What a great weekend we had, when Addie, June, and I headed to Kirkie’s house in the mountains for the weekend.  It was our first girls’ trip ever with just the three of us, and it was soooo much fun.  We left early Friday morning after dropping Mason at Stephanie’s house to spend the day playing with Austin, & got there at lunch time.  The view off their upstairs porch is just beautiful.

Kirkie had sandwiches ready for us to eat, and then we headed down to the town of Bakersville to take in the NC Rhododendron Festival. It was drizzly, so there weren’t many people out, but we took in some of the vendors set up in their town park, and then enjoyed walking the nice trail beside the creek through the park. It was just so nice being in the cooler air of the mountains.

This morning we went to the library for their weekly summer program.  This week it was a production of Alice in Wonderland presented by the Bright Star Theatre.  Here are the kids afterwards with the performers.  Fun show.

After the program we spent a little while on the playground, and then headed to pick Mason up from summer reading camp – and then headed BACK to the library. He had already completely filled out a reading sheet – spending three hours every morning reading at camp definitely helps with that :-). He got a few goodies and a medal. Here he is modeling that – and being pretty goofy in the process.

Charlie slicing the fresh peaches.  It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

Yesterday morning we decided to try a new craft project.  We dyed salt different colors, and then glued it to paper to make pictures.  It was WAY harder than pinterest made it look, that’s for sure.  Still fun – just not the outcome we were hoping for 🙂

This afternoon after church I went with Lindee, Mallory, & Clara to check out a few sites on the York County Ag & Art Tour.  I had been a couple of years ago with a friend, & had so much fun so was so excited when Lindee invited me to go with her and the girls again.  Our first stop was Myers Pottery in Hickory Grove, where they had snacks of fresh blueberries and strawberries they’d just picked off that morning, and cornbread with homemade strawberry jelly.  They were bringing in a new bee hive while we were there, but word was that the bees were pretty feisty, so we didn’t go out to watch that happen.  We stayed inside for a great pottery demonstration, and then the real highlight – the girls getting to make some pottery of their own.  They loved that.

We went to Sharon Hills Farm, where we saw brand new chicks and some mini horses, and finished up the day with a stop at Black’s Peaches for some ice cream and peaches, and to play on their playground for a little while. I loved these swings made out of pallets.

Yesterday Little Hope took Charlie to spend the day at Carowinds, and to go to the Christian Music Festival in the evening to see her favorite band, Skillet.  Here they are when they got back to our house late last night – Meg picked them up, and brought Char here to spend the night.  Charlie said it was the Best Day Ever 🙂

Yesterday Andrew and Adam were off early in the morning for a weekend Cub Scout campout, and I got this cute picture of them when they dropped Charlie off at the house for the day.  Hope they’re having so much fun!

Charlie spent the day at Carowinds with Addie, June, and Mason while I worked, and then last night Jeff & I went to see him race. It was his first race in the Intermediates – he moved up from Novice with his tenth win last race. He came in third, but he really hung with the guys with much more experience – he wasn’t far back at all. We were proud!

My plan Thursday morning had been for us to go to a bakery in York that I’d never gotten around to checking out, On The Rise, & let the kids all pick them out a midmorning snack before we headed to the library for the kick-off to their summer program.  When we got there all they had left – at 9:15 in the morning! – were chocolate chip cookies, so chocolate chip cookies for everyone it was.  We had a few minutes before we needed to head to the library, so we headed to the church, where we snacked and played, and then just walked to the library from there.

What a good day June, Mason, & I had today when we headed to the Museum of York County, to take in their first Wonderful Wednesday program.  The theme this summer is Home Sweet Home, and it’s about nature in our own backyard.  Today the program was by SC Foresters, and it was so good.  They asked for volunteers to come up and play a game to show them what trees needed to grow, which was really cute.  You can see Mason on the other side of the circle – June was hidden behind some of the other kids.

After the program we ate the picnic we’d brought, and then went on a little hike around the nature trail. While we were there we ran into another family who had been at the program with us, and the kids had a GREAT time doing some creek hiking together. Such a great way to spend a gorgeous summer day.