Ballet Recital, Butterfly Release, and Another Field Trip

Life is full and busy these days.  Here's some of what we've been doing.

Ballet Recital

Violet had her first ballet recital a few weeks ago.  She loves to dance, when she's in the mood.  Unfortunately, she's 3, so her moods change from minute to minute some days.  For this reason, I'm extremely glad that I didn't sign her up for formal dance lessons like we'd planned.  A beginning ballet class was offered at our co-op, and it was the perfect amount of commitment for us.  She took her class during co-op and they performed "Teddy Bear Picnic" for us at the end of the semester. 

Weren't they the cutest?

This is a "real life" picture, and the reason I'm glad the formal lessons didn't work out. Violet before the performance, on the verge of a mini-meltdown.  She pulled it together before her group took the stage. 

And this one is after the show with a flower from Daddy.

Butterfly Release

I decided to take Violet to our city's annual Butterfly Release.  I hadn't been in years, several years before Violet came along.  We met up with a group of friends and had a wonderful time.

We had the most fun when Scott offered to "haul us back to our cars".  Ha!

Field Trip- Thompson Mill State Arboretum

I'd never heard tale of this place before, but now that we know about it, I imagine we will be back.  A recent newspaper article referred to Thompson Mill as "Braselton's best-kept secret".  We took a little hike and enjoyed learning about nature.  The scenery was nice, but it was so hot and I was sweating...I was ready for the hike to be over with WAY before it ended, but the kids had a really good time.  That's all that  matters!

Spring Field Trip: Bear Hollow Zoo and Rook and Pawn

The kids and I joined some of our homeschooling friends on a field trip to Athens last week.  

The first stop was Bear Hollow Zoo.  

I thought the boys would be bored silly during this part of the trip, but they actually had a good time.  I don't now how I'd never heard of this place before, but we will definitely visit again.  It's free, and there were several animal exhibits that the kids (and adults) enjoyed.

Next, it was time for lunch at The Rook and Pawn.  Once again, a place I'd never heard of, and want to visit again.  This is a board game cafe, and just look what one of the moms found:

Girl Talk!  I spent many hours during pre-teen years playing this game and we were thrilled to play it again as adults.  As it turns out, Girl Talk isn't as fun with kids of our own running around a restaurant, and I kept spinning the wheel only to land on, "Name something that your parents won't allow you to do".  It still brought back memories, though, even when we had to cut the game short because our kids were getting too rowdy. 

Some more pictures from lunch:

It was a good day.