Spring Flings (March-June 9th)

 March 10th was the Scout Pinewood Derby Races. Maggie got to participate as an actual scout this year instead of just in the sibling races. Chris and the kids worked hard on their cars and even though they didn't win any medals this year, they had a great time cheering each other and their friends on.

 Happy St. Patrick's Day 2019!

The kids got to come to my classroom for a Pleasant Knoll STEAM night and Friday playdates with our friends are still a highlight of our week!

 April 4th kicked off the Come See Me festival with a parade downtown and then Musical Mania the next night. On Saturday, we went to Gourmet Gardens and watched the Winthrop Ladies Lacrosse team.

 We LOVE our neighborhood! Shiland Hills held its 2nd Annual Easter Egg Hunt on April 7th. I loved seeing all the kids gather at the Langer's house and play together.

 For Spring Break this year, we decided to go camping as a family and the option of going to Aiken State Park was thrown out. I was excited about taking the kids back to the hometown I grew up and was able to show them places like my old high school, the house I lived in for most of my life, my favorite coffeehouse/restaurant (New Moon Cafe), and Hopeland Gardens with its beautiful trees and rich horse history. We had a good time camping and enjoyed fishing (even though we didn't catch anything this time), eating s'mores, going on a hike, and braving some cooler nighttime temps. Thanks to Chris for making these trips so memorable and for being prepared with everything we need!

 Easter Sunday was April 21st and we made Resurrection Rolls, "opened" Easter baskets, went to North Rock Hill Church as a family, had a picnic and hike at Anne Springs Close Greenway, and stopped for icecream and boiled peanuts at the Peach Stand. We loved being able to celebrate with extended family like Grandmama, Papa, Connie, Rodger, Melissa, Dylan, and Brooke. 

 On Friday, April 26th, Chris took Maggie to Pleasant Knoll's Daddy Daughter dance. They ate a "fancy" meal of chicken strips and macaroni & cheese before dancing the night away! :) Riley and I had a small date night of our own by going to a kids crafting studio and creating a glow-in-the-dark mosaic.

 May 1st was an important day for educators in South Carolina. We had a peaceful "day of reflection" called ALLOUTMAY1 in Columbia where we marched from the State Department of Education to the Statehouse grounds. Chris and I went with two of my team members, Meredith and Elaine. We spent 3 hours listening to speakers and making our voices heard as well ("I teach, I vote." "SC for Ed" cheers were chanted by over 10,000 people in attendance. Mike Fanning (pictured above) is a Senator in Fairfield and professor at the Winthrop Old English Consortium. He's an amazing supporter for education reform and we have a feeling that this year some of his 17 bills that he tried to pass will get more attention from the General Assembly. 

 On May 10th, Riley got to celebrate his 9th birthday with his two buddies, Kellan and Parker. They got to build Lego race cars, bust a Lego pinata, watch the Lego Movie 2, play pin the face on the Lego action figure, have a sleepover, and go to Adventure Air (indoor trampoline park) the next day.

 On May 12th, Riley got to share his birthday with me for Mother's Day. We celebrated him some more with a few more gifts (of course, his favorite being a Captain America Lego kit). And the kids and Chris celebrated me in lots of special ways as well. Check out the beautiful flowers from Maggie, the "heartfelt" gift of jewelry, and the "punny" poem filled with sweets. We spent the afternoon with Grandmama, Papa, and Aunt Connie eating some of dad's "famous" salmon grilled on cedar planks, playing games, and chatting with the West Coast boys on the Echo Show.

 I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to chaperone Riley's field trip to the State Museum. I got to go around with his classmates Reese and Hollis. We found lots of silly photo ops as you can tell. Later, we got to visit the State House and Riley was able to go inside for a picture with Governor McMaster.

 The same day as Riley's field trip, Nan and Pap arrived for a weekend visit! They brought gifts for both the kids and then we were able to check out TechFest on Saturday (which had been on Maggie's calendar for weeks ever since she got a flyer about it at a Come See Me event). We took them out to one of our favorite Asian restaurants, Akahana, on Sunday and showed them how much Riley LOVES sushi!

On May 22nd, my House Representative, Gary Simrill, was able to come and be a guest in my classroom for half a day. I had been in contact with him after the May 1st rally via email and he took me up on my offer to come. I was so thrilled to have him meet my students, talk to them about his job, and for him to see firsthand how things like class size impact learning. I was able to arrange for him to meet up with several other co-workers and teams for informal question and answer share sessions. Then I gave him two parting gifts: 1) a recipe for "Smart Cookies" and 2) his own copy of "If You Give a Teacher a ...." book that is based off of the books by Laura Numeroff. The visit went really well and I'm very grateful for legislators like Gary who take the time to understand some of the challenges teacher face and want to work together to make education a top priority. 

 Maggie was so excited about her upcoming birthday party that she arranged sleeping bags and labeled signs weeks in advance and held "secret" meetings with her two friends to plan events that they would do at her party. Some of which I didn't even know about until the day of!

 For Memorial Day weekend, we went to Greenville to attend Brad and Rachel's wedding. It was a wonderful event and very kid-friendly. The wedding dinner was from a brick-oven pizza truck!

 Aunt Connie made us all feel super special by welcoming us into her home and preparing a delicious cookout with "Super Burgers" (in Mark's memory) and banana pudding in a jar. We had so much fun playing Rock Band and other games and really enjoyed seeing Dustin and Kelly too!

 For Maggie's birthday this year, she wanted a "Dog Donut" party. So thankfully one of my favorite authors, Laura Numeroff (as previously mentioned), had a perfect book just for this occasion. So on May 31st, Maggie got to have her two friends, Zoe and Lydia, over for a meal of hot dogs and some special activities like donut jokes, dog/donut coloring pages, a treasure hunt, and a movie with "pupcorn" (instead of popcorn). The girls had so much fun together it was hard to get any of them to sleep. Finally, Lydia was able to teach Zoe how to close her eyes (she seemed to have forgotten what to do when she wasn't at her own house). :) And the girls were up bright and early and able to bounce out some of their extra energy at Adventure Air Sports.

 On June 2nd, we celebrated Maggie's actual birthday with a few more gifts, a trip to the pool, and dinner out at her favorite restaurant, Amber Asian buffet.

 The kids officially wrapped up another year of school this week and we took our last day pictures with our signs. In some ways, I can't believe how fast this year went by. Seems like only yesterday, they were ending Kindergarten!

 To celebrate our first week of summer, I took the kids to Carowinds. It was the perfect day! We were able to park on Row #7, have amazing cloud cover, very short lines for most rides, and a rare extra treat at the end of our trip. Summer 2019...here we come!

 Don't forget National Donut Day- June 7th!