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 notorious 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!)

March and April... back to the grind. May is bringing some change....

As soon as we got back home from Colorado - literally - within hours, we were working on a project for Isabella and a project for Mercer that was due on Monday. Usually, kiddos don't have homework over breaks, but they did this time.  We were scrambling (and up late).  Unpack.... get back to the grind:  home, school, life.  

I had a big grant proposal go out for my school a week after our Colorado trip as well (I was, of course, doing some work over our vacation on the grant).  The day after it went out, I was let go.  Seriously.  Enrollment is down by about 100 families and they're discontinuing the high school.  Lots of the middle school and rising middle school families are bailing.... there's an online computer program that they started using this year and I think generally people hate it.  Although I'm no longer teaching the middle and high schoolers - I had moved to the K-5th grade group for the majority of my classes - I was still let go.    

[Speaking of not having high school anymore.... two of my former students graduated.  The 3rd senior did not.  He still has to work through the summer, but it was an absolute pleasure to really get to know these kids.  Jeremie - the boy here in blue - was adopted and he openly talks to me a lot about adoption stuff and things that I could do / should do to help Mercer as he gets older.  He's such a great kid!  It has been an absolute pleasure getting to know both of these young people.]

Back to the job situation:  my school gave me 1 ½ month’s notice (through the end of April), however, I still have not been able to find a job.  At this point (mid-May) I have been applying across multiple industries:  teaching, environmental non-profit, architecture and property / construction management… but after 2+ months of applying and interviewing, I still do not know what my future holds.  It’s a bit scary.  (And – it is, quite frankly, exhausting working full time with 2 children trying to find a job.)  Since early March, I have felt very uneasy, quite stressed out and a bit defeated – especially after not having heard anything from anyone for the first full month of applying.  At this point, I only have 2 prospects – A couple of weeks ago, I had a 2^nd interview with an environmental non-profit whose board I have sat on previously + I have a 2nd interview lined up for an environmental non-profit where I used to work in early June.  I know that this may take some time, but I really wish I knew what my next chapter was going to look like.  This is HARD!!   

The woman who runs Isabella’s preschool offered to let me help her out until I find something.  For the past three weeks, I have been up & down on the floor with infants / chasing crawlers / etc.  Whew…. I am too old for this!  My “reprieve” is when I head back upstairs to my classroom to deliver Pre-K STEM / STEAM programming.  Here's a photo of Isabella in my class.  She's enjoying this new arrangement.  It’s cute, but it feels odd when my old K-8^th graders ask me why I’m not teaching them anymore.  "I miss you.  Do you want to be downstairs with the babies?"  How do I even explain?!  Now - since this STEM / STEAM stuff is going well... the head of schools wants to keep me.  What?!  My morale is down and moving to preschool my pay is down, but I need something to continue to provide insurance for the family & because of that, Isabella will still need daycare while I work.  So, I am there for awhile.  (I am hoping that the work in preschool will cover insurance and her tuition?!)  It seems natural to keep her there.  

She has basically 2 more months until she starts Kindergarten where Mercer goes.  (She is so excited to ride the bus and go to school with brother.  He will be annoyed, of course, but this is the only year they’ll be in the same school – assuming that we keep them in our city schools all the way through.)  

Isabella attended a “Teddy Bear” tour at Mercer's school recently.  (When Mercer went, he took a frog.  Isabella took a pink poodle.)  This is done to get the kids into the building so they can see what it’s like.  Isabella is an old pro, of course, having visited Mercer up there dozens of times!   She is going to rock their worlds when she arrives on the scene in August!

She is doing MUCH better in her preschool, thankfully.   She still tries to push limits, but the teacher that’s been there since October (Ms. Helen) has really turned that classroom around.  She is very structured and has introduced more literacy and math and the kids are gobbling it up.  The structure has been great for ALL of the kids + it is really impressive with ALL of the things they have learned.  She’s starting to read lots of sight words and sounding out others she doesn't know to figure it out.   They even held a spelling bee!  

I loved the sweet little preschool where Mercer went all the way through & where Isabella started (which was recently sold).  I am grateful, however, for the extra things that this preschool offers… especially music and language (Spanish daily + Portuguese AND Mandarin once a week.)  She is now also getting this stellar STEM / STEAM programming once a week too from me. ~wink~  They get to go to the dress rehearsals of plays that the K-8th grade kids put on, dance performances, etc.   Her exposure to different things is fantastic!  

They recently had a tricycle rodeo too.  I was teaching a class so I couldn’t attend, but she rode around the parking lot after school for me.   Afterwards, we packed the trike up into the car and headed home for an evening to celebrate HER.  

We went out for a picnic, hung out at the playground and took her out for ice cream to celebrate the 5 year anniversary of her Adoption Day.  The amazing thing about this…. We ran into the social worker who did her paperwork and performed the home visits so we could finalize her adoption!  Serendipitous! 

We try to celebrate with an adoption day gift too.  Here's a cool one - a Roominate Kit (designed by women for girls to get them interested in engineering)  Isabella had fun putting it together and she literally rolled up her sleeves to get into it!  

It was late, so we created a circuit and wired up the fan another day.  Pretty cool!

The next week, we were back out at the same park & playground.  I "strongly encouraged" Mercer to take his bike, spent about 20 – 30 minutes with him off & on, giving him encouragement and a little balance as needed…. and he DID IT!  He’s ridden several times at home on his own as well.  (And at this writing in May - he's riding almost every day.  yay~)  

I texted the woman who is an Occupational Therapist who taught him initially to ride his bike 2 summers ago without training wheels and she was just as proud as I was that he finally did it on his own (and at home afterwards)!  It just fills my heart to see him want to get on the bike and ride.  SO PROUD.  Seriously proud!!Now we can go on bike-riding adventures again!

The City of Marietta opened a new section of a walking / bike trail that will eventually stretch from Kennesaw Mountain down to the Chattahoochee River.  (called the M2R Trail… Mountain to River)  Marietta Rocks was contacted (that’s me) to have a presence as the organizers wanted a lot of different kinds of artwork along the 2 mile stretch of the trail. 


Seeing that I’m not as into the rocks and my kids certainly are not, I only put out some that were painted back in January.  We placed the rocks, walked along the trail, ran into lots of neighbors and friends, checked out the murals and sculpture that was unveiled, took in music from live bands along the way and just had a lovely evening along about a mile or so of this new trail.  

Obviously, Isabella felt moved by the music at a couple of the different locations / different kinds of music playing (the one on the bricks is of a band that one of our neighbors is in and she did this funny gypsy dancing to.  Well, they played their bluesy-zydeco again and she went for the same style of dance.  She's a trip!  The artwork is supposed to be temporary, but I imagine it will be up for awhile!  There was such a great energy in our fair city that evening!     (Check out this photo of Isabella brooding by the LEGO "paintings."  How does she know how to brood?!) 

Mercer was supposed to have a bike rally along the new trail for Cub Scouts the next day, but it poured rain.  Honestly, we like the cub scout activities, but haven’t participated in as much this year as in years past.   

Maybe we can take bikes to ride the trail soon now that Mercer is feeling good on 2 wheels ?!!

Mercer did FINALLY make it to a cub scout camping trip.  He usually misses because of baseball... but convinced Todd to miss an early game so Mercer could go.  He actually has to be self-sufficient by next year if he wants to advance to Boy Scouts.  Todd took him and said it was nice (except for being cold and dodging rain)... not having to bear the brunt of the work and set-up / clean-up.  The boys are doing more and more each camping trip!  

One of the GREAT things about this trip.... he cooked (again) and now he has been interested in cooking something many weekends here at home!  He's also watching those kid cooking shows.  yay... this is a good thing!


This blog post is flowing by subject within March and April.  A couple of other things happened.... we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary in early March.  It totally snuck up on us.  Because of the ski trip, we were so focused on that - then the grant in early March... so no planning for the anniversary!  (And there are no photos of us for the anniversary - but there was nothing too photo-worthy...we just went to a cajun restaurant we like that is hard to get into on a weekend.  It was a school night and the kids were cranky + they did not like cajun so much.... wonk-wonk for a nice dinner out!)  Oh well.  We will have to GO BIG for our 25th!  (We have been wanting to go on a Mediterranean cruise.... hmmm.... think we can pull that off in 5 years from now?!  We'll have a 10 year old and a 15 year old.  Yikes!) 

Aside from his camping weekend, March and April were full of baseball practices and baseball games for Mercer and coaching for Todd.   The team he is playing on is, unfortunately, will not advance through the playoffs.  There are a lot of young players who just moved into this division and several who have not played before.  Also - Todd noticed that they seem to lack focus as a group.  

Overall, however, Mercer is doing well.  He has really hit his stride with pitching and playing 1^st base.  He’s only allowed to pitch a certain # of times each week so he straddles between the two different positions.  Unfortunately, he has had to stop pitching sometimes as his arm has been hurting him.  He’s been icing it down most nights, but… we hate to see him hurt!



They haven't won any games but again we are proud of him and his playing.  It has been fun to watch him and his natural instinct on the field!

Even though he is a little upset that he didn't win any games, he did have fun with his teammates.   The league photographer is - luckily - on our team.... so we get some nice shots from her (including this informal team photo + candid shots). 

Isabella - after seeing a girl play on Mercer's team - said that she wanted to try little league ball.  Since gymnastics and baseball would both be on Saturdays, we asked her to make a decision between the two.   Within a split second, she yelled out:  gymnastics!  (As of this writing - she is signed up for the summer session of Gymnastics.  whew!)

Mercer was playing baseball this year during the egg hunt, but he's sort of aging out of it.  Isabella was into it.  In our n'hood, we do a "progressive hunt" at multiple houses.  Isabella picked out her dress, a black band-aid for a boo boo on her knee and Disney princess winter boots. ha~

Easter fell on April 1st this year.  We did not have much luck getting the kids to smile for the camera at the same time, but here are our best shots.

We will sometimes go on a hike after church, however, a woman that we've known for a long time - the Executive Director for Keep Marietta Beautiful who says she's the "Georgia Grandma" to our kiddos - had a stroke.  She doesn't have family in town, so folks have been signing up to hang out with her.  We signed up for Easter and decided to make an Easter dinner instead of hike with a picnic.  

After church, she got to hang out with the kiddos while we cooked and then we had an egg hunt and played outside.  Of course, Todd and I were tired from cooking and cleaning and entertaining.... but she left exhausted too - saying this was "real life."  Yes... it was.  Yes... it is.  Our kiddos do have a lot of energy and take a bit of energy to keep up with!  ha~    

(Not sure where Isabella is getting this "kick-your-leg-up-for-the-photo" pose this Easter day.  Funny!)



The day before Easter, the kids went to a bowling party.  It's also funny that our kids wanted to dress up for the party - both of them!  

It was cool when the lights went down!

Here are some more outdoor shots to close out activities in March and April.... these photos are of one of our favorite places to hike -- where there is moving water and old mill ruins! Paper Mill park was especially beautiful the last weekend of April.  The colors reflected in the water were just gorgeous (pale green with deep purple undertones).  

Photos of the kids are included here of course, but I was really intrigued by the beautiful rippling water that day!!  What a relaxing hike it was playing in and splashing along the water's edge.