August 6 & 7

On Monday we went to a fabulous sculpture park with some of the partners and families. It was not too far from our house and the weather was terrific!! The Decordova is a sculpture park, museum, and studio/classroom facility. On Mondays the museum is closed and there is no admission to the sculpture park. Our little group met at 10 and began to tour the grounds. There are many acres of open, green space with large sculptures scattered around. The kids enjoyed the freedom of running in the open spaces and playing around the trees and artwork.

David loved the sharks that were hanging from some trees.

The girls all loved a huge tree that had boughs that came out and

touched the ground, making a little cave around the trunk.

Jamie's favorite sculputres were Pegasus and My Three Lillies.

The kids also found a large rock that they used as a slide. David enjoyed playing in the dirt at the foot of the rock. We wandered around for about an hour and a half and then had a picnic lunch on the grounds. After lunch, we made a group picture, and then David and Ethan found a large pile of dirt to play in. David was absolutely filthy!! He even kicked up a cloud of dust when running back to the stroller to leave. We're definitely going to have to go back there again!! It was so pretty to see such green spaces, and I bet it will be really pretty when all the leaves begin to turn.

After the picnic, we headed home and got in just in time for the bottom to fall out. It rained on and off for the rest of the afternoon, so the kids and I just stayed in and enjoyed watching PBS kids. (After a good bath for David, of course!!)

After supper, the kids and I went on a good bike ride up to Jamie's school. We rode around in the parking lot for awhile and then tried to go home a different way. We got a little turned around because Belmont has a strange habit of not putting road signs up on the main roads. I guess everyone is just supposed to know where they are. We asked directions of a runner and made our way back home.

Today was house cleaning day. The kids and I worked hard this morning to get the place tidied up. They've been really good about cleaning their rooms each week and doing a couple of extra cleaning chores. David and Rachel decided to clean together, and did very well!! I was so proud of Rachel for working with David patiently. After that, we decided to treat ourselves to lunch at McDonald's. Then we came home and conducted a Skype call with Grannie, Beth, JT, and Karen to wish Beth a happy birthday. The kids were just wild!! They love to do video phone calling! Since the weather was pretty, we went to the pool for the remainder of the afternoon.

After supper, we walked over to Belmont Methodist Church for stories, music, and magic on the lawn. Apparently this is something the church does every summer as an outreach to the community. The night was nice with a cool breeze. The singer played guitar, ukelelee, and banjo and sang lots of cute kid songs. The magician went on after that. He was really silly, but really good. He travels all over and has even performed at the White House a couple of times. David, Rachel, Jamie, and I all enjoyed the evening!! We walked home and then started getting ready for bed. I may finish Harry Potter tonight. I've only got about 60 pages to go. We'll see if I can stand to get through the rest in one sitting (emotionally).

We got a card from the Vineyard today. It was a form-type note from the pastor and included a $5 card to Starbucks. The card said that they serve coffee and tea as a part of forming relationships, and to have an extra cup on them this week. Hartselle could do gift cards to Java Jays for visitors instead of a loaf of bread or pie. HMMMMM.