I am not a MOP anymore...

I have spent the last 8 1/2 years of my life as a MOP (mother of preschoolers). As of yesterday, the girls' last day of preschool, I am no longer a MOP. At one point in my life I thought that this would be a bittersweet day, but as it turns out I'm quite delighted! It has been a long 8 1/2 years, and I am ready to have all of my kids in elementary school--especially since kindergarten is now a full-day thing (unlike for Ryan).

Now just 86 days of summer vacation lie in front of us, and then it will be time for the girls' first of many trips on a school bus...

Hey, is my neck red?

When Kevin and I moved to Mooresville, NC, aka "Race City USA" in June 2006, we were both fairly indifferent to NASCAR. It was kind of neat in October when the big race came to Lowe's Motor Speedway over in Concord (about 35 minutes from us) and all the race fans came through Mooresville to go to the NC Auto Racing Hall of Fame and visit all the different race shops and see where all the teams trained. We even got to see some of the teams practicing their tire changing which is really pretty cool--4 tires changed in under 30 seconds?! Wow.

But that's as close to NASCAR as we got. Okay, our neighbor across the street owns the company that caters for 3/4 of the NASCAR teams each week. THAT's really as close as we got to NASCAR.

This year, one of the boys from Ryan's class at school had a father who had a fairly large share in Waltrip Racing and Ryan started to show a little interest in the races. Then the school had a fundraiser featuring a pizza party with David Gilliland, the #38 driver as a prize. Next we realized that David Gilliland's son, Todd, was in Ryan's cub scout troop.

Then, in January, one of our neighbors roped my gullible husband into a NASCAR "fantasy" league. Now Kevin has been doing fantasy baseball since his early teenage years, and fantasy football for as long as I've known him, so I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised. But I was. And so we started following the races on Sundays. Ugh.

Charlotte is host to two large races in May: the Sprint All-Star Race one weekend and the Coca Cola 600 over Memorial Day weekend.

Our neighbor, Michael Kennedy, got luxury box seat tickets to both races. He and his wife were supposed to go together, but then when they lost their au pair and I helped them babysit their 2 young (7 months old and 3 years old) daughters for 6 weeks, I was invited to one of the races with Wendy while Michael would stay home with their kids.
















I was a little curious about the whole thing and figured that if I was ever going to go see a race, sitting in a luxury box would be the only way I'd consider it! It was quite an event. I'm glad that I got a chance to see the spectacle, because it is truly one-of-a-kind. And hearing the roar of those engines when the green flag goes down is really quite awesome (in the true sense of the word). The power of those machines is just incredible and it actually takes your breath away as they roar past. Television does not begin to do the "sport" justice because you really don't have any sense of how fast those cars are actually going.
















The respect that was shown for our military was so heartfelt as the Army chorus performed a long set of songs in honor of Memorial Day. We got to see more than a dozen military helicopters fly over head, and the F-14 flyover in the Missing Man formation, and watched as the army inserted troops into "enemy territory" with helicopters.

















Oh, and the spectacle of the people camping in the in-field is like nothing I've seen. Not to mention the drunk woman who proceeded to vomit behind Wendy and I the one time we ventured out of the box...
















So, I've been to a NASCAR race, and I have a favorite driver--Kasey Kahne who incidentally won the race. But considering the fact that Wendy and I were both done with the whole thing by lap 90 (there were 400 laps in the race) and couldn't manage to stay past lap 150,

























I don't think that my neck has turned red... yet.

Mountaineers in the Making

Our friends Don & Erin invited our family to spend a weekend with their family in the mountains. They have friends who own a mountain rental cabin in the Boone, NC area and got a discount on the weekend rate. Their children: Brady (7), Rory (6), and Delaney (4) are great playmates with our crew.















The cabin had 4 bedrooms so each family got 2 - one for the grown-ups and one for the kids. The kids all slept on the lower level of the cabin which also had a nice sized rec room complete with foosball, lots of toys and a karaoke machine. We got to hear the girls sing a LOT of Hannah Montana over the course of the weekend...

We were situated at almost the top of a mountain and had a spectacular view from the front decks. It was at 3600 feet, so there was no humidity and the temperatures were mild all day and cool at night.

























We took a nice hike down the mountain on Saturday morning. The kids really enjoyed the trek down. Katy needed to take a potty break just after we got started so Kevin gave her a hand up the steep hill to the cabin. He had a brilliant idea while waiting for her to get finished (you'll be able to see the brainstorm in one of the upcoming pictures).















The kids had fun with the walking sticks and did a great job setting a nice pace down the mountain. About 3/4 of the way down, Olivia began to complain that she was tired and couldn't go much further... we convinced her to go just a little further so that we could go see the waterfall at the bottom.















The kids had so much fun at the waterfall. They climbed all over the rocks and spent a good amount of time collecting small (and large!) stones to throw in the creek. Several of them ended up getting fairly wet when they "accidentally" sat down in the water...
















Even though it was fun at the waterfall and creek, everyone was ready to head back to the cabin for lunch. It would just be a nice, quick mile-long trek back up the mountain...
















Fortunately Kevin had had the amazing idea to drive the van to the bottom of the mountain to help ferry the kids back up! I can not even begin to imagine the amount of whining and complaining we would have had to endure on the hike back. Ryan was the only kid who hiked the whole way back, and most of the adults were feeling the burn by the time we reached our cabin.
















After a relaxing lunch and some free play time, we were ready to load up the vans with the canoe and the kids and head back down the mountain to the lake below. The guys took the first group of kids out for a ride,
















and then we each took turns going out as families. It was so fun to paddle around the lake and enjoy the gorgeous scenery. I got a little (!) nervous when the kids started moving around in the canoe and we would start to rock. I didn't like feeling like we were going to capsize, although Kevin assured me we were not even close to having that happen.
















Olivia had found a wooden paddle back at the cabin. It was too short to use in the canoe, but she and Delaney found their own version of a canoe to play with while waiting their turns. Gotta love the imagination!
















That evening we had a nice cookout on the back deck, and then the guys built a fire in the pit behind the cabin to roast marshmallows and make s'mores (Livvy called them 'snores'). There is nothing quite like s'mores and roasted marshmallows after a full day of activity.

















We woke Sunday morning to lots of fog which turned into rain. Erin and I enjoyed our coffee on the covered deck while the guys loaded the vans and got the cabin back in order--it was Mother's Day, after all! Definitely a weekend to remember and one that we hope to repeat.

Seriously.

I was talking to my neighbor Alyson on the phone on Friday afternoon. My girls were over at her house playing with her daughter, Sydney. All of a sudden I heard her take in a sharp breath and she quietly asked me if I'd seen our girls recently...

I hadn't seen them since they had gone to Sydney's house. She apologized for their new appearance, but wouldn't give me any details as I listened to her send them home and begin to scold her daughter. About 30 seconds later I heard Kevin say "you have GOT to be kidding" and then they appeared...


























It would seem that Sydney had gotten some new body markers. Fortunately they were washable and came off relatively easily...

A Princess!

We took another trip to the mall today and I'm proud to report that Katy is no longer a pirate. She got her second ear pierced. After many attempts at bribing her, she finally decided to do it so that she could get......















a piece of gum. That's my Katy!