Pond Study

Collins's class had a field trip scheduled for a "pond study". I went along not sure what to expect, but it was actually really fun. We went to a park that we had never been to before (how is this even possible?), and it was so neat. Powell Drive park had a cool modern playground, a critter-filled pond, a charming bridge, and tennis courts. What more could you want in a park?

The kids split up into groups, and each group got a net. Then it was time to get down and dirty in the pond. Good thing I wore my rain boots because I literally got in the water trying to get the best sample of pond life. Our first couple of nets yielded nothing but mud and spiders, but then we hit the jackpot- a tad pole! Collins got to hold it in her hand- really cool!

After we got our fill of tad poles, the kids got to play on the playground and have a snack. It was a really fun field trip!

Creation Station

Forget the artwork. Collins has moved on to engineering. She now looks forward to the "creation station" at school every day and will yell at us if we throw away a toilet paper roll, egg carton or anything else she thinks might have "potential". :)

She brings her creations home, takes them straight upstairs, and hides them under her bed. Because you know Addie has been itching to steal her homemade kite! Needless to say it's getting a little cluttered under the bed, but I am so impressed with her imagination and ingenuity that I let it go.

I asked her to take me through some of her latest creations so I could document this new interest for the blog. Everything that she makes is an original idea. They just give the kids a bunch of random supplies (and A LOT of tape) and let them make whatever they want.

Here is a kite...

and her TV...

her witch castle...

and her dinosaur riverboat. :) (Picked up from "Dinosaur Train".)

She also made a mermaid bed...

a scraper for the windows....

and a Mommy jellyfish (the circle at the bottom is her baby). 

I love seeing Collin's brain work in this interesting way! So no chance I'm throwing away that old paper towel holder. :)

A Weekend of Culture for Collins

Most weekends you can find us outside playing at a park. You would not normally find us inside a theater catching the latest play or inside the art museum scoping out the latest art exhibit. But when Mimi and Baba came to town in early April, that's exactly where Miss Collins was soaking up all the culture Raleigh had to offer!

Mimi was so sweet to take her to see the Raleigh Little Theater's production of "Charlotte's Web" as part of her birthday present. They did this last year- where they went out to lunch, saw a play, and had "Mimi and Collins" time. Because Collins and I just read "Charlotte's Web" together, she was excited to see the play. 

(It was neat reading this classic to her and watching her reaction to the story. She loved the barn yard animals and laughed out loud throughout the book. But when Charlotte died, she had a strong reaction crying and saying she didn't want to die. We had a serious talk about death and heaven, and I did my best to help her digest this tough topic. Because of her sensitivity to Charlotte dying, I wasn't sure how she would react to the live play. But she did great, and Mom said they handled it in a nice way. They both loved the play!)

No surprise that after the play, these two ended up at Gigi's cupcakes!

While they were waiting for the play to start, Mimi showed Collins how to draw a spider and its web. She showed us when she got home. Pretty cute!

On Sunday, it was fun to take Mimi and Baba to church with us and then go out to brunch. Afterwards, we headed to the art museum for one of their new exhibitions, "Art in Bloom". Area florists were tasked with turning floral arrangements into a version of permanent works of art in the museum. A neat concept, and a very cool exhibition! Missy, Collins, Mom and Baba and I went and all enjoyed the flowers and comparing them to the artwork. Collins lasted about an hour and then was ready to go home and watch "Paw Patrol". :)

One of the stunning pieces as you walked in...

This piece won the "People's Choice Award" and I had to agree...

what a neat interpretation of this beautiful painting!

 

Collins was reenacting a famous sculpture for us...

and then got excited to actually sit inside one of the installations. 

Love that Mom and Baba got to see some different things on this trip to Raleigh, and love that Collins might have become slightly more cultured after their visit!

Tar Heel Pride

 Hard to tell in this picture, but that is some blue ice cream. Tar Heel blue, that it! And why were we eating Tar Heel sundaes? Because Carolina was in the FINAL FOUR!!!

What a basketball season it has been. This year's team stole everyone's heart with their hard play, team-before-self attitude, and its great cast of characters. It was a fun team to watch and pull for especially when it came to the NCAA Tournament. Every weekend was more fun than the last, and I lost a lot of sleep watching all those late-night games.

So the Tar Heels dominated the first four rounds of the tournament making it easily to the Final Four. And we played Syracuse of all teams in that game! We won easily sending us to the National Championship game. So cool...

Our opponent in the title game? Villanova- one of the hottest teams in the tournament. They had the momentum early and didn't allow us to play our normal game. I got really worried when we were down by 10, but then we pulled it together and tied the game. It was a crazy finish with Marcus Paige hitting a miracle shot to tie the game with seconds to go. We were all thinking overtime, but then with 4.5 seconds to go the unthinkable happened. Villanova drove down and hit a buzzer-beating shot as the clock expired to win by two points...heartbreak in the ultimate sense of the word. 

To get that close to winning and not win the whole dang (Roy speech) thing was just wrong. And painful. I channeled Brian Fork during that game acting like a complete crazy person- yelling, throwing the remote, you name it. He didn't watch the game with me because he said I was scary. :) I knew our loss was bad when he came downstairs after the game to tell me he was sorry about what had happened. He has never ever done that after a Tar Heel loss!

So it's still hard to digest that didn't win, and that we lost our two best players (Marcus Paige and Bryce Johnson) who were seniors. They say we will still be loaded for next year, but it's hard to imagine liking a team as much as the 2015-2016 version. Regardless, we are so very proud of our Tar Heels this year!

Spring Break Buzz Kill

Don't let this cute, happy picture of the girls fool you. It was not a cute, happy week. It was the Spring Break from Hell! I'll let the girls summarize...

Collins- "When you get the throw ups out, it's good because you can have popsicles and jello!"

Addie- "I love the Paw Patrol!"

In this moment, things were somewhat under control. Collins had started feeling bad the night before (Easter) but slept really great and woke up feeling better. When I called the doctor to check on her symptoms, they advised to bring her in because they thought it could be strep. It was. But thanks to a prescription, this problem was solved pretty fast (except for that whole taking medicine twice a day for 10 days that Collins had no interest in doing). 

So I thought things were under control. Until we put Addie to bed and thirty minutes later she started throwing up. Poor thing kept getting sick throughout the night, and it scared her so much. And oh the mess it caused....it was a bad night. I thought Addie might have caught strep from Collins, but the doctor confirmed it was a stomach bug. 

She was fine the whole next day, and I thought we were in the clear and then she got sick again. We sent Collins off to spend the night with Donna and Marty in hopes she wouldn't catch Addie's bug. Addie was so pitiful, falling asleep on me at 6 p.m. that night. The next morning, she was weak and shaky because she hadn't eaten. We got worried she was dehydrated and made an appointment to take her in to see the doctor. 

We were getting ready to leave for the doctor's office and that's when Collins threw up....sigh. Cut to her throwing up every 45 minutes for the next six hours. It was horrible. Then the doctors got concerned that she was dehydrated so I took her and Addie in. They pumped Collins full of fluids to see if she could hold them down, She could not. I was really worried they were going to send us to the ER for fluids, but she finally passed the test (she peed) so we got to go home. They also gave her a powerful anti-nausea medicine that helped settle her stomach down.

Sorry for all the gory details, but the whole thing was pretty traumatic. Brian got sick too, but never as bad as the girls. Thank goodness, this is the where the story gets better. They both started acting more like themselves- eating solid food, wanting to play outside, and smiling...whew!

 

At this point, they were feeling better but were still technically contagious so we were quarantined. So we played outside...

and planted some flowers. 

I was so bummed we were sidelined by sickness over Spring Break. It was gorgeous outside, and I had had so many fun plans for us. All Collins wanted to do over Spring Break was go to Three Bear Acres in Creedmoor. She asked to go every day, and every day I had to turn her down. Finally, on Thursday, I had to say yes. So even though we were all a still a little shaky, we headed towards the outdoor wilderness park for some fun. They deserved some! Donna was sweet to accompany us to help.

The girls loved it! I could not believe all the energy they found for our outing. They jumped, climbed and slid their hearts out. 

 

 

With one day left of Spring Break, I decided to squeeze it all in. Make it the ultimate fun day for the girls and try to salvage what was left of our time together. We visited the science museum, ate burgers for lunch, and went swimming at the Buffalo Road Aquatic Center. They were happy. :)

I jinxed us because I was just bragging that the girls hadn't been sick all winter. Guess we just condensed all our sickness into one little sad Spring Break. Addie's dolls now get the "throw ups" and Collins is now hooked on "Paw Patrol", but other than that we have no battle scars. And even better, we still have a few popsicles left in the freezer. :)

Easter Day Festivities

Whew! He came. The girls were pretty excited, mostly about the chocolate bunny. :)

Is it wrong to let your children eat chocolate bunnies for breakfast? I felt like they should get a pass on Easter, then Addie refused to eat anything else. So she went to church with nothing but chocolate in her belly..sigh.

Loved their sweet pink Easter dresses this year...

Against my better judgement, I let Addie get BACK into the chocolate bunny....clearly she wouldn't take no for an answer!

We were excited to host Easter dinner again this year and were so glad Missy, Donna and Marty joined us. Addie was our lookout...

I was going to go buy some flowers for the table, and then saw the gorgeous azalea in Donna's backyard.... :)

I thought a carrot cheese-ball would be a fun start to the meal. Brian was excited to roast two of the fresh hams from our piggie for the main meal. Donna brought some yummy potatoes from the Pioneer woman, Missy made some delicious lemon tarts, and I attempted my first parker house rolls. It was a really good meal!

Donna makes one great bunny cake...

and was so sweet to bring the girls Easter treats. They loved the pink matching dresses and the lamb and bunny!

Addie's bunny played, "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" and she played it over, and over, and over again. And then she started dancing along. She was pretty entertaining.

Collins on the other hand was acting strangely all night, just not saying or smiling much. Then she complained of being cold. Collins is never cold. I took her temperature, and sure enough she had a fever. She also complained of a sore throat. Oh no...we rushed her into bed and hoped for the best. Hate that she didn't feel good during dinner, and unfortunately, that was only the beginning of a mess of sickness to come. 

But so glad we all got together to celebrate Easter; it was a fun way to end the holiday!