May and June happenings.... M's school is out for summer!

  Mercer finished 4th grade with a bang.  He brought home awards for A/B honor-roll, perfect attendance, got some sort of award for PE, good conduct and citizenship.   We are proud of the well-rounded kid that Mercer is! 

   

We took him lunch during his last week of school while Isabella and I were on our 1st week of break (she and I get 2 summer breaks from our year-round school).  












Also, here is Mercer's last-day-of-school photo (yep - he wants the long hair).  Do you like his tee-shirt?!  "I've got BIG PLANS and they don't involve homework!"   

He got to ride the bus his last week of school & we met him at the bus stop each day.  












On the last day of school, a neighbor threw a water party.   The official kick-off to summer!   (Look at Mercer's face - he is full of sheer JOY!)  :) 

Another milestone that we celebrated at the end of the school year was Mercer's Cub Scout ceremony.  He completed enough activities to earn his Webelos patch as well as a couple of extra badges.  They also helped the younger members of the pack “cross over” -- basically tie on new "neckerchiefs" (scarves) around the younger member's necks as they move up - like what Mercer has done in previous years.  Mercer and his group are still called Webelos, as this covers 4th and 5yh grade.  

Webelos is a 2 year program before they cross over to Boy Scouts.  He and I are working on more of his activities so that he can earn stripes on his Arrow of Light award he will get before he crosses over AND we are working on more activities for that science Nova / SuperNova award that he got 2 years ago.  Mostly, this stuff if fun to do with him + teaches him some great skills.  I generally enjoy it and am grateful for the guidance / the nudge to spend time with him in these activities that we may not normally do!!  

Newsworthy: a few months ago, the Boy Scouts started allowing girls to enter the program.  From what I've seen, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are quite different.  I am impressed with both organizations for various reasons.  We'll see if we get Isabella involved either one of these programs when she's a bit older.  Many of the camping, building, science activites we're doing with Mercer would absolutely benefit her too.

During break, we put the finishing touches on the "renovation" of Isabella's room -- moving the furniture around and getting rid of all of the last remnants of the nursery by painting over the fish-themed wave.  We also purged a few things too.  I picked up this sweet little secretary from a neighbor who was getting rid of it and refinished it.  Now she has a little desk in her room – appropriate because she’ll be in a big-girl school soon.  She loves her room… Hopefully she will like it for another 5 or more years!      

Also during break, we took a quick trip to North Carolina to visit mom, grandma and grandpa.  It was Grandma's 90th birthday!!  

We got to see Uncle Mel and Uncle Eddie as well as Aunt Becky and Uncle Tony (and their dogs).    It was a short visit, but while there, we visited grandma and grandpa several times in the assisted living home where they are staying.  It was a few days before grandma’s actual 90^th birthday, but there was a little celebration that week!   We got to hang out as a family in a private dining room in the facility so we could share lunch, share some snacks and have a slice of cake together.

Here’s a photo of Grandma and Grandpa with Mel, Eddie and mom. 

And – another few photos of me and the kids with Grandma.   We had to take several because Isabella was making faces.  

90 years young.  WOW!  Grandma said there must have been a math error – that she wasn’t quite yet 90!   I am glad we got to celebrate with her!! 

Mom won a 4-pack of tickets to the Life and Science center in Durham, so she treated us to a new experience.  Wow – what a cool place!  One of my favorite things there were the treehouses -- they were beautiful.  On the inside, my favorite exhibit was one that was a mix of math, logic, art and science.  Honestly – that exhibit had several things that I have used in my Building Arts class.  There was an exhibit on scale, one on hexagons and tessellations, one with back-lights to illuminate side view / top view and perspective (basically they were teaching people about plan and elevation views)… and more.  It was SO satisfying to see this in a museum – taught in a way that was interactive in a quick moment for LOTS of people to explore and learn.  It really validated what I was doing which was a nice boost after month of job hunting and feeling insecure about my skills / about my future.  

There were other great exhibits there as well.  The kids enjoyed the engineering area the most.  One feature was to design a paper airplane... test it at various angles... to see how far it would go.  Another feature was to shoot a parachute up the tube using air & playing around with air pressure below to see the effects.    There was a weather area where you could create a tornado.  There was an area with animals and reptiles.  There was an area with technology.  GREAT PLACE.  We loved it!

 Mercer was NOT into the butterfly exhibit.  Interesting, but he could not get out of that place fast enough.  (I remember when working at the local nature center's butterfly exhibit how there were people who were totally freaked out by the butterflies. I guess Mercer is one of them.)  But - Isabella is our BUG LOVING gal.  She was not afraid at all and could've stayed for hours!  

She even "discovered" a wax worm larvae on the OUTSIDE of the beehive exhibit. She carried around this worm until properly giving it to a museum worker... then proceeded to tell other visitors what she found!  

(According to wikipedia:  In the wild, they live as nest parasites in bee colonies and eat cocoons, pollen, and shed skins of bees, and chew through beeswax, thus the name.)    

When we are at mom’s, the kids have the freedom to run and run and run.  She gave them bubble guns.  

Between those, a giant ball to kick around and lightining bugs, they had a great time in this large field.

I picked up a tick – my first – either out there in the field or at the outdoor sections of the science center.  It is a female lone star tick which - upon research - is notorius for causing your body systems to reject meat.  So far, so good at this point - it's been over a month.

Sometimes when we go to North Carolina, we have the pleasure of stopping and visiting Cindy and her boys in South Carolina.  Her oldest was still in school, but her youngest – Trevor – is being homeschooled this year due to some health issues he is experiencing so we got to hang out with him.  He and Mercer get along great and they played and played together in the water, on the playground and generally running around.  They get along so well, I wish we could see them more!  Yes, our kids are wearing street clothes.  It's all we had, but Cindy brought us towels and I brought a change of clothes for each of them.

We found out on the drive home from North Carolina that Mercer DID end up making the all-star baseball team.... and he had practice every day (except for Sundays) which started THAT AFTERNOON when we got home!  We were racing the clock for this 1st of many mandatory practice.  For 2 weeks, he had practice every night + Saturdays.  

The boys on the East Marietta 10u team took 2nd place in the district, beating out Smyrna Red and Milford... but succumbing to Smyrna Blue.  We just had a cookout and kick-ball party to get the boys back together again.

At the party, there was chatter about entering this team of boys into a local tournament.  Here we go again!  We'll post an update in the July blog on yet another pop-up baseball series.  (Ironically, he is not playing baseball in the fall... he wants to try soccer!) 

A few other things happened during May and June:  Mother's Day, Todd's birthday and Father's Day.

In May, we celebrated Mother's Day by going to a State Park we had not been to before for a picnic, fishing and hiking.   

The fish were not biting, although they were giant and swimming all around our lures.  We deemed the fish as vegetarians because they were not enticed by worms.   

At least Isabella had a good time playing with the worms when she wasn't casting off and pulling in her line.

The hike was an unusal one - it led us to a cave-like structure which was the entrance point into the side of a mountain where marble was mined.  

For Todd's birthday in June, we celebrated with the Schewan food he likes so much + some homemade cupcakes - which were Isabella's idea.  (And...Mercer suggested donuts for breakfast.  You can see that their suggestions benefit them too -- with sweets!)  Mercer had baseball practice again this year on Todd's birthday, so take-out food before practice was our celebration.


Father's Day falls right after Todd's birthday.  Mercer planned part of the outing:  hiking, going on a bike ride along the Silver Comet trail + taking Todd out for icecream afterwards.  

Two of the best things that Mercer said:  "I love riding my bike!" and "I am having a great time!"  We have been waiting YEARS and YEARS to hear these words!!  Before hitting the road on our adventure, Todd showed Mercer a few things about bike repair.

There are some other random things that we did in May and June with a handful of photos to add.

Isabella and I made a visit to the Children's Museum of Atlanta - she is wearing a princess dress because we went to a party.  ha!  (love the flippers and dress - don't you?!)  

 Then we went to the 1st annual "Atlanta Soil Festival."  We ran into my roomie from the Teacher Conservation trip last summer, Tixie, who I still keep in touch with.  That was a fun surprise!

Family Game night @ home.    Mercer and I have done it before, but this is Todd's first time doing the Pie in the Face game.  Isabella wasn't a fan at all.  

Isabella doesn't want to get whipped cream in her face, however, she does love her bugs & worms!!


















Hip-Hop has play dates now with our next-door neighbor's dog, Franklin.  His owner, Beth, tells us that Franklin goes to a certain spot along the fence line (where the ivy isn't too crazy) and looks for Hip-Hop.  Hip-Hop goes to the back door and looks towards the fence line.  Sometimes when walking, he will totally pull us towards Beth's house.  It's kind of sweet.  awww!





























Mercer wanted to bake a cake, so... he did.

Isabella is back in gymnastics.  

We did not join the pool this summer because of the job situation, so we have been looking for invitations to friends' pools.  We have had a couple so far and having fun when we do get to partake (as well as catching up with those friends who we have the honor of sharing the afternoon with.)  

This sweet photo of the girls holding hands shows the reuniting of old friends.  (Isabella and Josie were in preschool together for 1 1/2 years.)  so cute!

And - they were dancing to the music in the planters.  

This year, our kids actually got to attend VBS at our church instea of at another church's night-time program.  I volunteered to lead a crew of kids. 

Mercer was in my crew.  Isabella was in a preschool crew, but at the beginning and end of each day, her crew sat in the row in front of ours.  She basically came to sit with us during the opening and closing each day.

We also went to an opening of one of Todd's churches.  The kids were exposed to a bi-lingual mass and some authentic food and dance

I do have an update on the job, but this blog is LONG so I'll keep it short and add more at another time.  In a nutshell:  I will be starting training with Cobb County School System on July 18th.  I will be teaching 6th grade Earth Science at a STEM school.

I'll post more about my job in the next blog, but - thank God, seriously - that I found something... or rather that this job found me.  The transition has been VERY stressful on our family due to how much time it takes to search for and apply for jobs + the severe drop in pay to help out in the Preschool + the "not knowing" what is next.

I have 1 1/2 weeks left at my current school before starting my training.  I will do a wrap-up of SAE post next + our July activities including Isabella's preschool graduation and Mercer's baseball tournament.

Here's a funny little story about Isabella to end this blog post on:

In May, teacher appreciation week was observed.  They have suggestions about what to send in (candy, gift cards, flowers, etc).  One day was handmade arts & crafts from the students.  Isabella and I made salt-dough ornaments, but with the little bit of leftover dough, Isabella rolled it up and made it into a snake.  She took it in the next day to her teacher who is DEATHLY afraid of snakes.  Ms. Helen screamed, of course when she looked in the bag. Apparently by the end of the day, her teacher had stapled the bag shut!  

Isabella pulled a prank.  She was so proud of herself!  (uh-oh!)