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!

When You DON'T Want Your Kid to Resemble You

For those who know me for more than five minutes, there is a realization that I'm accident prone.  People get wary when I'm around sharp objects, walk down stairs, get out of bed for the day . . .

Well, after being around Liam for the last 4 years, I have to say . . . the poor kid takes after his mom. He ends up visiting the doctor with crazy maladies a little more frequently than a mom would like.

In his short life he has had surgery for an inguinal hernia that didn't heal itself (14 months old), he has been going to the optometrist for a year and a half watching his lazy eye (hopefully patching will help him avoid another surgery), he has been in speech therapy for almost 2 years, and most recently had tubes put in his ears so fluid would drain and he could hear sounds again.

Our newest and most like mom injury started last week.  Came home from dropping off Graeme and Liam headed inside while I grabbed the mail.  In the two seconds delay I was behind him, he managed to either get bitten by something or stub his toe badly (still not sure).  We watched it, and while discoloration went away and he walked fine on it by the end of the day, the swelling was still around a week later.  

Since we had his four year old check up today (where he was in the 82nd percentile for height), we asked the doctor what his thoughts were and sure enough we ended going for x-rays.  Praise that there were no broken or dislocated bones in his foot or with his little toe, just tissue swelling.  

Liam did a fantastic job getting his x-rays and has been a real trooper through each development.  Praying that he doesn't make ER visits in multiple states, stitches, and injury a running joke with friends quite like his mom but at least I can really understand where he is coming from as he goes through each adventure.

Summer Fun Begins!

So I was not a great blogger in May.  Part of that was that we stayed busy and part is that I'm trying to lead by example for the kids with a little bit less time spent on technology every day.  By the time the day was over, I truly just wanted to hang out with Mike and the kids or curl up with a good book.


Some updates-Liam successfully passed his audiology test (hearing check) on Tuesday!  The tubes have done wonders and my little man is making progress.  Now, we are ready for next week and another round of evaluations in the process of getting him some extra help!

Also, Mike had a good trip up to Halifax, Nova Scotia for work where he got to hang out in a lovely house, work with friends, and eat lots of good food! His next trip at the end of this month will be back to San Francisco.  

Graeme graduated preschool from Meadowland and was one of few kids who chose something besides firefighter for their future profession.  My fella wants to be a train conductor!  He was sweet and it was a great day for him.

Liam and I both got a year older and Mike and I celebrated another anniversary.  Liam is 4 and Mike and I have been married 7 years!  As for me, I'm proud of the 37 years survived and thrived so far.


So now that Liam is done with preschool for a bit and Graeme is just down to Wake County pre-k, we have a little more time on our hands that we get to choose how we run around.  We are playing with friends, splashing in water to keep cool, and as of today we are starting Fun Fridays. 

Fridays are completely our own with no pre-k, no speech therapy and no other scheduled appointments, so I'm planning to make some kind of outing/adventure with the boys each week through June and July before Graeme starts kindergarten. 

Today was our first outing and it was a hit!  We went to downtown Raleigh to the Marbles Kids Museum where the boys played pirates, helped fill a giant piggy bank, showed me the new Kid Grid play area and had a blast "exercising".  Afterward, we checked out a cool sandcastle in the middle of Acorn park downtown and then we went to the second run movie and watched Mr Peabody & Sherman.  The boys were great and it was a fun day of adventure.  Looking forward to trips to the zoo, aquarium, hiking and whatever other kind of fun we can find!