That's what things feel like these days. Dance and baseball are wrapping up and swim team is in full swing, and we've had several other events on our calendar like tiger rescues, birthdays and trips to the lake. I bought myself a huge dry erase calendar and posted it on my kitchen door so I can keep everyone straight. Who goes where, when, with whom, why and how. I like to think that we've met the challenge of multiple acvitities with multiple kids with some degree of calm and ease, but I'll admit to more than my fair share of stressful moments! Next week we'll be down to just swimming and drums, so we're looking forward to some laid back days. In the meantime, here's a slew of pictures from our recent events. Seriously, grab your coffee and say goodbye to a chunk of your day.
We spend a few Saturdays ago in Pittsboro at the Carolina Tiger Rescue. Who knew there was such a great rescue facility right in our backyard?
I think we saw 10 tigers, though I believe there were more
The kinkajou was a big hit. The Rescue web site said they needed donations of bananas, so we brought a few bunches and the kids were tickled that this little guy ate one of their bananas.
When we got back to the visitor's center, a big box of eggs was sitting on one of the tables. The kids were pretty sure that they were tiger eggs. :o
While in Pittsboro, we went exploring in the quaint downtown area and found S&T's Soda Shop. A gem! What is that gooey mess on my plate? I'm glad you asked. It's a pimento cheese burger. Oh my. I do have to say that my pimento cheese is a tad bit better, but I'd never thought of putting it on a burger and I will definitely be trying this at home. The kids all had interesting homemade sodas with lunch - Cherry Smash, Vanilla Pepsi, Cherry Coke, Chocolate Coke. They were wired for the Tiger Rescue! Then we went back after our visit to the tigers for ice cream. Hi-Hat and I had floats, Fancy had a "trash" sundae (I think the flavor Trash is a similar idea to a Zombie at Sunset Slush or an everything bagel), Rella had mint chocolate chip ice cream, Grandma H had a Moose Tracks ice cream soda, and Geof had a peanut butter cup shake. Next time we might skip the rescue and head straight for the soda shoppe!
our floats spewed like volcanos for quite some time!
Last weekend we were invited by one of Geof's colleagues to his home on Lake Gaston. The kids had a ball swimming and tubing in the lake and keep asking when we can go back!
I was so excited that Hi-Hat wanted to try tubing! He loved it.
Suffice it to say that I had a very strange day at the lake and muddled through with a migraine headache, so pulling off the road on the way home to watch the sun set was a welcome end to the day.
This week Rella and I went to 2 ice cream parties at school to celebrate the end of kindergarden and first grade. Here's Hi-Hat with one of his best buddies. We're gonna miss this guy!
This is why I love Hi-Hat's first grade class. In the midst of eating ice cream, the kids are reading books and are so excited about talking to each other about them! What a great bunch of kids!
Hi-Hat's first grade class - this afternoon they will be second graders!
After Hi-Hat's ice cream party we headed over to Fancy's ice cream party. First the class performed all of the songs they had learned together this year.
Fancy with her best school friends
Are you tired yet? Keep reading - there are more pictures to come!
Here's Rella wanting me to stop taking her picture playing with her new bubble machine
And speaking of bubbles, Fancy has a dance recital this weekend - Sleeping Beauty. She will be a tap dancing bubble in the scene where Snow White directs the dwarfs to clean up before they can eat. Here are a few pictures from her dress rehearsal this week. I yanked her out of the pool after swim practice and we sprinted home for a quick costume change including hair and makeup and she was ready to go on stage in southeast Raleigh a mere 1 hour later!
Fancy and this sweet dancer carpooled together to dance this year and have been buddines since they began preschool together when they were 2. They are growing into such gorgeous girls!
We're excited to see the whole show this weekend!
Oh, yes, there's still more. Now on to swimming. We threw the big kids onto the swim team at the pool we joined this year thinking it would be a great way for them to learn to swim. So far so good! Both have learned freestyle and are confident about going off the diving boards and swimming in the deep end. Great progress after just a few weeks! Fancy has really taken to it, and while all my kids love the water and learning to swim, the thrill of competition and the lure of a ribbon are really motivating Fancy. She is working so hard, and it's been fun to see her find something she seems to love and is good at. Since Hi-Hat discovered drumming so early, we've been kind of hoping Fancy would find something she's crazy about, too. Hi-Hat still has some work to do on his strokes and endurance (he gets winded pretty easily with his asthma), so he decided to sit out the time trials and do a few more lessons before swimming in a meet (the realization that he would have to swim 25 backstroke and fly at the time trials sent him into a tailspin that night). So here are some pictures of Fancy at the time trials.
Totally in her element at the time trials. After finishing 2nd in her first heat, she was overheard asking Geof, "second? how could anyone swim faster than that?"
Don't mess with #21. She was so upset that we scrubbed off her number that night. She said she needed it for the whole summer so she could swim in all the meets.
"Swimmers step up"
Her dive needs a little work :)
I love this clip of her backstroking (she's in the center lane, hot pink goggles)! She had tried the stroke a couple days ago and was not finding much success with it - lots of flailing and putting her feet down. And then SOMEHOW, it all clicked during the time trial and she did it all by herself for the first time! I'm sorry, but I was a stunned, proud mama!
OK, now on to baseball. Fancy had her last game last night. I could watch her play all day. Something about a little girl in a baseball uniform - I love her hair, her shoes, the way she sticks out her tongue when she's concentrating, the way she lays it all out there when she runs. She just may be my sporty one.
How Hi-Hat passes the time during Fancy's games
Rella's summer feet - polish, sparkles and tattoos
AND FINALLY, a gem of a picture of my Rella on a particularly good hair day (but not so good smile for the camera day)
Oh, wait, I fibbed. Here's one more. One day this week I had big plans to clean out my closet and make a list of the things I need to pick up at Lowe's to keep it organized (like hooks, storage shelves, etc). Instead, Fancy came to me with this cute little craft she had made - a stuffed animal made out of construction paper, staples and napkins. Very cute, but I was imagining paper cuts and staple scrapes from snuggling with it overnight (she is madly in love with her stuffed animals and they are her prized possessions. Like the Velveteen rabbit, I am quite sure her animals are also real). She asked me how to make a "real" stuffed animal, so rather than clean out my closet, she and I hauled out the sewing machine and worked together to make a little stuffed rabbit. She drew the pattern and then we cut, stitched and stuffed her. Fun!
I absolutely adore the way she draws animals, and now we have a stuffed one to always remember her drawings!
OK, that's it. For now.
4 comments:
I read your post and loved it! Now I want to move to Raleigh :)
I still have Addie's cat picture hanging in my office... it was the first one I put up this year and one of the only ones I haven't taken down.
Wow, lots of fun things going on in your household! My favorite pics are the baseball ones...they are just too cute!
i love your post! i just love all the fun stuff y'all do and the fun mommy you are! and the fact that you have so many cute pictures to document everything. :)
You are a great mom and I could look at your photography all day long.
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