Here is another member of the band, lead guitarist Andrew.

Another relay event involves dressing up in a costume and running about 50 yards before returning to your team and taking the outfit off and quickly dressing the next team member. Pictured here is Sam, one of Nico’s friends and lead singer in his band.

Today was Willard Fun Day which is something of a silly Olympiad for graduating fifth graders. Here, Nicolai participates in the “Lunch Lady Relay”. Each team member must in turn run to the lunch table, put on food service gloves, don a hair net, grab a tray and plate, and proceed down the food line serving themselves spaghetti, sauce, green beans and fruit cocktail. Finally, they poor a glass of water and race back to their waiting team with a full tray so that the next person can begin the routine anew.

When you take the time to look, you start finding these strange little critters everywhere.

While I was looking around I encountered this little fellow.

This morning I went into the garden to capture some of Jeanine’s roses.

This evening, Nicolai and his band, “Breaking the Ice,” were the closing act at the Thoreau Talent Show. They performed “Sweet Home Alabama” and as an encore “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” Not shown in the photograph is their keyboard player Jeremy. The boys brought down the house.

This evening Kyle performed at the Acton Jazz Club for a crowd of 40 backed by his guitar teacher’s band. It was his first performance and he was more than a little nervous before he took the stage. Once he started playing he was terrific.

Jeanine and I attended Maya’s Writer’s Workshop at her school. She has written several stories over the last year and she read to the audience from her favorites including “A trap will not work,” the story of a drowning Guinea pig saved in the nick of time by the father. Jeanine is not pleased with the fact that I am the only parent featured in her stories. Maya’s stories are quite good, but nothing compared to her dramatic presentation style.

For her birthday Maya requested Swedish pancakes for dinner. The whipped cream could only support a single candle which Maya quickly extinguished.

Maya’s smile tells the whole story. When we got in the car to return home, Maya’s first question was “when is my next lesson”.

In other action today, Nicolai finished his soccer season at the Commissioner’s Cup Soccer Tournament with one win and one loss. My team won a decisive 5-0 victory (I had one assist) to advance to the Division Finals. Regrettably, my team will likely forfeit that match because several team members will be traveling to Germany to watch the World Cup. If the game can be rescheduled, we will have a shot at a perfect undefeated season.

Here, Maya guides Hartley over some poles. The horse would prefer to walk around them so this takes careful steering.

It is quite possible that life as I know it has come to an end. Today, in celebration of her birthday tomorrow, Maya had her first horse riding lesson. She is pictured here on Hartley sporting new riding pants and a helmet she received from her brother. Maya was fearless and did not stop smiling for the entire lesson which included grooming, riding, feeding and washing the horse. 

I think it is safe to say that Nicolai enjoyed himself thoroughly as did his brother.