Wishful thinking... snowball fight!

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Happy Halloween!

Happy Post-Halloween everyone! Here's some photos of our little Disney "princesses". As you can (hopefully) see, McKenna went as the Little Mermaid, Ariel, and Molly went as Tinkerbell, in keeping with her love of all things Peter Pan.

Our trick-or-treating got off to a not-so-great-start last evening... We were coming home from our church meal and decided to "quickly" stop off to say hi to our friends, the Pedersens (of Andrew fame). Turns out it wasn't a quick drop-by. Ron and the kids decided to trick-or-treat with the Pedersens, and I was going to head home to hand out candy in our neighborhood. Well, as I hopped in the car and prepared to be off, the car wouldn't start. So, here we were with 2 very excited children, geared up to go door to door with their friends (amid the sheer mob of children in this very well-to-do neighborhood) and Ron and I are stuck trying to jump the car... all to no avail. And still it sits outside our friend's home this very minute.

Despite our car trouble, and me not being able to go home and hand out candy (which I had a big guilt complex over... we never wanted to be THAT kind of house on Halloween!) we did end up having a nice time trick-or-treating with our friends. Though, admittedly, it was a bit hard to shake the feeling that we were the "poor" neighbors who bussed ourselves in to take advantage of the "better" treats in this extremely nice neighborhood. :-) Oh well. I guess it's one for the books... or at least the blog.

Fall in the Mountains

This past Sunday through Tuesday, we travelled up to Bear Den Campground on the Blue Ridge Parkway and met Ron's folks. We all enjoyed being together in our rustic cabin and getting to visit with one another. We also enjoyed the gorgeous fall color the mountains offered on the parkway.
Of course there is going to be hiking when Ron is involved, and these photos are from the hike we took to see Linville Falls, in the Linville Gorge area. The sky was robin's egg blue, the air was crisp, and the reds, yellows and oranges of the leaves were simply beautiful. It was a wonderful, relaxing couple of days, and we all came home refreshed and ready to take on Halloween! More on Halloween to come...

Pumpkins... Before and After

Last weekend we took the girls to a farm to pick out their pumpkins. The farm is actually a Christian theraputic riding farm, and they offer pony rides, games, a story trail, treasure hunt, face painting, in addition to a "pumpkin patch" from which to select your pumpkin. Basically, it is just tons of fun, and this was our second year going. We thought you may enjoy seeing the girls with their pumpkins... pre and post-carving.

Crop Walk

Last weekend our family joined with several members of our church to participate in the annual Crop Walk, which helps raise money for the poor both locally and throughout the world. McKenna is entering an annual contest called "Reflections" this year through school. The theme for this year is "How I can make a difference..." We thought this would be a great opportunity, so she grabbed her camera (she is entering the photo portion of the contest) and snapped away during the walk. Below are some of the photos she took.

By Popular Demand... the "Rat Hamster"!

This is for you, Dad! See how big your former backyard-squatter has grown?! McKenna loves this "little" guy. We never dreamed Flower would get so big! She really needs a new cage. Anyway, as you can see, she is alive and well. :-)

Walking With Dinosaurs

Last evening, we had the privilege of going to see Walking with Dinosaurs, the Live Experience. Originally, McKenna and I were just going to go ourselves, as the cost for 4 people was prohibitive, and as well, Molly took one look at the ad for the show on the internet and promptly requested a babysitter. However, a friend of ours who knew we were going to the show had received 4 free tickets from her place of business. Her husband and daughter had no interest in going, so she offered to swap her 4 tickets for our 2. We accepted her kind offer and started preparing Molly for the show. We needn't have worried, as she did great!
The show was simply incredible, very much on par with the kind of quality you would expect to find at Disney World. McKenna was in dino-heaven, and we all came away from the experience in awe of the scale and magnitude of these incredible creatures. (Not to mention the artists and others who produced this spectacular show). Here's some photos from the show. They give you a good idea of the scale of the dinosaurs and quality of the production. Enjoy!

Like Father, like daughter

It seems like not a day goes by that I don't hear some form of the exclamation, "OH MY! McKenna looks just exactly like a clone of her daddy!" And, indeed, one of the first sentences uttered from Ron's mouth upon seeing his seconds-old firstborn was, "Oh no! She looks like me!"

Yes, there is no denying the strong resemblance between this Daddy's-girl and her Daddy. And just to prove how much Ron is wrapped around McKenna's pinkie finger, here's a photo I couldn't resist posting of McKenna and Ron at a picnic our church had at the UM Children's home last Sunday, which included, among other things, face painting. Only his daughter could convince Ron to get a pink butterfly painted on his cheek. Now that is proof of the strong father-daughter bond right there, folks!

Happy Campers

This weekend we camped with 2 other families from our Sunday school class at Stone Mountain State Park. The weather was perfect... warm during the day and cool at night. Crystal blue skies meeting the still-green mountains. See for yourself! Here are the more 'hardy' folks who hiked to the top of Stone Mtn.

Despite the cooler mountain temps, Ron and McKenna took a quick (and fridgid) dip down the natural slide (seen in an earlier post) into the pool below.

Yes, we were actually THIS CLOSE to this beautful doe!

Relaxing around the campfire.
Mommy reading to the girls after breakfast. (A book about guinea pigs, ofcourse!)

The view from our campsite.

Ron was afforded the extremely rare Sunday off! We all gathered at our site for a short little Sunday morning devotional.
Happy Campers.

Molly's "Magnificat"

"From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise...." Psalm 8:2

I can't decipher everything she said, but here's a loose translation:

"He saves us from our sins/He never/ ?????/ God is great He saves us from our sins/God is great He saves us from our sins/The sun! The moon! And the earth!/But we see ?????/ When you see the beginning of fall/ In the fall! In the fall! In the easter/And He made all the people/ He made you too, and me!"

I'll huff and I'll puff...

There's nothing like a large box to get the imaginations of children kick-started. Throw in some markers, glue and scissors and anything is possible. Here is a photo of McKenna, Molly and neighbor, Noah, showing off their "Home Sweet Home", as McKenna wrote on the front of the box.

Bring a mischievous Daddy into the picture and then the fun really starts! One guess who played the part of the Big Bad Wolf, and elicited squeals of delight from the Three Little Pigs as he huffed, puffed, and chased them around their "house"!

Rite of Passage

Today Molly and McKenna embarked upon a rite of passage of girlhood: dance lessons. They had their very first lesson in tap and ballet at a local Community Center this evening. Joined by 4 other girls, MnM were introduced to the "boogie-woogie", "shuffle", "first postion", and "fifth position" by their very kind teacher, Miss Luci.

Myself and 2 other proud moms watched our little leotard-clad girls as they carefully followed their teacher's instructions, and gamely imitated her steps. It was simply precious to behold!

So You Think You Can Dance...

Sometimes words just aren't necessary. Enjoy!

Molly's First Day!

Molly had her very first day of 4 year old preschool yesterday. She, in typical sweet-Molly fashion, picked some of the flowers (seen behind her in the photo) to give to each of her teachers.

Here's Molly to tell you of her first day at school:

"Hello everybody! This was my first day of school. There was a lot of toys there. There's cars what go way down a mountain. And there was big stompin' dinosaurs. There was tracks with trains. We played on the playground. I made a new friend. First we goed to music, then we goed on the playground. After we goed on the playground we learned "A". My teachers are named Mrs. P and Mrs. Elledge. They are nice."

As you can see, Molly had a wonderful day, and we are anticipating a great year in preparation for Kindergarten.

Labor Day With A Splash!

This past Monday we celebrated Labor Day by going to a wonderful pool in Greensboro. It was likely the last swim we'd enjoy until next summer, much to our girls' chagrin. It is so great watching how far our little swimmers have come in just a short season.

Well, they say pictures are worth a thousand words, so enjoy the 3000+ below!

And Now a Word From Molly...

With all the attention McKenna is getting being a new first grader, I think Molls was feeling a bit left out. So, to demonstrate the new video capabilities of Blogger, Molly volunteered to post a little video. And here to tell you about it is none other than Molly, herself: "I have a song for you. It's called Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. I love you all and I miss you. Love, Molly."

Portrait of a First Grader

What a difference a year makes! Last year at this time, Ron and I had a very reluctant kindergartener on our hands. We literally had to bodily remove the child from our car and carry her crying to her classroom. Not exactly the morning I had envisioned of snapping first day of school photos and watching my 5 year old bound off happily into her classroom.

But this year... oh this year! Ron and I had a, dare I say it, eager, happy first-born first-grader! What a joy to be able to snap first-day-of-first-grade photos! What a wonder to walk a happy child down the hall to her classroom! What a blessing to be able to plant a kiss good-by atop her head, knowing she was glad to be in school and under the tutelage of warm teachers. Yes, what a difference a year makes!

Ron and I only had one real concern this morning as we pulled out of the school parking lot. McKenna was placed at the end desk in a configuration of 8 desks making up a rectangle. To her right sat a boy from her kindergarten class who was a known trouble-maker, and the desk across from her was unoccupied. McKenna had mentioned to me on Friday that she was a bit concerned about having to sit next to this boy, and I was ready to give her teacher a call and ask her to move McKenna to another spot. On further discussion, McKenna agreed to give her seating assignment a try for a few days, and if it wasn't working out, I would contact her teacher. Well, as Ron and I drove down the road toward home, we offered up a prayer for McKenna's first day, and asked that the Lord would work out the seating situation.

WELL! Come this afternoon as a brightly smiling 6 year old clambered into my car in the pick-up line, I could see that she had had a wonderful day. After telling me how much she liked her teachers ("Mrs. Guidara is nice, but the assistant Mrs. Jones is really, REALLY nice") and what a great day she had, I broached the subject of how sitting next to her old classmate went. She replied that it wasn't bad, because she got moved to a new desk. Turns out there was a little left-handed girl who was having trouble writing, as she was cramped, so McKenna's teacher had her swap desks with McKenna! She is now smack-dab between 2 nice boys and across from a girl from her kindergarten class!

What a comfort to know that even when we can't be with McKenna and "micro-manage" details of her life (which we really shouldn't anyway), her Heavenly Father is watching over her and caring for her in ways big and small. Even down to where she sits!

Around the dinner table, there were no tears, as last year, about not wanting to return to school tomorrow. Just happily recounted details of a fun first-day back at school. Yes, a year can make all the difference.

Farewell, Summer...

It is hard to believe that this is the final weekend of summer vacation. Come Monday, McKenna will be a first grader, and thus will begin the routine and rhythm of school. It takes a bit to slip from the lazy, unstructured days of summer into the very structured days of school, homework and extracurricular activites.

Overall, we had a wonderful summer. Sure, there were highs and lows... times when the girls seemed to constantly butt heads and others when they delighted in each other's company. Times of travel and times of going stir crazy in the house because it is just too hot to venture outside. When asked what their most favorite thing about summer break was, both girls reply that being with their family was the best part of summer. That is music to these parents' ears! We know time passes all too quickly, and sooner than we care to acknowledge, they will be wanting to be with friends rather than mom or dad. But for now, we cherish these times and it is with mixed feelings that we say farewell to summer, and prepare to embrace what this year will hold with our pre-K and first grade girls.

Last Hurrah

This past Thursday through Saturday afternoon we had our "last hurrah" before school starts... a camping trip to Hanging Rock State Park, with 3 other families from our Sunday school class. Despite the sweltering heat (upper nineties on Thursday) we all had a very enjoyable time. Here to tell you about the trip in her own words is McKenna:

"Well, my favorite part was playing with my friends. It was a fun camping trip and my church friends were there. It was fun, the thing is, only 3 girls were there, including me. I also swam in a nice and warm lake. It was fun. I learned how to do the backstroke and I swum very far. And we ate 'smores, went to go look through telescopes and we talked and played with friends."

Molly would like to add:

"We ate s'mores and we looked through telescopes to see the moon. And I talked and played games with friends. We goed to a really pretty waterfall and we swam there. We walked there. We slept in a tent. And we looked for deers. And we saw the stars. We saw flowers and ladybugs. We ate healthy stuff. I played with Ella and Ryan and Erick and McKenna. We ate ice cream and goed swimming in a warm lake. That's all I'm going to say. We had fun."

We arrived at the campgrounds Thursday afternoon and set up camp. It was so blazing hot that we decided to go take a dip at a nearby waterfall when we were done setting up. To our surprise and delight, we had the pool at the base of the falls all to ourselves. It was such heaven to cool off in the cold water and listen to the sounds of the waterfall in the background. We returned to camp refreshed and ready to get down to the serious business of s'more-making that evening.

We had never camped with several families before, and it has got to be said, that that is definitely the way to go. The girls, though initially shy (what else is new) warmed up quickly to the other children that were there, and had a great time running around (literally) with them. Ron and I enjoyed getting to relax and have "grown-up" conversation with our friends. As my mother-in-law would say, "Maybe Hillary was right after all, it DOES take a village!" It sure was nice having a "village" in this case!

Friday morning we had a short rain shower that really helped cool things down. The 4 of us huddled in the "living room" portion of our sizable tent and ate breakfast and relaxed while waiting for the much needed rain to pass. That afternoon all the families went to the lake for a swim. The water was a comfortable temperature and the roped-off part designated for swimming was sand-bottomed. The girls loved swimming out in the lake, and McKenna became quite a pro at the backstroke, swimming from the shallow end, all the way out to the ropes in the deep end (accompained, ofcourse). Molly had fun practicing swimming too, and when she tired of swimming, she resorted to building sand castles.

That evening we took the girls over to the visitor center to look through some telescopes, as they had amateur astronomers there that evening. It was a beautiful, clear night, and we got to see the moon, as Molly told you, as well as Jupiter and 4 of it's moons. One of the telescopes there was so powerful, you could see some of the bands on Jupiter. It was amazing and brought back memories of when I was little girl and got my first glimpse through an enormous telescope. Hopefully the girls felt that same sense of wonder and awe that I felt all those years back.

Saturday, the kids all played while we packed up (again, a wonderful part of camping with a "village" of friends... usually breaking camp is the worst part of the trip as the girls are bored out of their gourds and are constantly getting underfoot). Despite the heat, we all had a great time on the trip, and it was such a nice way to bring summer to a close. And it should be said, there is already talk of a fall trip... we'll keep you posted!

And btw, in the interest of full-disclosure, the photos with this post are not from this trip (as you can probably tell from the clothes) the one of the tent was taken in Blowing Rock but at least gives you a basic idea of our "living conditions". And the one of the waterfall is in fact the waterfall we swam at, but was taken in Autumn. Obviously, I fogot my camera and left it at home.

A Taste of Summer

It's been a few days since we've posted last. After the fun day at the river, it's pretty much been business as usual around here. So, as I cast about for a photo to share, I remembered the pictures I took of the girls after taking them to a U-pick blueberry place just 10 minutes from our house. This photo shows not even 1/3 of the gallon of blueberries we picked that morning, a few weeks back. The blueberries have since found their way into pancakes and breakfast cereal, as well as the freezer, so come winter, we can enjoy a rare taste of summer.

On a different topic, the girls and their next-door-neighbor, Lainey, went to VBS at the church behind our house last night. We had mentioned it in passing to them when we received an invitation to VBS in the mail, and noticed that they were doing the same curriculum as our church did. Ron and I didn't expect our bashful children to want to attend, but after giving it some thought, much to our surprise, they decided to give it a try! And even more to our astonishment, when Ron went to pick the girls up last night, they were right up in the front, leading all the other children in the dance to "Lift Off" (the theme song of the week)!!! They had a great time and are anxious to go again tonight. Which suits Ron and I just fine, as we'll be taking advantage of the 3 kid-free hours this affords us to go out for a quiet dinner. A rare treat!

We'll be taking some time off from the blog for the next few days as we are preparing for our last hurrah of the summer... a 2 day camping trip with folks from our Sunday school class. So expect our next post to be filled with the smells of campfire and the taste of 'smores!

A Day At The River

Yesterday we fled the heat here in town and headed to the somewhat cooler air of the mountains. Stone Mountain State Park, to be exact. One of our favorite places to go camping if we have the time, or else if camping is not practical, we just go there for the day to play in the river, which is what we did yesterday. We had a wonderful time as a family wading in the river, catching crawdads (or river lobsters as the girls call them), trout and water spiders, spying a watersnake (McKenna saw him first and calmly pointed him out to her Daddy), relaxing in a hammock while dipping our feet in the river's refreshing coolness, and then later going to a different area of the park to slide down the natural waterslide into a cool mountain pool below (Molls wasn't a big fan as you'll see in a photo below). We topped off the trip with some icecream on the way home. All in all, a day well spent basking in family togtherness, and enjoying the beauty of "God's creation"(as Molly aptly put it).