Just the 3 of Us

The boys are in Memphis for 2 weeks with their grandparents.  Usually in this time, I get to work a lot, and get some good time with ZB (doing activities just geared for her).  She's going to camp at her preschool this coming week, and then a VBS at the church on our block the following week.  Hopefully she'll like both of them, so she'll be staying busy (at least in the mornings)!

A few days ago, we met with some other homeschooling families with young kids to go to the Beaver Lake Bird Sanctuary.  I haven't been there in about 16 years, I can't believe I'd never taken the kids.  What a sweet spot!  The favorite spot of most of the children was this climbing tree:

They climbed for a solid half hour and then wandered down the path to ooh and aah over all the turtles in the lake :)  We have lots of fun activities planned with this sweet group this Summer.  It seems even in break times, we stay awfully busy!

1 to the 5

Clay turned 15 this week!!  He has been working so much doing yard work, that he is pretty beat on his off-days usually.  He decided to have a low-key birthday and celebrate by bringing a couple friends on a day trip to the Cherokee, NC skate park.  It's one of the best in the area, and it's free!

ZB and one of her friends also joined us for the day (that minivan does come in handy!).  Across the street from the skatepark is a playground.  The little guys were quickly bored by the playground and went exploring.  Hidden by some trees was the gentle Oconaluftee River!

The kids caught minnows and water skeeters and were even visited by a family of ducks including 3 fuzzy ducklings.  How sweet!

We walked back to the skatepark, and had a picnic lunch with the teens.  Once I realized they were not nearly done skating yet, it was time to think of a new activity.  We walked over the footbridge of the river to the "main drag" of Cherokee, and I spied a gem mining tourist trap spot.

They loved it!  Neither had done that before, and it was a fun treasure hunt for them.  They took about 20 minutes to get through their bags of dirt, and then examined their finds!

Each child wanted to pose for a photo with their finds - though it turns out ZB just wanted to pose for a photo.

We went back and played around the skatepark and watched the guys skate a little longer before it was time to head home.

We enjoyed some ice cream at another little tourist shop on our way back through the mountains.  I'm glad the rain held off and gave us a great day to get out and enjoy the mountains for this birthday!