Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Autumn's Last Day of Preschool Swim Party

On Autumn's final day of preschool the parents were invited to come back at 10am and enjoy Miss Bekky's the pool. We all brought goodies to share and her teacher provided a meat platter and drinks for us. We where able to swim, eat, visit, play, and say our final goodbyes. It was a lot of fun, but sad that we won't be seeing each other as much as we used to. The girls had a great time. Autumn is going to miss coming preschool.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Autumn's Preschool Graduation

We can't believe that Autumn has graduated from preschool already. Where has the time gone? She was able to spend this special occasion with her Grandma Smith, Aunt Rachel, and cousins Logan and Kelsie. She was so excited to share this big day with them. We arrived at Miss Bekky's home at 4pm. She had perpared a presentaion for us. Each child had to say a memorized parts and sing songs telling us what they did each day and through the school year. Autumn's line was the first said. She said "We would like to welcome you to our end of the year graduation celebration!" She did a fantasitc job on it. After their presentation each child told us what their favorite thing about preschool was. Autumn said she likes cooking time and science time. Miss Bekky then handed out their graduation certificate and told us a little about how much she enjoyed each of the kids. It was very touching and I know that my Autumn was taught by teachers that loved her and the other kids very much. Autumn has had a wonderful year in preschool. It has been very good for her. She has loved ever minute of it. She told me she will miss her preschool, but is ready to go to Ashlyn's school and be a Kindergartner. We have seen Autumn grow and mature. We are so proud of her and are excited for her to be heading to Kindergarten.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Day 4 Visiting Columbia on Memorial Day

We said goodbye to Pinecrest Lake today. The girls had a great time getting in some last minuet play time before we headed for home. Aubrey got dressed all by herself and used her mommies socks instead of hers.On our way back home we stopped in Sonora to show the girls where Noah grew up for a few years when he was little. We even went by his old house that still has a bridge that his father built years ago. Then we headed over to Columbia State Historic Park. We got there just in time for lunch. We enjoyed our little picnic we had packed and then headed over to see this old mining town. We walked over to one of the areas where the mined for gold. Noah and I learned that since water was in short supply they used Hydraulic mining to shoot water at high pressure, where miners blasted loose the gold and washed it out. That is why there are lots of smooth rocks with grooves and holes in them. They are fun for the kids to climb on too. We also got to see the type of tools they used for mining. As we walked through the old town we were able to go into different buildings that showed us a little of what type of things they had in the 1850s. We saw the bank, the courthouse, various food stores, dentist office, drug store, the jail house, fire house, one of the original houses in town, and the Chinese house. We stopped by the yummy candy store on our way out. Where the girls got their choice of a special treat.We even got to check out some old wagons they used around town. We got to go into a small museum with artifacts, old pictures, and a room in the back for the kids to explore. They had a short video playing on the history of the town and an area for the children to explore and play.My girls lhad a blast in the dress-up corner. They loved seeing how they might have looked back in the 1850s. Our last stop was at the Fallon House Ice Cream Parlor. We treated ourselves to a couple of hot fudge sundaes. What a fun time we had with our girls learning more about our states history. The girls loved it too. Autumn can't wait to come back to the "rich town" (where all the Gold is) as she so eloquently called it.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Day 3 Hiking around Pinecrest Lake

With this day being Sunday we decided to take a leisurely 4 mile hike around Pinecrest Lake. This was a fairly easy to moderate hike and everyone was excited to hike except Autumn. She was upset off and on for the 1st half of the hike. On the first half of the hike we spied the lake of course, birds, a lizard, many wild flowers, and we walked across the Strawberry Dam.Once we got to the half way mark we took a lunch break by the inlet. The river flowing into the lake was flowing pretty high because of the snow run off.
After lunch Aubrey decided she was tired of being in the backpack and wanted to hike too. Noah was happy about that and we helped her along the trail.She did great and kept Autumn happy and moving along. They found some sticks and started zapping each other. Then the sticks became microphones. Our girls sang the rest of the hike. It was a great hike and we were able to see all the different things around the lake. Once back we had the afternoon to play in the lake. At a warm temperature of 55 degrees I am surprised my family even touched the water let alone jumped in it. But they had a good time and enjoyed playing in the sand too.