What a fun day yesterday was, when I went with Lindee and Emma to meet Clara and her classmates in Columbia for their field trip.  We started the day out at the State Museum.  I had been once years ago, but really could not remember much about it.  I will definitely be going back when I have more time to check all the exhibits out.  Part of the time we spent in a class about electricity.  At first I thought it was a little advanced for the kids, but once they brought out all the bells and whistles, the kids were very excited about it.

From the State museum we headed to the State House. We were hoping to sit in on at least part of a session of the House of Representatives (the Senate wasn’t meeting), but the bill they were discussing wasn’t really appropriate for third graders, so that didn’t happen. Just looking in the door of the chambers, though, was pretty moving. Our government at work!

I never got on here over the weekend to add this picture from last Friday.  Meg had invited me to go hear a speaker at Lake Point Academy, where Hope goes to school – Dan Lunow.  His story was such an amazing one.  He was born in Germany and as a young man served in Hitler’s Youth, and was a staunch Nazi.  After WWII ended he moved to the US, still a practicing Nazi, until he was saved 14 months after he arrived.  He married, went to Bible College, and they ended up serving as a missionary couple in New Guinea, translating the Bible into one of the 130 languages spoken there, for 42 years.  What a story.  The story is still so precious to him that even after all these years, he was still in tears sharing it at one point.  What an amazing afternoon.

On Thursday afternoons this month, when I pick Mallory and Clara up from school, we head to the church for Mallory to meet with Ms. Liz, her confirmation mentor.  The other days we have gone Clara and I have just sat in the nursery and read, or done a few errands around the church, or played basketball in the gym – we have to be at the church, though, due to Safe Sanctuary policies.  This week, though, Denise and I had swapped days keeping Kimbrell, so she was with us, and we headed out to the playground.  It was a beautiful day, and we had a great time.

Last night was the Clover School District Art Show.  Mason had one of his pieces chosen to represent Larne Elementary, so Jeff & I headed over to meet him and his family at the auditorium, to check it out.  It’s always fun – we see lots of people from town and get to do some visiting, and really, some of the kids, especially the older ones, are amazingly talented.  I got this picture of the Yarbroughs as we were leaving.

Yesterday evening I took June and Clara to the Seussabration at the library in town – Mason has soccer practice.  It was so cute.  One of their favorite activities was the Green Egg Relay.  The eggs were actually raw, which was hilarious when they dropped them, for sure.  Here is Clara getting ready to captain her team 🙂

They did crafts, had cute snacks. listened to books being read, and here, watched a cute little short Dr. Seuss movie. That’s Clara and June right in front of the camera on the left.  Fun times.

My picture taking skills reached a new low last night, but what an amazing evening we had, when we headed up to Winston Salem for a surprise birthday party for Andy.  Liz & Nate hosted, but it was held at their dear friends Carol and David Taylor’s house.  They got Andy there under the guise of a baby shower for David and Carol’s son and daughter-in-law, and all of us out-of-towners were hiding in the basement, then when we got the sign we came up carrying the cake with candles lit, singing away.  I’m pretty sure it was a complete surprise.  Lots of hugs – here he is with Jeff – lots of talking and laughing and a few tears.  Just a beautiful night.

The birthday boy getting ready to dig into barbecue from his favorite local joint.

We have kept Kimbrell every day this week while Denise has been recovering from some surgery.  She’s been sick and the weather has been brutally cold, but today Jeff was off work, she was feeling better, and the weather was gorgeous enough for him to get her outside and introduce her to the tire swing 🙂

Last night was the Bethany Elementary School spring choral performance.  As a third grader, this is Clara’s first year to participate, and it was SO cute.  They did songs from “Shrek.”  The kids all dressed up either like characters in Shrek, or their favorite fairy tale characters, like the crowd scenes in the movie.  SO CUTE!!!  That’s Clara as Fiona in the beige skirt in the front row.  They just did such a good job.

Our precious Fiona afterwards. Good job, Boo!

This weather has been really crazy lately.  After several 80 degree days in February, and most every day very springlike, we got snow Sunday, and have brutally cold temps all this week.  It was beautiful Sunday morning, though, and I was so glad I had thought I would maybe be out of town, so got all of my duties at church covered, so could just stay in my snug house and look at it through the windows.  And it was gone that afternoon – my kind of snow.