Mushroom Madness

Our parks and rec district hosts this activity each year. There were several dozen people who showed up to go mushroom hunting in Sycamore Grove, and this is just a small sampling of what we found.

We had so much fun wandering around, looking for mushrooms and then, back at the tables, a few experts began labeling the specimens we brought back.

Post Christmas Shenanigans

It seems like the day after Christmas can be a little bit of a let-down: no more anticipation, no more excitement, major sugar crash. It is not the kids favorite day of the year, for sure. But this year, it seemed like we did a good job of gift giving and activity planning for the week after Christmas.

There were lots of presents to enjoy.

The kids had fun hanging out in the pajamas and reading,

playing games,

and working with their new toys.

And then, there was the escape room, which was a gift from us/me to everyone. I don't manage to find something really fun for my brother very often, so when I came across this idea, I was really excited (and I figured everyone else would love it, too.) It was the perfect thing for the day after Christmas and gave us a fun hour working together to steal the jewel from the bank. 

Rara and Unkie left the next day and we spent the rest of the week with more pajama time, a short hike at Del Valle with friends, a finishing off all that Christmas candy.

Time Travel Weekend

 

It was closing weekend of the Renaissance Festival and finally a non-rainy weekend with no plans, so Saturday, we got to travel back to the time of knights and ladies, pirates and archers, jousting and crude entertainment. (We did try to avoid the crudeness--it's amazing how many of the shows at the renaissance festival aren't exactly family friendly.) 

 

The getting dressed up and out of the house that morning was not the best experience. But let's be real--when is getting out of our house ever fun? It doesn't seem to matter where we're going, even if it's somewhere we all want to go, we just really struggle. But it all turned around when we were finally there and heading toward the ticket booth.

Actually, we got incredibly lucky and ended up being so glad that we were running 30 minutes late because right before I got in line, a woman came running up to us and offered us 5 tickets that she had leftover from work. Getting in for free kind of made the day for Daddy-o and I :)

 

And then there was all the fun inside. First up, the toys and shops. The kids were pretty focused on finding the perfect souvenirs. They all ended up with some variety of a dragon necklace, although Bug was pretty disappointed when he didn't get a dragon that sits on your shoulder and you can control with a wire. They were really cool, but you either had to pay $25 for an egg that guaranteed some type of dragon, or hope you got lucky with the $5 eggs (or just pay for the dragon, but they weren't cheap). He didn't get lucky this time.

 

Turkey legs (Peanut LOVED the turkey leg), smoked corn, fries, and pastries. We grazed on different treats all day long. And they were all really good. I'm a fan of ren fest food. Probably a lot more so than actual food would have been back then.

The entertainment was fun, too. We watched a juggling show that was very funny.

And an untrained dog show that really wasn't. Except Peanut told us repeatedly that it was his favorite part of the whole day. The dog was cute, and kind of funny, but the owners were obnoxious clowns (literally.)

Some people went on a camel ride. Bug and I went last year, so we skipped it this year.

All 5 of us can now say we've ridden a camel. We'll pretend like it was an exciting excursion and not an overpriced 1 minute loop.

Bug tried his hand at archery. He actually did pretty well and at least hit the target several times, which was a lot better than the ladies I was watching right before him. I overheard them talking about how many mimosas they'd had already, so maybe they had an extra challenge that Bug didn't.

The petting zoo had a bunch of cute, fluffy animals to slobber all over us.

Peanut liked that, too.

And then, the highlight--the joust to the death.

We sat in Sir Maldron's section again, so we could cheer him on.

 

Peanut had no recollection of his short, but intense, obsession with Maldron from 2 year ago, but the rest of us remember his love for Maldron fondly.

This guy was cracking me up. He posed half a dozen times and insisted I take a picture of each new pose.

The tournament was the last of the day.

And after they determined the winner, our scoundrel knight was angry that he'd lost so he stole the prize and started a sword fight that ended with all the knights and their squires being killed except the original winner. It was a lot more gruesome, and exciting, than the tournament we'd seen last time. The kids loved it, of course.

 

We were all so glad that it the weather finally cooperated for us to make it out this year. What a perfect day!

End of Summer?

 

Summer is such a tricky thing--it's weather, it's a school holiday, and it's marked on the calendar, both unofficially and officially, so it's always hard to decide when the end of summer really is, but with the kids fully immersed in school now and the first of the -ber months, it's kind of feeling like it's over. Especially since due to some vandalism at our neighborhood pool, it shut down a couple weeks ago so we haven't even had the end of the season swimming like we normally do. The kids have been missing the pool a lot, but we've had two families invite us out on the lake in the last couple weeks, so that has helped soften the blow.

 

We spent a Saturday afternoon tubing and swimming, which everyone loved.

 

Peanut wouldn't go out on the tube, but he did have fun riding in the boat and taking a swimming break every now and then. A few days later, we spent an evening (which I didn't take any pictures of) with friends and their jet ski's. Daddy-o, who had never been on a jet ski before, fell in love and started plotting ways we could adopt the weekend lake habit. Personally, I'm thinking it's going to need to involve moving to the lake to make it worth it.

 

 

A couple weeks ago, we also squeezed in a Wednesday evening concert and picnic at Romare Bearden Park. We loved those so much last summer, and this year, we only made it once. But it was a beautiful night and there's always next summer.

 

We did a little back to school shopping--these two boys mostly ran around Old Navy terrorizing the place. I remember doing the same thing when I was there age.

 

And with the kids in school all day, Peanut and I have had to find things to do so we don't drive each other crazy (at least, I think my lack of interest in playing with him ALL DAY LONG is driving him as crazy and the fact that he wants me to play with him ALL DAY LONG is doing to me.) We've gone to the library several times, met up with friends at the park, scheduled play dates, and I spend a lot of time trying to convince him that playing "Mom and Day" (his choice) is most fun if Mom and Dad are cleaning things up. He doesn't buy it, and so our house is still in the state of end-of-summer chaos. I figure next week he'll start school and I can eventually get things back together.

 

We did take one day off for a special field trip to the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art to see the Matisse exhibit.

 

For all the museum going that we do, we had actually never been to any of the art museums here in Charlotte. This one was nice and the kids enjoyed seeing the art books of Henri Matisse. Both Bean and Bug had studied him in first grade, which was why I really wanted to do this, even if it meant they missed a day of school in the second week. 

 

And, we went with a group so we had an organized tour of the exhibit and then got to spend an hour in the art lab making our own Matisse inspired works.

 

Peanut got really into it and I have to say, his finished work actually looked very Matisse-like. I've been waiting to find cut up papers all over the house, but I guess that was enough of the cutting to satisfy him for a bit.

Other than that, it's been school runs, Activity Days, supporting the school soccer team at their first game, attending a coaching class (because I somehow got talked into coaching Bug's soccer team this fall, which has me pretty nervous), grocery shopping and meal cooking, dog walking and Peanut chasing. It all feels very much like we've entered autumn, but as long as it's still hitting the 90's, I'm going to pretend it's still summer.

Dan Nicholas Park

Our summer chore chart/rewards system includes a bunch of fun activities that the kids can chose from after their work for the day is completed. Most are small (T.V. time, play a game, bake a treat) and many days the prizes haven't really happened because we have had so much going on with swim meets and day camp, but there are some bigger surprises that I planned for the occasional day when we have more time. With Daddy-o off work Friday, and the cooler weather, it was the perfect day to do a bigger outing.

 

And so we drove out to Dan Nicholas Park for the afternoon. Bug, Bean and I had come 5 years ago for a playgroup meet-up, but it was so long ago that only Bean and I remembered it at all.

Peanut was so excited about the rides. First up, the carousel, where he very adamantly picked to ride on the stationary bench and NOT on an animal.

This was his serious face for most of the ride. To be fair, the carousel was going fast enough that I kind of felt sick watching it, so I can imagine that it would be unsettling to be on it, but at least he didn't cry and said it was fun after the fact.

 

The other two kids had fun.

Bug grabbed the "bull" by the horns and spent most of the ride figuring out how the animals went up and down and the carousel turned. Always the mechanic. . .

Then, we went on a little train ride.

Peanut loved this one. And I thought it was hilarious how squished in there Daddy-o looked.

The ride isn't long, but we got to see "wildlife",

and the gem of the ride--the circus tunnel at the end. Hahaha. This ride was seriously cracking us up. The park was originally built in 1968 and I'm pretty sure most of it has never been updated.

My barnyard family. They have a small "petting zoo" (where you pet some of the animals at your own risk).

This has to be one of the craziest sheep we've ever seen. The double set of horns make it look like a Buffy-esque demon. Maybe where they got their inspiration.

 

And of course we had to visit Bug's favorite, the donkey. The donkey was a little stressed from the groups of kids that had come through earlier and actually scared Bug when he let out a very hoarse squeal that sounded even stranger than the normal donkey braying.

After the barnyard experience, we went over to the little zoo, which is incredibly impressive for it's $1/$.50 price. Bald eagles, black bears, bobcats, red wolves, and a lot more. The animals area all there because for whatever reason, they can't live in the wild any longer, which did mean that there were a couple of pretty sorry looking raccoons who walked like they were drunk, but it's pretty nice that they have all these available for people to see.

Peanut started getting tired. Good thing he's still so light because he likes to be carried. But look how tall he's getting.

After years of promising the kids we'd go out on paddleboats sometime, we finally did. That was the only time of the day that we got hot.  The weather was so great for being outside.

 

And the only time of the day that Bean got in trouble--she was climbing around too much and was called out on the speaker from the dock.

 

I'm glad they warned us that fast pedaling might make our legs tired. We never would have figured that one out.

Peanut made friends with a duck when we took and ice cream break.

Our final stop--the gem mining.

The kids love doing this kind of thing.

Who doesn't love a chance to play in the mud and water. Actually, Daddy-o was probably having the most fun. Once he got done with Peanut's bucket, he built dams out of the sand left in the table and kept blocking the water from Bug and Bean.

The kids took the work pretty seriously.

 

Peanut with his haul.

The skies were getting pretty dark, but the kids wanted a quick stop at the playground.

They had about five minutes to climb before the rain started.

And it's a good thing we ran to the car when we did. We hadn't even made it to the main road before the skies opened up.

 

 

Southern summer at its best.