Both kids had their last days of school this week. Sarah finished her "Fantastic 4's" preschool year, which she just adored! A few months ago I mentioned to her that next year she wouldn't be in the same class, she'd be in the "Fab 5's", probably with some of her friends but with new teachers. This news SERIOUSLY distressed her! But I guess her teachers talked more about changing classes because now she's really looking forward to being the "Fab 5's" next year.


Sarah's teachers had a conference with the parents in March just to chat about the kids and "brag on them" as they said.  Sarah is right on target of where she needs to be (and slightly ahead in some areas), but one of the things they mentioned to me (which was what I loved hearing the most) is about how kind Sarah is with all her friends.  They told me they overheard some of the girls talking about going to play at one girls house, and when Sarah realized that a friend standing there was being left out of the "invitation", she said "You can come and play at my house!"  So proud of this one!  And apparently even though she's high drama at home, she keeps it under better control at school.  Also she has done so amazing this year handling the peanut allergy thing, since quite a few times her classmates would bring in treats that wouldn't be safe for her to eat.  One of her teachers told me how proud she was of Sarah, how Sarah always had a good attitude when she couldn't eat the special treat - though I said it really helped that they (her teachers) kept a stash of Skittles in the room and would let Sarah have those instead.


Nathan had such a fantastic kindergarten year!  We have been so happy with Paideia - the teachers and staff, the small size, the things he's learned!  The other day he told me "Mom, my favorite subject is Bible.  And its the most important one!!"  During the year, multiple teachers and staff mentioned to me how impressed they were with Nathan's prayers.  He volunteered/was selected to lead the prayer in the lunch room a couple of times and apparently did a great job.  I told them that I couldn't take credit for it - he must have learned it from school!  And now that I think about it, I'm sure he had been paying close attention to the prayers of the older students and was modeling his prayers after theirs.  He's always been one to observe other kids and therefore learn from them. 


Also can I say how impressed we are with his penmanship?!  I'm not completely surprised, considering how well he's much he's always enjoyed fine motor skill work - coloring, cutting, perler beads, legos.  But I think its pretty good.


So on to summer vacation!  A few weeks ago I was worried about summer, having all three kids home every day.  But now that we're here, I'm pretty excited.  I've realized that I'm going to have HOURS added back to my days - no running all over town for school drop offs and pick ups, no pressure to get homeschool work accomplished every Tuesday and Thursday, no trying to micromanage Andrew's naps to maximize sleep time between picking up Sarah at 1:00 and leaving for Nathan's school at 2:40ish.  Plus I'm also happy for Andrew that he gets a break from all the car time as well.. he just wants to be OUTSIDE, is that too much to ask?!?  And the big kids are looking forward to the break as well.  So hooray for summer vacation!

Nathan was pretty proud of the rainforest habitat project he made for school last week.  Lets take a closer look...



I especially love the toucan he drew and then colored with great accuracy.  If you can't read them, here are the labeled parts of his shadow box: (starting on the left) monkey, banana tree, heliconia (red flowering plant), Amazon water lily (on the base), rain, rubber tree, toucan, waterfall, butterfly, dragonfly, snake.

His last day of kindergarten is next week.  My this year has flown by!!

Brian had a week of vacation in mid-April, which turned into a week of projects like all our vacations tend to do.  We actually started out the week with a terrible cold that Brian caught and then passed along to Andrew and me.  So part of our vacation time was just spent recuperating from our sickness and also trying to catch up on sleep since Andrew was sleeping poorly because he was both sick and teething (8 total now!).  But on the project front, we manually removed sod from part of the yard and laid in down in another spot, as Brian helped me expand a flower bed at the front of the house.  For fun (since the Olds is currently out of commission) Brian took the kids on lots of tractor rides around the neighborhood.  I had mentioned to Brian that I'd like to try to squeeze in a day at the mountains during his time off, but the week flew by and we never had a good day.  So I was surprised that the next week Brian proposed a mountain trip on one of his post-call days.  The weather was supposed to be beautiful so we decided to give it a shot.  After calls to all the grandparents with last minute invitations, Granddad and Nana were able to join us for our outing.

As usual, we drive up to the Metcalf Bottoms picnic area to play by the stream and have a picnic lunch.  The water was still very cold so with the exception of some wet feet we mostly stayed out of the water.


Andrew spent lots of time scooping with his spoon and stirring in his little jar while Brian spent lots of time watering everyone's feet with the chilly stream water.


Nana and Nathan worked on an excavation project to connect two small pool on our rocky beach.


And Sarah spent lots of time building a "castle" out of rocks, complete with windows and doors and decorations.  


Andrew really liked the stream, but also enjoyed darting here, there, and yonder trying to dodge the adults and tromp through the poison ivy that was growing prolifically around our picnic sight.  And although Andrew took a tumble right onto a few small plants, thankfully he and the rest of us avoided getting a rash. 


And, of course, we took our traditional family picture at the stump.


Grandmother had previously recommended that we do the hike to Little Greenbriar Schoolhouse, so for the first time we decided to give it a try.  It was quite an adventure - hiking up and down mountains, not sure we were going the right way, alternating between letting Andrew walk and passing him between the adults to carry.  The big kids did great almost the whole time (which could partially due to my promise of chocolate chips to kids who had good attitudes!).  Then right before we were about to give up and admit we had made a wrong turn, we made it to the schoolhouse!! Unfortunately a guide was giving a history talk in the schoolhouse so the kids did not have a chance to play in it, so after a short rest we headed back down the trail towards the cars.

I didn't take any pictures on the hike, but Nana got this cute one of Sarah on one of the log bridges we crossed.  


Crossing the stream back to the parking area...


So all in all, a fun and exhausting day in the mountains!