General catch up, Oliver is 9

Ok, so this is going to be more of a photo drop than anything else.  It's been a while.....

Here are 3 monkeys looking lovely in their 80 cent hats.  Yes, 80 cents.  Thats about 50 pence in English terms.  They are Angry Bird Star Wars baseball caps, and brand spanking new.  Thanks K-Mart!

The fair came to Heritage Park in Simpsonville. It was there for like 10 days.  Of course, the boys wanted to go.  They had special offers running pretty much every day, but we didn't really take any notice of them.  We chose to go one saturday morning, just as it opened.  We were fortunate, all the rides were FREE for the first hour. Couldn't have done that any better.... What could have been exceedingly expensive ended up being really good value.  Typically Isaac wanted to feed the butterflies, and that cost money ($4 for him and me), but he loved it.

The pool opened a couple of weekends ago, hurrah!!!!  We have already had Isaac swimming without his armbands.  Think he surprised himself as to how well he did.  Sebastian also wanted to try.  He sank a lot, but we gave him an A* for his efforts.  He has been having swimming lessons 2 times a week, which he loves.  Not sure his teacher does though..... We have not been given a form for re enrollment.  Wonder if it has got something to do with him wanting to jump in consistently.....

Look at my adorable boys.  Their school has been clearing out all their bookstore clothing, so I managed to pick these t-shirts up for $5 each.  So lovely.  Ignore the fact thats this posing session turned into a fight 20 seconds later....

Oliver has been in a school play! Isaac got to see it in the day, and I went a long in the evening.  He had to audition and everything.  He ended up being chosen to play a Furman football (Thats a college American Football team, for those in Europe) fan, and had lines too!  He did very well.  The play was entitled 'A Salute to South Caroliona' and was very informative to an outsider like me, I would highly recommend it!

It was Oliver's birthday on saturday just gone.  Can't believe he is 9..... So scary, and so big.  We were initially going to throw him a party, but his ENT doc said no to bouncing, so that idea went out of the window.  But we wanted to do something.  Last year we went to the NASCAR Hall of Fame.  He wanted to do that again, but we said no.  There is a local NASCAR race on at Charlotte over his birthday weekend, but it was the Coca-Cola 600, a 4 hour evening race. The younger 2 just wouldn't have had the stamina.  Instead, we decided to go to the NASCAR Xfinity series race.  This is the second tier of the NASCAR sport, and has many up and coming drivers, plus a few of the pros take part too.  It was in the afternoon, and was called the Hisense 300. It was even on the day of his birthday, and half the distance of the full race.  

Because it was a full racing weekend at Charlotte, NASCAR had set up camp.  The fan zone out the front was tremendous, and because it was the Xfinity race, the crowds were less, and there was a more laid back environment.  The seats cost us less also, and were pretty good, on the start finish straight.

Because I am the best mum ever, I emailed Charlotte Motor Speedway and informed them it was my sons birthday.  During the race they text me to ask where we were sitting.  They managed to get the people behind us on the big screen.  They then asked who his favorite driver was.  Unfortunately he picked a Sprint driver, not an Xfinity driver!!! Not to worry though, as they came and presented him with an American Football.  So awesome!!!

We all really enjoyed the day.  The seats started in the sun, then went into the shade which helped a lot.  Charlotte is an awesome speedway.

We travelled home, and enjoyed some cake.  The rest of Memorial Day weekend was spent relaxing.  We are fortunate to have our kids birthdays fall over American holidays.  Isaacs is the day before Thanksgiving this year, and Seb's fell on Martin Luthur King Day!

Now the fun begins..... I wanted to get this done now, as Oliver and Isaac have a half day tomorrow, and then they are done for the summer.  Yes that's right, for the SUMMER.....

Luckily we are going away this weekend, and again in July, and hopefully in August.  They have 3 weeks of camp each too, though those are half days and 1 week of full days.  They are in for lots of fun with all the school work and chores I have planned.  I am going to let them get as bored as possible, so they relish the thought of going back to school next year....Their orientation for 1st and 4th grade respectively is 21st August. 

Only 86 days to go.......