March madness

Looks like I was still in no mood to pick up the camera through most of March, since I have no pictures on it until the cruise at the end of the month. That doesn't mean there wasn't anything worthy of mentioning during the month, however. 

By the time March gets here every year I'm at the point where I wish it would snow one good time and then immediately get warm. Snow wasn't to be this year, so warm was fine by me. It never truly got cold all winter. The two winters before that regularly had mornings in the teens and 20's, and days stayed quite chilly. I'm amazed at the difference a mild winter made in my mood. We were able to get outside a lot more which helped keep the cabin fever at bay.

Early on Saturday, March 10th, Papa and Mimi drove in from Texas. It was Mimi's spring break week from school and they did their traditional drive-all-night journey to get here. We spent the day with them and then deserted them to go to a wedding that night. It's always nice to have babysitters willing to drive 800 miles to accommodate you.

The next day was our Open House at camp. We had the biggest turn out we've ever had. The weather was pleasant (always iffy in March) and a lot of people ventured into the hills of North Georgia to check out camp. Aunt Sherry drove in from South Carolina to be here as well. She shows up every time Mimi is in town. We're working on getting her here as a surrogate Mimi during the first part of next summer since the original can't come until July next year.

The following pictures are courtesy of Mom H. since, as I said before, I couldn't be bothered to get the camera out during February and March.

This is the display we travel with when we go to camp fairs and events.

Open House is a fun day where we give tours of camp and open several activities for families to try out. One of them is pony rides at the barn.

Elizabeth really likes to ride Star. Here's the moment just before I became a responsible mom and went to get her a helmet.

This picture had to be taken just because it's something we'll never see again. My dad was having a conversation with an older lady who had come with her family to Open House. She had this teeny dog with her and during the conversation plopped it in my dad's lap! He has never been an animal person. Our family dog used to tuck her tail between her legs and slink away from him. He was never mean to her, just not overly enthused to see her. Dogs know when they're not wanted around. That's why this is a priceless picture...made even better by the fact that the dog is wearing pink clothes.

Mimi and Aunt Sherry also followed us around to some of our regularly scheduled school year activities, including pottery class. It was a good day for it because Amelia and Shannon were using the wheel.

Mrs. Tasha, their teacher. (tashabiggerspottery.com) She has a pottery studio in her basement and makes a lot of beautiful things. The kids really enjoyed their class and want to do it again in the fall.

Other fun for the week (besides school work, ew) included fishing with Papa,

playing duets with Papa,

and swinging in the hammock with Papa. Clearly Mimi was the one behind the camera. We enjoyed the rest of the week with them, then had to say goodbye on Friday. We also got to see Uncle Jason while they were here. It's nice to have one family member in Georgia. We're working on getting more of them over this way.

I took this picture one day in March. Shannon and I were doing a piano lesson and Amelia set up a couch (after disassembling the real one) and was reading to Avery. It's nice to know they can be sweet to each other.

Nothing else worth noting happened in March until our cruise at the end of the month. We crammed to get school finished enough to take the week off, and then did laundry and packed for what felt like a week. When the kids were smaller and I packed 542 pounds of stuff per kid just to go somewhere I used to count the cost first, to make sure it was really going to be worth leaving home. It usually was, a change of pace is nice for everyone. A cruise is extra nice!

I have pictures, courtesy of Mom, of a day trip they took to the Tellus Museum in Cartersville while we were gone. The kids loved it.

Heading out.

There was a section about vehicles and transportation. This is a big vehicle.  Perhaps it is actually a Transformer.

Oh my! Run kids, run!

Earth to Amelia...

Shannon said he liked this part the best. He spent a long time panning for gems.

"And then I found a really big dinosaur bone, Grandad!"

 Mom said Avery refused to stand in front of the entire skeleton, but would pose by the Megalodon mouth. A mouth by itself is less scary than the entire skeleton, apparently.

They enjoyed their vacation, we more than enjoyed ours, and so it was a successful end to the month of March!