Field Day for Jacob

Last Friday was Field Day at Jacob's school. His class and all the other first grade classes enjoyed foot races, sack races, water games, and many other hot sweaty fun activities.  He had a great time and enthusiastically encouraged and cheered on his classmates. I was really impressed with how well his classmates treat each other and I credit his teacher, Priscilla Hammond, for being such an encourager herself.  She is a lovely woman.

Jacob did not place in any of the races, but he did win the Good Sportsmanship award for his great attitude.  Mrs. Hammond was happy to award him the gold ribbon.

After the games were over, the girls and I treated Jacob to a yummy Caramel Crunch shake at Hardees.  It was a well-deserved treat!

Aaaahdiggers

That's the way Katie Mei pronounces "alligators".

Sometimes our schedule works out nicely so that Katie Mei can attend Tadpole Time at the Flint Riverquarium.   It's a little preschool program that takes place on the third Wednesday of the month and involves a craft project, a story, and a snack.  There is always a theme involving some kind of animal from the aquarium and last week's theme was alligators.  Since we love going to the aquarium anyway, it's always fun to attend Tadpole Time and then hang out to visit our aquatic friends for awhile afterward. 

Katie Mei made a craft project to show the alligator's bumpy skin, which involved green-colored macaroni noodles glued to the back of a cardstock alligator.  Note to self: glue sticks do not hold noodles well--go home with handful of fallen noodles and reglue with Elmers.

After the story and snack, Ms. Vicky brought out a real live American Alligator for the kids to pet.  I had to resist the urge to shove little kids out of the way and cut in line so I could pet the alligator first!  I do believe I was more excited than they were to touch the alligator.  Silly kids...they have no idea how awesome that was!  For the record, if you look closely at the photo you will see the alligator's mouth is held shut with a simple rubber band.

The alligator's skin did not feel as dry and rough as I expected.  It was bumpy, but it was a moist feeling.  Now wet, but cool and dampish.  I supposed since they do hang out in water, we should not expect them to feel dry.  She only let us touch him on the side of his belly, but I sure did want to stroke that long tail.  Ms. Vicky said he weighed about 10 pounds, smaller than I expected, and she said he was a bit annoyed at being picked up and used his tail to slap her.  I heeded her warned and didn't mess with his tail.

Merrilee tagged along, so she got to enjoy her second hands-on alligator experience.  The first time was last summer at the homeschool program at the Riverquarium.

When Tadpole time was over, we got some close-up peeks at Moonshine, the albino alligator; Katie Mei's favorite alligator snapping turtle, Big Al; and her favorite rattlesnake under the tortoise exhibit.  Those are her favorite animals at the Riverquarium, and we always have to visit them. (The photo of Big Al is from the Flint Riverquarium's website.  I didn't have a recent photo.  He's much bigger now--about 3 feet long!)

Gardening again

It's been a long time since I planted vegetable plants, and I love having a garden, but with all the neighbors' dogs around here, I knew I'd be asking for trouble if I even bothered with one.  But I got the itch a few weeks ago and asked Jay if he'd make a small raised bed for me so the kids and I could plant a few plants.  The sweet man did just that and made a beautiful little 4 X 8 square foot garden for us, complete with fencing to keep out critters.  It hasn't stopped the dogs from watering my plants on a regular basis, but at least they can't dig them up.

I let the kids help with planting, and Katie Mei enjoyed fertilizing.  Now we'll sit back and wait to see what grows.  These are photos from April 6.

Girls sure do age fast!!!

So hard to believe this...

Has become this!

Goodness!  Time has flown by.  It is so hard for me to believe she's already turned 8 and only has one more single-digit birthday to go!  These have been the most precious years of my life, and I am so truly blessed to call Merrilee my daughter.  She is such a joy.

We celebrated her birthday on April 1 at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  The Flower Festival took place that weekend, so we enjoyed walking around looking at the different crafters' booths, and even had time for funnel cake!  I think Katie Mei was most excited about the cake than anything!

We did quite a bit of walking, and usually Katie Mei gets lazy and wants to be carried--it's not a heart issue, it's a four-year old issue!  But she held up quite well and it wasn't until the end that she really started getting tired legs.  She mostly just hung out with Grandpa and Grandma and enjoyed the time she had there.

The azaleas were in full bloom and despite all the booths, there were  a few lovely places to take pictures.  Katie Mei wasn't really in the mood for posing for photo ops, but she did pretty well.  Merrilee is always ready for a photo!

After the festival we stopped for some nachos and iced tea and Katie Mei showed us how tired she really was.  This was way out of character for her, so I knew she was worn out after several days of staying up late, not napping, and then a long walk in the morning.  Poor girl was wiped out!  But we managed to revive her and she ate her share of nachos dipped in cheese.

We went home, and later that day Merrilee enjoyed blowing out the candles on the cake Grandma made for her.  Mom used to make doll cakes for me when I was little and I had told Merrilee about them, but this was her first.  She thought it was awesome!

Then we moved on to opening her gift.  She got a wonderful artist's easel and paint set from Grandma and Grandpa.

We drove home on Saturday and she got to open her presents from Jay and myself that afternoon.  It was a long birthday that covered two states, but it was fun.  Wishing you many more happy birthdays, Merrilee!

Sand in our faces, continued

We arrived home last Saturday, after a couple of fun days at my parents' house.  Just to finish up the photos from the trip to the beach, here is Merrilee's prized sand castle, and Katie Mei's hole.

Katie Mei really enjoyed the digging more than that building!

I think what the girls liked best about the trip was that I let them stay up late and watch TV.  Katie Mei did'nt quite last as long as her older sister, but she did enjoy thinking she was staying up late.  It was a lovely time, despite the cold weather, but I sure was glad to get home and into a warmer clime!

Flushed Out

Well, we got one nice day of bitter cold sunshine on this weeklong vacation.  Today is a complete washout, and I believe we're going to leave a day early tomorrow.  I would love to have left today, but the girls weren't convinced that the weather was really going to be awful, and I also didn't think it would be wise to leave when heavy storms were predicted.  But after being bored in the condo all morning, and then going out for a drive to Beaufort only to just barely miss getting caught in the downpour, and then being soaked through their socks as they jumped out of the car into a four-inch deep puddle, the girls are now sure we've had enough.  So we'll just endure the rain and drizzle expected tomorrow and drive (carefully!) through that.

This photo was taken in Beaufort across from Carrot Island, just before the rain started.  Wish the photo were clear enough to show the wild ponies that were on the shore in the background.

We were all grateful, though, for the lovely albeit cold day yesterday.  We started the day by heading out to the beach to pick up shells and just walk around, and it wasn't too terrible at that point because the wind wasn't blowing. 

At about 11 we headed back to the condo to get cleaned up and then headed out to grab some pizzas and meet friends at church for some fellowship and lunch.  It was such a joy to get to chat about our present lives and share some fun memories of the past as we recalled our time at St. Peter's about 15 years ago, pre-children.  I love how Christian friendships are timeless, literally!   After lunch the girls went outside to play with Jenna, a lovely fifteen-year old who won the hearts of both of them!  Jenna is also from China, and hers was the first family I ever knew who adopted from China.  Jenna holds a special place in my own heart, though she does not remember me at all.


After lunch, we returned to the beach and put on a couple layers of clothes and coats.  Merrilee had desperately wanted to build a five-foot tall sand castle, and Katie Mei wanted to dig a deep hole in the sand, so they both got to try their hand at making their vacation dreams come true.  Merrilee's sand castle didn't quite make it to the five-foot mark, but it was knee-high on her, and she was happy with it.  She decorated it with shells she had found earlier, and I was glad that we didn't have to bring all those shells back home.  I don't have the castle photos on this laptop right now, but once I get home I will add them.

Katie Mei, also with her own very heavy bag of shells (and sand!), tried to make a few sand castles, but really enjoyed the holes I dug for her more.

I, on the other hand, tried to just huddle into as small a blob as I could and stay out of the wind and blowing sand.  It was, unfortunately, about the worst day at the beach I can ever remember having in my entire life.

So, with the sun behind us, and more rain looming ahead, we're going to just call it a week and head back to my parents' house tomorrow.  Hopefully between now and then we will find something to keep us occupied.