Catherine's Dance Team

Our local elementary school, Sedalia Park, is always gracious enough to let Catherine participate in one of their after school programs: Dance Team.  She loves it.  Yesterday the girls practiced their cheers as sideline cheerleaders for the East Cobb Middle School.  It was beastly hot and sunny, but the girls did well.

 It was so sunny it was hard for Catherine to look up:

 This was a cute up and down circular cheer they did called "Pump it Up":

 Catherine loved her pom poms:

 During half time the elementary cheerleaders went onto the field with the middle schoolers:

 A group shot:

Tallahassee

Recently we visited Thomasville, Robby's home town.  We were pretty close to Tallahassee, FL, so we went there for the day.  Our intention was to visit the "Challenger Space Center" for a few hours.  But, when we got there, we discovered that there was (and I am bring totally serious) one display related to space.  Here it is:

Yep, there was one tire from a space shuttle.  The rest of the museum (and I am bring totally serious) consisted of some newspaper clippings from the Challenger tragedy and some Lego models of space vehicles.  We did watch an IMAX movie there, but were incredibly shocked at how small this museum was.  So, we left that museum and went to the Mission San Luis, which is a recreation of a Catholic Spanish mission.  The girls had the opportunity to make dolls out of corn husks:

 The finished product:

They had a huge structure which was used for big church services, but it was closed because they are putting a new thatch roof on it.  We had a fun time watching them put the thatch roof on, but were disappointed that the workmen were using pneumatic nail guns to attach the palm branches.

 We wandered through all the buildings.  Catherine loved this chair:

 Sabrina loved the broom made from a dried palm leaf:

 Sabrina trying on a hat:

This Spanish moss was laying in the sun so that all the bugs in it would die.  They would use it to stuff mattresses:

We saw a lengthy black smith demonstration.  But, we did not get any pictures of it - except this one.  It is hard to tell, but this man made a small twisted hook.  While it was still hot, he rubbed beeswax on it, creating a sealant.  He said that would keep the iron black and it would not rust.

 Here is an old grill:

 One of the highlights of the day was the archery lessons:

After just a few tries, Sabrina was actually able to shoot an arrow with enough force & direction to hit the target:

 Catherine picking out her next arrow:

 Another building was the apothecary.  The girls practiced grinding herbs & making medicine:

 The Mission includes a museum with an insane amount of drawers, each containing some artifact. 

We loved this historical day!

Zoo Day at the Library

Our library has some great summer programs, including bringing the Atlanta Zoo in with some animals.  My girls and a friend of ours, all together, wore a jacket worn by Willie B, the big gorilla.

Every animal show I ever attend seems to include a lizard of some sort:

 And a snake:

 This animal show also included two rats:

 At the end, the kids got to pet the lizard:

Monkey Joe's

Last night we took the girls to Monkey Joe's.  They had a blast and were quite tired when we got home - Catherine fell asleep immediately!

The slides were definitely the hit:

Catherine getting ready for her My Little Pony birthday party:

 Sabrina meeting Monkey Joe:

 They got plastic balls, which they love:

Lots of fun!

Ruby Falls

Yesterday we went to Chattanooga and visited Ruby Falls.  This was the girls' first experience in a cave and they had a blast.  We were all very impressed with the actual waterfalls.  Here is a shot of me, the girls, and my father in the cave (we are 260 feet below the surface):

On most of the tour I could touch the ceiling.  In a few spots, the girls could jump up and touch the ceiling:

 Catherine examining some of the rock formations:

 Some of the stalactites:

 A view of the waterfalls (they were well lit with changing colors):

The girls in front of the waterfall.  It was very difficult for me to get good pictures in the cave and Robby could not come on this trip.

 Another shot of the falls. 

 After the cave tour, the girls did some gem panning:

 And played on the playground:

This was a lot of fun!