The Jungle Book on Stage

Last year Granny Mel introduced Olivia and I to a wonderful production series called the Peach State Summer Theater Series. The PSST group consists of theater and fine arts students and professional actors that come together at Valdosta State University during the summer months to perform various plays. There is usually one children's play. This year the children's play was The Jungle Book. We had had such a great time last year, that we couldn't wait to go back again. Owen was old enough to go this year and the Murrays also joined us. Granny Mel was so kind to get tickets for all of us, and we had such a wonderful time. Before the play, we did a bit of shopping in Valdosta and had lunch at Cheddars which is- according to Granny Mel- the hot new restaurant in town. Melanie had gotten tickets really early and I think we had the best seats in the house. The kids loved the play, and it was just perfect for them. There was lots of action, and it didn't drag on. After the curtain call, the actors came back out and led the whole audience in singing "I wanna be like you". The kids already knew the lyrics from having watched the movie a million times, so they had no trouble singing along and doing the motions. When we exited the theater, the actors were outside to take pictures and sign autographs. My kids had their pictures taken with Bagheera, Baloo, and Shere Khan. I don't know what they're planning to perform next year, but it's going to be hard to top The Jungle Book.

Spirit of Liberty 5K and Fun Run

This was our first year running in the Spirit of Liberty 5K and 1 mile fun run. This is a race that usually has high participation from the local runners, however, it was really slack this year due to the way that the dates fell. Many of the "usual" runners were out of town for the long holiday weekend. Nevertheless, we showed up and had a great time. The 5K and one mile were run at the same time, so Brian was left with the task of keeping up with both kids during their run. He said that Owen was a little whiny, but sucked it up and made it. Olivia did really well but couldn't go as fast as possible because she had to hang back and wait on Owen. In the end, it didn't matter because she was the only girl entered in the fun run. This means that she WON the trophy for OVERALL FEMALE. Now you and I know that she probably would not have won had anyone else entered, but she doesn't understand that. She is soooooo proud of her trophy. It is pretty big- bigger than any of mine. I think that this is one of the best things that could have happened. Her love for running has now reached a new level because she has won a major award. Olivia wasn't the only decorated runner. Owen received a medal for participating, and I won 1st place in my age division with a time of 27.45. And yes, I was the only one in my age group- so I won by default. I also got a trophy, but mine was smaller than Olivia's. She didn't hestitate to point this out to me over and over again. Before heading home, Olivia insisted that we stop by the post office and show her trophy to Gigi. She also wanted me to bring my trophy into the post office so that she could show Gigi how much bigger hers was than mine. Ahhh... I think we've created a monster.

Spirit of Liberty Festival

Each year the town of Patterson holds a Spirit of Liberty Festival on the weekend before the Fourth of July. The kids and I went last year to see the Swinging Medallions, and we had a great time. So, we went back again this year and we participated in more of the activities offered at the festival. On Friday night, the Swinging Medallions played. The kids liked listening to the beach music as much this year as they did last year. Olivia got out in the street and danced. That was entertaining. We sat next to Mr. and Mrs. Murray, and they offered the kids some boiled peanuts. Owen and Olivia love boiled peanuts and they devoured a ton of them. I actually felt bad- like my kids were eating too many. But, Mrs. Shirley said that they were fine, so they kept on eating.

When the band took a break, we walked over to the vendor area. There were people selling all types of "festival" stuff. There were also several things (like bouncy houses, petting zoo, etc) set up for the kids to do- for a fee, of course. I told the kids that they could do one of the activities. They chose to do the bungee trampoline. They really liked this because they were able to bounce really high. They also got to pick one souvenir each. They both chose a balloon creature (one of which was punctured before we even left the festival- resulting in a crying kid on the way home).

We returned to the festival on Saturday morning to participate in the Spirit of Liberty 5K (details to come later), and then we went back again on Saturday night to watch the fireworks. In the past we have gone to Waycross to see the fireworks, but I really prefer the way things were done in Patterson. In Patterson, they had another band playing on Saturday night. We took our lawn chairs out into the middle of a large grassy area and staked out a spot where we could see the band well. I brought a cooler with some Capri Suns and a tub of popcorn in it. We sat around eating and listening to the band for a little while. My dad was there (surprise) and he came over and sat with us. At 9:30, the lights were turned off and the fireworks began. It was a pretty good show, and we were right there in the middle of the action. It was so nice and laid back.

Shaking It Up at VBS

The week of Vacation Bible School is always a busy one- but it's a lot of fun. Like last year, I taught the 3 and 4 year old age groups. I had eleven sweet kids in my room all week long- including Owen, Olivia, Ava, Claire, and Natalie. Technically, Ava was suppose to be in the older group, but when she realized that her sister and cousins were all in the Pre-K class- she wanted to stay with them. The theme for VBS was "Shake It Up Cafe: Where Kids Carry Out God's Recipe". In sticking with this theme, we did a lot of cooking (and eating) during the week. The kids also made cute kitchen-themed crafts such as aprons, coasters, and cupcake-shaped piggy banks. As a service project, everyone brought non-perishable food items to donate to a local food bank. VBS opened and closed with an assembly each day. During the assemblies, the kids sang and danced. Below are some pictures taken during assembly time throughout the week. It was such a great week of learning about and celebrating God's love.

Dutch Wonderland

After a morning spent exploring the Amish way of life, we decided to spend the remainder of our day at Dutch Wonderland. Dutch Wonderland is an amusement park for kids that is located in Lancaster. This park is by no means on the same scale as Disney. However, it is ranked the #4 park for children by Amusement Today Magazine (This magazine does the Golden Ticket Awards, which are like the "Oscars" of the Amusement Park world). Dutch Wonderland was just delightful, and was a great place to spend the afternoon. You enter the park through a castle- complete with a moat. Inside the park you will find a few shows, a decent-sized waterplay area, and many rides that are geared for smaller children. There were only one or two rides in the whole park that Olivia and Owen couldn't ride. We spent most of our time riding all of these rides. The park wasn't crowded, so the kids were able to go on the rides multiple times in a row (sometimes they didn't even have to get off the ride- they just went again).

There are three "mascots" for Dutch Wonderland- a princess, a prince, and a dragon named Duke. We came upon a "Storytime with Princess Brooke" show and stopped to listen. It was pretty cute. Princess Brooke and Prince Patrick led the kids in a little dance. Then, the princess read a short story to the kids. After that, each kid was called up one at a time, asked their name, and was made a "knight" or a "lady". Here's "Lady Olivia" receiving her title (unfortunately Sir Owen didn't cooperate for a picture)

It got pretty hot while we were at the park, so Barb and I took the kids to the waterplay area to cool off. It was a pretty nice area with lots of different slides and buckets. The kids had a great time running around in it. To be honest, I had a hard time keeping up with them here. After playing for about 30-45 minutes, we returned to the park to ride some more rides. We ended up staying at the park until it closed, and then we began the drive back to Dover. The whole day was great, and we enjoyed it tremendously.

Big Fun in Amish Country

While visiting Dover last week, Barb, the kids, and I took a day trip to Lancaster, Pa. If I'd have known how much I was going to love Lancaster, we would have made plans to spend the night. The reasons that I wanted to go to Lancaster in the first place were to see the Amish farms and to visit a local amusement park. We accomplished both of these things. Unfortunately, Brian and his dad decided not to go. They heard the phrases "Amish buggy tour" and "looking at quilts" and opted out immediately. Not to be deterred, the rest of us left Dover early on Wednesday morning and made the two hour drive to Lancaster. The drive was nice and took a lot of backroads- especially as we got closer to our destination. Before going, I was a little worried that the area would be too touristy and that we wouldn't see any "authentic" Amish people. This was not a problem. The Amish were everywhere. As we approached Lancaster, we passed farm after farm where people were out plowing and working in the fields using horses instead of tractors. I couldn't believe what I was seeing- it seemed like something out of a pioneer movie. But, this is the way of life for this group of people.



Our first stop was at Abe's Buggy Tours where we took a 3-mile ride through the countryside on an Amish-style horse and buggy. As we rode, I took lots of pictures of the farmland. I didn't, however, take pictures of the Amish because they do not like to have their pictures taken and I wanted to respect that. Our driver, Erv, was a Mennonite who had been raised as Amish until he was about fifteen years old (taking his picture was okay). He was able to tell us all sorts of things about these two groups and their way of life. It was very interesting. At one point, a little Amish boy- maybe seven or eight years old- came up on a little bike/scooter thing and Erv started talking to him in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect of German- which is a language spoken by the Amish. The little boy replied and continued to follow us for a short distance- I think he was trying to play with Owen. It took every ounce of restraint that I had not to take a picture of that boy because he was so cute on his little scooter.




After our tour, we had lunch at Miller's Smorgasbord and then visited Dutch Wonderland- which I will discuss in a later post. Our lunch was great and we were given a table that looked out onto a farm. What a lovely view! I have to say that I have a newfound respect for the Amish. While their way of life is definitely not for me, I respect that they are so dedicated to the ideas that they believe in. I know I've said this already, but I really enjoyed the day in Lancaster. It is truly a unique place, and I am so glad that we were able to spend some time there.

Dover Heritage Half Marathon

While we were in Delaware last week, I ran in the Dover Heritage Half Marathon. Running a half marathon has been a goal of mine for quite some time, and I'm so happy to have the first one under my belt. The experience was awesome! The race began and ended at the Air Mobility Command Museum, and the entire course was run on Dover Air Force Base. Before beginning the race, we had to pass through a gate onto the military base. There were two military officers at the gate who inspected each person with a hand held metal detector. We were also warned that if we veered off course we may find ourselves face down on the ground and surrounded by security forces. Everybody laughed when the race director said this- but we knew that he was being serious. After waiting about twenty minutes for everyone to pass through the gate, we were given the "all clear", and the race began.




The course was out-and-back- which means we ran six and a half miles one way and then turned around and came back the same way. Since this was my first half marathon, I didn't know what to expect. I didn't want go out at full speed and then overdo it and give out halfway through. My plan was to run at a slow, consistent pace of about 10 minutes per mile- which would put me finishing somewhere between 2:10 and 2:20. I thought this was attainable because I had been training pretty hard for this race, and I was in pretty good shape. The race began, and I took off. I got to the turn-around with no problem at all. My time was actually better than what I had planned, and I was feeling confident. I passed the 15K mark and I got really happy because I was now running further than I had ever run in a race. And then I hit the last three miles... and it got bad. The problem was not the cardio- I wasn't out of breath at all. The problem was my legs. They were so sore. I had worked really hard to get in shape so that I wouldn't run out of breath, but I didn't think about my legs getting tired. The last couple of miles were very difficult for me, but I kept going. After what seemed like forever, I finally spotted the finish line. I saw Brian, Barb, Poppy, and the kids standing there cheering for me, and that gave me the energy to finish strong. As it turned out, I still did pretty well. I met my time goal with a finish at 2:10:18. Of the 91 people who finished the half marathon, I was number 59. That's not terrible for a first attempt. Even though I could barely walk for two days after the race, I still thought that it was a lot of fun. I fully intend to run more half marathons this upcoming fall and spring. I am also planning to add weight training to my training routine so that my legs won't give out next time.