My Snapdragon

 Snapdragons are one of my favorite flowers.  They are an annual, but I've always had great luck with them coming back the next year.  I planted these last summer when we moved in, and it lasted our mild, yet below freezing at times, winter.  It started as one tiny little flower, out of one of those six packs you can buy at Lowes/Home Depot/etc.  Now, it's taking over the garden!  It's awesome.  It towers over my azalea bush behind it, which ironically cost a lot more than the little snapdragon.  It just started blooming last week, so I'm excited to see the colors it blooms all summer.

If you are ever unsure about a flower to buy, buy a snapdragon.  You'll more than get your $1.00 out of it! 

Vegetable Garden-Week 4

Camp Rockfish

This afternoon, we were able to attend the Camp Rockfish Open House.  Camp Rockfish is a United Methodist church camp convienently located only 10 minutes south of our house.  It's a really awesome camp!  The directors go to our church, and they run a ton of programs all year.  During the summer, they have numerous camps from day camps to week-long overnight camps.  Our church gets a week slot for day camp, and we signed the kids up for it this week.  That will be in June.  Well, when we were out there today checking out things, our kids fell in love with it, wanting to start tomorrow.  So, after running into two sets of our neighbors, both going the same daycamp week in August, we decided to put Madison and Luke in that too.  They were extremely excited. 

Activities include:  Bible Study, climbing wall, archery, BB guns (ahh, Luke heaven), canoes, kayak, swimming pool, lake, horeshoes, volleyball, nature hikes, and of course, food.  I'm sure I'm leaving out activites, but that's the general rundown.  All activites were open to try today, but because of rain earlier in the day, we didn't get to spend as much time there as we would have liked.  It was still a great afternoon, and our kids are THRILLED to be going this summer.

 Madison loves climbing walls and has been doing them since she was four.  She even climbed to the top of one in Yuma on Halloween in her cowgirl costume (with boots).  Today was no exception.

Luke loved archery and could have practiced all day.

Madison enjoyed it too and noted how different it is than on the Wii.

T-ball

Madison and Luke are both playing t-ball this year, so they are on the same team, the Yankees.  Their "Yankee" mom loves that :)  The birthday cutoff for t-ball this year is June 1, so Madison is still a six-year-old for regulations (birthday is June 8). Next year, she'll move up to softball. 

They had a good first game, winning it by a lot.  Luke seemed to play best at catcher, and Madison did well at second base.  Both hit well, but Madison really whacked the ball past the infield earning a double out of it.

It should be a fun season!

Kindergarten Registration

Luke had kindergarten registration today, and he loved it.  I must say that it was quite boring, as I had to sit and fill out paperwork over and over.  The school had a whole program setup for the kids, and he spent the morning with one of the kindergarten teachers getting a taste of school.  They sang, painted, had calendar time, learned a few words in Mandarin (the school is a model school for early immersion language, and the language they learn here is Mandarin-Madison has class three times a week for a half hour), took a ride on the school bus, and had lunch.  GREAT DAY!  He said he even saw Madison in the halls twice.

 Our school here is really, really awesome.  I'm so pleased with it.  It's a new school just around the corner from our house.  While large, it has a very small feel, with an example this morning.  As we were waiting in line to get our registration packet, Madison's bus driver spotted us.  He's one of the kindergarten aids and a really nice older gentleman.  He came right up to Luke and asked if he could go ahead and go to the class.  Then, he was the same one who was giving the bus ride on Madison's and what will be Luke's bus.  He had Luke sit in Madison's assigned seat for the ride, and he came up and talked to Luke and me during lunch.  He likes to tease us about our Tigers, as he went to UNC. Large school, but very small feel.  The principal also noted that I had "another one to send" and said, "We'll be glad to have him."  Awesome school  :)

Luke said his favorite part was two-fold:  the bus ride (they drove around the cul-du-sac) and lunch.  There are always two entree choices, and he chose the salisbury steak, potatoes, orange, roll, and milk (and loved it).  In fact, by the time I got to him at his table, he was polishing off the last bite of the salisbury steak.

I think one of the hardest things for Luke will be all-day kindergarten. He'll get tired.  The other issue for Luke will be food. It will be a long day without the snacks he likes, as he's a big eater.

A HUGE thanks to my mom for coming over to watch Alex so he didn't have to sit at school painfully for four hours.

Toothless X 5

Yes, she now has lost five teeth just in this last month.  She currently has four out on top (all in a row) and one out on the bottom.  Bring on the corn on the cob!

Jam

I have been wanting to make homemade jam, so I did this morning.  Edward loves homemade strawberry jam, and after talking to my mother-in-law and good friend, Elizabeth, I was set to go.  Both used the same recipe and had the exact same tips, so I think I've consulted the experts.  Thanks for the advice!

 No, I didn't need all of these strawberries, but this is some of what Edward and the kids picked yesterday.  We'll be able to eat all of those pretty quickly.

 Two cups of crushed up strawberries...

After adding some sugar and a pectin mix, here it is!



The Completed Kitchen Update

The last few weeks, we have been updating our kitchen.  Edward put in a ceiling fan, and we had granite countertops, a backsplash, and a new sink light put in.  The previous owners had really scratched up the old countertops, and we decided as long as we were putting in the countertops, we should do the backsplash too, as we didn't want the two inch granite backsplash on our countertops.  Here's the kitchen:

Before

After 

New sink light-our tile guy, Corey, had this awesome idea to tear out the old fluorescent one to put this one in.

Squirrel!

This deserved its own post.  Since we moved back East, Luke has been really interested in squirrels.  We didn't really have them in Arizona, but here, he sees them everywhere.  My parents have a ton of them at their house.  Luke always thinks he can catch a squirrel.  While in Clemson, he tried to catch another one, and I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

 The squirrel is running from Luke.  We couldn't stop laughing over this action shot.

 Luke is looking up the tree, while the squirrel is hiding on the other side of the tree.

Luke is walking behind the tree, and there's the squirrel in the same spot.

 Squirrel now in front, and Luke where squirrel was

 Squirrel ready to head up the tree...

Squirrel, safe from a five-year-old little boy

A Day at Clemson

We arrived at Clemson on Tuesday evening.  Dinner was top priority. Edward and I were saddened to find out that many of our favorite restaurants had closed.  I mean, we "only" graduated 12 (me) and 11 (Edward) years ago  :)  It was disappointing, but we did find a place the kids loved.

We had dinner at a local pizza place where the kids discovered air hockey.  After that, we went to a new Holiday Inn Express for our stay.  It was strange seeing so many new places at "our" college.

Wednesday morning, we were ready to go, bright and early.  Our first stop was my old workplace during college, The Visitor's Center.  My former bosses still run the place, and it was really good to catch up.  The kids enjoyed seeing my brick with my name on it, as I worked there when the new building was built.  I loved working there during college.  I worked at the front desk, greeting all visitors to the camps.  As a side, I gave tours, which is a voluntary position, but I LOVED it too.  Then, we were off to explore.

 Looking back, the reflection pond and library still look the same.

The kids sat with the Walter Cox statue.

 Then, we made our way to Bowman Field.  Luke liked the military memorial park area.  The last time Edward stood here was during his 2LT commissioning.  Speaking of ROTC, we went by the office, and Edward wondered if he would know anyone.  His main instructor, who had been a CPT was back running the whole program as a LTC.  It was really good to see him.  He remembered both of us, as he came to our wedding too. 

 Madison loved Bowman.  She ran the entire length of it twice.

 Flash made an appearance.  The campus loved Flash.  He wore the cape everywhere and had all the students laughing.  He kept yelling, "I'm the Flash" as he passed people.

 Luke couldn't wait to play frisbee and soccer on Bowman.

After shopping in downtown Clemson, Luke proudly showed off his new hat.

 Lunch at TD's (thank goodness that was still there) was fun.  Madison loved looking at the names written on all the booths.  The kids thought it was cool Edward and I used to eat here after church.  The boys are sporting their new Clemson hats.

 Afternoon snack at the Clemson Creamery...homemade ice cream.  Luke had Tiger Tracks.

Alex had his favorite, Vanilla.

 Madison enjoyed her favorite, Cookies and Cream.

Back to Bowman with our new soccer ball (a Clemson one, of course).

 An AWESOME evening at the Clemson vs. Georgia baseball game!!!! Thanks, to Tracey and Helen, my old bosses for getting those tickets for us.  We had great seats, Helen's season pass seats.  The game started at 7 PM, which is late for the kids, but the did really well.  We stayed until 9:30, which seems like a long game, but it was on the top of the 6th inning when we left.  Sadly, our Tigers lost, 8-7.

Luke and Flash ready for the game

Madison really enjoyed the game.

Beautiful, but cold, night for a game.

The hightlight of the game turned out to be the Tiger and Cub. We were in the first row off the dugout, and they made frequent visits to the kids (not many kids at the game either).  Our kids LOVED them!!!  Alex kept asking where "Baby Tiger" was.  Finally, he started figuring out his name was Cub and would yell, "Where's my Cub?"  Also, note that "Flash" was at the game.

Flash and the Tiger

We had a really great visit to Clemson.  It was a beautiful couple of days, and the kids had a blast.  My former boss even told Madison she could have a job too if she came to Clemson :)  I'm so glad we were able to go there for a couple of days to show the kids our school.