Orange Beach

We headed back to our favorite beach for vacation last week.  We had a great time, and there was definitely not a dull moment.  We hadn't been there 5 minutes when Evie dropped a 3 foot shovel off the 9th floor balcony.  Thankfully it was plastic and landed in the bushes below.  We had big waves the whole time and red flag conditions at the end of the week.  Andrew kept us entertained with his observations.  My favorite was when he pointed out the person on a string, which turned out to be a person parasailing.  We watched two weddings and a beach rescue.  There weren't any lifeguards during our last trip, and it turns out there is a great story about parents turning a tragedy into something positive behind the new beach patrol.  Lots of people were helped by Molly's Patrol on Thursday and Friday. The rain kept us off the beach on Saturday and caused the roads (and our breezeway) to flood.  During the rain the fire alarm sounded in our building, so we had to to evacuate.  I'm sure we looked a mess but we went to lunch instead of standing in the rain.  Andrew lost a tooth on Saturday and failed to look for tooth fairy money on Sunday before we left, so his dollar was left behind.  Yep, never a dull moment.    

 OBA 2012

He loved riding the waves

 She was more timid, but loved it once she got brave enough

Summer Learning: Baseball

I have great respect for all the homeschooling mamas out there.  While I'm not even entertaining the thought of homeschooling for real, I thought it would be fun to pick some topics to learn about this summer to prevent any regression before 1st and 3rd grade.  If you follow me on Pinterest then you probably are already clued in to my plan.  Great resources for education available on there by the way.  Our first topic was baseball.  The kids have been reading books, defining baseball terms, and drawing fields and stadiums.  Of course we also got to take a field trip!  We took our reading logs from the Smokies Summer Reading Program and exchanged them for tickets to the game on Wednesday night.  It was so rewarding to hear the kids pointing out the different player positions, talking about what kind of a hit it was, and understanding what all the numbers on the scoreboard meant.  They were seeing all of their knowledge put into action.      

The books we read are listed below.  They all came from our local library!

Baseball Science

Ultimate Guide to Baseball

The Everything Kids Baseball Book

A Whole New Ball Game: All American Girls 

Baseball from A to Z  

Evie's First 5k

Evie caught the running bug at Disney World in January and announced a few months ago that she wanted to run a 5k.  I told her I didn't think she could run 3 miles, but she insisted she could.  I took her to the track and told her it would be 13 laps to finish a 5k.  Of course she proved her mother wrong and ran all 13 laps!  She was so excited when our friends Frank and Knox invited her to run the KTC EXPO 5k with them this morning.  She had such a good time!

 Ready to run

 Evie, Mr. Frank, and Knox

 Headed down the last hill

 Sprinting for the finish line

 Go Evie!

Chatting with Channel 6 about the race

So long 2nd grade

 Day 1

 She didn't miss a single day of 2nd grade!

Day 174

Farewell Kindergarten

 Day 1

So proud of everything this little guy has accomplished

Day 163

Happy Anniversary

2002

2012

Spring Soccer 2012

Field Day Fun

Andrew and his teacher during the dress your teacher relay

 Dance break

 Had to "man up" the chicken dance with some chest bumps

 K teachers + principal dressed for summer fun

 Scooter board relay

 2nd grade teachers ready for summer

 Hula hoop contest

 Hula dancer

Balloon bust relay

Mother/Son Date Knight

Chick fil A in Knoxville hosted Mother/Son Date Knight last week.  As if I didn't love CFA enough already, this made me love them even more.  Andrew and I had a great time together!  

 Andrew loved the cow they gave his and was so thrilled to win the drawing for his very own Magic Tree House book, The Knight at Dawn.

 Hanging out with the Knight Cow

2nd Grade Program

Evie got to show off some songs and facts she has been learning about this great state we live in tonight at school.  The Amherst 2nd graders have been working very hard over the past few weeks preparing, and I am so proud of them!  They covered Elvis in Memphis, country music in Nashville, the Cherokee living in the mountains, and of course good ole Rocky Top.  

Decked out in her orange and white

A little bit of Amazing Grace in Cherokee