Double strand twist

My first go round at double strand twists.  They took about 2 hours with detangling included in that time.  She was very patient.  A movie always helps with the patience, of course!  

Reed's Gold Mine

Over Labor Day weekend we headed out to see more of the sights around Charlotte.  Our first stop, Reed's Gold Mine sight of the first authenticated gold find in the United States.  It was quite an interesting place.  The kids loved traipsing through the mine.  Although we didn't find any gold while panning,  we had fun digging through the muck and dirt!

Fun...

While Terefech was at gymnastics, Rich and Declan went for a hike in one of our local nature areas.  They found some interesting and giant mushrooms.  

 These are actually blue.  We have seen some wild and crazy ones this year!

 The hike was followed by geodes from Grandma and Papa.  Sooooo cool!

Another tooth lost

Declan finally lost one of his top teeth.  He really didn't want his picture taken but we had to mark the momentus occasion.  He woke up the next morning extra early and panicked that the tooth fairy hadn't come.  He couldn't find the tooth or the quarter.  Luckily my stealthy mom skills located the loot from the tooth fairy.

Lego basketball

Declan built a Lego basketball court.  Soooooo cool!

 Yep, you have to wear helmets to play Lego basketball.

That's my boy!

First day of school

The kids were super excited to go to school on the first day.  Not only do they have a new school building but new teachers.  At their school, the teachers loop with the kids for 2 years.  Declan has had the same teacher for the last 2 years and loved her.  He was definitely a little nervous about his new teacher.  Oddly, I taught with her at one of the schools I have taught at here.  

 Normally, Terefech would have had the same teacher as last year, but there had to be some switching due to teachers not having their own kids in their classes.  So, she got a new teacher this year.  She was very nervous as well.  Declan kept telling her it would be great as he had her for 2 years!  Terefech brought a bouquet of sunflowers from our garden for her teacher.

 There she is sneaking in a little hug from her kindergarten teacher.  They miss each other!

Off to a good start!

Corvian Community School

 The kids' school became a charter this year and with that, they moved into a real building.  The grand opening was held before school started and we were there for the ribbon cutting ceremony.

 One of the fundraisers was to give money to have your name on the tree at the entrance of the school (a tree is the symbol of the elementary school).  There is our name and our kids by the tree!  They look thrilled don't they?

The kids are so happy to be in a real school.  There are places to play outside and a giant fenced soccer field.  Rich is teaching PE there this year so they get to see Daddy once a week at school.  An added bonus, the school is on David Taylor Drive.

The Olympics

Someone commented to me the other day that I was still traveling.  Nope, just that far behind on blogging!!!  We love the Olympics and watch them as much as we can.  We let the kids stay up late and we stay up way too late night after night.  The kids caught the fever and staged their own Olympic race complete with fans from their respective countries.

 Ready to race.  Rich was from Great Britain and had no fans.

They had so much fun.  It was wonderful to see them excited about seeing the athletes perform.  There were so many good lessons about race (Terefech had lots of questions about why only brown people play certain sports and not others), different countries and traditions, perseverance, being tough, honoring your country.  It was amazing the insight and questions young children have.  Now we just have to wait until 2014 for our next Olympic fix!!!

The Bechtler

We decided to hit up a museum in Charlotte we hadn't been to (one of many, we are working on that!), The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art.  In front of the Bechtler is the Firebird.  Pretty cool isn't it?  Apparently this week during the DNC, they are worried it will be vandalized so they special staff "watching" it.

 There was a great exhibit on Picasso's lithographs.  I really liked these.  Of course, they were mostly about bullfights and I am intrigued by those so it makes sense!

 There were cool places in the museum where you could look across into another gallery through a window.  So, Declan is standing in front of a window, then there is an open space, then a window on the other side with a piece of art.  Think we took this one right before we were told no pictures.

 There is a park called "the green" across from the museum so we took a little stroll.  There a lots of Charlottes.