Summer Part 2 - But not the last!

Our summer fun continues!

A couple weekends ago, we went to our second Pow Wow.  I took Jocelyn last year and this year Daddy came along.  He appropriately joined Jocelyn in the couples dance.  I am forever fascinated by the costumes and elaborate dance.  It's a wonderful experience to learn about this great culture.  My favorite part of the event is when they call all veterans and military service people into the center of the room and while they parade, the entire audience applauds, the whole time.  What a wonderful show of respect.

The next day we joined our friends again for another adventure on our history tour.  This time we went to an open house at a colored school that was used in the early 1900's.  Once again, the kids had a ball, and we learned so much!  We got to see what it was like to go to school a hundred years ago in a school with no bathroom, no computers, and all grades together in one room.  Those kids had it tough!!  Colin and Jocelyn were fascinated!  They got to do crafts and play games like the kids had in those days.  We stopped on the way home to check out a couple other places and play on the playground.  Another fun adventure!  We have two more planned this week!!

Last week was gymnastics camp.  This is Jocelyn's favorite camp.  She

has two weeks of it this summer.  The last day there is always a performance for the parents.

There was a little something recently in the news about the *Dwarf* planet Pluto.  A space craft called New Horizons flew past Pluto on July 14th, after traveling 9 years to get there!  For the first time ever, we are seeing pictures of the real planet, and the U.S. is the first country in the world to have visited all 9 of the major planets in our solar system (we learned there are actually 1000's of planets in our solar system!).

The Applied Physics Lab (APL) hosted Plutopalooza last weekend.  It was a chance for us to get up close and personal with the people who created the space craft.  We got to try out some experiments, and see a replica of the New Horizon.  There was a presentation that introduced some of the major people on the project, including Brian May.  Anyone know who he is?  He walked on the stage looking like the stereo-typical 80's rocker.  He didn't seem to fit in with all the other master minds on the stage.  Well Brian May is the lead guitarist for the band Queen, AND he's one of the astrophysicists that worked on the project!  WOW! Talk about life accomplishment!  He gave a great talk about how he was the perfect example of how you can be anything you want to be in life.  I'll say! 

With the New Horizon replica

Our summer includes plenty of reading.  Every night we read to Jocelyn and she reads to us.  Daddy and Jocelyn have been spending time together playing Lego Star Wars on the Wii.  This has sparked a big interest from Jocelyn in everything Star Wars and Legos.  The books she reads from the library are all Star Wars, and her current favorite TV show is Ninjago -Lego Ninjas.  Jocelyn can read whatever she wants, whatever she is interested in as long as it sparks a love of reading, it's perfectly fine with me.  But I admit, in a million years I never thought it would be Star Wars and Ninjas!

Summer fun has begun!!

Our summer is in full swing.  So much fun stuff going on!!  Where do we start??

So far, Jocelyn and I have been blueberry picking, and she has been to the pool many times, including for her first swim lesson of 4 she'll have this summer.  She did really great!  She's going to be swimming without a floaty next time!

Every summer I sign Jocelyn up for summer reading at the county library.  This is something fun we have done since she was a baby, believe it or not.  This year, when I signed her up, the Historical Society was handing out books of places in the county you could visit to learn more about county history.  If you visit 15 or more, the kids get a prize.  Well we don't care about the prize, it's the touring that's the most fun of all!  We got our friends Nicki and Colin to join us one day last week and visited 6 places!!!  We made a day of it, brought a picnic lunch and learned a bunch about local history.  

The only existing iron bridge left in the world.

And we also learned a bunch about this giant bug we found!!!  He is called a Dobsonfly and he was at least 3 inches tall.  Ewww....  gross but fascinating!

We had an awesome ending to an awesome fun day by topping it off with a trip to Rita's!!  We can't wait for the next adventure!

The 4th of July we spent the evening with more friends.  Lily and Jocelyn had fun chasing fireflies before the fireworks.

Jocelyn's first fireworks finally!

This week Jocelyn is in Lego Girls Camp in the afternoons.  More crazy fun!  Last night we decided to compound the Lego insanity by going to the Lego store for the monthly Lego build.  Traffic was horrid so we decided to stay put and have dinner at the mall at Chick-fil-a.  As luck would have it, our change of plans turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  It was kids night at Chick-fil-a.  We visited with the cow (Eat more chicken!) and they had and AMAZING balloon guy there.  Have you ever seen a balloon shark??  Incredible!  We're terrified to touch him now.  We don't want him to pop...  ever...!

And this brings us up to today.  This year we raised butterflies again and this morning we released them.  And then we were off to the park for a play date with an old Mom's Club friend.  We forgot to take pictures of the girls, but that just means we will need to see our friends again soon!

Our summer has been a blast so far.  And it's barely started!  So many more great times to come!  Stay tuned!! 

Last Day of 1st Grade

 Another school year has come and gone.  I can't believe Jocelyn is done with 1st grade.  Just like last year though, I'm not allowed to say I have a 2nd grader until the very first day of school in August.  That's ok, I'm intimidated by the thought anyway.

Our usual tradition of photos on the last day.  This day was a little sad because it's also our last day walking to the bus stop with our neighbors Memaw and Shawn.  Shawn is off to 6th grade.  We will miss them both.  We had a fun tradition in the mornings to see which one of us was ready first.  I still think Jocelyn needs to go knock on Memaw's door every morning just to do the countdown!!

So, my almost 2nd grader...   I couldn't be more proud of how far she has come this year.  Her reading has just sparked, especially in the last few months.  She reads to us every night and I'm amazed at how far she has come.  In May, her teacher Mrs. Rutan told me she had skipped completely over level L books and moved right onto level M.  Considering I think she started the year at level D?!  That's amazing!

Her favorite subject is Math.  I have to give credit to Daddy and his engineering brain for that.  The assessment testing put her in the 83 percentile for Math.  It clicks for her and I'm so glad.

So while my girl was off celebrating her last day of school with her friends, I joined some of my friends for breakfast.  This was a tough anniversary for one of them, so we got together to support her and each other in this milestone day.  

And when the kiddos got out of school we made our first trip to the pool for the summer.  Jocelyn is getting swimming lessons from a friend this summer and she's becoming a little fish.  I suspect we will be water logged for much of the summer.

Welcome summer break!  Welcome playdates and camps, swimming and fun days all ahead of us.  And don't tell her I said so, but I am so proud of my 2nd grader!