Who Knew.....

…such a fun place existed in Winston-Salem. We recently visited Winston-Salem to attend my grandparents 70th wedding anniversary (more about that later). Since we had some time to spare we decided to visit the local Children’s Museum www.childrensmuseumofws.org. I wasn’t expecting much so I was very surprised to find such a fabulous, quality ‘Kids” museum. The kids had a blast and would have gladly stayed all day. I think, given the opportunity, they might have moved in.

Climbing Jack's "beanstalk"


Fishing


Dad and Grandma take a break


Time for a little shopping


Turtle riding


Giant Rocking Chair


Dads can have fun too


It's time to make the donuts (I know...that was Duncan Donuts not Krispy Kreme)


Giant Jellyfish

Soccer

We are trying soccer again this year. Our last try was in 2007-it didn't go so well (enough said). This year has started off well. My daughter displays some actual physical abilities (so rare in our family) she might even be one of the better players (which isn't saying that much for 4 year old girls) except for the fact that she manages to demonstrate her favorite ballet moves between and during drills. My son....well while he might not be the best player...but he manages to keep up and have fun -which is our main goal after all. OK in all honesty our main goal is to NOT knock down the other players, our second goal is to have fun.

All decked out for the first practice


"T" poses in his uniform


"J" takes a shot (love that pink ball)

Nature Explorers

Today the kids became official “nature explorers”. Armed with compasses and magnifying glasses they set out on a great adventure at the local nature center. They followed the clues and met some new friends (Pictured below). In addition to a corn snake and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, we saw a snapping turtle, an opossum (known primarily in the south as a “possum” and a nightly visitor to our back deck), a beaver, several bald eagles, owls, hawks, vultures, and many other bugs, butterflies, fish and turtles.

First Day of School--End of the Day Edition!

The good moms bring a camera and take a bright shiny (smiling) photo of their child on the first day of school, perhaps standing outside the door of the classroom just waiting to go in and begin the school year. The bad moms (or the ones with a sly sense of humor) bring a camera at the end of the first day of school to capture a tired cranky kid at the end of that first day.




I'm not tired!

Happy 40th birthday

Derek celebrated his 40th birthday today. The kids got to pick out presents at the dollar store for dad and they wrapped them all by themselves. "t" was over the moon picking plates and napkins and party horns. On Tuesday I am taking Derek out on the town. Then on Wednesday he gets to have his eye sliced open during surgery. Nothing says "happy birthday" quite like experimental eye surgery!

I am not sure why the kids are wearing fairy wings...but sometimes it is better not to ask.

Yum! Tastes like Blue


"Napkins...I don't need no stinking napkins"

It's a beautiful day...

It was a rare day in Georgia. Cool (in comparison to most summer days) and dry. I decided to force the family to enjoy the great outdoors. We recently discovered there is a national park nearby so we decided to check it out.


Come on guys


Which way to the video games


Are we having fun yet?


Old Mill Ruins-ruins, how cool is that.


Dipping our toes in the water.

4th of July

I am very patriotic. Do you know how you can tell? Because I drag my family to a 95 degree parking lot at 4:45 each 4th of July to reserve the best spot for viewing fireworks. Then I force them to walk a mile in the heat to a sports bar where we take as-long-as-possible eating before returning to that same 95 degree parking lot to wait another 3 hours for the fireworks to begin....that is how I know I am very partiotic.

OK-it isn't that bad (almost) but it is worth every sweaty minute to hear the "oohs" and "aahhs" and "WOWs" from the kids.

Ice Cream makes the waiting bearable


Relaxing with a sno cone (pretend you didn't see my child having ice cream and a sno-cone all in the same day)


Torturing Daddy is Fun


"think you can get us both to smile at the same time....think again lady"


"Do we really have to wait until dark"?