Going back to kindergarten

I saved one of our trip's highlights for Friday!

On Monday morning, Josh and I packed our bags for our flight later in the day and headed back to school - Loco's school, that is.  Loco (Josh's nephew, in case you missed his introduction earlier in the week) had invited us to hang out with his kindergarten class and read to the kids.  After much deliberation, Josh settled on "Meet Babar and His Family" for his reading selection, a book that introduces the seasons in addition to Babar and his crew.  The kids were pretty well-versed on the seasons when Josh polled the class, although one boy did answer "January!" and another "Friday!"  (Friday is my own favorite season.) 

Loco parked himself at the front of the reading area to sit closest to his uncle.

These kids were hilarious and wonderful, and I think their teacher is fabulous, too.  Josh worked his way through the book, pausing to ask questions to connect the kids to Babar's adventures.  The kids paused, too, to raise their hands frantically for their opportunity to ask their own questions.  He fielded "questions" including:

• "My brother plays baseball."
• "I built a snow slide once."
• "My uncle got a boat."

After the reading session concluded, we went outside with them for recess and watched Loco amaze us on the monkey bars.  (That kid is strong!)  Then we went in for lunch.  A $2.25 lunch that includes salad bar and chocolate milk in addition to the meal seems like a pretty good deal to me!  We squeezed into the kid-sized tables and sat with Loco and his class.  Josh and I sat next together, with Loco next to Josh and Loco's best friend next to me.  

His BFF (and I mean it - Loco and this guy are two peas in a pod) and the young lady sitting across from me regaled me the whole time with stories chock full of half-truths.  They also told me all about the phones they wanted for Christmas, and I didn't have the heart to tell them I was 19 by the time I got my first cell phone. Meanwhile, on the other side of Josh, Loco was on cloud nine because he had secured permission earlier in the day to have an extra carton of chocolate milk.

Is it any wonder we were sad to leave?  I could hang out with Loco and his pals all day.