Summer Morning at the Sequoia Park Zoo

This week, we've enjoyed sunny, summery for us (~66 degrees!) weather and the kids have only half-day (PM) tennis camp this week so they (and Kelvin/I alternating) took mornings off to watch them.  Today, we took advantage of our Sequoia Zoo Membership and headed to Eureka to see the animals!

Iver wanted to take a picture with my phone of Every. Animal.! (He said I could delete them from my phone once I've blogged).

Northern Spotted Owl

Beautiful Bald Eagle

neighbor (slightly hidden) Porcupine

The three American Brown Bears are some of the park's hits. 

Caterpillar near the bears' enclosure

Bear viewed from the famous Redwood Skywalk.

Donkeys!

In the Barnyard: 

Ponies

Bunny

Guinea pig

Raccoon

Rhea

"Saffron"  the red panda, who loves to nap, got up to walk around on his branches.

Chacoan Peccaries

The Aviary

Scarlet ibis 

Patagonian Cavies

We saw some kids (including a couple of girls we know!) attending "Zoo Camp." 

Niall tried to photobomb or sabotage all the kid-with-flamingo pics we took.

A friendly guest offered to take a photo of us three and Niall cooperated/smiled!

We had a nice (1.5h) visit to our little redwood neighborhood zoo and want to keep supporting it!

Graduación y mas

On Tuesday, Fuente Celebrated La Graduación de la Clase de Quinto Grado (5th grade) from elementary school.  I can't believe we have a soon-to-be-middle schooler!

The ceremony was a school-wide event, starting at 10:15. Even school parents whose kids weren't graduating attended, which was special! 

Each class gifted the fifth graders something (a song, a flower, a bookmark, a poem, etc)!

Segundo Grado (N)

Directora Angela honored the teachers who are moving on to other places/spaces.

4th grade poem

his booty!

Maestra Cat, a wonderful teacher who Iver's class lucked out to have for second and fifth grade, gave a wonderful speech commemorating this class's achievements. These are the kids who, six years ago, started their bilingual education via a zoom screen back in 2020, which still makes me tear up  (here's my letter to Iver as he started kinder).  She reminded us how much a gift it is to have and know a second language, as being culturally sensitive and able to communicate with people of different backgrounds/heritages is a huge blessing and an amazing life skill. These kids are on el sendero to biliteracy, which is so incredible. The kids were each described in a few adjectives-- Iver was talented, athletic, intelligent, and responsible.

Posing with the diploma!

The kids exited to Madre Tierra (Oye),  an extremely catchy song celebrating the beauty and honor in this life. Listen if you haven't-- it's been on repeat in our house!

The fifth grade families enjoyed a post-ceremony potluck. I made a large pot of black beans to go with the taco bar and hope I didn't poison anyone! In the background was a slide show featuring baby-to-big-kid photos of the graduates!

Arte in Leavey Hall 

La familia

con Directora Angela (who was the school's English teacher for many years)

Here's our growing boy!

The fifth graders and families had an afternoon park day (good but windy weather) at a new park (Da' Yas) in Eureka, where they played futsal, hung out with their friends, and adults mingled.

Today was the last day of school-- here are my rising sixth and third graders! 

First and last school days at FN for this big kid!