Labor Day Weekend

Even though the kids had already been in school for a week - we still decided to "celebrate" the last official weekend of summer with a little fun.

Friday night we took in an Intimidators baseball game.  It was their last home stand of the season and we had free tickets to use.

After Adam's swimming lesson on Saturday we put our walking shoes on and headed to Carowinds for some fun.  I hadn't been to the park in over 10 years and the rest of the family had never been so it was an adventure.

We settled in to Camp Snoopy which was made up of rides for kids to enjoy with their parents.  I got Grace on the roller coaster (she was a tad nervous) but after the first time, she was really in to it.  David and Adam did some riding of their own before we walked around to check out some other rides and adventures including the Dinosaur Park.  It was really cool to see these replicas of various dinosaurs.  Unfortunately the whole section was in the sun so we moved through it pretty quick.

After the obligatory stop at the gift shop, we headed home.  Both kids were tired, in fact they fell asleep within 15 minutes of leaving the park.

Sunday after taking care of our chores we went to the pool for what is probably the last time of the year and then Monday we caught up on the things we didn't accomplish before preparing for the week ahead.  I'd say it was a pretty good end to summer (even though summer doesn't officially end until the 21st).

First Day of School

Yesterday, the kids went back to school.  It was a rough day for me - Grace was starting her last year of elementary school and Adam was starting his first year of school.  Needless to say I thought I could keep it together but as soon as I hugged him, the tears flowed.  Grace gave me a reassuring pat on the back to let me know that Adam would be ok.

A while ago I saw this idea on Pinterest - make a shirt with your child's graduation date in a size that they will hopefully fit in by the time they are a senior and have them wear it the first day of school every year.  Well here's Adam wearing his shirt and in his normal clothes

 

Grace likes to make her own fashion statement so here she is, ready to take on 5th grade.  She's grown a lot since her kindergarten picture.  In fact when I compared her first day with his first day, I found that she was the same height as Adam back when she started school in 2009.  So look how much she's grown when you see her standing next to Adam.

I have this thing about taking pictures from behind with these kids so here are my sweet babies walking to school.  This is our tradition - walking to school the first day and he was really excited to do it.  Of course by the time we got to school his back hurt from carrying his book bag (full of school supplies) but he made it and loved walking in to school with his big sister.

Lots of parents were taking their kids into school so the line was long to sign in and get a pass.  But once we got through the line, Adam told me he knew where he was going so we followed him to his classroom (this of course is helpful since when he goes back on Friday I won't be there with him).

He was very excited to see his teacher and her assistant.  Mrs. Perry is the lady on the right and Mrs. L (the assistant) is on the left. They were ready to help him unpack and start the day.  He even brought them both a gift (you all know why, to butter them up before he showed them the real Adam - LOL).

For the first time ever, I requested a teacher for Grace.  All of her teachers have been wonderful and I know that all the 5th grade teachers are great too.  However, this is a pivotal year for her and she needs a firm hand to guide her as she prepares for the depths of middle school next year.  So after making a comment to the principal and receiving her permission, I sent in a request for Mrs. Kopp.  She's a former Marine, the chair of the 5th grade teachers and she doesn't take any crap.  Not only did I want Grace to have her but that's who she wanted (she also has been in class with her son).  Of course I don't know how excited she was about the choice when she came home with her first project assignment.

  At the end of the day, they took the bus to Tutor Time (their after school facility) and I picked them up a little early to take them for a treat to celebrate the first day.  We went to Sweet Frog to enjoy frozen yogurt.  But it's more like cup of candy with a little yogurt on the bottom.  I'd probably be better off just taking them to a candy store :)

After their treat, we went home to relax a bit before dinner.  Thankfully Monday is our free night so we didn't have any activities to squeeze in.  When David got home from work he was anxious to hear about their days. Grace came out of the playroom to give a quick recap and then she told us that Adam was asleep.  Sure enough there he was curled up on the couch.  I should have known he would fall asleep.  As we were driving home from the yogurt store he was rubbing his eyes.  When I asked him if he was tired he uttered one of the best lines to ever come out of his mouth - "well I didn't get a nap today".

Our Beach Trip (in photos)

Sorry I didn't get a chance to post beach photos sooner, but getting ready for school got in the way.  Here are a few of our favorite pictures from this year's trip with a quick summary.

We took the kids to the Ocean Drive Pavilion in North Myrtle Beach where they got to ride a whole lot of rides and see Uncle Sammy, we hung out at the beach (more than the pool), went to Broadway at the Beach to buy more useless crap (that we could totally buy at home) and we finally walked the Apache Pier which takes you pretty far out into the ocean.  We had a great time!

Summer Fun

It's hard to believe how fast summer is going by this year.  School just ended 7 weeks ago and the kids start back on August 25 (4 weeks).

I feel like we haven't stopped since the summer started but in reality we're just doing the same things we do year round.  Grace has karate 2-3 times per week and golf once a week while Adam has swimming every Saturday.

We've really just been doing little things here and there and hanging out at the pool.  Both kids had a movie on their summer bucket list so we made sure to do that.  We've also gone to a Kannapolis Intimidators game and hope to visit Carowinds before summer ends.  And of course, we've got our beach trip!!

Here's a little taste of our summer:

Summer is Here!

Well school is over and my wallet just shrank in fear - yup summer is here and the daycare bill has just gone up 31% for the next 10 weeks.  But when that 10 weeks is up, we'll have a 5th grader and a kindergartner.

Let's talk about the rising 5th grader.  She finished 4th grade on Tuesday with all As and 1 B for the entire school year.  She participated in chorus (which I hope she will continue next year), continued with karate and is now back on the golf course.

 The little one is ready to start blazing his trail.  He "graduated" from pre-school and is enjoying these last few weeks preparing for kindergarten.  He just finished up his first year of baseball and has signed up for soccer in the fall and then wants to play basketball after that (he's my boy - all three sports that mom played).

We are looking forward to summer - movies, the pool, the beach and no traffic on the way to Tutor Time every morning!!

Running in a Million Directions at Once

We are really getting the hang of this multiple activity thing.  Case in point, last Saturday we had a full day that was carefully planned out and the slightest miscue could result in catastrophe - well not really but it could upset a 4 or 10 year old.

Our day started at the baseball field - where Adam has been doing very well.  He's gotten better at stopping the ball and his hitting is improving.  Now if we could just get him to stay on his side of the field we'll be ok

After that I had an appointment, Grace had black belt karate class and Adam had a birthday party to attend.  Things did overlap a bit and I forgot to factor in other people.  But it all worked out as we split duties and everyone got where they needed to be.

The final destination for the day was the Kannapolis Intimidators game where Grace would be singing the National Anthem with the Odell Chorus.  They did a great job!  And we had fun at the game.

By the time it was all said and done we covered a lot of ground and still made it home in time to watch the All-Star race!

Good Intentions

I started this blog with good intentions - I was going to share pictures and stories about the things going on in our corner of the world but guess what I've been too busy enjoying our corner of the world that I don't get to update the blog; It's not that I don't want to.

So rather than fill you in on every single detail of the last, gulp, 5 months here's the highlights

Grace - earned straight As on her 2nd quarter and 3rd quarter report cards; became a black belt in karate; started golfing again

Adam - enrolled in kindergarten which begins in August; continues swimming; started playing baseball

Of course we've done a few things since our trip north at Christmas - we played in the February snow, we went to the beach in March and we spent Easter at the beach.  Here we are now in May - 4 weeks of school left.

Here's a couple pictures from the past few months.