As I am sure every good parent would do, I find myself now, at the end of the formal school year, questioning:
Did we do enough?
Did we experience enough?
Did we see enough new things?
What did we learn?
As someone who doesn't test, I must rely on my notes throughout the year, and my photographs, to answer this.
So, did we?
Let's see. Let's start one year ago, and see what we did, what we experienced, what we saw, what we learned.
May 2012:
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| This was a trip to Callaway Gardens in Georgia, to see the lake. |
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| Tuna had her hip-hop recital. She was awesome! |
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| Our trip to Savannah, GA included a visit to Tybee Island's lighthouse and beach. Here are the girls and dad atop the lighthouse. |
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| We visited historical Bonaventure and Colonial Park Cemeteries. We'd read up on these before our visit, so we knew to look for Little Gracie's grave (pictured here) as well as the history of the two cemeteries. |
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| Our dolphin tour was very cool. The guides told all about local wildlife, and we got to hold a jellyfish and a crab, in addition to seeing many dolphins (which are incredibly difficult to photograph!) |
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Playing in the chilly Atlantic ocean at Tybee Island. We also visited the lighthouse and museum here, which had a military focus. At the beach, we watched seagulls dive bomb small fish, and sometimes, they even caught one!
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| Fort Pulaski National Monument. I think this was our favorite part of our Savannah trip. Being a military family, we enjoy and feel a connection to all things historically military. We got to see the cannon damage in the walls of this fort. There were still cannon balls stuck in the walls! |
June 2012:
We visited the Atlanta Zoo, where Tuna got to feed, pet, and brush animals in the petting zoo, navigate the zoo for us with her map, feed parakeets off of overpriced sticks of seeds, and have a good time romping around, enjoying mom and dad to herself while Bay was with some friends elsewhere in the state.
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| Tuna got a haircut... |
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| ...and donated her ponytail to be made into wigs for kids with cancer! |
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| Cheer camp! |
July 2012:
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| Scorching July in Georgia. We spent a lot of time at the pool. |
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| We tried bubble painting. It was fun, but short-lived. |
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| While Bay was at summer camp in Florida (a first for her, and she loved it!), Tuna and I visited Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain, Georgia. The best part of this place is the drive-through safari. You can either drive your own car or rent a van to drive through. The vans have no AC. I risked it and drove my car. Worth it. Anyway, you buy some overpriced food and you feed the animals that wander to your window. You're supposed to throw the food to the ground, not in their mouths. But who could resist? Not us! |
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| One of the noses that pressed itself into our car. :) |
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| Not for the squeamish. We had lick marks, red clay mud, and nose prints all over our car, inside and out, when we were done. Again: worth it. |
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| Tuna's reaching down to feed something low to the ground. |
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| I think the buffalo were so ridiculously cute. Look at that eye. |
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| They learn to beg at an early age. |
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| What a great way to get up close with nature! |
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This guy made us a wee bit nervous!
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| I covered the table in spices, herbs, and dry foods, paper, glue, paint brushes, and various utensils, and invited the girls to make a collage. |
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| Learning to kayak |
The girls went to Florida in July without me: A big step, and I missed them very much. But they had a blast with Grandma, Grandpa Ken, and my grandparents.
Swimming at the neighborhood pool
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| relaxing at the beach |
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| ripsticking at the park |
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| Walking Grandma's dogs is always fun. |
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| They went to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure, and stayed at Portofino Bay Resort. Fun and luxury. |
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| Taking the ferry to the resort after a long day of play |
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| Fun times in Seussland |
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| I think this was the Hulk coaster? Not sure. |
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| Talking to me on the phone :) |
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| Getting to spend time with Great Grandpa: priceless |
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| We tried Time 4 Learning in late July. It didn't work out for us, but we did keep at it for a couple of months. It was a transition period for us. |
August 2012:
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| This was the day we found out we were moving to Germany! We were so excited!!! |
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| On Jimmy Carter's boyhood farm, the kids got a personal "school tour" from a tour guide, who taught them how to use the very well Jimmy Carter used to bring water to his house every day. |
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| How to shuck corn for the animals by hand... |
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| Free private tours are the best. :) |
September 2012:
We were in transition this month. We had stayed at a hotel for several weeks once our house was packed up for the move to Germany. Then we went down to South Florida to stay with my mother until our passports arrived.
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| We took a trip to the Florida Keys. Splendid time. Special place. |
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| GREAT pie. |
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| We snorkeled here, at this very beach. The sea life we saw was amazing. Also, a wee bit frightening, as the murky water was perfect shark territory. We didn't see any sharks. |
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One of the beaches we walked in the Keys
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October 2012:
We moved to Germany! We took our first trans-Atlantic flight and we moved to Germany.
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| Our neighborhood grocery store took some getting used to. It has never taken me so long to shop for groceries. Reading labels in German was tricky, but we worked together and so far, we haven't accidentally eaten anything weird. |
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| The jet lag was killer. We spent many a day inside, waiting for it to pass. |
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| The view from atop the castle in our little town. |
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| Raking leaves is a novelty for us, having lived in the south for so long! |
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| OUR FIRST SNOW! It was nothing, a dusting is all, but Tuna got out her sled and went down the hill anyway. |
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| How we dressed those first few weeks in Germany. |
...To be continued
