character?

On the same day as Amelia's program, students with good character were encouraged to wear mustaches to school...here is Seth's invention:

no more preschool!

That Friday was Amelia's very last day of preschool.  Her program was mid-morning, so there was no way Nathan could sneak over to watch it.  Amelia was bummed, because she wanted two people in the audience.  After I dropped her off, I ran a couple errands and signed Seth out of school for a couple hours:

As soon as we walked in, I saw this pic on the screen, and I thought I was a goner:

 Then the kids marched in.  It took Amelia a couple minutes to find me in the crowd, but here's her reaction when she saw who was sitting next to me:

 The first thing she did after the program was hug her brother:

 One last picture with her marvelous teachers.  I am so grateful for the year she had:

 Her diploma!

We took Seth back to school and then went to the park for an impromptu playdate with friends.  No more tuition payments, yea!

class gift

 I volunteered to organize the class gift for Amelia's preschool.  I collected cash, and then I found this super cute project on pinterest.  I was worried it wasn't going to work, but it turned out perfect.  All year long, the teachers had asked the kids so many open-ended questions, and the responses were priceless.  I sent home sheets for the kids to answer five questions about each teacher.  I then printed out their responses, and a couple other moms helped me cut them out to the size of a dollar bill.  We then alternated reponses and dollars, and made a little booklet out of them using padding compound. (There is a step-by-step tutorial on how do to do this online.)  Here is the finished project, and one of Amelia's responses:

first week on the new job

Nathan's old job was a contract position, which was his only way to get his foot in the door in Charlotte last year.  But that has meant no sick days, no vacation time, no corporate insurance.  On May 16, he started a new job in a different department at the same bank.  That Friday, he was taken up to the executive suite for a meet and greet lunch.  On the rooftop, a peregrine falcon had made her nest, and Nathan got to see the babies.  (They fledged this past weekend.)

 

The following week, he went to San Francisco for a team meeting (and to meet his boss in person, ha!)  They did a lot of group activities, including a scavenger hunt around the city.  Tuesday night they went to a restaurant in the water.  He saw the seals on the wharf...

 Inside the restaurant:

 Alcatraz:

 The original plan was for the guys to fly back Wednesday night, but they couldn't get them on a flight, so they sent them to a baseball game instead:

 Tough life!

It was really more play than work, but he deserved it.  There will be a little travel involved with this new job, but I'm excited that he'll be racking up miles so I can go somewhere again! 

strawberry pickin'

That afternoon, the kids and I went strawberry picking at the same farm we had picked our pumpkins in the fall.  It was one of the first (and few) hot days we had, and the kids pooped out rather quickly, so I did a lot of the picking myself.  Turns out they use a different type of strawberry plant here, and I was highly sensitive to the leaves.  I took a shower when I got home and had hives/a rash until I went to bed that night.

 Here's a whole of lot deliciousness!

I froze most of the berries, but I did make two strawberry yogurt cakes with the fresh berries we didn't eat.  One of those I froze, and we're still snacking on it!

restaurant week

Mid-May, preschool had a restaurant week.  That Wednesday, Amelia's class ate lunch at the next door class's Mexican restaurant, and then Amelia's class served desserts in their bakery.

On Thursday, a local pizzeria came and made pizza in front of the kids, and they had pizza for lunch.  It was a nice break from packing lunches!

camping

I apologize for the long break.  The computer wasn't letting me upload pictures, and frankly I've been trying to spend less time on the computer and more time entertaining the children.  But I'll sneak this in really quick.  Mother's Day weekend we went camping at Dreyer Island State Park in SC.  We had beautiful weather.  The guys spent countless hours fishing, Seth biked with whatever adult he could talk into accompanying him, and the kids had a blast playing.  

 Our crew Sunday morning before heading home:

 Camping cousins picture, 2013 edition:

 Good times with friends!

 Colette assuming her camping position:

 Bike helmets for safety!

we biked to school!

Seth's school participated in National Bike to School Day.  We met at the park and the kids biked the 1.25 miles to school (I ran).  Here they are on the greenway:

 Approaching school...the principal was outside giving high fives:

 Biked locked up on the fence for the day!

Amelia stopped to take a picture of the latest artwork on the way back.  The drainage pipes have been painted to look like giraffes.

We repeated the process after school, so Amelia ended up riding five miles that day. 

And now, the rest of the story...

As we were unloading bikes, I took my key off my keychain as I always do when I run, and it disappeared.  Luckily, Nathan hadn't left yet, so he swung by on his way to work.  Unfortunately, he didn't understand me, saw that my keys were in the back, unlocked my car, and went on his way.  I still couldn't find my car key.  So...Amelia's preschool teacher picked us up, dropped me off at Nathan's truck, and took Amelia to school.  See, I had keys to Nathan's car, just not mine.  He had keys to my car in his.  So I got the key and walked the two plus miles back to my car.  Still couldn't find my key.   It was the weirdest thing.  I was never really stressed out about it, just perplexed.  It was a nice day, I was dressed for the weather, I didn't have anywhere I was supposed to be, and I didn't see any snakes or get chased by any dogs.  So I get a couple things done at the house and then it's time to go get Amelia.  And then we go get Seth.  I load the bikes in the back of the van, and we drive home.  When we get home, I unload the van, and there, under Seth's bike is my key! 

So here is my theory:

I dropped it at the park, and it got magnetized somewhere on Seth's bike.  By some minor miracle, it stayed attached for the ride there, seven hours parked at school, the ride back, and me putting the bike in the car.  It must have shook loose on the ride back.  Weird!  I didn't look into it too much, because I was exhausted!

bobby pins, Amelia-style

Amelia's friend, Hannah, dresses like a little adult.  Amelia, as you know, dresses like Punky Brewster most of the time.  Hannah wears her hair pulled back with bobby pins almost every day.  Amelia wanted to try it too, if we could find colored ones.  So...bobby pins + nail polish = colored bobby pins!  She'll be wearing them in future posts.  She really likes them.

Mother's Day art

Both kids made a lot of sweet Mother's Day projects at school.  When I picked Amelia up early that week, this was on the wall:

I breathed a huge sigh of relief, because her picture for Daddy day was not suitable for the blog!  (She said they wrestled...use your imagination what her artwork looked like.)  The yellow animal to the left is supposed to be Colette, and she even drew the iris that is near the swing. 

puppy love

 

These two are best friends.

the rest of the weekend

You would think that would be enough excitement for one weekend, but no!  That night started the summer movie series.  It was Brave, so Amelia really, really wanted to go, even though it felt like March and not the first weekend in May.  We took two cars, and the boys left us after finishing their slurpees.  The girls stuck it out, in our jeans, long sleeve shirts, hoodies, and a quilt!

We had been invited to go roller skating with one of Amelia's preschool friends.  She has an older brother who is Seth's age and the boys get along well, but he goes to a different school so it is hard to get together.  This was our first time checking out the local skating rink, and it's a keeper!

That evening was Cinco de Mayo, so we hit Mi Pueblo early for some cheese dip!  Our waitress likes to teach Amelia Spanish, and she gave us lots of little goodies that night!

virtual 10k

The next morning I woke up and went for a run, hoping that my body and mind would cooperate with what I had in mind, after posting it on FB so I wouldn't wuss out...though those closest to me had known my plan for a while.  That morning I ran a virtual 10k. At the same time that morning, Race for the Cure was going on in Winston-Salem, and I really wanted to go in support of my friend, who was battling Stage IV cancer.  But I also really wanted to do Jogging for Jonah in Clemmons.  I couldn't be in two places at once, but one day I had a genius idea, rather than make myself sick choosing one over the other, I would do both races...here.  Turns out if I run to the end of my friend's neighborhood and back, it is one mailbox longer than a 10k.  Perfect!  I got into a groove...I wasn't too fast, I wasn't too slow, and despite an encounter with a scary, hyper, overly excited pit bull/boxer puppy (think knock-me-over big, don't think aw-cute), I had an awesome run, even though it wasn't a PR.  Mile 5-6 is pretty tough because it is UPHILL the whole way back to my neighborhood, but I prayed the prayer I have said for the past two months. It is a very specific, aggressive prayer...that the chemo would get every single bit of cancer in my friend's body, and that it would all LEAVE and not COME BACK.  I focused on each area I knew the cancer had spread.  She is on my mind a lot when I run, because I figure most days she would love to exercise, and most days she can't.  Runs like that make we wonder why I don't do long runs more often.  

And I am happy to report WONDERFUL news:  this week, my friend shared that her latest scan showed complete response to treatment and every single lesion is gone!!!!  God is good!!!!

Pinkalicious

We had a very special girls' night out and went to see Pinkalicious at the Children's Theatre with Hannah and her mom.  We all wore our best pink for our night out on the town!  (I bought a new dress at Old Navy for $6!)  After the show, we stopped at a restaurant and had an ice cream brownie for dessert.  We got home so late that both boys were asleep in my bed, so we made it a girls' night and slept in the guest room together!

our geriatric teenager

We don't know Colette's exact birthday, but we adopted her on June 10th, and the vet thought she was not quite the six weeks we were told she was, so we've always called May 1st her birthday.  The kids made a big deal of her special day, and Colette celebrated her 13th birthday in high style.  We bought her this flower for $5 at Target, and she loved it.  Of course, it took her less than a week to destroy it, but she cherished it at first, and the funniest part, she did NOT want Amelia to touch it!  She would bring it to me or Nathan, and sometimes Seth, but she got ugly if Amelia tried to play with her.

Old Salem

On April 30th, I chaperoned the second grade field trip to Old Salem.  I was kind of worried how Seth would react being back in the area again.  We went into town the opposite way he was used to, so it was a non-issue.  From a chaperone standpoint, it wasn't nearly as fun as our zoo trip, but I had a good group of kids and they asked a lot of really good questions.  Here's some pictures of our day:

This covered bridge takes your link back in time, or to the modern world, depending which way you are going:

Check out my nametag.  I'd say they get it right 50% of the time.  Once it was wrong on Seth's progress report, and I was tempted to say it wasn't my kid. 

 And here is one last picture from my cellphone, with a Winston landmark in the background:

BeachFest

We went to our first BeachFest, a smaller scale festival of the one in tow in the fall.  Friday night had all-you-can-ride wristbands, so they kids took advantage of it.  It pretty much rained the rest of the weekend, so I'm glad we went when we did.

Saturday morning a baby-sitter came over EARLY and Nathan and I ran in the BeachFest 5k.  I tell you what, I need to keep doing these small races.  I won my age group again!  We found out the baby-sitter was in the play Alice in Wonderland that night, so we went to watch the musical.  It was fantastic.  I'm pretty sure we were lazy bums all day on Sunday, and I can't find any photographic evidence that says we weren't, so we'll just roll with it. 

I may have lived here almost 20 years...

...but according to this, I'm still not from NC.  Please do not assume all North Carolinians can't spell just because the columnist can't. 

My commentary.
#1- Go DEACS!
#2-Not a fan.
#3-Yum. Double yum if you add hushpuppies.
#5-First person in the family to pick it up. 
#6-Amen.  Although I'm picky about where I will drink it, and have started making my own.
#7-Negative.
#8-Negative again.  Now Bojangles' seasoned fries and sweet tea are another story.
#9-Why Florida and Minnesota taught me the wrong pronunciation, I'll never know.
#10-I will order grits at a breakfast establishment!!!
#12-I'll eat a hot dog all the way...
#13-Yuck. 
#17-We don't usually get nice snow, and are not prepared for winter weather.  But it infuriates me when they cancel school way ahead of time, and then nothing happens. 
#18-Love me some Avett Brothers!!!
#19-Yep!
#22-Absolutely not.  But I'm married to someone who is.
#24-On my to-do list (again!) for next month!!!!!!  Yippeeeeee!!!!
#25-Nope.  There are snakes in the lakes and sharks in the ocean.  Give me a swimming pool any day!
#26-I've done this once.
#27-black and gold tie dye!
#28-not yet!
#29-Last summer I fed myself and the kids on multiple occasions.  Grilled chicken sandwich, two corn dogs, and a sweet tea.  Bring two juice boxes and you've fed three people for $4.30-
#30-Never been stuck in traffic.  Did spend 5 hours seeing it this past Christmas, though.
#31-I will eat a KK glazed doughnut, especially when the doctors brought them to work.  I prefer a Dunkin Donuts boston crème or powdered jelly doughnut, and that is sacrilege when living in Winston-Salem.  (And when I say I eat doughnuts, I'm talking about maybe three or four all year...it's not usual for a "normal" person to eat that many KK glazed in one sitting when they are warm!)
#33-I went to two Hornets games in college.  I have been to one Bobcats game.  The colors are better, the mascot is better, and changing the name back to the Hornets is not going to make the players play better.  This household is not excited about the name change back to the Hornets in 2014.  Nope, nope, nope!
#36-Not really.  I was in college when Cary was hit, but I did go to the beach a day after a hurricane once.

baking with Amelia

Amelia picked out Amelia Bedelia Bakes a Cake at the book fair.  In the back was a recipe for "Amelia Bedelia's Sheet Cake".  If you don't know Amelia Bedelia, she is a housekeeper who takes directions literally, which always ends in calamity, but her employers tend to forgive her mistakes because she is an excellent baker.  My Amelia wanted to try out the recipe.  I had all the ingredients in the pantry, so we did.  It was my first from-stratch cake, and it was very yummy.  There was no way I was keeping a cake in the house for no reason, so we shared with her preschool teachers!

clearing out

We've been cleaning out all the leaves and years of pine straw out of all the flowerbeds, trying to see what we have to work with.  This particular corner had a lot of viney groundcover that was starting to get out of control by mid-April.  Nathan tore all that out and we planted a couple rose bushes.  They we cut down five smaller trees that were on the outside of the fence, trying to let as much light in as possible.  I tidied up the vines on that section of fence, and by the end of the weekend, it looked like this:

Nathan has since taken out the section of vines between the two trees, and we both like it better that way.  It's actually honeysuckle, and for right now we're leaving it on the other parts of the fence.  I have big plans for the right side of the gate next spring...I already know which trees are going to go...timber!

ps-This picture is at least 3 weeks old...our grass looks a lot better now.