It's Roger's turn to be greeted by Miss Fernandez.
It's Roger's turn to be greeted by Miss Fernandez.
Then out to the playground until it's time for class
to start.
The class lines up for the first time. Roger is at the
end of the line. Roger lucked out; his is the only kindergarten
class in the afternoon, so they have the entire suite, playground,
and bathrooms just for them. And the class has just
15 kids. Roger told us later that it was "Great!"
We got this pool to replace our ball pit when it suffered a
major containment failure -- a rip in the inflatable top.
However, the boys wanted to try it out with water anyway.
The water canon really works and it's fun to load the pool
with both water AND 200 ball pit balls.
Roger was chosen by his teacher to receive this award for Responsibility.
Since the assembly was in the morning, Roger's class wasn't
there. Miss Fernandez (in the red top) waited with us
for Roger's name to be called.
Roger was unsure about the whole process, but he
acquiesed to the authority of his teacher and cooperated.
On the way home from the park after class, Roger stopped
to climb a tree.
So Alan did, too.
And then they jumped off.
Roger and two of his cohorts from Kindergarten,
Taylor Fry and Brandon Shields. We frequently
end up hanging out at Peach Hill Park after school.
Mark Ruffino comes sometimes; this time he had a
vehicle with him and the boys were all interested,
including little brothers Alan and Ryan.
Roger likes climbing this tree next to the playground.
That's Taylor on the fence behind him.
Alan had to try climbing it, too.
I finally decided to cross the picket lines in the
grocery workers strike, after 2 weeks of chasing all
over to get groceries and paying higher prices.
The first couple of times were no trouble, but this
time Alan and I got caught in the middle of an
incident. An organized group was traveling around
Ventura County stores on October 30th, and making a fuss
with chanting and harassing customers. We were already
inside shopping when they arrived at the Moorpark
store, so we didn't have much choice. I picked up
Alan and carried him, while the helpful clerk pushed
the cart. The strikers were yelling, "Shame on you!"
to everyone exiting the store. I chose not to argue
with them and make things uglier. Their biggest
issue seems to be the medical coverage. Currently,
employers pay the whole premium and they want to change
that to the employee contributing $15/week for family
coverage in the new contract.
Since we're paying over $80/week, I can't muster a lot
of sympathy for them, although I know many took the
lower-paying jobs because of the benefits. It's one of
those gray areas, but I'm not going to spend an extra
$15/week in gas money and extra costs to shop at
the more expensive stores that aren't involved in this
dispute.
The granny smith apple tree still has plenty of apples,
despite already picking a bunch for pies and applesauce.
The fujis are beautiful, too.
Roger and Alan were racing Hot Wheels down the driveway.
The cars started behind the umbrellas.
Meanwhile, Glen worked hard to replace the spark plugs
in the van to help it pass smog certification.
Alan looks cool!
Waiting for the Thanksgiving feast to start.
Alan (and Roger) amused each other and their sisters with making
funny faces.
Jenny helped stir the gravy.
Glen put the turkey on the rotisserie on the grill
to cook it. We had to remove the wings to make it fit,
but it was worth it.
