We had kind of a lazy day yesterday.  Kimbrell & Ellie came out for part of the day, but we just stayed at the house, & got a chance to work on a craft, which we hadn’t done in a while – coffee filter flowers.

Then later in the afternoon the kids helped me make Farmer Casserole for supper. They are getting to be such good kitchen helpers!

Yesterday was our church’s summer kick-off Park Hopper activity, when we rode the bus to Castle Park in Gastonia for the kids to play and have a picnic, and then had snowcones at Pelican’s next door before we left.  Good times.

Then last night Meg & I headed to Greenville to annual conference, to see our associate minister Brandon be ordained. We had great seats to witness the event in a very moving worship service. I tried to get a picture of Brandon as he was having his stole placed around his neck after he was ordained, but by the time I got my camera out everyone was hugging. What a joyful experience!

Sunday morning while Sherri and Gary were packing the camper up I took June and Lynleigh over to the visitor center at the dam.  The view was gorgeous – even the girls seemed sort of awestruck.

The visitor’s center was small but interesting, and the lady there told us about a playground beneath the dam, so of course we headed over to check that out. Great way to end our awesome visit.

Thursday evening June and I headed to Georgia, to Clarks Hill Lake, to camp with Sherri, Gary, and Lynleigh.  Lyn & June are big buddies, so we figured they’d have a great time together.  Saturday morning they were up bright an early, ready to get in a boat ride 🙂

We spent time at the beach, ate a bunch of junk food, and in the afternoon June & Lynleigh honed their teamwork skills and got the kids tent set up. June said the camping trip was a TON of FUN 🙂

Thursday we finally went on our Spring Break Adventure :-).  When the kids were actually out of school on spring break my car was sick, so we finally took our postponed trip this week.  We started off at Stowe Park in Belmont, where the kids had fun on the playground while I was doing a little reading.

The real highlight of the trip, though, was a visit to the Cotton Candy Factory, a new little candy shop in Belmont where the kids could spin their own cones of cotton candy. That was a BIG hit.

We had a good day Wednesday.  June and Mason were here for the day, and we kicked off the morning making fruit slushies using Aunt Sherri’s recipe.  It took it about all day to freeze, but it was a perfect summer afternoon snack.

Then that evening was Charlie’s fifth grade graduation. It’s almost impossible to believe that he will be in middle school next year. Jeff had to work, so missed the ceremony, but I was surely proud – and a little emotional…