Walk on the Wild Side

Well the last few weeks have been an adventure for the Hales!  Just not exactly one we ever want to repeat again.  Not long after my last post, I discovered (quite painfully) that I had gallstones.  So on July 7th, I ended up having my gallbladder removed.  Needless to say last week there was not much happening around the Hale house as I rested and recovered from outpatient surgery.  Blessed by lots of prayers and with a good recovery and great friends bringing us meals, I am much more mobile and getting more active everyday and we were able to have some fun adventures this week.

For Liam, he once again ventured into the world of Nature Nymphs Mini Camp at Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve where he learned about animal babies!  Ms. Angela was amazing as always and he had fun everyday and today even brought home a plant for us to put outside to attract caterpillars and watch them go through metamorphosis and become a butterfly (I will try to take pictures of what happens and may even have the makings of a later post . . .)

For Graeme and I, we spent our time together the first two days running errands, reading and looking for dinosaurs in the mall (okay, just at the Lego Store).  The final two days we decided to go out nature adventuring ourselves in the preserve.  Each day we took a different trail and a different type of nature adventure as you will see!

Our first day's theme became "Fungus Among Us".  We hiked the trail that took us down the bluffs and into the floodplains of the preserve.  We saw young toadlets hopping, yellow-spotted millipedes were everywhere and the mushrooms and fungi were in full force.

This picture is to show a little scale to how big some of the mushrooms are growing!

Stinkhorn (one of my favorites :-)

After having a good time with on the trail with a fun"gi", We picked up Liam and had a picnic at the new tables on the new children's nature trail.  The boys of course had to play after we were done!

You might be able to guess from Graeme's shirt what our second day of adventures was going to be all about.  Yes, we took the boys' T-rex toy out for a walk in the park and took some pictures of boy and beast enjoying nature.  (Please note that in all of our adventures we were responsible patrons and obeyed all the rules of the trail-mom, boy and dinosaur all remained on trail at all times)

Hmm-fungi-that means something must be decaying nearby-maybe dinner?

What would you do if you saw a dinosaur in the woods?

Enjoying the overlook, the best place to look out and see what's moving in the forest.

Everybody needs a rest after a walk in the woods

Some animals just don't care that a vicious predator is lurking nearby

ROARRRR!

Liam even got into the dinosaur action after camp as the T-rex visited the children's nature trail.

So glad to be back adventuring and being active with the boys! We can't wait to return to the park next week for Graeme's turn in camp.

How to Beat the Summer Heat

So it's only June and we feel like we are melting whenever we step outside.  I thought I might share some of the ways we are finding to beat the heat.  

10.  Go to the grocery store and linger in the refrigerated section

9.  Water balloon wars

8.  Build and play with Legos

7. Find something cool to eat or drink

6.  Find a way to play in the water

5.  Go on outings to the Lego Store, Museums and Movies (Tuesdays are great here with discount tickets, there is a $1 kid movie series, plus we have the second run theater which is great since finding good kid movies is harder and harder every year)

4.  Take a hike in the shade

3.  Find a shaded place in a park to play 

2.  Play (or wrestle) inside

And the #1 way we are beating the heat-POOL.  Whether splashing inside or sitting on the chair and getting splashed on the outside, we are cooling off around our little pool.

Stay cool!

Finally Reappearing With News from the Hales

I can't believe how the time flies.  Liam turned 5 almost a month ago and he finished up pre-k with a great group of teachers over at Holly Ridge Elementary this past Monday.  They were a big help and though he still has a long journey ahead, he made great progress this year! Next comes "kindergarten" at Holly Springs Elementary!

Liam and Mrs. Schock 

Our sadness of the day came when we had to take Mike to the airport for a business trip to San Francisco.  The boys missed him even before we dropped him off ;-).  To cheer them up we headed over to Crabtree Valley Mall for dinner at Chick-fil-A and searching for dinosaurs hidden in the displays at the Lego store.  

"Cheesing" with Chick-fil-A

Starting off Liam's summer vacation, he is doing a fun nature camp at Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve-Nature Nymphs: Magical Forest.  They are learning about the everyday magic of nature and creating a little of their own with a fairy garden he will bring home at the end.  Since Liam has some special needs, especially with communication, he has a great helper for camp and bonded quickly with her!

Liam and his helper, Lea ready for adventure!

Well, here we go again.  A new start of "Hale-raising" adventures!  Hope you enjoy the journey with us!

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