Getting their Bibles

This morning Jeff & I attended worship service at Woodland UMC, to be there when both Charlie and Adam got new Bibles.  This is Charlie and the other two sixth grade boys heading back to their seats after they received theirs.

Afterwards with their mom and dad…

Birthday Cake Baking

Yesterday Mallory spent the day with us while Lindee took Clara to go back-to-school shopping.  She helped me bake Leesy’s birthday cake – here she is working on the icing – that we took in the afternoon over to Gran’s house for a little surprise gathering for our sweet Leesy.

Carolinas Aviation Museum

Today Mallory, Clara, and I went on our end-of-the-summer adventure, to the Carolinas Aviation Museum at the airport in Charlotte.  I had been wanting to go for a long time, so we headed up there, along with Charlotte’s granddaughter Brenna.  She and Clara are almost exactly the same age, and they always have a good time together.  There was an scavenger hunt for the kids to fill out, and Mallory especially loved that.  Mostly Clara and Brenna just ran around checking out the exhibits, especially the ones where they could get in the cockpits. 

 

Hands down the centerpiece of the museum was the Miracle on the Hudson, the actual plane that Sully Sullenberg landed in the river.  It was en route from New York to Charlotte when it crashed, so it was only fitting that it be displayed here.  Here are the girls standing by the plane, in front of one of the life rafts that were on the plane that day.  It was a very moving tribute.  There was a great documentary that I insisted the little girls watch, and they were pretty enthralled with it, too.

Picnic after we finished going through the museum, outside near the runway, and right beside the outdoor exhibits.  You can just see an American Airlines plane behind the supersonic display that was coming in for a landing.  Very cool.

Wednesday Evening Photos

This evening was our end-of-the-summer outing with the church – back to the pool at Wesley Acres, where the kids always have so much fun.  I hate the picture didn’t turn out any better, but from left are Mason, Austin, AJ, June, and Clara.  They stayed in the water until the pool shut down at 8 pm.  Such a good time.

I called and Lindee was to meet me at the church to pick up Clara. Then just a few minutes later she called me and a tree had fallen down across their driveway in the hour since Jackson and Mallory got home. I mean, it was a serious tree. So I ran Clara home, and this was the sight very near the driveway. Crazy.

Lazy Tuesday

We had planned on going to Brattonsville this morning, but then the rain came in.  Then we talked about going to a movie, but just couldn’t make ourselves get up and get going.  So we just spent a lazy day at home, reading, working puzzles, napping – wonderful summer day.  And then what should happen but that the cousins both lost a tooth – and the very same tooth at that.  How crazy is that?

It cleared off in the afternoon, and the kids got outside to play in the hose and wash Jeff’s truck. We have some extra swimsuits here that a friend gave Mallory and Clara, so they put them on to play in – and Mason didn’t have any trunks, so he put on one of the girl suits, too :-). That’s him in the blue on the top step. He said he was more than ready to get it off by the time they were done – he didn’t think it was comfortable at all. Ha.

Solar Eclipse Day at the Museum

Andrew and Jenny have gone to Raleigh to see a concert, so Charlie and Adam are spending the weekend with us.  Today was the day at the museum in Rock Hill when we could learn all about the upcoming solar eclipse, so we went to check it out.  We are all VERY excited about the eclipse, so we wanted to see what we could find out, plus Charlie and Adam can get a badge for participating in events having to do with the eclipse, so it just worked out perfectly.  Andrew, Adam, and I went to see Totality, the planetarium show about the Eclipse, when we were there for the Earth Day Birthday back in the spring, but we watched it again – and again, it was by far the best planetarium show I have ever seen.  In fact, it’s the first planetarium show I’ve ever been able to stay awake for!  They showed us what the corona around the sun might look like that day during the middle of the eclipse.

 

The museum bear in the Naturalist Center is ready to watch the eclipse safely 🙂

Art Camp Show

Tonight Jeff & I headed into town to attend the art show, featuring pieces the kids made at the town art camp June and Clara attended last month.  They really all did such a good job.  Here is Clara standing under the collage she made – the beach picture at the top.  That’s actually June’s still life that she is standing right in front of.

The Arts Camp also had a dance session.  Even though our girls did not attend that, we enjoyed watching their demonstration as part of the show, and then Mallory and Clara REALLY enjoyed joining in with the line dancing afterwards 🙂

Special Thursday

What a good day we had today.  Mallory and Clara were playing in their golf tournament, so just June and Mason were here, and we headed to Rock Hill for a quick lunch to celebrate Gran’s birthday with her.

We couldn’t stay too long, because we had to drop June off to head to another birthday party, and from there Mason and I went to Charlotte’s to spend the afternoon in her pool while her granddaughter Brenna is here for a visit.  We met Sherry and Will there.  What a special time watching our grand ones all swimming and playing together.

Clay Play

We’ve had a pretty low key week.  Tuesday while the kids were here they got out the new play dough Evie had given them in the bag of craft supplies, and Clara made a pineapple playing soccer.  Ha.  I did think she did a really good job 🙂