Meet Me at McDonalds

Planting tomatoes and strawberries

We’ve missed some blog updating recently. The Northwest spring has been gradually giving way to summer, and here we are at the end of June with regular showers interspersed with days of glorious sun. If you really enjoy mowing your lawn, this is your time and place.

On weekdays, the kids go downtown to daycare with Jenny (or sometimes me), where they have active social lives. The ride home at night is filled with stories about their friends -- who did something funny, who they are going to marry, who made them mad, or who made them cry. Arrivals and departures from the little daycare in downtown Portland are filled with happy shouts of “Hi!” or “Good-bye!” to their classmates.

Oliver pulling his friend Madison at a birthday party

At the end of the summer, Oliver will start Kindergarten at a new school – not just new to him, but new to everyone. Trillium elementary has been under construction for a few years and they are finishing it up now. It’s a beautiful building on a park-like campus just a 15 minute walk way. Oliver will be part of 96 kids in four Kindergarten classes at the school. His class will be dual language, splitting time between English and Spanish in common subjects. We’re excited to see how he does. He’s already reading and writing well.

The day we let him bring his keyboard to school. He was immediately surrounded by girls.

What he only partly understands is that he’ll be leaving behind a group of daycare friends he’s known for 3 years.  We recently cleaned out Oliver’s backpack and found a bunch of envelopes addressed to his friends. They all said the same thing: 

“Meet me at McDonald’s tonight. From Oliver.”