A Historical Visit

Anyone who has been to Duluth has probably seen the the "William Irvin" ship at Bayfront near Canal Park here in Duluth. Isaac sees the ship often and knows it by name, but we have never stepped foot onto the ship or toured inside it. With the last few weeks of the open touring season upon us, Joel decided to seize the opportunity and take Isaac for a tour this weekend. Here's some more info for those who are interested in the history:
http://www.decc.org/omnimax-irvin/william-a-irvin.html

And for those of you who just want to see the pictures, here you go!

The big ship:

Quite a view of Duluth Harbor and Aerial Lift Bridge in the background:
Hold onto your hats - look who's at the wheel!
And when the boys returned home and I asked how the big ship was, Isaac said, "mama, I saw a yellow FAST car!" Sure enough, they parked right behind this:
I think the car made more of an impression on Isaac than the William Irvin!

Transitions

These past couple of weeks we have experienced more "big boy" transitions with Isaac. He started a new preschool (Jefferson) in Duluth last week and is doing well so far. His group is small (6-8) and they do lots of fun things, including weekly themes, "circle time," projects, and of course free time to play/explore on their own at various stations in the classroom. The preschool does lots of fun things throughout the month like "bring a summer vegetable day" to share, bring your bike day, wear your favorite color/team jersey/PJ's day, etc. I like how the teacher assigns each of them a "job" for the day (i.e. weather watcher, snack helper, fish feeder, floor inspector, etc). Isaac is always proud to tell us about his "job" and what he did to help the teacher. Here are a couple of photos of his first week at Jefferson.

Here's the big boy on his first day:
Here's a couple of shots outside the building/entrance:
And the warm welcome we found by his locker:
And his favorite part of the classroom...the train table!!!
And also this past week Isaac had his first "play date" with his best buddy Keshaun, whom we know from Isaac's previous preschool/daycare setting. So happy together!

A Day Out With Thomas

When Joel and I saw that "Thomas the Tank Engine" was coming to Duluth as part of the 'Leader of the Track Tour' this weekend (and next), we didn't have to think twice before purchasing our tickets. Isaac is a huge Thomas fan and has been since he was over a year old. Everyone that knows Isaac and heard about the event made sure we knew about it (from teachers at preschool to family members in the Twin Cities!). Indeed, we wouldn't have missed it. Today was the day!

We arrived an hour early to explore the activities and "Imagination Station" that they advertised being part of the event. There was plenty to do and see. The ride on "Thomas" was a mere 25 minutes, but very exciting nonetheless. Other highlights of the event included a story-time/video viewing, meeting "Sir Topham Hatt" and exploring the Imagination Station and Thomas Gift Shop (can you believe we made it out of there with only a new Thomas book and a CD with Thomas theme songs?!).
You can see more pictures at our online gallery:
https://picasaweb.google.com/joeltjohnson/August2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCNayw_6W-Jm0RQ

There are, of course, additional "bonus" photos of David! Enjoy!

Trucks, Trucks, Trucks

This week we received a preschool assessment for Isaac in which several areas are observed and assessed based upon his age, learning style and social adaptability. Joel and I both chuckled when we read the comment under the header "Mathematics and Scientific Inquiry" and the sub-topic of "Measurement." The teacher's comments were: Isaac likes to see how big things are in relation to trucks.

Anyone who knows Isaac knows that he loves trucks of all sorts. Apparently he loves them enough to make them his standard of measurement.