Saturday, April 24, 2010

Bounce House Tour

We spent our day today at kiddie friendly celebrations around Charlotte, starting with the Earth Day festival in Indian Trail, one of the towns I cover for the paper. We broke for lunch and took naps, then moved on to the annual Hawkfest party at Josh's school. It rained most of the time we were there so we didn't bring the camera, but the kids tried out most of the inflatable rides, the "Fun Bus" and the "slammer," in which Josh won a glow-in-the-dark bracelet for hitting it hard enough to ring the bell. They were soaked and filthy by the time we walked home, but a good time was had by all.

I took the kids through the civic building where the Indian Trail town council meets; a room where I have spent countless hours over the past seven years covering meetings. I have been writing about this town much longer than any elected official there has been in office and almost all town employees have worked there. That's either commendable or crazy.

This picture is notable not because Molly is doing her best not to look at the camera, but because it illustrates a sadly significant moment in my reporting life. After six years of sitting in a metal folding chair at meetings that could last five or six hours (and I was pregnant for nine months of that), the town bought chairs with padded seats. Believe me, it was reason to celebrate.


Sunday, April 18, 2010

Duck Party 2010

The weather was gorgeous today for our annual outing to the Kindermourn rubber duck race. We found a seat near the crane that drops the thousands of ducks into the river, so we got to see the start of the race.

The kids were excited about the ducks, but not so much about having their picture taken with us.

We ran into Josh's teacher and some of her family at the kiddie rides, which was fun but made me sad to think about Caroline not being his teacher next year! The kids loved the slides, and we had to drag them away to the car. Luckily there was an ice cream freezer on the way out, which pacified the unruly one among us.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

A Year Later, Still Terrific

For the second year in a row, Josh was chosen from his class as the student who most exhibited "courage" during the school year. We all attended the ceremony this morning, where once again Josh charmed the crowd with his huge grin while having his official "Terrific Kid" picture taken.

We had to laugh a little bit about Josh being a repeat winner. Each teacher writes a paragraph about the class winner that's read aloud at the ceremony, and Josh was lauded for, among other things, bravery during fire and tornado drills.

Josh was not happy about having to wear "church pants" and a shirt with buttons to the ceremony, so as soon as he got his certificate we let him take off the shirt and gave him his Silly Bandz, his new wardrobe staple.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Catching up

Here's what's been going on this April. And sit down, there's a lot!

Chris and I went to Asheville on April 1 to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Mom and Dad stayed in Charlotte with the kids, and we enjoyed two days of remembering what life was like before kids (i.e. going out to dinner and sleeping in).

We came home in time to dye Easter eggs with the kids and enjoy the spring weather, which finally arrived after a very cold winter.

Josh was very excited when his new Silly Bandz bracelets, the latest fad amongst the elementary school set, arrived in the mail.

Josh's dietary restrictions make Easter candy off limits, so we celebrated Easter morning with gluten-free cupcakes instead. In retrospect, pumping the kids full of sugar on Easter morning probably wasn't the best idea.

Mom and Dad went to church with us Easter morning, and the kids were their usual uncooperative selves in posing for pictures.

The kids hunted for Easter eggs after church, and then Mom, Dad, the kids and I drove to Florida for spring break.


In Florida, we took the kids back to the Butterfly Rainforest and then to a teaching zoo at the local community college, which apparently is the only of its kind in the U.S. Our tour guide was a zoology student, and she got a workout from Josh, who asked her the age and country of origin (among other things) about almost every animal. It was an execise in patience for her!

Finally, we drove to the panhandle on Friday to spend the weekend with my grandmother. Amy brought the twins over for the day on Saturday, and we walked out to the catfish pond to feed the fish.