Memorial Day Camping

Memorial Day weekend we camped at Monte Sano.  The plan was for John and Ben to do some mountain bike riding but John kept popping tubes on his bike.  (He visited the bike shop the next week and now has the correct type.  Hopefully this won't happen again.)  Even though it was May, it's cooler on Monte Sano and we all were thankful for jackets at night.  Note what Annie considered appropriate hiking attire in that last pic.

I accidentally book a campsite without a sewage hookup so we had to shower in the bathhouses.  Yuck.  Tuesday morning when I was dressing at home, I realized I left my toiletry bag in the bathhouse.  While this was annoying I wasn't concerned.  I called Monte Sano and confirmed that it was in lost and found.  I planned to pick it up later in the week when I took Annie to the Orthopedic Center.  However a few hours later I remembered my wedding rings were in the bag!  In a panic, I hurried to Monte Sano (about a 40 minute drive).  Thankfully, my rings were still in it!

Random May Pics

The rest of may included finishing school work, Wednesday park dates, 4-H sewing club, preparing for dance recital, and opening our backyard pool. Mollie Grace made a dress for Kiersten and the girls built fairy houses.  I had my Challenge B class' short stories published into an anthology for each student. 

Noccalula Falls

We went hiking with our CC group at Noccalula Falls in Gadsden. It was a big group of mamas and kids of all ages.

 

Fractured Arm

Wednesday afternoon at the park Annie got knocked off a spinny thing (I'm not sure what it's called) at the park.  She said her arm hurt but she could move her fingers and bend her elbow.  However, she couldn't raise her arm above her head.  Thursday I took her to the pediatrician to have it checked.  He sent us to the hospital for an x-ray.  After her x-ray was read, the doctor sent us to the pediatric orthopedic doctor.  Annie's arm is fractured near the top of her arm.  He said a cast wasn't necessary.  She has to keep it in an "immobilizer" for three weeks.  That's pretty nice because she can take it off to bathe.  Thursday evening Mollie Grace and I planted our garden while John took Ben to his soccer game.

 

End of April

Saturday afternoon Annie attended a birthday tea party for her friend Hannah.  While she was at the tea party, I dropped the high back booster seat in the recycling bin at Target.  That seat was originally Ben's but no one was using it anymore.  Annie asked to switch to a backless booster in our new car.

End of Year Program

The last Friday in April was our CC End of Year Program.  Each class presented memory work.  Annie's class sang the presidents.  Mollie Grace's class sang a history song about the Mexican Revolution.  Ben's class presented their final research project, where they chose an element, researched it, and then presented a sales pitch for it.  Mollie Grace also received an award for Memory Master and both Mollie Grace and Annie were Scripture Masters (they were able to recite Exodus 20: 1-17).

 

Traveling with Flat Stanley

Our friend from Hernando Lily Cate since us Flat Stanely to take pictures with and return to her first grade class.  We intended to take Flat Stanley with us to Atlanta and he fell out of my purse and we lost him before we even left!  Her teacher nicely e-mailed us a new Stanley and he went with us to Cheaha and Talladega.  We stopped at Buc-cee's outside Birmingham for a photo op.  Mollie Grace got a single-person kayak for Christmas that she got to use for the first time.  That meant Annie moved from sitting in the middle to paddling my two-seater kayak.  We also made a couple of local stop to take pictures with Stanley.  We mailed Stanley back to Lily Cate's class last week with pictures, post cards, brochures and a letter.