be, then try reading the first sentence of the lowest blue text bubble on the right-hand page.  can you translate it???)

i land on this picture and think... well, i'm guessing this wouldn't show up in an american first grade textbook...

by the way, she is carrying beer in her wagons.  but i see that it comes from a famous danish poet so that's all right.  maybe even history making.