Greensboro Natural Science Center

These pictures are actually from last week. We found a new organization in Greensboro called Foundations 2 Transitions, for kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders. They offer both afterschool programs and summer camps! We went to the Natural Science Center with their group, so we could check them out. It was a success. Dr. Melanie, the director, is so excited to work with Chace she's invited him to come next week for free! We are really excited, since if he does well there, our child-care problems are solved for when I start Physical Therapy school! Here Chace is looking at a large monitor lizard, and Alana is in a replica of a deep sea sub.

Party at Lake Norman

Sunday was the annual Greensboro Aikido Dojo summer party. After testing on Friday night, it was time to celebrate and have fun! Besides the picnic and swimming, we got to go on pontoon boat rides. Chace really enjoyed tubing behind the boat, and went once with Newton, and once with Daniel and his dad. That's who you see in the pictures above. Alana loved riding in the boat and just chilled there for a good part of the afternoon.

Lazy 5 Ranch

Wednesday we went to the Lazy 5 Ranch. It's about an hour away, near Charlotte. You can see over 750 animals from 6 continents. And wow, we did see a lot. We couldn't feed the zebras, african cattle, asian donkeys, or white rhinoceros, since these were too dangerous, but we did feed ostriches, emus, and rheas, antelopes and elands, llamas, sheep, goats, pigs, camels, deer, water buffalo, yaks, bison, and giraffes, to name a few.

The yaks, bison, and water buffalo were my favorite. They just walk over, open their mouths, stick out their tongues, and you just dump the food in. Chace really enjoyed feeding them, especially feeding the giraffe. Predictably, Alana was bored with feeding the animals after the first 50 or so, and spent the rest of the ride stealing feed from others buckets into hers. She's hard to impress.

Bing Bang Boom!

Today we went to see Bing Bang Boom, a kid's rock band. It's led by Chuck Folds, brother of Ben Folds of the Ben Folds Five. They really got the kids involved, jumping and clapping, and singing with them. Unfortunately, they were too loud for the space, so we left early.

Circle Safari

We've been feeling bad about not working with Alana on things like we did with Chace. So Monday we had a circle safari. Alana and I drew circles and then started searching the house for them. She found them everywhere. Then Chace decided to get into the act and made up a game for her. For level one, he drew circles on sticky notes and hid them. Level two he put other shapes on them, and she was was supposed to find only the circle ones. They had a lot of fun and Alana became an excellent circle spotter.

Week Update

Forgot my camera this week, which was too bad. The kids had a lot of fun. Monday we went to the Children's Museum in Winston-Salem. This place is really cool. We brought a friend with us, a girl Chace's age, and they all had a blast. My favorite was the Krispy Kreme Assembly line. The kids all line up with KK hats and aprons, turning wheels and pushing little plastic donuts down the line. Alana was very interested in how it worked, getting a donut, putting it on the ramp, turning the wheel, watching it move. She was figuring it all out.

Tuesday we went to a pool party with my MOPS group. Kids had a lot of fun, and Chace did awesome. Many of my friends remarked how well he played with several of the younger boys. He was making up a jumping contest with all sorts of levels. Those of you that are around Chace know how he likes levels. All his games have different levels to progress to. He gets it from his video games, but I think it may also be an Aspie trait. Tuesday night I took Alana to see a juggler (Chace wasn't interested). I thought the juggling act was cool, Alana rolled around the gym floor. Typical for a 2-year-old.

Friday we went to the pool with a good friend and former neighbor. Again, Chace did extremely well. Alana was the drama queen, especially after she fell off the side of the pool. I grabbed her fast and pulled her out, and we all told her how well she had done, and then I got her a lollipop, which made everything all better. She was telling Aunt Cori all about it today "I fell down, I fell down into the water. I need help. Mommy help me. I get all dried off."

We have another fun week planned, and I'll be sure to bring my camera!

Little girls playing dress-up

Alana's First Joke

Alana told her first joke today. She wanted to go to the store with me, so we went upstairs to get dressed. After she had taken off her PJs and wet daiper, she turned to me, stark naked, smiled, and declared "Ready to GO!" and started laughing. She knew she wasn't ready. After we stopped laughing, she got dressed and was ready to go.

Alana and Chace playing

Kids are starting to play together now, rather than just annoy each other. One afternoon, Chace decided to outfit Alana's Cozy Coupe in style. And here they are dancing to their favorite music.

More Children's Museum Pictures

The first thing the kids like to do here is get dressed up and go fishing. They will spend half an hour here or more before they move on to other exhibits. I'm always surprised they haven't gotten tired of it yet. The "fish" are like oven mitts with magnets.

Children's Museum in Chattanooga

Another one of the kids favorite places is the Children's Museum in Chattanooga. This is one of Chace's favorite rooms.

Chasing penguins

Alana loved watching the penguins zipping by.

Penguins

This penguin has just stolen a pebble from anothers nest and is making his big getaway.

At the Aquarium

One of our favorite places to go in TN is the Chattanooga Aquarium. It is just amazing, with everything from a butterfly house, penguins, tanks full of jellyfish, fish from rivers and coral reefs around the world. Penguins were the favorite exhibit this year. The penguins had all built nests of pebbles (and were busy stealing each others pebbles) and two pairs had chicks.

Vacation Pictures

We had a great time at the grandparents last week. Chace and Alana both enjoyed kayaking and playing with Grandpa's train. Chace liked being the engineer, and Alana thought it was very cool when the train went through the tunnel.