Glen Hiking

 Grace was at an overnight camp for three days and two nights.  While she was gone Glen and I tried to have some adventures.  One of those was to go on a hike with Matt and I.

 We drove to a location close to Luray and we went on the Storybook Trail.  It is called this because there are signposts telling the story of how the mountains were created and how they have changed over the many many years.

 It was a nice flat trail with some paths that go off on the sides for more exploration.  Matt and Glen were going up one of those paths here.

 At the top of the path they found a great place to sit and relax.

 At the end there was an amazing view.

 As I said...AMAZING VIEW!

 The whole time we were hiking Glen would pick up something and say, "Grace would like this"  and pick it up.  By the end he had quite the collection.

Many rocks, acorns, flowers, pinecones, and other items.  He really missed his sister, but she was able to come back to some great treasures.

Glen's Camp

 For the first time this year, Glen was able to go to the Summer Enrichment Camp that I have been teaching at for two years and Grace has attended for three.  I taught a Fairy Tale camp, but thought it would be good for Glen to attend a camp that was not taught by his mother.  So he attended a camp called Food and Fairy Tales.

 They made costumes, sets, and acted out each fairy tale (usually for the custodians).  And each day they baked or cooked a food that correlated to story.

 For instance this was pigs in the blanket to go with the three pigs.
They also did a green and a brown cupcake with a graham cracker in between for the three billy goats gruff.  A loaf of bread for the little red hen.  Oatmeal for the three bears.  

 They did a lot of building and creating of structures.  I think this one was for the three pigs and they took a leaf blower to it to see if it would handle the wolf's blowing.

 A recreation of the three bears.  How cute!

 I believe this was making the bread.  This boy loves to cook.

 Yep, here he is kneeding the dough.  That was really good bread by the way.

 I guess they did a bit of gardening.  They learned about all aspects of the story.  I guess this was when the little red hen was planting.

It was a fun week, and I think it helped him get ready for school.  Glen had a fantastic week at camp.  Can't wait to see what he chooses to do next year.

Art Camp

 Harrisonburg City Schools has an amazing program that is one week of enrichment learning.  They call it Summer Enrichment Program.  I teach preschool fairy tales but that means that the kids go to other camps that they might enjoy too, while I am busy working.  This year Grace decided to go to Art Camp.

 Here is the group of kids that were with Grace that week.

 One day they were able to bring a stuffed animal to camp.  She chose to bring Butterscotch.  I am glad that she loves him as much as I did.

They drew self portraits.  They also drew many other pictures and did clay work too.  One of her others pictures from this week will be featured in a blog post in the near future.  (one of her paintings from this week won first prize and best in show for her age group at the county fair, but pictures will be added at a future blog).

She had a great time and still loves art.  I think that she is getting better and I can see her passion continuing and that makes me happy.

July 4th

 On July 4th we headed downtown early in the morning to support Grace while she ran in a race.  Glen had his cowbell and his Dinosaur so he was ready to cheer her on.

 Grace was ready!  She was going to run 1.5 miles in this race and she had been practicing.  Looking behind her you can see the start line.

 She left the start line and was moving fast.

 She loved running this race.  I think it had to do with how many people were running with their dogs.

 She ran about half of the race, then the course got a bit confusing.  She got turned around once and Matt helped redirect her.

 She never got fully back on track.  The second time she got turned around we decided to call the race done and let her play in the slip and slide.  She ran about 1 mile of the 1.5

 The slip and slide was fun

 She went on it about 5 times

 And got soaking wet

 As we walked home from the race and the slip and slide Matt and I were telling her that we were so proud of her, even if she didn't finish the race.

 She was astonished that she did not finish.  Soaking wet, she put her socks and shoes back on and said that she wanted to run the rest of it with me.

 So we started, close to where she got turned around and ran the rest of the way in.  That makes me even more proud of her.

 Glen was just happy with the gravel and the mulch.

 What a great ending to a race.

 Then in the evening we went to watch the fireworks in town.  This is the first time that we did this, and the kids loved it.  They talked about the fire in the sky for many weeks later.

Happy July 4th!

Highland Camping

 We had the joy of camping out during the Highland steak bbq yet again this year.  Our camp site was right beside the playground which make the kids very happy.  Glen was much more interested in the mulch than the swings and the slides.  But whatever makes you happy...

 A favorite of all was the creek, as always!

 Grace started to make a few dams in the creek, but mostly had fun exploring.

 Glen just liked looking under rocks and exploring.  In other words, they just liked getting dirty :)

We took the short "hike" up to the pond.  Grace liked looking out over it from the dock.

Glen just sat on the edge as she waited to go back to our campsite.

Back at our campsite in the evening we started to find many fireflies.  In the picture above you can see the firefly on Grace's hand.

Glen also had a firefly on his leg.

With a couple of other kids they decided to begin to catch the fireflies in a jug.  You can see one firefly that is lit up at the bottom on the jug in this picture.  There were many other bugs in that jug though.

Glen just liked having the fireflies on his arms and legs.  None of the bugs that he had ever made it into the jug.

After a very late night of playing with fireflies, what is the best breakfast?  If you are Grace the answer would be SMORES!  of course!  Here she is, just woke up and toasting her marshmallow.

Glen decided to go a bit healthier and have a bagel and cream cheese.  But look at that face, that is the face of a successful camping trip!  What fun!