Reading Rainbow

Thursday was Gracie's last day of school for first grade. I went to help her enjoy the last part of her day by taking cupcakes while Mary Beth brought Capri Suns and another mom brought the end of year teacher gift that some of us had pitched in for.

She has had another good year and is still loving school, and we feel blessed because of the great school experience she has had thus far. We pray it continues into next year and beyond. I have a 2nd grade teacher "on my radar" for next year. We're not supposed to be able to officially request teachers, but I did tell this particular one that Gracie & I would be very happy if she was in her class. So....prayers will be offered up this summer. I don't know that I'll particularly pray for her to get "Mrs. R" but will pray that she gets the teacher God wants her to have and mention "Mrs. R" as one I feel would be good. God does know better than I do, so I'll *try* to leave it in His hands. I say try because sometimes that is hard to do! I do have faith & trust in Him.

After we left school, we went to playgroup where she got to play with her good buddies from church. It was really nice to see her playing with her friends that she has had since she was itty-bitty. One of them is moving this summer, so I really want her to have as much time as possible with him.

After playgroup the girls & I headed to Atlanta. We had just gotten back from our Nashville trip Monday so getting back in the car wasn't really on my list of things I wanted to do, but Gracie had entered the Reading Rainbow writing contest again this year and the Celebration was Friday.

Since the Celebration was in Atlanta, Grammer got to keep Katie which is nice! Chris had to work so it was just me & Gracie. It was fun to spend this day with her. She was disappointed that she didn't win, but I'm proud of her for entering the contest and for her attitude about not winning. She was disappointed, but not ugly about it.

We arrived at the Georgia Public Broadcasting building and got her nametag and were directed to the t.v. studio. We didn't have to wait too long before the program began. It was fun to listen to the winners read their stories. It was MUCH better than last year! Last year they had the illustrator winners read too and that made for a lot of readers and it really got old. This year we only listened to the story winners so it made for less to listen to.

They had a clown do a show afterwards. Gracie enjoyed her although I have to admit to wanting her to be done. For some reason, she really got on my nerves! After that we were served a box lunch which was really quite good. The sandwiches were huge-Gracie could have eaten on hers for at least 3 meals! She got a goody bag with a new book and some other things-no t shirt this year and she was disappointed about that. I think the winners got one. One of the "Between the Lions" characters made an appearance while we were there. I love to see children write, so it's something I encourage Gracie to do often. This contest put on by Reading Rainbow is a great thing because even "just" the participants get to feel special by going to the celebration. It's a great way to encourage kids to write!

When we left I really wanted to take advantage of being in a big city and not having a 3 year old in tow so I got a little adventurous. I decided to head downtown and take her up in the elevator at the Westin Peachtree Plaza. It goes from the 5th floor to the 72nd floor and is on the outside of the hotel so you're looking out onto Atlanta. After driving around & finally finding it and finding a parking garage that looked fairly safe and not too far away, we headed into the hotel. I was a little disappointed when I was told that it cost $5 for me to go in it, but I went ahead and paid it. I was also a little disappointed at how scared I was! Honestly, I really had to concentrate on not freaking out! I'm not a big fan of elevators so maybe I shouldn't have been surprised, but I had done this one before and I've always done better with ones that I can see out of. Gracie was very nervous but she enjoyed it. She said she liked going down better than going up. I have to agree with her! It was fun to walk around once we got up there and see the restaurant that revolves while the patrons eat.

After we did that, Gracie wanted to walk around outside. We walked about a block before I decided that the 2 of us walking around with no real direction may not be the best idea. I've never really been that nervous walking around down there, but I guess before I didn't have one of my children with me and I had a pretty specific place I was going. With it just being the 2 of us I kept feeling like we were being looked at and I just got nervous. So.....we went back to the car (and paid $4.50 for less than an hour!) and headed to IKEA. Gracie thought it was just okay-"more of a Mommy store" so we didn't stay long.

She wanted to go to Barnes & Noble so we headed back towards where Mom & Dad live and went there. We stayed there for just a little bit then went back to my parents' house. I left both girls there with Mom while I went and picked up some things for Gracie's birthday. I had seen them the day before and wanted to get them while I was in town. The prices were too good to pass up!

That night, we left both girls with Dad (Pappy) while Mom & I went shopping for my birthday. We found one dress at Dillard's but decided to check out JCPenney's before buying. We ended up getting 2 outfits (skirts & tops) and 1 "unmentionable" for almost the same price as what we'd picked out at Dillard's. We then went to The Olive Garden. We ordered salad, alfredo sauce for the breadsticks and Sicilian Scampi. It was soooooo good! It was nice to have a "Girl's Night" with my mom. Not something we do often.

The girls had a great time playing with Pappy. They went on a walk and played up in what Gracie has decided needs to be a "clubhouse" for the granddaughters. They recently made the area above their garage a storage area. They built stairs and a door on the outside of the house to get to it. The girls wanted to know what was up there so Pappy showed them. They thought it was neat so they played up there. At one point, Katie had to go potty so Pappy took her. When he came back, he didn't come back up the outside stairs. He used this tiny opening in Grammer's closet for them to come back. I think he scared Gracie! She has decided though that this needs to be their "clubhouse" when she comes back this summer. We'll see how long that lasts when it's hotter because there's no air conditioning in there.

The girls & I headed back home to see Daddy yesterday morning. The girls slept a lot of the way home. It was good to be home!

VBS starts a week from tonight! I am sooooo ready for it to be here and be over. I hope that's not a horrible attitude; I'm just stressed! I really do hope it will be great!!!!!

My cousin is supposed to come visit me this week. I sooooooo hope it works out!