Art Camp

We had a great vacation in the Adirondacks, it was great to stay for two weeks this year - and none of the days were rainy!  Mike and I went swimming every day, refreshing!

After we returned the kids both got to attend Art Camps.  Meredith went to frosty cold 'Chill Out' camp and Jeffrey went to the 'Exploring Asia' camp.  In between camps we played at the park and had picnic lunches.

Jeffrey's class had an Art Show at the end of the week, they presented artwork inspired by different countries, and themed snacks too.  There were 'Koi Fish' - swedish fish candies, Indian Samosas, and  Russian Tea cakes.  There was a great variety of artwork and I loved seeing all the projects together, its visually stunning!  Glad these kids are so interested in art, we are planning on art camp again next year!

I'm so proud of all his hard work!

Fun Stuff

We have been having the best summer so far.  The kids are having a good time rediscovering their toys and playing together.  Recently Jeffrey suggested going to the Arboretum.  We brought our water bottles to fill up the rivers in the stone map.  After filling up the rivers the kids started playing with the palm sized rocks that surround the map area.  They found that if you sprinkle them with your water bottle to get them wet, all the colors in the 'black' rocks are revealed.  Then they organized themselves into a 'rock store' with many different styles of rocks and a 'sparkle shine' treatment.  We found rocks that looked like 'frog skin', tortise shell, and with circular grey markings on them.  After that, the kids had a great time soaking each other with their water bottles, it was a really fun warm afternoon activity.  I enjoyed being the 'customer' and sitting on the patio area with a wonderful view and a cooling breeze.

Jeffrey spiked his hair up with water!

We have also been going to Whipple Dam State Park on Sunday afternoons.  The kids like to play in the sandy beach area.  Jeffrey likes to dig 'hot tubs' at the waters edge where the lake water becomes warm in the sun.  Meredith is our little fishy, she always has a great time anywhere there is swimming, no matter how 'refreshing' the water is.  We bring burgers for grilling, pick a picnic table by the lake and spend the afternoon.  Meredith likes to eat 'butter burgers' - which is just a hamburger bun with butter spread on it and Utz potato chips, we need our chips!  

Its been a rainy summer here in State College, it rained every day in June.  Unfortunately it rained on one of our grilling afternoons, but Mike grilled us up our Cheeze burgers anyway! It was really wet so the kids played in the car and ate buns while Mike finished up the grillin.  

'This is the best tasting cheese burger I have ever had.'

Summer Reading

The kids and I have joined our library's summer reading program.  We started out by checking out a giant pile of books:

It was fun to see what choices the kids made, good thing they were willing to help me carry some of those books too!  The kids can earn tickets for reading 20 minutes a day, then put the tickets into prize drawings.  There are even prize drawings for parents too, hope I win one of those, they look great.  Our first week Jeffrey one a prize, he was so excited and got to pick a prize from the treasure chest, he picked out a toy boat.  The library has added a new lounge area with magazines for kids, and Meredith and Jeffrey loved it!  They had a good time 'relaxing' in this area!

Jeffrey's Last Day of 2nd Grade

Jeffrey finished up his second grade year at Corl Street.  His teacher Mrs. McGann is retiring this year, and Jeffrey was lucky to be in her final second grade class.  Mrs. McGann is really passionate about reading, and always encouraged Jeffrey to read a lot at school.  Jeffrey's love of reading has really taken off this spring, he has finished two books of the 'Warriors' series, which is about four clans of wild cats and their adventures. Each book is about 300 pages, and Jeffrey really enjoys them because he likes cats so much.  Many of his drawings and projects from school feature 'kittys'.  

This year in school Jeffrey completed a research project about Eastern Box Turtles.  He said it was 'the hardest thing I have ever done in school'.  We were glad that Jeffrey decided to present his report to us, there were lots of interesting facts about box turtles.  I did not know that Box Turtles could live to be 100 years old!  Here is a photo of the finished report, he is so proud of it:  

The last few weeks of school were really fun for Jeffrey, they had 'Camp Week' with lots of great activities and delicious snacks from Mrs. Cross - 'Fish, Slug, Bear' Snack mix - which was goldfish crackers, Cheese Puffs, and teddy grahams, Smores, 'Sleeping Bag Snacks', and Rice Krispie Treat nests with Chocolate eggs.  Other highlights were the school picnic, and Jeffrey loved Field Day.  With all that fun the last few weeks of school were homework-free.  Here is a picture of Jeffrey on the last day he had to do homework, he was absolutely thrilled!!

The End of Preschool

Meredith finished up her last day of preschool Wednesday.  After 6 years I will have no more kids at Stay and Play and it is bittersweet.   We will miss all our friends and teachers, Jeffrey and Meredith had such a wonderful time there.  We all went to the end of the school year picnic and had a great time.  The food was yummy, I had so much macaroni and cheese to eat, and delicious fruit salad, and my kids even found food to fill their plates with too.  It took them about 2 hours of running back to the playground and back to their plates, but they were happy about the plain roll, multiple desserts, pretzels and tortilla chips, and apple slices that they had for dinner!  (Picky eater kids).  They had such a good time that the Axtell Family and the Smith/Black Family were the last to leave the picnic.  Our prize for 'winning' the picnic, unopened bags of tortilla chips and pretzels!

Meredith was a very observant, quiet girl at preschool, she loved to be in the 'writing center' and brought home many drawings, coloring pages, envelopes with cards and smiley face art.  She stayed for Adventure afternoons, and had a fantastic time with her many friends.  They spent a lot of time at Central Parklet, a small park near their school.  Finally the last week of school Meredith climbed to the top of the climbing wall!  The teachers won't assist the kids to climb up the playground equipment, the kids need to be big enough to do it themselves (for general safety reasons), so it was always frustrating that she could not climb to the top.  Quite an accomplishment, her teachers mentioned it to me and a picture of her climbing even made it into the end of the year slideshow!

Miss Roxanne and Miss Lorin the 'Fabulous Fours' Teachers

Last Snack Day - Smart Pop Cheese Popcorn and Apple Snaps Cereal

Meredith and her good friend Carolyn relaxing in the Reading Center on their last day