First Day of School

The day before school started, Joseph reminded me that we usually have a special breakfast on the first day.  I was still worn out from Jeremiah's surgery and hospitalization over the weekend, so I opted for store-bought muffins.

 The traditional under-the-crepe-myrtle picture:

(My goodness, Joseph looks grown up.)

Jeremiah gets in on the act:

One last brother-pestering moment before summer ends:

Joseph ready to head off with Daddy:

I asked Joshua if it was OK for me to walk him in (only allowed on the first day).  He said yes.  After we had parked and gotten out, Joshua told me he wanted to walk in by himself.  I told him it was too late--I was going.  I have a feeling next year I'll be stuck out in car line.  : (

Joshua with his teacher:

OK--get ready for the Sunrise, Sunset moment:

kindergarten                                              first grade

                                                          (He's in front of the wrong tree!)

 

kindergarten and 2nd grade                                  1st grade and 3rd grade

2nd and 4th grade

Myrtle Beach 2011

A few weeks ago we took our now-annual trip to North Myrtle Beach.

If this looks vaguely familiar, it might be because we stayed at this same hotel last summer.

I didn't realize how shiny the spray-on sunblock is until I saw this picture.  It is a must for lunchtime re-application, though.  Saves you from rubbing sand in with your sunblock.

The big boys' first stop Monday morning was the lazy river.  Do you see Joshua in the water pulling Tony along?  That was before the security guard came along and told us all kids had to be in tubes.

Jeremiah was brave enough to float this year, and Tony made sure to protect him from the overhead buckets that dump water on heads:

Jeremiah wanted to wear goggles to get under this umbrella in the baby pool:

 He went under one time, and one time only:

It was overcast the whole first day, which was actually pretty pleasant but didn't make for the best pictures.

It was high tide when we got out to the beach the first time, which meant there was a line of shells at the edge of the water.  This is just a fraction of what we collected:

If you look in the background of this picture, you can make out the line of shells and lots of people collecting them.  High tide also meant the boys had to play in the hot dry sand.  They hauled water up and made the most of it.

(This picture was actually from Tuesday, but it happened both days):

After we went back to our room for lunch, we hit the beach again, and it was low tide.  This created some tide pools out in the middle of the beach.  They were Jeremiah's favorite.  He was brave enough to go out and jump waves this year, but he preferred the calmer waters:

In the tidepools, we spotted a hermit crab, a fiddler crab, some fish, and some other shelled creatures that we couldn't identify.  We didn't manage to photograph any of those, though.

Tony, Joseph, and Joshua all spent some time bodyboarding.  Here is Joseph:

We were really impressed with how fearless Joshua was this year:

Tuesday morning a Canadian family approached us with an offer.  It was their last of ten days at the beach, and they had bought chairs, an umbrella, and a body board that they could not take back on the plane with them.  They sold it all to us for $20.  It was definitely an upgrade from sitting on towels under our sad old umbrella!

(Joseph isn't a bad photographer, as long as you didn't want to see our feet!)

Children's Museum

One of these days I'm going to get caught up.  I even contemplated jumping to now and then going back, but apparently that's not what I'm going to do today.  Let's go back to late July, shall we?

Our city has had a new children's museum for over a year now, but we just have never gotten around to going until this summer.

I wasn't going to comment on the pictures.  But, apparently, I am.  Jeremiah was surprisingly good at keeping his car on the track in this racing simulator:

Joseph's favorite part was this area where you build your own racecar and then race it down tracks that you can modify.  If you look closely, you'll see one of his car's wheels by his right hand:

 I was surprised that all three boys enjoyed the "grocery store":

Joshua and I built this arch together:

This optics room was really cool:

Giant "Lite Brite":

Toddler water area:

Big kids water area:

Sound room (perhaps my favorite):

Jeremiah and Joshua on the giant climber in the center of the museum: 

(Joseph was back in the car area for a second time.)

(Joshua was up there--that's his back exiting the side of the picture.)

There were many other exhibits and about 100 other pictures, but we'll stop here!

Bike Riding

This summer Joshua learned to ride a bike!  He still needs a little work on starting and stopping.  It would help if there were a safe place to ride in our neighborhood, but for beginners the best bet is to go to a nearby school parking lot.  Here is Joshua experiencing success.  One of his first long trips down the parking lot he was saying, "I'm doing it!  I'm doing it!" over and over.

Joseph, the pro:



Jeremiah was riding (I use the term loosely) a bike with training wheels, but I don't have a still picture of it.  Most of my time I was videoing.

Camping in NC

Way back in July (seems like years ago) we went camping with friends in North Carolina.  I have few pictures to show for it because I didn't get my camera out much, and when I did the lens usually fogged over.  It rained the evening we arrived, so we delayed setting up camp for a bit.  Then it rained again the second night.  I believe we found out later it was 2 inches in a 3-hour period.  (Or maybe it was more than that.  Definitely not less.)  That second night the tent started leaking and Tony and Harley ended up sleeping in the truck while the rest of us huddled together in the middle of the tent.  The rain stopped around midnight and we managed to have dry places to sleep through the night.

Here is a waterfall we explored Saturday morning:

The bigger kids climbed around down below the fall:

Sunday morning we had morning s'mores before tearing down camp:

The kids enjoyed tubing down the river that borders the campground Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.  Jeremiah can't wait until next year when he is big enough to tube, too.  I just hope it doesn't rain!

Winshape Camp

In early July, the big boys went to Winshape C3 camp, a day camp started by the founder of Chick Fil-A.

Friday was Family Day, so Jeremiah and I got to experience camp with the boys.  During the arrival time every day, there were lots of activities going on to engage the kids.  Here is Joshua competing in a tug of war:

The boys had three "electives" at camp every day.  Both of them had Fast Food, which was a cooking class.  On Friday the kids made up their own dishes and competed against each other in a cook-off.  Here is Jeremiah helping Joshua make his Crushed Oreo Cream:

The judges:

He didn't win, but was OK with that.

Joseph had Fast Food at a different time.  Here is the teacher tasting his Triple Grape Surprise:

He also didn't win, and he also was OK with it.

 Joshua also had a science class that I didn't get to go to, because I was with Joseph at the time.  His third class was basketball:

(Sorry--that's the best I've got!)

 Joseph took a class called Secret Ops, which he still hasn't told me about.  The purpose of the class was to serve others without them knowing about it--hence the secrecy.  His third class was Archery:

The camp was from 7:45 to 5:00 (except Family Day), so there was also plenty of time for worship, other recreation, and Bible learning.

 Family Day ended with Chick Fil-A, snowcones, and cotton candy for all.

I'm pretty sure it was the boys' favorite camp of the summer!