Last 2 weeks of May 2017

We had several big events the last couple weeks.

• Andrew's viola concert.  He did great - his teacher makes everything fun and Andrew has learned a lot this year and plays pretty well (of course, he is always full of complete optimism and says he is the best person in the class).
• Camping trip & hiking in Congaree National Park, about 4-5 hours away in South Carolina near Columbia.  We took Andrew and Seth out of school a little early (Andrew was upset because he missed the big pep rally at school, but, oh, well.)  Then, we drove down.  Of course, the google maps that I printed didn't print the directions on the second page (just the arrows) - so infuriating, it did the same thing when I printed maps to Shenandoah.  Thankfully, Katsu downloaded maps to his tablet since it felt like the middle of nowhere.  We really went on little roads called "Poultry Lane".  We finally got there.  The campsite was nice, a few minute walk from the parking lot with a nice fire circle and a clear spot to put down our two tents.  No water, no electricity, and just simple toilet without water or electricity.  But we ate dinner at McDonald's on the way in - we needed to make a bathroom stop and ended up eating and playing at the PlayLand there - so we didn't plan on cooking any meals.  Katsu and Andrew set up the tents and we got our sleeping mats and bags all set up while they did a fire and we had roasted marshmallows.  Then, we put the fire out and went hiking out to see the fireflies.  The park has synchronous fireflies this time of year.  We saw quite a lot of fireflies by the campsite, somewhat synchronousing, but it was supposed to be better on the trail to the visitor center.  So, we walked over there in the dark with our sole red flashlight (so not as to disturb the fireflies).  The fireflies weren't as good over there and it was getting crowded.  I think it got cooler, so they weren't lighting up.  So, we walked back to the campsite, made up another fire, and put the boys to sleep.  It went pretty well for a first camping experience (the whole family hasn't gone camping since we went to Hell when Andrew was little).  Katsu ended up sleeping in the little tent and didn't get much sleep in there, but otherwise, it wasn't too bad.  We are excited to try camping again soon.  We woke up (the boys woke up way too early and it was so hard trying to hush them to be quiet).  I finally took the boys on a little hike in our pajamas just to keep them quiet.  Logan was running way far ahead and I think even crossed the main road.  We went back, started up a fire, had some more marshmallows, and packed everything up.  We drove to the visitor's center and walked through the exhibits, completed most of the Junior Ranger booklets for Andrew and Logan and had them show us the film about the park.  Then, it was time to go hiking.  The main hiking trail is a huge boardwalk.  It goes on a 3 mile loop with both high and low portions.  We started out towards the low portion and ran into a group being guided around by a ranger.  It was fascinating seeing all the trees and animals they pointed out - lizards, walking sticks, birds, trees struck by lightning.  But the boys were loud and unhappy, so we went out on the high part of the boardwalk.  The trees here are amazing.  The park is a floodplain.  It wasn't flooded when we went, though it was a week before and a week later.  Parts of the park were flooded, but most were dry when we were there.  But the trees are HUGE.  Like 150 feet tall all over and hundreds of years old.  The most impressive are the loboly pine.  They just keep going up and up and up and up.  I think this is where I saw the most wildlife - we saw lizards and spiders and birds and squirrels and snakes and turtles.  It seemed like we saw something new every few feet.  Part of the boardwalk was being repaired (pretty much always since trees are always falling down and breaking it), so we had to talk another trail back making it about 3 miles total.  The boys were worn out and we were all covered in mosquito bites despite using tons of bug spray.  But we had a great day.  We went to the visitors center to finish up the end of the Junior Ranger, get badges, eat our packed lunch, and then drive back home.  It was a great little trip - a lot of driving, but still worth it, I think.
• End of preschool for Logan.  He had a  lot of fun last days - making pancakes as a class, making chocolate chip cookies, graduation and his end of the year party that I helped out with.  His graduation was really cute.  Logan seemed a little nervous coming in but did great, though he did keep rubbing his face (his tell that he is nervous).  After everyone came in and got their diplomas and then they sang like 15 songs!  It was pretty impressive.  Noah was pretty quiet but was eyeing the snacks the whole time.  They were both excited to fill up on cake and goldfish when the ceremony was done.  Katsu came to the graduation.  Afterwards, Noah, Logan and I went to Chick-fil-a, like I had promised, and had lots of fun eating and playing on the playground.  His last day of school, they spent the morning playing on a bouncy house and then had cookies and popcorn and fruit and then played outside on the playground.  Logan has been at that preschool for more than 3 years(!), so it's sad to be done, but he is so ready for kindergarten.
• Noah had his last day of preschool, too.  He had a pizza party and apparently ate a ton.  When I went to his party, he just wanted to go home.  I think he was worn out.  He got to do the bouncy house too and loved it.

Other fun things

• Playing on neighbor's slip and slide.
• Logan and Noah going to park in town commons.
• Noah spending a morning playing at Great Harvest Bread.
• Attending pool meeting ... our neighborhood pool is having issues and still not open.  :-(
• Me giving a walking school bus webinar for the state along with a mayor and a superintendent about active routes to school.  My first time giving a webinar.
• I gave a talk in church.
• We have been trying to fix and clean things up in the house lately which has been taking a lot of time.
• Watched Pirates of the Caribbean with the family.  Noah and Logan fell asleep but Andrew and Seth loved it.
• Lots of playing with water guns.
• Card games of Set and UNO - trying to convince them we can play card games instead of just long complicated games with lots of pieces.

Noah is slowly shifting over to loving Batman more than Spiderman.  He loves to play with his friend Logan from preschool/church and talks about him all the time.  He loves to sing his ABC song and read books and play.  He is always playing some imaginative play thing.  He is really into building little houses out of blankets and pillows now.  He wants to wear his goggles all the time and sometimes sleeps in them.  He likes to do his tracing book and can usually hold a pencil the right way.

Logan has been building up a storm lately.  First, he was building with the dominos but now has shifted to making domino runs with Jenga pieces or building structures with Jenga pieces.  He got an individual award at graduation of being Master builder.  He is doing awesome at sight words, is about half way through his learning to read book.  He has been making big train tracks, too, and has been great about playing without bothering me except when he is being onery which is the other half of the time.  He has spent more time riding his bike over to his older brother's friends houses.

Seth keeps losing his glasses all the time.  We finally found his scriptures after them being missing for months and months.  He has been reading quite a bit and playing with friends lots.  He got 200 AR points at school.  

Andrew has been busy with school things as usual.  He has spent a lot of money on Pokemon cards lately and has been better about going over to friends' houses and not bugging his little brothers as much.  Passed off lots of things for Webelos on our campout.