Annual Myrtle Beach trip

 The 2nd week of August, we went to Myrtle Beach.  As always, it was a fantastic trip!!  It was a little bit bitter sweet since my Aunt Judy was sick and we did not know what was going to happen. 

I always have so many beach pictures that it is hard to post a blog.  Too many pictures makes for a long blog . . . so I won't do a lot of writing.  We went with my parents and my brother Paul and his family.  Please skim down the pictures and enjoy!  We did!!!

We made it!!

Lydia and Emily are officially Kindergartners! Their teachers, Ms. Warner and Ms. Wilder, put together an adorable Pre-K end of the year celebration. The students filed in, introduced themselves, sang songs, recited memorized nursery rhymes and accepted their certificate of completion of Pre-K. Afterwards, there was an ice cream social and a special cake for the students. It was such a cute celebration for the kids!! . . . . and the parents!

The "Graduates"

This was such a cute song. They sang the ABC's to a pop tune. They held their guitars and wore their sunglasses while singing. It was so cute!! Lydia and Emily are in the middle row. Emily is all the way to the left and Lydia is behind the little girl in the orange dress.
Emily jammin
Lydia "shades" Washington

Their hats were made in class. They each have their own tassel with 2010 on it. These were made on one of the days my mother was volunteering in their class (my mom and I both volunteer in there. It is so much fun!!) and she helped to make them.
Lydia and Mia reciting their nursery rhyme

Emily

Lydia
The girls and me

Lydia, Oliver and Emily. Oliver is a friend of ours from Freedom Baptist Day School (the center where I work and where they all went from 2 years old until coming to the

Pre-K program at McGaheysville Elementary).

Lydia, Emily and Autumn

Ms. Flanery was a student teacher in the Pre-K class at the beginning of the year and helped out a lot throughout the remainder of the year. She is such a sweet girl and Lydia and Emily love her!!

Ms. Warner is Lydia and Emily's teacher. She is so fantastic!! They have learned more from her than I could have ever thought possible! They absolutely love "Pre-K" (they never refer to school as school. It is always "Pre-K") and I know they will miss her! I only hope their teachers next year are half as wonderful as Ms. Warner!! :)

Ms. Wilder is the Teaching Assistant in the classroom. Ms. Wilder works very hard to help Ms. Warner teach the children. She takes care of prepping all the projects, getting items together for lessons, and just generally being Ms. Warner's "right hand man." They make such a great team! We will miss them all!!!

The movie at the bottom is of Emily, Lilly and Kasey reciting their nursery rhyme.

This was such a super day and a super program!! Each child received a photo album containing pictures of them from throughout the year as well as a cd collection of pictures from the year. What a fantastic experience this program and year has been!!

A fieldtrip . . . FINALLY!!!

Today I was able to go on my first field trip! In the two years that my child/ren have been attending Elementary School, I have not been able to go on a field trip due to work. This time it actually worked out! It was so fun!! Lydia and Emily's Pre-K class took a trip to Natural Chimneys in Mt. Sidney. Last Thursday Mike was able to go on a field trip with Ryan to the Shenandoah National Park so we were able to close out the school year going on field trips with our kids. When we arrived, we took the children to the bathrooms to wash hands before having snack and starting our adventure.

The Chimneys
Walking in the chimneys

Before taking our hike, the kids found the 1970's (or possibly older) built stage and began running and dancing around. :)

Our hike to the overlook begins.

Our beautiful destination

Class picture at the overlook.

I had to post this picture. As we were walking up the trail we walked over lots and lots of exposed tree roots. They were good for helping us climb since the trail was straight up. As we were climbing, Lydia said "Mommy, look at all of these dinosaur bones!" Hahahaha.

Each child was given a clipboard with pictures of things they were to find. A tree, moss, deer, rock, etc. After completing their worksheet, we enjoyed a hot dog cookout lunch with dishes that the chaperoning parents provided. Very yummy!!

After lunch, the kids were given time to play and run around. They blew bubbles, played baseball and then went to the playground at the Natural Chimneys campground.

After playing, Ms. Warner and Ms. Wilder helped the children make s'mores with their roasted marshmallows. With the 92 degree weather, it made the marshmallow roasting a little sweaty, but they loved it!!

Ms. Warner and Emily

Ms. Warner with Lydia

Ms. Wilder putting Lydia's s'more together

What a big day!!!!!

Uno, Dos, Tres

Inspired by a friend, Mike decided to introduce the children to the game of Uno. We each played as kids, but had not played since. The kids LOVE it!! I did not think they would "get it," but they do. Their little hands have a hard time holding the cards so we play with the cards laying on the table. We need to make some kind of scrabble game "card holding bracket" for them.