So! I’m 4 months behind on my blog…you knew that. Someday I’ll catch up…not today. BUT my sweet Ella has just spent several weeks out on track out and has been begging me to blog her vacation so her teacher could see. (And so we could explain why she didn’t do all of her homework…ugh) Therefore…I am going to attempt to give you the quick-ish version of track out – Spring 2013!!
It started on a Thursday the 21st…
The girls played at their cousins’ house while mom went to a dr appt. Isn’t Collin a cutie!
Friday was spent getting ready for Saturday which was…
The Annual Day of Service!!! Each year the local congregations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints hold a Day of Service. The last several years we’ve been working on a mass food drive for the Food Bank of Eastern NC and two years ago we joined with the North Carolina School of Science and Math to win a Guinness World Record for the most food gathered in one day!! This year was not quite so huge an effort but I’m in the head for our local congregation so there was much to do. We held a breakfast and volunteers (including me, Ella, & Sylvie on our own) headed out to go door to door in local neighborhoods to ask our friends and neighbors to help in our efforts to feed the hungry! Ella & Sylvie were amazing troops and I know their wonderful efforts and good manners really encouraged a lot of people to give! Our congregation gathered almost 3000 lbs. of food!
Sunday was a sad, sad day…Ella’s fish died… She’s now buried out by the Fairy Tree.
Monday we started out early at Monkey Joe’s!! I didn’t take any pictures… Then we fed the missionaries for supper (we love having them over)…and I didn’t take any pictures. However, when it was bed time I took a few…
Tuesday we were on a mission to learn about our Watch!! (In case you haven’t heard because I didn’t blog about it yet…last week Ella had her best friend, Samantha (who lives behind us), over to play.
They were chasing lizards on the rock when I saw something that looked out of place. We started to dig it out of the crevasse and found out it was an old pocket watch! Further study showed it was a Lennox from the 1920’s!!
We went on Tuesday over to the farms nearby to talk to an elderly man about who owned the property we live on before it became a neighborhood. We now know who owned it back to the 40’s but we still have some more research to do to find out about the 20’s!
Wednesday we had gymnastics.
Thursday was the first day of Spring Break for Dade & Corben and we were supposed to go to the Museum of Life and Science with cousins BUT…Collin had a fever and threw up his breakfast…
Friday, Fama came to visit so I could go on a photo-shoot!
When I got home, Fama took Corben to a campout with Uncle Jason and the Scouts from his troop!
Picked up Corben EARLY so we could all get over to the HUGE Easter egg hunt at our friends house! Over 2000 eggs!!!
Then we went home and practiced for the Schneg Family Talent Show & Easter Celebration!!
Now…about Ella’s outfit… She had on her gymnastics outfit and I told her she needed to put her clothes back on over it if she wasn’t performing so she threw her shirt on (inside out) and left it at that… She was WAY too excited!
Our newest nephew, Aaron, looked a little less happy to have Sylvie holding him. LOL Despite his concerns, I assure you he was safe!
Let the Talent Begin!!
Sunday was Easter and we spent a nice, quiet day at home (after church, of course) and I made my Grandma’s Angel Biscuits for supper!
Okay…get ready because it’s now APRIL and anyone know that April 1st is no joke because it’s the beginning of our 30 days Outside for 30 minutes!
Day 1 – Camp Mackall and going to see Grandpa!!
Day 2 – new gravel for the driveway, lizards, metal detectors, and a walk with Dade!
Day 3 – Museum of Life and Science with cousins! Ella LOVED reading all the explanations. I love that she loves reading so much!
Poor Collin is always in the car seat…
Day 4 (a rainy Thursday) was our weekly April friend gathering RAIN or SHINE!! We had relay races in the rain, ate snacks, and drew on the rock with chalk!
After Hot Cocoa all our friends went home and we fed Collin and went shopping!
Day 5 was CRAZY!!! The boys had an appt to go indoor skydiving 2 hrs. away. The tunnel broke but then they called to say it might be fixed if we could come right away so we did! In a mad dash I snatched up all 5 kids and rushed all the way there for them to tell me we couldn’t fly. WHAT??!! Luckily this mom doesn’t give up so easily and I went upstairs and talked to the manager and the troops who had government contract time to be there. They were very kind and graciously gave up several minutes of fly time so the boys could FINALLY enjoy their birthday presents!! It was AMAZING!!!
We got home late and exhausted but refused to miss out on our 30 minutes outside!!
Day 6 – We headed downtown early to go to the Lebanese Festival!! Dade & Corben have Lebanese heritage that they know little about so we decided to go learn a few things! Tons of fun and the kids tried a bunch of Lebanese desserts!
They decided to try M'Chabak, Baklawa, Nammoura, Awamaat, and Katayef.
Surprisingly, Ella didn’t like the Baklawa…
They got their names written in Arabic.
Sunday was Day 7 and our church’s General Conference. Twice a year we hear from the Prophet and the Apostles and it’s AMAZING! Here’s the link if you’d like to watch/read/listen to all the amazing talks! http://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2013/04?lang=eng
Collin fell asleep and then between sessions the girls and I went for a nature walk and found another Fairy Tree (and a LAKE) lol.
Day 8 the boys were headed back to school but we were blessed to have Grandma Great come visit for the day! We spent the day on the deck while Daddy worked on the patio.
Day 9 and all we managed was breakfast outside in the morning. Collin’s expression pretty much sums up the day…
Yes…I made greeting cards with this photo…lol
Wednesday & Day 10 was gymnastics, scouts, and playground time!
The day ended with Corben getting hit in the head at scouts…
Day 11 was Farm Animal Days & we made the News!!
We milked cows, hung with cousins, saw animals, held baby chicks and ate ice cream!!
I promise Collin was mad about something else…lol
Aunt Jessie spilled an entire water bottle in her purse…lol (I mean NOT lol)
We then had to take Corben to the Dr. so they could tell us he needed to be treated for a concussion! Ugh.
SO Day 12 = HOME while Corben is on bed rest. BUT we have awesome friends who came to play on the trampoline! The suddenly the sky opened up and it POURED!! Luckily I was outside taking pictures and was able to save all 4 of them as they screamed they didn’t want to die in the tornado…lol
Day 13 started out going to a baptism!! We love baptisms! We ended the day with the girls’ first trip Letterboxing!! and a trip to the playground.
Day 14 is Sunday and we don’t go do things on Sunday. It’s a family day and we spend it going to church and being together!!
Sylvie’s apple seeds finally sprouted!! Time to plant them and go looking for 4 leaf clovers before Dad mows tomorrow!
Ella caught a butterfly!
Corben and I headed out on an adventure to see some more of our family and we stopped and took some pictures along the way!
And now it’s MONDAY and the very last day of Ella’s Track out. We’re so sad to have her go back to school but we know how much she loves it! Of course, we had to spend day 15 outside! The girls got letters from their Grandma and then got to work on the garden!
Daddy killed a baby copperhead (okay it’s not a copperhead but that’s what everyone always thinks when they see them so we’ve just started calling all snakes some sort of copperhead – baby copperhead, black copperhead, corn copperhead, etc) with the mower and I took some pictures (finally) of our patio area!!
Ryan built it entirely by hand. He carved every single stone. I’m not joking.
THE END!!
