New Musical Interests

Fourth and fifth graders at Jackson's school have the option to join the orchestra. Jackson has decided to play the viola. We went to the music store and rented a viola from "Fiddling Fred". Jackson can't wait to learn to play it!

Kevin has also decided to be musical. He got his birthday presents in the mail yesterday- a Mandolin and a Ukulele. There has been a lot of out-of-tune plucking in our house tonight!

New Car Day

Our schedules are crazy this year. For example, on Wednesday, Sarah has dance from 4:15-5:00 in Burlington and Jackson has soccer practice at 5:30 in Mebane. Throw in the fact that I have a technology meeting from 3:30-5:30 one Wednesday a month into the mix and things get very complicated. Last Wednesday Kevin was able to run the kids all over the place while I was in my meeting. The three kids can't fit in his little Civic, so he had to come trade it out for my van. When my meeting was over, I hopped in the unair-conditioned car on the hottest afternoon ever to head home. Not only was the air not working but the car started over-heating. I was at a red light and thankfully it turned green just in time. When we all got home I told Kevin it was time for him to start looking for a new car. He reluctantly started looking online and talking to dealerships. He found a Honda Accord in Danville, VA with a price tag he couldn't ignore. We got up early on Saturday and and headed to Virginia. Luckily it was only an hour away. Kevin did most of the paperwork stuff over the phone so that it would a somewhat quick trip. When they showed us the Accord, the kids had a hay-day. Here was Sarah's reaction:

They gave us such a good deal on the Accord, we asked them about trading in the van for a newer one. I wasn't really a fan of the brown, so a new color was very appealing and so was the lifetime warranty. Now I really can drive this van forever.

 

Now that we have replaced the Civic, it was time to get ready to sell it. The boys and Kevin spent time on Monday washing and vacuuming it, getting it ready to sell.  It was so dirty they ended up wasing the logo off. Kevin says it is the end of a legacy.

Believe it or not, we actually sold it in less than 24 hours. Kevin put in our front yard and put a very honest sign on it listing all of its problems. He parked it on Monday, put the sign up on Tuesday around 2:30, and a guy came by at 3:00 on Wednesday, drove it around the block and bought it.

Last Chance to Swim

Our pool closes on Labor Day every year. We always try and make it for one last swim that weekend. We had several storms come through on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. We though we weren't going to be able to go but there was a reprieve from the storms on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately there were storms around the time the pool opened on Monday that lasted most of the day so Sunday was our last chance for a swim.

 Jackson and Adam both love jumping/diving off of the diving board.

 Adam in a mid-air jump off the side. No worries, Jackson didn't get jumped on!

Kevin and I had our sunglasses on, so Sarah thought that she needed hers, too. She was very careful not to let them fall off every time she jumped in the water. 

Just for you, Mom: she now jumps way off of the side of the pool. There are no more worries about her hitting her head as long as she remembers to do that next summer!

Kevin tried to get a picture of all three of them on the steps and these are the two pictures he got. He could not get all three of them to pose together.

First Day of School!

Jackson's first day of school was on Monday, August 27. He began fourth grade. There are three halls at Smith Elementary School and Jackson has now moved to the third and final hall- the blue hall. This is where all the fourth and fifth grade classes are. His teacher is Miss McNeill who he was very excited to get! He does not have his best friends in the class with him, but there were some familiar faces. We haven't heard any complaints about fourth grade so far, but I don't think he has gotten into the "real" homework yet!

 

He did not want me to walk down to his classroom and take this picture!

 

Adam began kindergarten on Tuesday, August 28. They have a staggered entry so that only half of the class attends before the whole class goes on the third day of school. His teacher's name is Mrs. Pardue. When I asked him who his teacher was, he just looked at me and smiled with that Adam smile. I reminded him of her name. He responded with some mixed up way of saying it and so I corrected him. He answered with, "How do you spell that?" Like spelling it is really going to help him know how to say it! He is on the yellow hall which is for Pre-K, First Graders, and Kindergarteners. 

He had a great first day. On his second day, he ended up getting lost but Mrs. Vickers, the art teacher, rescued him. He got hurt in PE, so the PE teacher got him some ice and then sent Adam back to class. The PE teacher didn't realize that Adam didn't really know how to find his class! Thank goodness Mrs. Vickers heard the sobs outside her door on the blue hall.

He was very apprehensive about having to walk down the hall by himself in the mornings but after two weeks, he is now a pro!

A Future Ballerina?

Sarah has been taking a Pre-Ballet/Creative Movements Class this summer with the infamous Miss Kim. Miss Kim is a parent at my school who is wonderful at teaching the little ones ballet and dance. This past Tuesday was parent observation day where parents get to go in the studio to see what their girls have learned.

Miss Kim had some pom poms and hula hoops out when we first got there. Sarah and her friend Lily enjoyed playing with the pom poms.

Miss Kim started her class by having everyone get in a circle to hold hands.

Miss Kim played a song where the girls had to jump, skip, hop, and then fall down. Sarah liked falling down.

 Sarah really liked using the ribbons. 

She missed the last two classes and I was impressed at what she had remembered.

Onto Our Capital

After spending two days at Sesame Place, we packed it all up and headed to Washington, DC. We stayed at the Washington Court Hotel that was three blocks away from the Capital Building. Because we were in downtown DC they valeted our car. The boys didn't quite understand why we weren't going to be able to use our car for two days. They did love riding the glass elevators, though. We got checked in and then walked the two blocks over to Union Station. We walked around and looked in some of the shops. Jackson was disappointed that we weren't going to ride the train, but they enjoyed seeing the Amtrak train station. It was very busy! We had dinner and then walked towards the Capital building.

Here we are in front of the water fountain that is in a park in front of the Capital Building. Jackson and Adam were amazed at all the guards around the building.

The next morning we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant. The three of them were very well behave, but I think they were in awe. They could tell we were in a very fancy place. I don't think Adam and Jackson have ever been served orange juice in stemware before.
We headed towards the Air and Space Museum, but stopped to pose on the other side of the Capital first. There is a lot of construction going on at the Mall which was a little disappointing.

After the Air and Space Museum, we walked over to the American History Museum. Here are the boys with Kermit.

 If Jackson were President...

 I think Adam needs to grow a few more inches before he tries to make a speech.

Well, well, the Dumbo ride from Disneyland. Guess who wanted to ride the elephant? Sarah wouldn't go near the flying Elmo but was very upset that we wouldn't let her ride Dumbo. Go figure....

They had a section for kids with all of the classic toys, Legos, ViewMaster, Etch-a-Sketches, Mr. Potato Heads, and Slinkies. The kids were in heaven. 

 Adam's tall Lego tower.

They really enjoyed the transportation section of the American History Museum. This display was actually talking about the trains in Salisbury, NC.

 We couldn't go up in the Washington Monument due to that earthquake we had about a year ago. This was as close as we could get. 

The next morning we ventured down the street to the Post Office Museum before heading to the Building Museum. The Building Museum was supposed to have the best gift shop of all the museums, and it did. They had all kinds of Lego sets and toys. After visiting the store we headed out to the Lincoln Memorial.

 The boys are standing by one of the columns in front of the memorial.

Notice the reflecting pool? It's not so reflecting. It too, was closed and drained due to construction. I've never seen so many "orange fences" in one place before!

We stopped by the Potomac River to have a picnic lunch before heading home. It was a nice quiet ride home because they all three took a nap for the first part of the trip!

Our Fearless Wonder Isn't So Fearless After All

On Tuesday, July 24, we all piled into the van and headed to Langhorne, PA. We were taking Sarah to Sesame Place. Adam and Jackson went a few years ago, and now Sarah is way into Sesame Street, so we just knew she would love seeing Elmo and Abby Cadabby. She was quite excited to be going to "Elmo's House" asking for about a week if we were headed to "Elmo's House" every time we got in the car. All was well until we actually arrived at "Elmo's House". 

I expected Sarah to be timid around the characters as she always kept her distance from the Chick-fil-a cow. What I didn't expect was that she didn't want to do anything. Nothing. Nada. Zippo. She wouldn't even ride the carousel. The same little girl who has no fear of jumping into any depth of water wouldn't even go in the ankle deep water until we dragged her kicking and screaming. Of course, once she was in, she was happy. There is one place where water sprays from all directions all over you. Kevin said she said, "It's raining!" as she walked through finally with a smile on her face.

 Adam and Jackson's favorite place- the nets.

 Here we tried to get the three of them to stand in front of the "Elmo Bush". As you can see, Adam and Jackson were happy to stand and pose to have their picture taken...

 Sarah, on the other hand, ran the other way and hid on my lap.

 Again, we found Cookie Monster on the street and Adam and Jackson ran up to give him hugs...

Sarah had the death grip on me just standing near him.

 She wouldn't even get close enough to the boys for a picture on the front steps of Sesame Street. At this point, we were wondering if it was too late to cancel our breakfast with the characters for the next morning.

After some swimming and avoiding Abby Cadabby who was right across the street from this fire truck, Sarah climbed up and was happy to "drive" the fire truck. We headed back across Sesame Street to save us a spot for the parade. Sarah promptly fell asleep 45 minutes before the parade began. She did wake up to some monsters dancing in front of her and was actually mesmerized by the whole thing.

The next day... We had reserved breakfast with Cookie Monster since Abby would be there. We saw Ernie, Bert, and Big Bird, too. Sarah again had the death grip on me.

 From this distance she was always excited to see the characters.

 But don't get any closer...

 This was as good as it was going to get for a picture with a character.

 Adam and Jackson had a blast. I think they rode everything, especially the water slides, twice!

 Sarah finally enjoying the sprinklers after being coaxed to go in.

I was very surprised at how well they all three behaved during the drive up. It took us 8 1/2 hours and it actually went by pretty fast. I think I feared the worst so it couldn't get any worse than what I had imagined! Sarah did love driving through the tunnel and Adam was excited to stay in a hotel. Who needs Sesame Place when we have tunnels and hotels?