A hike at Snake lake

The boys and I spent a couple of hours at Snake Lake yesterday, mostly hiking the trails, but also checking out the little exhibit area they have. Quite fun, but rather wet and cold. -Gerrit

Christmas morning

Playing a new game on Christmas morning. Our friend Andy stayed the night, and Bob and Janet came over. Sarah made a tea ring and I made fried potatoes, sausage, grapefruit and eggs Benedict. Tasty. -Gerrit

More Christmas Eve

Grandmas opening gifts. -Gerrit

Christmas eve

Grandpa dennis getting a DS video game to play solitaire and such.

Max and his electricity kit

Max spent the morning working with his new electricity kit. Very fun. -Gerrit

Making birdfeeders in Max's classroom

Another day of making birdfeeders. A fun craft for the last day of class before Christmas break. There were other activities planned for Max's class, but a Pertussis outbreak forced the Health Department to sort of quarantine the kids in their classrooms. I had the supplies from Henry's party, so it was a nice way to fill some time in class. Kids love messy crafts and nature, so there was lots to talk about and it is always so fun the see the kids happy and engaged. -Gerrit

The Trash Audit at Blix

A group of parents with a little support from a Tacoma Schools Board member are trying to convince the school district to recycle more. If we can show it will save money, the board member will present it to the board. So, we are auditing the trash from a day at an elementary school, a middle school and a high school. Here we are at Blix, a great little elementary school in a pretty challenging neighborhood. It was a busy day, going through trash and helping the kids dispose of their lunch garbage in the right bins (we are very hopeful we can start sending our food waste to composting, instead of the trash). If we can do composting and have really good recycling of paper and plastics, we can reduce the roughly 350 pounds of trash generated by the 400 kid elementary school each day to something like 54 pounds of trash. That could save the district good money, perhaps even $100,000. We still need to audit a few more schools and get the city to let us do a pilot composting program, but it could come to fruition. Probably won't, but it really is worth trying. I roped my Mom and Father-in-law into coming and helping sort trash. Yeah family. -Gerrit