National Night Out: Aug. 2011
Andrea:



Justin helped run our neighborhood's National Night Out again this year with big success! This year, he and his friend, Scott Orlinksi, were able to get jumping castles, tons of great prizes for a drawings (Camden won a pony b-day party at the Hodges Dairy Farm!), a pinata for the kids -- and they organized all kinds of contests, including three-legged races, the limbo, etc.
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Tristan's Third Birthday
Andrea:













On Saturday, June 25, we celebrated Tristan's third birthday at Beth and John's house in Hickory. Everyone had a great time swimming, kayaking, eating Thomas-the-Tank-Engine cake, and spending time with family. Tristan, a train lover, enjoyed his train party; everyone chipped in on getting a wooden train set for Tristan's gift -- and he was thrilled! (He hasn't stopped playing with his train set since he received it!)
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Memorial Day to D-Day
Justin:
We had a very busy, yet fun, memorial day weekend.  On Saturday, we went to our friend Tamara's house for a cookout to help her celebrate her birthday with friends and family.  The highlight of the evening occurred when Ruth and Sophie, the daughters of fellow teacher Cameron, performed a song that they wrote for Tamara called Hello Kitty Girl.  I wish we had a video of their performance to share, but take it from me, they are very talented young ladies.

On Sunday, we went to our friend's--Vera and Johannes--new house for dinner.  Their new house--just inside Cabarrus County--is amazing and spacious.  They got a really great deal in this buyers market.  As usual, they had prepared a huge feast including two different types of pork, hot dogs for the kids, yellow rice, four or five different salads, watermelon, chips, cookies...and more.  We also enjoyed meeting some of their new neighbors, who have invited us to experience their neighborhood Halloween party in October--they say it is unmatched in the Charlotte area.

On Memorial Day, we went to Hickory to have lunch at Aunt Beth and Uncle John's house and swim in the lake.  It was a perfect day to just float around in the water, take the kayak out, or just lounge on the dock.  Even Andrea's grandma, Meme, tried out the kayak for the first time.

Then, this past Saturday, Michelle and I went with Camden and Will to the Extreme Ice Center in Indian Trail for their friend Tyler's birthday.  I absolutely loved it because it was so cool inside the rink while it was in the nineties and muggy outside.  Camden and Will both improved their skating skills immensely by the time the session was over.

Yesterday, we went to Troop 1088's end of year ceremony and cookout.  It was very hot, but we soon found some shade in the backyard and let the girls cool of with a slip-and-slide, pool, sprinkler, and water balloons.


Tamara Makes a wish before blowing out the candles.

Sophie and Ruth Perform Hello Kitty Girl for Tamara

Tristan tries out the drinking straw glasses.

Sam enjoys Sophie's attention.



Camden with her End-of-Year awards.

Tristan and Camden slide into the cool zone.




Although we have fun on these long weekends and holidays each year, let us not forget to give thanks to all the veterans of our armed forces, those we have lost and remember on Memorial Day, and those who stormed the beaches of Normandy sixty-seven years ago today.
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Last Days of Preschool 2011
Justin:
Sam and Tristan had their last day of preschool together today.  Tristan has one more day, tomorrow, and will return next year for the Threes class.  Sam will be moving on to Montessori school next year for his last year of preschool before kindergarten. 

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Camden's Spring Chorus Performance
Justin:


Camden reads her Haikus about 6 minutes and 40 seconds into the video.

Rain
Rain sounds like cats' feet
Rain is so soft on my face
Rain pitter patters

Flowers
I adore flowers
I smell their sweet scent each day
We all love flowers
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April Fun and Easter Egg Hunts
Justin:
My class this semester is over and the kids are still in school, so I finally have time to update the blog with the things we did last month—and April was quite a busy month for us. The first weekend, we hosted a picnic at our house featuring smoked pork sandwiches and pot-luck side dishes provided by our friends. We had a great time visiting with all our friends and the kids had fun playing games in the back yard.



The following weekend, thanks to Grandmother Norma’s suggestion, we accompanied her and the Spurlock family to the Historic Camden Revolutionary War Site in Camden, South Carolina for an military reenactment. The event featured re-enactors from all times in military history who engaged in a mock battle. Strangely enough, the World War II and beyond era soldiers were defeated by soldiers using different types of muskets. Perhaps the musketeers were given the edge because they had artillery support. The mortar created a perfect smoke ring that ascended for tens of feet above the battle.


The weekend of the 16th began the kid’s Spring Break and Grandma Sandi came up from Florida for a visit. When she arrived on Sunday we were in the midst of a pot-luck Easter picnic with our friends and their kids. The kids had a blast hiding and searching for Easter Eggs. I’m sure I’ll still be finding some of those eggs in the yard when next Easter rolls around. The next day we took the kids to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC. It’s a great zoo because it has a good variety of animals in a compactly designed layout, so it is easy to get quickly from one area to another. The rest of the week we spent time with Grandma Sandi locally, except when a “short ride” took us out past Albemarle, NC to Morrow Mountain State Park. The park was a great discovery though, with plenty of campsites and cabin rentals, lake access, a swimming pool and scenic overlooks.


We finished the month with a Reimers/Spurlock campout at Davidson River Campground near Brevard, NC. This time of year there are plenty of walk-up sites and great weather—although it did get pretty cold at night. During the height of summer, the main attraction is inner-tubing down the Davidson River. However when we went, the water was frigid. In fact, there was a bit of an incident at the swimming hole because of the cold water. A teenage girl who had gotten too cold in the water was swept downstream by the current and sank below the surface a few times. A teen age boy, who first tried to reach her from the shore, jumped in to save her but only got pushed under water when the girl panicked. Andrea took a picture me swimming across the river during the event thinking that I was just jumping in for fun, but in the background the girl can be seen screaming and holding her would-be rescuer underwater. I swam over just in time to help push them to the shore as they both resurfaced. At the same time, Tristan, who was wearing a life vest dove in after me and had to be pulled out of the river by Andrea and Michelle. Boy was he surprised at how cold the water was—he instantly began crying. Luckily, the air temperature was warm so we all recovered rather quickly. Despite the scare, we will definitely be going back this summer when the water is warmer to do some tubing.


Well, that’s it for April. We attended Camden’s Spring chorus performance last Thursday, so I’ll post the video as soon as I get it uploaded. She wrote her own Haiku poems and read them at the performance.  Also, you can look at Tristan’s Spring preschool pictures online at NormHillPhotograpy.com with the passsword: sharon. When I looked, Tristan was on page 9 and cousin Sam was on page 3.
























































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