First Practice of the Season!

Calvin up a tree

The excitement in our house for the past 24ish hours is that at 8 PM last night we discovered that Calvin was stuck up our neighbor's tree.  When we tried to get him down with our ladder he panicked and went up too high for us to reach him.  So, I called the fire dept (no, they don't rescue cats) animal control (no, they don't rescue cats) and Ingham county animal shelter (no, they don't rescue cats).  Then I went on some websites and followed the advice that basically says, a cat will come down when he gets hungry and tired of being in a tree.  So, Calvin slept in the branches and spent most of the day crying up in the tree.  I visited him every hour and tried to cajole him with food and kind words (here kitty, kitty, kitty), but he couldn't figure out how to get down.  It turns out some cats don't just come down from a tree.   My neighbor's teen who is known to be an expert tree climber came to the rescue.  He climbed up at least 25 feet on their ladder and was able to grab Calvin and bring him down.  In total, Calvin was in the tree 19.5 hours. 

Art Festival

This weekend was the East Lansing art festival.  Emma and her friends enjoyed hanging out in the morning, and I returned with Joe in the afternoon.  The highlight for Joe was riding the shuttle bus and seeing "Super Why."

50 meter dash: special olympics

Here is a clip of Joe, Tri, Hussein, and Leah running the 50 meter dash on Friday.  If you look in the right lanes you will see Joe (yellow shirt, orange sweat pants) slowing down to check on his best friend Leah (in white) half-way through the race. 

Happy Mothers' Day!

Special Olympics, Track and Field

                                           Joe, Miss Joan, Molly, Tim, and Tri waiting for the next event.

 Joe and his classmates doing a practice 50 meter run to Chris (not shown in photo!).  Joe is crouched down, ready to run.

                                                                            Joe and Maria.

Good Citizen Award

                            Joe receiving a good citizenship award at the East Lansing School Board meeting.

Last night the members of Joe's class won awards for being good citizens in their school.  They were nominated by a 4th grade teacher for four reasons:  running the terracyle recycling program (that makes Red Cedar school a Green Michigan school); for setting up and cleaning up the sandbox toys for the whole school everyday; for maintaining the birthday board and giving everyone in the school a Hershey's bar on their birthday; and for teaching the whole school sign language for the peace pledge that they sing everyday at the beginning of school.  The awards were given at the start of the monthly school board meeting.  Above is a photo of Joe and his teacher, Mrs. Renee Olance.

Jam Session

Every month Joe goes to a jam session with music therapists sponsored by our local down syndrome association.  Joe loves the group and is always happy to sing, dance, and play instruments. 

Joe working at the new laptop station

There are new laptops in Joe's classroom.  Joe is working on typing new vocabulary words and learning how to print his work.  For more on the new laptop station see his teacher's blog:  http://mrsolancesclassroom.weebly.com/mrs-olances-classroom-blog.html