Happy Easter!

Coloring Eggs

The collapsible cups came in our egg dyeing kit.  Much better than using coffee mugs, if you ask me.  I think Joseph was still in planning mode when I took this picture.

 These pictures actually tell you a little about the personality of each child.  Joseph:  all eggs faces are upright, following the unwritten rules of how faces should be put on eggs.  Also, some experimenting with stripes and plaids, showing some creativity.

Joshua:  thinking outside the box.   One egg's face is on the pointy end, one is what might be perceived as sideways.

Jeremiah:  morally opposed to any stickers at any time in any situation.

NASCAR Day

It's Spring Break this week.  Since we haven't been to Charlotte to visit race shops recently enough for Jeremiah to remember, we headed up there Monday.  He's become a big racecar fan in the last year, so he was excited to see all there was to see.

We had never been to Stewart-Haas Racing before.  They had really good viewing windows into their shop, and several cars in the lobby:

Our next stop (after a closed Earnhardt-Ganassi disappointment) was Roush Fenway.  Jeremiah was very excited to see the Aflac car, but there aren't any good pictures of that.

(The customary "proof I was there.")

Also, we saw Trevor Bayne (Daytona 500 winner) coming out of the Roush shop as we were showing up.

Next was Hendrick, where Jeremiah insisted on taking his Jeff Gordon toy car inside to show "the real Jeff Gordon."  He doesn't quite get that Jeff Gordon is actually the driver of the car, and not the car itself.

Joseph with his favorite:

Perhaps the coolest part of the day came as we were leaving Hendrick.  An employee on a golf cart pulled up behind us as we were getting into the van and asked if we wanted a number.  He then gave us the 8 that they had just pulled off Jimmie's car's driver's side.  We didn't think to confirm whether it had come off the car he had won Talladega with the previous day.  I'm saying it was.  Very cool.

Our next stop was another first for us--the NASCAR Hall of Fame:

There were lots of cool things to see and do at the Hall.  Probably the best display was a bunch of cars from different eras lined up along a track that was progressively more steeply banked as it went.  At the end it was 33 degrees of banking, and there was a place you could walk up on it to see how steep that really is.

There were some simple simulators, as well as some inside real cars (not pictured).

There were also pit crew challenges.  Jeremiah enjoyed changing the tires:

He and Joshua pretended to call a race on the radio.  Actually, they paid no attention to the race on the screen.  They just enjoyed having microphones and headsets and talking to each other:

By the end of the day, Jeremiah was completely overstimulated, and also, DONE.  He and I went back downstairs and hung out while Tony and the big boys drove the simulators (1st place for both) one more time.  He was quite content to sit here between his two favorite cars for at least 20 minutes.  He liked the blue one because it was painted like Mr.King from the Cars movie, and the red one because it was shaped like Mr. King.

Easter Egg Hunt

 Sunday was the annual neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt.

 Walking to the clubhouse:

(I got a lot of pictures of backs of heads that day.)

Somewhere along the line, Tony became Jeremiah's basket holder:



Joshua's haul:

Jeremiah didn't want to get too close to the Easter Bunny this year.  He said, "I want to see who is inside that bunny costume."  I had to hold him to get him in the picture:

Pirates

Joshua and Jeremiah have been enjoying some imaginative play together lately.  This episode of "Pirates" lasted probably half an hour.



Downtown Greenville Field Trip

Joseph's class had a field trip to downtown Greenville to gather research for a Greenville scrapbook project they will be doing.  Jeremiah and I got to join them on their trip, which has basically a walking search around the Main Street area.  There were many statues to find, and Jeremiah felt it was his job to physically interact with as many of them as possible.

Holding the foot of Vardry McBee, Father of Greenville:

Holding the hand of a Sterling High School student:

Holding the sword handle (?) of General Nathaniel Greene:

Posing with Shoeless Joe Jackson:

Joseph's batting stance was a little better:

 I really enjoyed the opportunity to help chaperone a field trip without having to find someone to watch Jeremiah.  Once he accepted the fact that he was not in charge of the day's intinerary, Jeremiah thoroughly enjoyed himself, too!

Opening Day

Baseball season has begun again.  Both boys happen to be Athletics this year.  Joshua is on a first grade team, and Joseph has to "play up" on a fourth grade team because he has a fall birthday.  It is Joseph's first year of kid pitch, and Joshua's last year before they start keeping score.  I much prefer watching Joshua's games--less pressure!

I don't believe this is the "baseball ready" stance his coach (Tony) has taught him:

Joshua is playing first base for at least one inning of every game.  He likes getting to get people out.  (There still aren't a lot of power hitters in first grade, so most balls go in the infield and get thrown to first.)

However, see that girl in the background?  She has hit two home runs, at least one of which was a grand slam.  She can hit line drives into the outfield, and by the time the other team chases the ball down and throws it in, she has scored.

Joseph got sports goggles this year, which he has worn for basketball and baseball so far.  He wore his regular glasses for baseball last year, but the goggles are much sturdier.

Transitioning to hitting a ball pitched by a kid has been a challenge, but Joseph is hanging in there and working hard.  And he's only been hit by a pitch once (in the batting helmet).

Space Day

The first grade classes at Joshua's school recently finished learning about space.  During that study, Tony spoke to a couple of the classes (there are 10!) about spacesuits.  Joshua got to be his assistant, which included wearing a NASA hat and clicking to the next screen in Tony's powerpoint presentation.

At the culmination of the space unit, the classes celebrated Space Day.  Everyone dressed like astronauts and took part in several space-related activities.

Here's Joshua's space helmet, which Joseph and I made using paper mache back when Joseph was in first grade:

He looks thrilled, doesn't he?

Here's the spacesuit.  He really wanted the soda-bottle "jetpack" on the back, even though his dad told him it was not at all how spacesuits really work.

The bottles were hot-glued on, and had torn off by the time he got out of the van in morning car line.  Fortunately he didn't panic, and his teacher was able to repair it with duct tape.

Here he is doing one of the activities.  I think it was a moon jump--I wasn't there.  His teacher supplied the picture.

(He's at baseball practice right now, or I would confirm with him.)

His favorite part of the day was making Tang and eating pudding out of a baggy.