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Thursday, May 24, 2012

Camp Councill- Waterslide

Jack saw this waterslide in the Target ad on Sunday. He carried it around with him all day asking if we could get it. We do not have a neighborhood pool nor could we join one b/c I can't take all 3 kids by myself this year seeing how 2 of them can't swim and 1 is still a little shaky. So Clay and I debated all week. I read reviews. I asked my FB friends. It was a big investment but in the end, I think it will be money well-spent. 
After Jack's last day of school, he and I went to Target and got the waterslide! Then we went to lunch "at the place where we use chopsticks" (PF Changs) , just me and my oldest. It was a great afternoon!
SO EXCITED!!

And Camp Councill has begun! The box says "inflates in THREE minutes!" It should say "inflates in 3 minutes AFTER two hours of back breaking, sweaty work where you will use words unacceptable for small ears until your friend Sarah stops over to bring you macarons from her trip to Paris and you coerce her into helping you!" But really, it was worth it to see the joy on the kids faces!!
 Virginia Ann LOVED going down the slide!

Jack asked me if we could set up the waterslide again tomorrow. I told him we were going to a friend's house for a playdate. He said "Does he have a waterslide?"  Um no. We might have start having all the playdates at our house. I will just have to charge admission for the water bill :) Happy Summer!

Last Day of School!

How did THIS happen? Today was the last day of preschool for everyone but it was Jack's last day for forever! He is off to kindergarten!
 On Tuesday, his class performed and he was asked to lead everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance and My Country tis of Thee! I was so proud!

 Group shot of the cuties




 Mad took this one
 Jack took this one
 Virginia Ann and her teacher Ms.Sonda.
Jack and Mrs.Long
 Jack and Mrs.Falls
We had a great year. The kids' school has been one of the highlights of our new home!

40th Anniversary !!

We went to Knoxville last weekend to give my parents a 40th anniversary surprise party. It was so fun and they were very surprised!
BUT we acted like we came so we could go to the Biscuit Festival! It was AMAZING! Clay and I took Jack, Madeline and Maeve and we ate LOTS of biscuits.
 There were restaurants from all over the Southeast who had booths and you could eat biscuits at them all! Clay was in heaven! Benton's bacon teamed up with Blackberry Farms and their bacon biscuit was so yummy!
 Tupelo Honey Cafe had a pimento cheese biscuit. Clay ate two and got three to go! on our way home, we stopped in Asheville at Tupelo Honey Cafe for dinner. Well worth the wait!
 There was live music and the kids wanted to sit and watch.
 But they didn't sit long- the dancing began shortly after!
 Madeline and Jack showing Maeve their moves!
 More moves...
 Love this girl!
 Clay joined in

 Maeve's favorite was the cinnamon toast biscuit
 Jack took this shot of me , Madeline and Maeve
 And then it was party time! Mom and Dad were truly surprised. It was such a great night and so fun to have so many of their friends who have known them for 10, 20, 30 plus years!
 Me, Julia and Shannon
 The guests
 Mom feeding Dad cake :)
 The happy couple

 My wonderful family
 My mom's sister, Maureen, flew in from NY. We "hid" her at the DOnaldson's house until party time.Another fun surprise! My dad surprised my mom the weekend before (their actual anniversary) and took her to NYC. She said she couldn't handle any more surprises!
 Mom and Aunt Maureen with the Motley Crew!
We loved celebrating Mom and Dad and are so thankful for them!

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day! Spoiled by my sweet husband and kids with breakfast in bed and a wonderful scrapbook of the past year's pictures and artwork. Jack and Madeline were so excited to wake me up!

 My youngest cutie
 After church, we drove up to Winston-Salem to see CLay's grandmother Dottie. Jim and Bambi were in town for a visit too and so all got to celebrate together.




 Four generations
 Virginia Ann loves to pick flowers and give them to you
 Here she is giving one to Dottie, her great-grandmother :)
It was a great Mother's Day! I am so blessed to be a mom and to have such wonderful women in my life to learn from!

A KaBOOM! playground is coming to us!!

A long time ago, I used to build playgrounds with KaBOOM!, a non-profit that helps communities build playground in ONE day! OUr YMCA here applied for one last year and they got the good news that they are going to get a new playground! I took the kids to the Design Day where kids draw their dream playground and then those designs are used to come up with the real playground!
Virginia Ann was very excited!

 Working hard on their designs


 Jack's playground had a large tunnel!
 Madeline's had swings and a bridge!
 The Project Manager from KaBOOM!- Dan- called up some kids to share their ideas and Jack was happy to do so!
 The Whole group
 We can't wait to build our new playground!