We Didn't Go to the Zoo, But I Still Spent the Day with Wild Animals

So it's been a pretty big week in the Hale house.  Much of it involves starting or getting ready to start new schools.

Liam has been given his pre-school assignment for next year.  Unfortunately, there wasn't an option to be at the same school as Graeme so we chose a traditional calendar school less than a mile away so they will be on a similar schedule and I can get both of them to and from school without too much craziness (or so we hope).


Then, on Thursday, Graeme started kindergarten!!!!!  How my children got old enough to be doing things like starting his academic career is beyond me, but there it is.  Graeme is 5 going on 6 and excited to be at his new school.  With the staggered entry system they have for kindergarten, he only went on Thursday this week and then will start "full-time" next week.  

He had a really good first day but I think with it being really long and lots happening, he was very emotional at carpool pick up (he had left his hat in class-we parked and went back for it).  After an Oreo cookie and driving about 10 seconds he calmed down and told me he had fun.  We headed home for a break and Wizard of Oz (we read the book first before I finally let him see it earlier this week).  Then after dinner, we sat down together and did some homework.  I want to get him used to having it and I need to find what time works best for him to have a break but also not put it off too long (hopefully we will start good habits now).

The big plan was to wrap up this crazy week with a fun trip to the zoo on Friday.  Alas, this was not to be.  Temperature wise, it looked perfect, we have been unseasonably cool this whole week in the 70s and 80s. But while most days bring afternoon storms, today's forecast was heavy rain all day in Asheboro.  Time to come up with plan B.

After sleeping in and playing for a nice chunk of the morning.  The boys had one of their best play together mornings which was a really lovely start to my morning.  For Mike, a wonderful moment came when Graeme was being a doctor and telling him that he needed more bed-rest so he would feel better.  Mike fully agreed and stayed in bed for a bit longer while I got up to make him Doctor Graeme's recommended coffee medicine.

The weather held the threat of rain at any moment, but it was so nice and cool that I decided our adventure for today would be doing a couple of different outdoor parks until the rain actually fell.  Our first stop was near the house at Jones Park Playground.  The boys had much fun running around, getting their energy out.  Liam was quite the little monkey and took to climbing the rope ladder to a rope "web" up top and then having me help him get down to do it all over again.  Graeme was being a scarecrow (his favorite character from the Wizard of Oz) and checking out all the different areas.  

As it started to get a little more crowded, we moved on.  Our next outdoor park was the outdoor art at the NC Art Museum.  For Graeme, it was a walk down the yellow brick road to find the Emerald City and the Wizard of Oz.  For Liam, it was a nice place to bring his ball (he never threw it, just carried) and check out some fun outdoor art.

We did go inside for a bathroom break and a quick walk around some indoor art.  The boys really loved one exhibit that projected them onto a canvas and made them into art :-).  

We then headed over toward the Rodin outdoor garden and some more fun outdoor art.  Graeme thinks that one looks like a tornado so he took pictures of me "panicking" in front of it.  I love the Rodin sculptures and the lily pond, it is a favorite place for me at the art museum.  Sadly, Liam does not share my appreciation of the beauty of nature and art, he instead was drawn to the pebbles and rocks lining the lily pond and I had to keep him from tossing them into the water.  Needless to say, we didn't spend much time enjoying the day there before we needed to move on.

After finishing our outdoor art exploration, we headed over to the mall for some frozen yogurt and a couple of mall rides to finish out our adventures.  As we headed home, we drove right into the wild and crazy weather and so now we are home cleaning up from the crazy morning and trying not to drive one another completely nuts.  

Nature Camp and Pirate Day

For most parents, summer camp is an easy decision.  Not so much when your kid has special needs and you just aren't sure how much of a distraction he will be for the class.  I want him to participate and have fun, but I also don't want my choices making other kids (including my older child) have less of an experience.  This is a hard choice and as a parent of a child with some special needs, I have to weigh in on taking chances for him and not putting him in places where he is just not ready and people don't know how to help him.

We took the risk.

I have to give huge kudos to the instructor and her volunteer helpers for giving my kids a wonderful week in camp.  Graeme had so much fun with all of the activities and adventures and they saw Liam engaging and participating more each day.  They worked with his strengths and when needed, took him for a short walk before jumping right back into the regular class activity.  

I was around for 3 out of the 4 days while the boys were in camp so that if it wasn't working, I could take Liam and Graeme could finish out the day.  Liam finished each day stronger and the one day that I did have him just a few minutes early he was telling me, "go, go, go" the whole time that he needed to be back in class.

Since their final day was also a speech therapy day, we had a long day out by using the time between for some lunch and a cool play area.  So as our "fun Friday" rolled around, I debated about our day.  Liam had a home observation visit (which went well and we are ready to talk options for preschool for him next week) mid-morning so going somewhere "big" wasn't happening this week.  Since our week had been quite busy, we went with staying home and playing pirates!

Graeme got new pirate sheets for his bed (aka his pirate ship) and so the boys started the morning with an epic pirate sword duel on the ship.  Liam mutinied and took over, so Graeme forced him to walk the plank (ok, I picked him up and moved him off the bed).  

Next on our agenda, Graeme and I made a pirate themed collage that we are going to frame and hang in his room.  He had fun spreading the sand, "painting" on the mod-podge, or fog as he called it, and helping me hot glue on the doubloons and shells.  We are waiting for the final layer of mod-podge to dry but we like the results.  

Of course, we threw in some Pirate Fairy and Captain Hook and Graeme has grabbed our copy of Peter Pan and is "reading" it as reference material (we also truly started reading the Wizard of Oz together this morning :-).  He has built a massive Lego Jolly Roger and has been dressed as Captain Peg Leg Jack for the entire day.  

Looking forward to another week of adventures in parenting with the boys next week.

Clams, Boats, Pirates and a Few Fish

Liam had to be reminded that not everyone likes to be covered in mud quite like he does

It is always nice to visit Papa Witt and the Melby cousins, but especially so during the summer.  Last week ended up being not so much a fun Friday as a fun weekend.  We headed down on Friday and arrived in time for some yummy fried fish and shrimp with Papa Witt.  

Neal and Sarah

We also got to tour the nearly finished new house of my sister and her family next door to Papa Witt.  Graeme and Liam especially liked to "tunnel" closet of Neal's room (long closet with two separate doors they could pop out of).  The kids all had a blast jumping on the trampoline, riding the golf cart, and just chilling with the Melby zoo.

We also got to join the cousins for the final night of a pirate-themed vacation Bible school at church.  Liam ended up napping through it, but Graeme enjoyed learning from Captain Tunabreath and receiving his own pirate name-Peg Leg Jack.  

On Saturday, we weathered a downpour when we first headed out to play in the sound.  The kids enjoyed using the time to run around in the rain and have a full out water gun battle.  Adults were not safe but viciously attacked though unarmed.  It was a blast.

After lunch, we tried again to play in the sound and have a grand time digging in the sand and swimming around.  Aunt June and Uncle Barry then offered to take us over to the cut bank for some clamming and fishing.  Graeme enjoyed taking on the role of boat captain and though a little unsure of the water (I think it was the seaweed), did a great job keeping us all in line from the boat (even sang a little pirate's life for me jingle)

Liam enjoyed the ride though we had to keep an eye on him once we stopped the boat and Uncle Barry, Mike and Lucy started fishing.  He wanted to start the boat and get going again so I mixed taking pictures with letting him be distracted with Angry Birds on the phone.  Once the fishing was done (we had more fish than we expected since we pulled the net on something of a whim) and the clamming began, Liam had no problems diving in and swimming around.  We had to make sure he didn't toss too much seaweed on board, but he took to the water like a little fish.

We had a wonderful weekend hanging with the family. On Monday night we enjoyed our own fish fry and clam bake (okay, Mike and I did) with the wonderful bounty of our adventures.  

Next adventure-a week of Nature Nymphs summer mini camp for the boys!

Sarah matching her lips to the curve of the clam

July with a Bang (or really just a lot of riding escalators)

This post will have nothing at all to do with fireworks!

It has been not quite a week into the month of July but we have been busy, though not always in quite the way we expected.  The month started with Groupon and a trip to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh.

A friend of mine told me about a local Groupon deal and then asked if we wanted to join her and her kids at the museum on Tuesday.  The Groupon got us in to the Rainforest Maze special exhibit.  While we didn't learn quite as much as the exhibit shared, the kids had a blast (a note here-if the exhibit warns you that this may take 30-45 minutes, that means 15-20 minutes with children under the age of 5).

There was a cool magnetic migration maze for the kids to play with just as we entered and questions guided us to the right path through the maze.  On the journey we found monkey bars, spider webs, a jungle of ropes, a zip line, a box to check out the cool smells of things that come from the rainforest (like chocolate and vanilla) and several other neat interactive activities before we got out of the maze.

We then headed up to the top floor to grab snacks and check out the dinosaurs and the butterfly room. As we headed back down, the kids enjoyed more of the dinosaurs, but probably the favorite of all was the escalator.


Wednesday was a quiet recovery day at the house and then a mostly quiet Thursday.  However the weather of Thursday changed our plans for the weekend.  Instead of getting ready for a trip to the coast to celebrate the 4th, we were avoiding the hassle from Hurricane Arthur.  (Thankfully, nothing big happened with Arthur for my family just a lot of water and picking up things thrown about by the wind.)  The boys and I went over to the mall to check out the Lego store and Disney store and pick up our monthly free piece of chocolate from the Godiva store, and of course riding the escalator as much as possible.  At the Lego store, Graeme picked out his first big kid watch - Darth Vader, so while I finished the day with a yoga class, the boys watched Empire Strikes Back and Graeme put on his Darth Vader jammies.

He then proceeded to refuse to take them off for most of July 4th.  We slept in, then headed over to play at a nearby park.  After coming back to the house, I worked on some projects and a jigsaw puzzle while Mike and the boys headed out to an enclosed park where they also have a water zone.  At this park, Graeme finally admitted to being hot (it was in the 90s) and changed into shorts and a t-shirt.

They arrived home soaking wet and so headed straight to the backyard to play in the sprinkler while Mike and I grilled out and fixed dinner.  As it got dark and we started hearing the fireworks go off, we headed outside to see if we could see anything.  Sadly, since they have moved from Womble Park to Sugg Farm Park we can no longer watch the fireworks from the comfort of our screened in porch.

Saturday took Graeme and I back to the mall for some mother/son time.  They were having an event at the Disney store for the upcoming Planes movie and thought we would check it out.  It was really for younger kids and Graeme wasn't interested so we window shopped, rode the escalator and redeemed our Chick-fil-A card for a free milkshake.  Graeme's highlights were eating the ice cream in the ice cream truck ride of the kids play area and again riding the escalator.

Sunday, there were no escalators but we did head out to ride the noon Amtrak train to Durham for an adventure in downtown.  Every July, Durham and Chapel Hill (and Raleigh used to) sponsor a Where's Waldo hunt in some of the local shops.  We thought we would try this out for a couple of hours.  There was a slight problem in that it really isn't meant as a walking thing and many of the stores were closed on Sunday.  We did find one Waldo and may drive back some rainy days and hit the other section of towns to find more.  We did go to a yummy ice cream parlor and the boys LOVED riding the train.

Looking forward to many more adventures with my fellas this month!

My Double Graduate

The Graduate

Graeme is now officially a dual pre-school graduate.  He received his "diploma" of completion from West Lake Elementary School today in sweet pomp and friendly circumstances.  I am very proud of the progress he has made and the work he has put in this past year preparing to make the jump into the world of youthful academia.  

He and 5 other friends got decked out in their mortar board hats and then were presented with their diplomas and a little yearbook from their wonderful teacher, Ms. Sarah. Afterward there was a quick "reception" of cupcakes, cookies, and juice.  

Now Graeme is officially a kindergartener! (And maybe this is an indicator that he will follow in mommy's footsteps and get two degrees?)

Graeme, Maddie and Oscar (two of his favorite friends) 

Graeme and his fellow graduates

Graeme and Ms. Sarah as he gets his diploma

Professor Von Graduate

Liam actually did pretty well during the ceremony but let me know when he was ready to leave by trying to run out of the room

Posing in his brother's cap

They are now kindergarteners!

Cupcake (icing) time!

In case you forgot I had a blue cupcake, check out my smile

Liam also like the icing

Ready for the Academic World

Hey teachers, guess who's coming next ?!?! :-)

Fun Friday-Fossil Style

For our latest Fun Friday of Summer Adventure we left the house early (7 a.m. is crack of dawn for the Hale family) and headed toward Aurora, NC.  I took the boys straight from their beds, still in their jammies and loaded up the van for the 2 1/2 hour trip east.  They boys were great travelers and not at all grumpy (of course, it helps to have bears and blankets to help adjust as they woke up).    A cooler with chocolate milk bottles and granola bars for breakfast also works well for the boys.  

So why the "long" journey to Aurora?  It is home to the Aurora Fossil Museum (http://www.aurorafossilmuseum.com) where you can check out different fossils and Native American artifacts and then head outside to dig in fossil piles for shark teeth, ray plates, fish bones, sea urchin spines and many other marine fossils. They also have a large fake megalodon shark that you can take your picture "inside".  Look closely and you can see Graeme eaten by this granddaddy of all sharks!

We would have spent more time inside the museum but unfortunately we picked a day that a Craven County summer program also chose to come.  It was just a little crowded for us to be able to enjoy the tiny museum so we headed out to the fossil piles to dig.

Another really cool thing about the Aurora Fossil Museum is that they allow you to take some of the fossil dirt with you.  With my little helpers, we loaded up a couple of small garden carts to deliver to Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve where I still work part-time and a tote for our pile at home.  Instead of a sand box, we have filled ours with fossil dirt so that you can play, dig and discover fossils as well.  

It was a beautiful and cool morning with the fossils.  Liam loved digging and finding the "big" rocks.  Graeme was an intrepid explorer out to conquer mountains (though it was warm enough that he quickly shed his explorer jacket ;-).  It was fantastic fun with fossils!