Yesterday morning Jeff & I headed into Larne Elementary School to see June and all the other fifth graders present their Title One program for the year.  Each team of two drew from a jar, and got a different environmental problem to brainstorm and address in a new way, and then created a project to present to parents and their classmates.  June & Allie were to address people surviving floods, and they built a house on wheels that could be towed to a safer place.  Here they are demonstrating it.  I thought that was incredibly creative.

Then yesterday afternoon June and I went to the program at the library in town presented by Riverbanks Zoo: Animal Behavior 101. It was the first big kids program that June had been able to go to, and in fact, she was not technically quite old enough, but the last time we were there the children’s librarian chased us out of the building and told us to come anyway :-). It was great. There were a couple of small animals there, including this huge African bullfrog.

Last night Meg and I picked up June and Mason, and met Steph and her boys Austin & Nathan at the auditorium for our last program of the year, the Charlotte Children’s Theater production of Mr. Popper’s Penguins.  The kids were kind of disappointed in the play, because it was so different from the movie that they loved, but none of the adults had seen the play, so we thought it was cute as could be.

As hard as it is to believe, Mal Mal will officially be a teenager this Friday :-0.  Yesterday her mom and dad put the flowers in the church in her honor.  I got her to go up and let me take her picture with them before the service started, since I was helping with children’s church and wouldn’t be in there afterwards.  They were so pretty – but not as pretty as her 🙂

Mallory and Clara came home with me from church, and then after lunch Meg brought Hope, who was on spring break, and Laura and Sarah who were here with her from school, over for the five of them to spend some time larping out in the woods. It was a cool day but at least wasn’t raining. They recuperated on the porch steps when they got through playing by taking turns doing each other’s hair 🙂

Again I don’t know why I can’t get this picture to rotate. Anyway, Saturday evening I went to celebrate Sarah and Joe’s wedding – one of my favorite young couples from church. I actually “married” them a few years ago, when I notarized their marriage license one afternoon when I’d stopped by their house to notarize some other papers for them. This weekend they finally had the church wedding they’d wanted for so long. So special. This was the centerpiece at the reception at the Larne Building afterwards. So cute.

Yesterday was opening day of the Carolinas Nationals BMX racing – by far the biggest Charlie has ever participated in.  We went over to watch him, and it was such a great day.  His mom and dad got way better pictures of him than I did, but I did love standing and watching the elite level riders, and the pros, start off the big hill.  SO exciting – and dangerous.  There were a good many crashes, but no one got taken off on a stretcher, which I understand happens fairly often.  Oh my.

Charlie did a great job, and Adam’s bestie, Olivia, and her twin sister Annaliese, came with their mom to watch Charlie’s competition in the main. I thought that was so kind.

Thursday afternoon I took Clara and Mason – June was too old – to a program on Ozobots at the Lake Wylie Library.  None of us had ever heard of them, but they are tiny robots that the kids started learning how to code.  I’m not going to lie, I don’t even know exactly what that means.  They seemed to have fun, though.  This man brought them from the library in Rock Hill and sort of told the kids the basics, and then just let them go at it.  They are the two in orange on the back row, getting their initial instructions.

After we finished up at the library we headed straight to take Clara to soccer practice. We ended up getting there a little bit early, so they had time to kick to soccer ball around before Jackson arrived & real practice could start. It was cold, but a beautiful day for them to be out.

Yesterday when we got here after school June and Mason helped me get a couple of meatloaves made for supper – one for our house and one for theirs.  It was the first time they had actually handled the squishy meat mixture, both mixing and putting it in the pans.  Mason was way more into that than June was 🙂

Jeff walked outside with them after we got that in the oven, to check out the creek waterfall since we got the big rain earlier in the week. It has been dried up for a while, so they were all excited to see it back in action 🙂

Today Jeff and I headed out to Bethany Elementary School to watch Clara participate in their local Battle of the Books.  They didn’t place, so won’t be going to the district competition on Friday, but they were the only team made up of only fourth graders, and they only lost by six points, she said.  It was fun watching – here they are during the relay part of the contests.  She was pretty sad that things didn’t go better for them, but we’re hoping for better things next year!

Then after school we went to the house and got a snack and watched a little TV and rested, and then I took her to the dentist to get sealant put on her teeth. She did great!

This afternoon Adam and Mason came over to help Jeff out in the woods, to work off their time paying for the windows the broke last summer.  I wasn’t feeling great, but did get down to get a couple of pictures of them at work.  They got a good bit of cleaning out done, and after that was accomplished, they found a wonderful swinging tree.  Not sure how long this branch will hold up, but they are having a good time on it while it does!

Jeff wasn’t going to try to get this big log out that was partially in the creek, but Adam and Mason were bound and determined that the three of them working together could get it done – and they did!