Mini HHS reunion

 Renee and Pat were passing through on their way north so they stopped for a night.  We got to have dinner a few drinks with old friends!

Camping with the cousins

We spent last weekend camping with my brother and his family.  We went to the Uwharrie National Forest which is about an hour east of here.  Beautiful trees...

Kids always love the fire.

One of our big excitements was a storm on Saturday evening.  We knew about it thanks to Safety Rich so we hand put away everything and were hunkered down in Shawn's camper.  While it was quite windy and we got some decent rain, it wasn't a crazy storm like there was in Charlotte.  Shortly after the rain ended, there were diggers and back hoes and all kinds of heavy equipment in the campgrounds.  Apparently some trees had come down so they were there to take care of it.  These guys came in, chopped trees down and were gone!

Colin discovered tiny baby frogs.  I guess they weren't babies since they were frogs but they were tiny and cute.

A giant nasty spider Colin found.

The kids had a good time playing along Lake Badin.

I think the best part for the kids was just being out in the wilderness and they love the time with the family.  They think their older cousins are pretty cool!

Discovery Place Kids

Another preschool class gathering...this time at Discovery Place Kids.  It is slightly an aged down science museum.  It has all kinds of dramatic play areas as well as some science concept areas.  Both the kids had fun, keeping up with the two of them is the biggest challenge.

Acting it out on the stage with Charlotte.

Bus races!!!!

 We love the school bus races.  It was the Faster Pastor Slobberknocker the night we were there.  Ministers and different personnel from area churches were racing buses.  Participants and their groupies paint the buses before the race.  Think my favorite thing on the buses was "poop on satan."

 Normally it is an inferno during the Summer Shootout series.  So the idea of having a fire truck come and hose all the kids off sounds spectacular.  But...it was in the low 80s this night so think those kids were a little chilly sitting in the shade.

We were totally impressed with the new giant HD TV set up.  It was really cool to see things close up.  It was also cool to see it set against the blue sky, kind of wierd.

Waterpark fun

Terefech and I headed out on Friday to one of the local spraygrounds with some of her buddies from preschool.  She is lucky to have a group that has some sort of planned activity on Fridays during the summer.  She misses her friends so much...Declan and I are just not enough!

That is her getting water dumped on her!

The corn is as high as an elephant's eye!

T and Daddy in our very own cornfield.

Last day of kindergarten

We had planned on going paddle boating.  But...they didn't open until 6 and we had plans that night.  So, to Rita's Italian Ice we went.  Yummy!!!

There is our boy...the first grader!

Ocean Play

Yesterday was Declan's play at school.  It was all about the ocean and the creatures that live there.  He was a narrator and a killer whale.  He can tell you all kinds of things about the orca but always informs us that it belongs to the dolphin family...interesting.  Here are some pictures from this fun day!

The whole family outside school...yep, Bette who took the picture noted we all wear sunglasses!

Declan in front of the USS Corvian with his published story, The Bad Man.  This is particularly funny if you know him.  He is, let's just say, a little intellectual.  His interests are far ranging and a little different for a kid in kindergarten.  And yet...he wrote about a bad man who breaks down a building and has to go to jail.  His teacher asked him several times if he was sure this is what he wanted to write about and he said yes.  She followed up telling me that by telling me how he was having a discussion at lunch with one of the other kids about how different liquids freeze at different temperatures and the other kid was a little bewildered.  The Bad Man is a great story, even has a moral!

Author page...a favorite.

Reading us his story.

Mrs. Shields, Declan's kindergarten teacher.  We are truly thankful for her.  What started off as a horrible year at a different school has turned into a spectacular one at Corvian.  Declan is one of those kids who is sad for summer to come because he loves learning so much.  He feels so at home at school that he just wants to be there as much as possible.

Under the Sea performance

Declan and Charlize extolling the virtues of the killer whale.  Nope they did not plan their wardrobe, just both were thinking the same thing.

Miss Amber, his assistant and Terefech's kindergarten teacher for next year, playing the recycled bottle drum.  

Oh yeah, whales are big, uh huh!

Mark the shark!

Locke has one of our favorite performances, he was a jellyfish and wiggled and jiggled all over the place while saying his lines!

It was a wonderful year at Corvian Community School.  We are small, an upstart, praying for a charter, full of wonderful people who want children to have an outstanding education, learn to think for themselves, be confident, and love learning!