Moonshine Mountain Snow Tubing

Annie & the Buddhist Monks

Today, we took a trip with Mountain Sun Community School to Brevard College to watch some visiting Buddhist Monks create a beautiful sand mandala!

Leia's Spectacular Picture of Daddy

A Visit from Uncle Joe

Annie: Zipline, Bricklayer, Hairstylist

Happy Valentines Day 2012

Leia's Third Grade "Chocolate Day"!!!

Thank you, Mrs. Garcia, for the amazing end to the unit on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! The children look forward to this all year! As Mrs. Garcia takes the kids to a real chocolate factory (this year it was the culinary arts college), the parents turn the third grade room into an edible paradise. Traditionally, each parent has a station. I worked for MONTHS making "lickable wallpaper" for the children using kool aid as paints. Then, as the children came around, I used the lines from the movie: "MUST show you this: Lickable Wallpaper for nursery walls. Go ahead, try it! Try an orange it tastes like an orange. Try a grape, it tastes like a grape. ... The strawberries taste like strawberries, the SNOZZBERRIES taste like SNOZZBERRIES!" Veruca (and several of the third-graders) say, "Snozzberries? Whoever heard of a snozzberry?" At which point I grabbed the kids cheeks, looked into their eyes, and said, "WE are the music-makers, and WE are the dreamers of dreams." ;-) My best "customer" was Leia's friend Kimber who came back again and again to lick the fruits. Morgan’s dad played Willy Wonka, and welcomed the children by using a scooter to scoot around the gym. We even had Madison’s dad playing the golden goose! Annie and Oma did a wonderful job helping me run my station! (Little did we know that Oma would have a station of her own for Annie’s class four years later!) My only issue of the day was that the boys and the girls each had a dance video made and shown during the event. This caused them not to focus on the room, but only focus on the media. Oh well. Those dance videos, featuring the kids AND the principal, are a fun memory too! It was a day never to be forgotten!

Imagination ruled today. Enjoy it, my Leia.

Three Oompa Loompas: Oma, Mamma, & Annie

I was SO excited to have Oma, myself, and Annie dress up as Oompa Loompas for Leia's "Chocolate Day" in Third Grade! Annie, however, was NOT happy. I took her out of Mountain Sun Community School for the day to be with us, but I didn't realize the costume would bother her so very much. She was such a sport! And by the end of the day, she was participating! In our position (bottom picture) it was amazing to welcome the excited third-graders back from the "chocolate factory" which this year was the culinary college where they got to make MANY chocolate-related things!

Visit w/the McNeils in Chapel Hill

We visited the McNeils in Chapel Hill and went to a wild animal rescue park! Look at the white tiger! Even though it was cold and rainy, we still had fun. Afterwards, we ate at the historic S&T's Soda Shop in Pittsboro. Quite the memory!