We have a 5th Grader!!

Today is Jocelyn's first day of 5th grade.  Today is also the first day of Jocelyn's last year in Elementary School.  She's now one of the oldest kids in the school.  She's about to have a year full of "lasts".

-  Last first day of Elementary School
-  Last Halloween Parade
-  Last Cozy night of reading
-  Last time sharing Valentines
-  Last field day
-  Last end of year picnic
... and many more

And I'm pretty sure she doesn't realize it, but when this school year ends, she will say goodbye to all her teachers K-5 for the last time.  But we aren't ready to think about that...

Today is the beginning of her 5th grade year, and we are so hoping that it is better than last year.  She has her two best buddies, Kate and Ryan, in her class, and her teacher seems really bubbly and fun.  She has only 2-3 trouble makers in her class, near as we could tell from the open house.  So we have high hopes for the year to come.

My baby is growing up.

Five years ago...  First day of Kindergarten

Today...  First day of 5th Grade

Summer Wrap Up

The end of summer has come, and once again, I am so sad to see it go.  I love the time I have with Jocelyn for these 11 weeks, and it always reminds me of how fortunate I am to be able to stay home with her.  Some parents dread the summer with their kids, and others have to work all summer and don't get to spend time with their kids.  I feel so lucky.

We wrapped up the summer with some more fun.  We headed to the pool a couple more times.

We all went to Pat's company cookout and Jocelyn got to eat crabs for the first time ever.  She's of the same mind as her parents - it's a lot of work, for very little food!  (Not to mention they have beady eyeballs...)

We went out for lunch at Red Robin with Dad.

And finished our summer history tour.  We didn't make it to all the sites, but she got her prize.  We may still head to some of the other locations before the winter comes.

And of course, the summer is not complete without Mommy and Daughter pedicures!!

Hershey Park!

We've been waiting all summer for the right time to go to Hershey Park.  We had the tickets, we just needed the weather to cooperate for once!  It finally did last Monday, so we were off!!

Jocelyn finally made it to the Twizzlers ride height!  Which means she is allowed to go on rides that she has absolutely no interest in, like roller coasters!  Fine with me!  I have no interest in spinning in circles until I'm sick, thank you very much!

We were in the park no more than an hour and it was time to tackle a funnel cake!  Jocelyn is holding on to Hershey the cow.  He was purchased at our first trip to Hershey, and got to come back for a visit!

We took a train ride - definitely more our speed!

Then Mom beat some whack-a-moles so Jocelyn could win a narwhal.  Yeah, I had to look it up too.  It actually is a real thing!!

No trip to Hershey is without it's character photos!  We happen to be big fans of York Peppermint Patties and Kisses.  Don't tell the "ladies"!

Have you seen the old man dance?  This is their version.  Quite amusing I must say!

We did spend some time in the water park area.  The Lazy River was a favorite, no surprise, but Tidal Force (disclaimer in line "You WILL get soaked on this ride"), was an unexpected favorite!  We all loved it!  --There are no photos of the water park for obvious reasons...

I did however get photos of these two in bumper cars.  Guess where I was sitting taking this picture??  It took me half the ride to get myself unstuck in this corner, but once I was free, I happily slammed my car into the back of the kiddo.  She didn't complain!  :) 

We ended the day with the Chocolate tour.   Hershey the cow did in fact live to see his friends on the tour!  Another great summer memory!  But the summer is sadly almost over...

Ellicott City Revisited

In July, we took a guided tour of Ellicott City.  We had originally scheduled the tour for a date that ended up being right after the flood and much of the road was still closed off.  Since the tour is monthly, we postponed it a month and fortunately Main Street was open by then.  We started up near the Museum where Jocelyn and I have gone to the Children's programs, and ended at the bottom of the hill at the B&O Railroad Museum.  This was the first really good look we had at the damage done from this second flood.

These two pictures are what our tour guide called "the gorge", the area of Ellicott Mills Road that completely washed away, and the area behind the Thomas Isacc Cabin.  It was so much larger than I had imagined.

All up and down Main Street we saw markings on buildings like these on the Howard House, that were made by First Responders making sure no one was trapped in the building by flood waters.

In the center of this photo is the vertical sign for Caplans.  Sadly, last week the announcement was made that all the buildings from Caplans down to right before the B & O Railroad station, will be torn down.  I guess it shouldn't be a surprise, but it makes me so sad at the loss of history.

This building is right before Caplans.  It used to be a bank and you can see in the center what was once the vault.  It is not supposed to be demolished, but restoration will be a huge task as water flowed from the back windows through the building and out the front windows onto Main Street.

Everywhere we went, we saw these stars.  They came from Stars of Hope -  http://starsofhopeusa.org/hopealert-for-ellicott-city/   and they were something special to see amidst all the devastation.  This one was one of my favorites.

After our tour we stopped in the B & O Railroad Museum.  This is one of the stops for the summer Passport book, and we wanted to take the tour. 

Ellicott City has a long way to go to recover from the flood and it will be so sad to see the buildings come down, but there is so much strength and courage from the people who live and work there.  You can only have hope, as they do, that it will be enough to bring the town back.

Summer fun in 2018

Summer has flown by and 5th grade starts in a week and a half, but it's time to look back on the fun we've had.

Pat and I got a date night and did some painting.  I think we did pretty good!

Jocelyn got in some crafting of her own at pottery camp.  She loves this camp!  We can't wait to see the finished products when they are dried and fired.

We haven't been able to get back to the horse farm as much as we wanted because we've been busy or it's been too hot, or raining.  Seriously, we're volunteers!  We get to pick and choose what weather we're game for!!  On the day we took this picture, it was too hot, but we managed to find a chore that involved water, so by the time we got home, we were pretty gross - sunblock, bug spray, sweat, water, and some other substances we probably don't want to identify!!  But we had fun and can't wait to go again!  (We offered a great big hug to Pat when we got home, but for some reason, he turned us down??)

We worked in a tour through Ellicott City.  It was interesting and educational, but also sad to see the destruction from the flood.  More on that in another post...

At Pets and Vets camp, Auntie brought in Mollie for show and tell and some kid loving!

A few of our Girl Scout friends joined us for a Children's Tea at the Historical Society Museum.

No summer is complete without spending some time with our friends.  It's so great to hang out with Colin and Nicki, and Lily and Ann.  I love that we have been friends for so long.  It's wonderful to see our kids grow up together.

What is summer without ice cream??  Well, certainly not as much fun!  We made some new discoveries at the store.  Coconut and Almond milk ice creams in flavors like cookie dough and mint chip!!  And the best part is coconut milk Cool Whip!!!  Awesome!!  And of course, no pottery camp week is complete without a stop in the one and only ice cream shop that makes dairy free chocolate ice cream!

Summer 2018

Our summer is off to a busy start!

Jocelyn had a play date with her buddy Kate, and we saw Incredibles 2 with Lily and Colin and families.

We finished our training to volunteer at the Horse Rescue Farm.  Mucking stalls, stocking hay, brushing Nugget and picking out his hooves.  Hot, dirty and sweaty work, but Jocelyn loved every minute and can't wait to go back in a couple weeks.

We got to say "Hi" to Barney!

Then it was off to PA for a visit with Pat's family, including fireworks for the 4th of July and a fight to the death whiffle ball game...  guess who won??

 Stay tuned for more summer fun!