Speed Street

We finally decided to engage in the Nascar culture here in Charlotte and spent a couple hours in Uptown during Speed Street, which I've heard referred to as Redneck Trick-or-Treating. And that pretty much sums it up.

Besides a few games for the kids, race cars parked here and there, and drivers signing autographs, the main event of the festival is walking around with your yellow bag gathering samples from all the vendors. We were there early in the day, and in the kid's zone they were giving out a lot of cereal and snack samples, so the kids were pretty happy with their loot, but we weren't very hard core. The only real line we waited in was for ice cream, but I couldn't believe how many people, adults, were waiting in line, in hot humid weather, for 20 or 30 minutes to get a bag of M&M's or a T-shirt, or other small prize. It's a little crazy what free stuff will do to people.

I think this was a one-time experience. It's kind of a funny festival, and a funny crowd. And I'm just really not into Nascar.

Side note: This kid loves his Coke, and was only too happy to pose in front of the Coke car. I kind of hate that a 3 year old child of mine is so hooked on soda. When he was a not-quite one year old, begging for a sip of our drinks, we thought we'd take the same approach that worked with Bean and let him have one. Only he LOVED the carbonation and the "spiciness" of Coke and we've been fighting a losing battle ever since.

Summer School

On the last day of our homeschool classes, another mom asked me if we school year round. I reminded her that we unschool, so we don't really take time off. The whole philosophy behind unschooling is the idea that life is for learning and the world is our classroom--its kind of hard to take the summer off. I supposed when/if we are in a situation that we have to turn in detailed records to the state, I'll schedule times through the year that I stop keeping track, but we don't even have to let the state know that we're homeschooling until Bean is 7, and NC has pretty loose requirements even then.


However, I have been making some plans for this summer. Things have gotten really lax around our house the last few months. First it was the winter doldrums and several colds/stomach bugs in a row. Then, the awesome spring weather and vacations and visitors. We've still been learning, but I am feeling the need for a little more structure to our day. Besides, we want to make sure we can fit all our fun in and not miss out on anything this summer.



Our plans:


Summer Reading Program--Our library does one, but its so basic and we read a lot, so it really has been an afterthought the last 2 summers. When we were in Michigan, the library there did a really fun bingo sheet with different types of books for each square, so I decided to borrow that idea and make my own. I'm hoping this will help us stretch a little and read a few different things this summer, along with our favorite types.

(I tried to post the chart I made, but I don't know how to post a table from Word quickly, so if anyone is interested, let me know and I'll email it to you.)

Nature Activities--Between the Latta Plantation Nature Preserve, the Charlotte Nature Museum, and the Reedy Creek Nature Center, there are a lot of fun things going on that we're going to try to make it to. I think the kids will especially like the water day at the end of the summer where they get to get wet while learning about animals that live in the water.

Natural History--We discovered the Natural HIstory Museum in Gastonia a few months ago and I'm really excited about their outdoor farm and Native American Village where they do living history activities in the summer. I'm hoping it will help satiate my longing to go back to Greenfield Village, which seems to hit strong every year. And the Plantation has some fun stuff planned as well that we'll probably try to fit in.


Kidgits Club at the mall--Putt putt, bowling, crafts, music activities--different things 4 mornings a week for a month. We did some of these last year and had a blast. The best part is that after the $5 membership fee, its all free!


Free Summer Movies--I need to look into some of the films they are showing, but there are already a couple that I think the kids will love--The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, March of the Penguins. And those airconditioned theaters feel really nice in the summer.


Pool Time--We're planning to spend a lot of time there. Counts as PE. And I didn't end up getting the kids into swim lessons this winter because there just weren't good prices at convienent times (and I taught swim lessons for several years, so its really hard for me to pay $20 for a 30 minute lesson that I could do myself), so I want to spend a lot of time in the water and get them both really swimming this summer.

Patterson Farms

We did a little strawberry picking on Monday with friends. Same place as last year, only this year we went on a day where you can do the kid's package--hayride, puppet show (lamest puppet show I've ever seen, and considering how they are almost always lame, that's really saying a lot), feed the animals, and play at the playground, oh, and pick a pint of strawberries. That is why we drove all the way out there, right? (Yeah, Bugaboo, I was a little disgusted at how much we had to pay for that pint of strawberries, too!) It would have been one thing if they'd only charged for the kids, but adults had to pay, too, and then I bought another gallon as well because I wanted enough berries to make jam and some desserts.

But the kids had fun.

The corn bin was a big hit. They spent a long time in there, and keep asking me if we can buy enough popcorn to make our own.

And now we do have strawberry freezer jam, and got to eat this for dessert that night:

(It's a version of this tart from last spring, but drizzled with a balsalmic syrup, suggested by Uncle D, and it was REALLY good. At least, the balsalmic lovers in the house thought so.)

Post-Rain Visitor

Sometimes I feel like we live in a wildlife refuge. We had two turtles crawling across our lawn after a big storm, and then the next day, we saw a bobcat at the edge of our yard. We've also seen deer, coyotes, foxes, owls, and of course lot of random birds and squirrels. Not bad for living in a suburban development.

School's Out!

Bean finished up her homeschool classes last week. Her teachers have been so great and she wanted a picture with each of them, "to remember and I can even take them with me to college!" Ms. Heather, Circle Time

and Ms. Lori, Music and Movement

Her music class sang a couple songs for us and showed us some of what they do in class. She's had a great time this year and I'm so glad that we were able to find something lowkey and fun for her to do.

Beach Time

My favorite part about camping--being a 5 minute walk from the beach.

Uncle D. built a sand castle with the kids (always quite the challenge to keep it standing while still building it.)

I took pictures at each step, just in case, but we made it to the end with only a couple small cave-ins.

I took a jog down the beach one morning and found this:

I guess its from all the erosion, but its really amazing, in a tragic sort of way. The root systems on all these trees along the coast are so shallow, and dense, and pretty massive in some cases:

It was a good obstacle course, hopping over logs at high tide.

There is also a lighthouse on the island. We went after hours, so it was closed inside, but it was in a beautiful area.

One last sand game:The Little MermaidAll the beach playing wore this litte Bug out. He made it through one day with no nap, but fell asleep during our beach walk the second day. I guess 7 hours of sand and sun and sea is a little too much for him.Finally, the take home pile. We did get her to whittle it down a little more back at the campground, but this girl was determined to bring home a whole bucket of shells. Good thing we'd eaten enough food to make some extra space in the car.

Wildlife Encounters

We saw a lot of different animals:The deer were very friendly. The kids loved getting to see them up close, since the ones at home get spooked by our noises even from within the house.These obviously are used to the noises.One of the wierdest catepillars any of us have ever seen. He hung out on our tent for awhile.We spent awhile watching the pelicans dive. Right after we'd seen a school of dolphins, lots of crabs, and small fish.

Then, there was the racoon. The racoon who didn't waste any time ripping a hole in our tent within the first hour we were there, and then tried to pull our hotdog buns through the hole. Luckily, some of our neighbors heard the racket and saved the rest of our food. We were really sad, though, when we got back from the beach, looking forward to sinking our teeth into a fire-roasted hotdog,but tortillas made an okay replacement for dinner.

Wilderness Adventures

We finally took our first camping trip on the east coast. We headed down to Hunting Island which is at the south end of SC.

(I love the Keep Moving--Change Lanes Later sign. In fact, I loved it so much that I didn't notice the sign above and we missed the turn. We only got a little lost. Not really lost, just delayed.)

It wouldn't be camping without S'mores.

And Uncle D. was able to join us. We wanted him to get to see the Atlantic while he's out here with us. I think he's still a Pacific Ocean fan (and a lower-humidity-and-less-mosquitos fan.)

And once again, I got to see my favorite spanish moss. The campground was a beautiful combination of pine trees, palm trees, spanish moss, and magnolias. Definitely a little different than camping in the Sierras.

A few other differences:

1. We realized as soon as we pulled into the campground and saw that almost every single family had a mesh canopy over their table that we'd probably underestimated the mosquitos. We couldn't even make the walk back to our site (and the bugspray) from the beach or the showers without getting attacked.

2. Maybe its just because I didn't grow up camping with electricity at the campsites, but we saw so many Christmas lights/decorative light strands--over people's tents, around their table area. It is a really smart idea--lots of light in the evenings without dealing with lanterns or fires.

3. And why wouldn't you want a campfire while camping? Well, camping on the beach in May means its hot, humid, and the low at night was around 70. We used our sleeping bags as padding--it was really too hot for even a sheet. Growing up, I usually slept with a hooded sweatshirt, socks, and an extra blanket stuffed in my sleeping bag with me.

4. The combination of the heat, and the electricity availibility, also meant that a lot of people had fans going in their tents. I laughed at first, but after that first night, I was really wishing we'd brought our big box fan that we use in our window at home. Live 'n' learn.

More pictures coming. . .

In The Middle

of a passionate argument:

Bugaboo: I like to google much! (I love that google is Buggy's favorite number--he talks about it all the time.)

Bean: I like to more!

Bugaboo: (suddenly very calm) How much?

Bean: More!

Bugaboo: That's not a number.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

These foxgloves only took a year to come up--I planted them last spring, and really had no idea if they were ever going to show, or bloom. I held out hope for a lot of months, wondering if I was growing weeds or flowers in that front bed, but its been worth it the last couple weeks!

Although, in retrospect, I probably won't plant such tall, wild-looking flowers along the front walkway. I'm still learning this gardening thing.

And while the tulips actually came in early April, I hadn't posted pictures yet. These are some of my favorite flowers.

And I love that they are the same colors as the tulips we had at our wedding.

Dinner Party

While my brother, Uncle D, is around, we decided that we had to take advantage of his cooking expertise and have an adults only dinner party one night. And let me say, the contrast to the night before, with my mother's day dinner, was stark. No whining, no jumping up from the table every 30 seconds to refill someone's milk or get a towel to mop up a spill, and no complaining about the food. Just a lot of laughter, story-telling, and good food.

Pork loin stuffed with lamb's quarter,

a citrus-marscapone beet salad,

a broccoli and cauliflower gratin, and roasted fingerling potatoes with berry topped angel food cake for dessert.

I love good food, and I love being able to enjoy it with friends and family.

Paula Deen is the Queen

Paula Deen's Molten Lava Cake is incredible! Rich, oozing, chocolatey goodness. I love chocolate, and this really hit the spot. Daddy-o made one change to the original recipe--a combination of (very mild) bittersweet chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, and unsweetened chocolate, instead of the two types originally called for. But I think that any combination could be really good. Oh, and he didn't add the orange liqueur, just an extra 1/2 tsp. of vanilla. I'm actually not a huge fan of most fruity chocolate things--I prefer my chocolate pure and dark.


Daddy-o is always great with the food on Mother's Day (and plenty of other days as well), and this was no exception. On top of a fantastic dessert, he made me breakfast in bed (french toast from challah bread and strawberries--yum!) and then chili rellanos, spanish rice, and refried beans for dinner. He'd been wanting to do this meal for Uncle D's birthday on Wednesday, but its way too much work for a midweek meal--in fact, I think he might be thinking its too much work in general, but for a once every year or two treat, its nice.

I have to say, by dinner time, the food was nicer than the kids. And Daddy-o was great about that, too. I ate pretty quickly and then left for a very peaceful, LONG walk with Molly. I wonder at what point Mother's Day won't be about sneaking out and having alone time for me.
For now, I'll just appreciate that my husband is willing to give me a pass for the day from pretty much all of my normal duties, even if it makes the day incredibly hard on him, and that my kids are really great about the hugs and kisses and getting excited about stuff, and I do love them.

To all the moms we know, have a fabulous day today!

Happy Birthday, Uncle D!

Teacher Appreciation Day!

We hadn't had a good excuse for a baking day for awhile, but since Bean goes to her homeschool classes on Tuesday, it seemed like a good time to make some Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins (I used the recipe in the link, but left out the nuts and added one extra egg white) to share.

And we had a friend over to help us with the baking, and the enjoying. Apparently she REALLY liked baking with us--her mom said she kept talking about it in her prayers that night :)