Under the Sun

Carrie and I had such a fun time at the "Under the Sun" concert earlier this month.  I got tickets on special for dirt cheap.  It was our first time to the White Oak Amphitheater, a local outdoor venue. It was awesome! Under the Sun is a summer tour of washed up 90's bands.  Perfect!  We heard Fastball, Vertical Horizon, Gin Blossoms, and a little bit of Sugar Ray before we had to take off.

Our tickets were for lawn seating, which was nice and relaxing...and kind of far away from the action. Just about everyone else must have bought their tickets on special, too, because the lawn was full. There was some VIP seating right at the front of the stage, then almost all the rest of the seats were empty.

Can you see all the open green seats?

About half way through the concert, they announced that

anyone with lawn seats who wanted a chair could come up front.

There was a mad swarm for the front.

Carrie and I were happy on our blanket.

But after the crush of concert-goers, there were still lots

of open seats, so we moved up and enjoyed a better view.

So fun to sing and dance along to songs from our 

high school and early college years.

Most of the performers seemed like nice guys, resigned to their fate as music has-beens, playing for half-empty venues on summer weeknights.  Not the lead singer of Sugar Ray.  He still thinks of himself as a rock superstar. It was hilarious. I don't think he's changed a bit since the 90's. And he still has a potty mouth. We left just in time to hear a couple of their hits, but not have to endure his profanity for too long. 

Kids' summer activities

Care Bear has kept up with her gymnastics this summer.  She goes twice a week and loves it.  I had my doubts when she complained about going the second week in.  But ever since we've been back from the road trip, she has been excited to go every time.  I'm so happy that she is enjoying it and progressing. I just hope I can keep up with the driving back and forth twice a week.

They have been working on the floor, the vault, strength, conditioning, and the beam. The parent-observation area is not in the best spot for photographing, so I only a few pictures that a snapped while she was on the beam.

Steady...

Pose at the end of the beam.

Jump...

Oops. Let's try that again.

 That's better.

 She looks like a gymnast, right?

Ok, a little on the lanky side, but still.

I'm proud of how hard she has worked this summer.

Miss Whitney chose to attend art camp again this year.  The theme was "Magic Carpet Mystery Shoppe." The kids did lots of detective work.  Whitney was even the culprit one day! She apparently stole the Pony Lisa, an invaluable masterpiece.

Here she is with Miss Jamie, her teacher.

And wearing one of her creations from the week.

She was even made a cameo on the local news.

B-train surprised me this summer. Instead of doing basketball or soccer camp, he said he'd like to try a week of tumbling and trampoline. With as much tumbling as he does around the house, I figured it was a good idea to get him some proper training.

When I picked him up at the end of the first day, he was not a happy camper. It was not quite what he expected. They didn't get to jump on the two big trampolines that he was looking forward to. They had some younger kids in his class with discipline problems, so a lot of the coach's time was spent on them. Lame. He decided to hang in there, though, and ended up enjoying it by the end of the week. 

 Some of the tricks he learned.

Pretty impressive for one week of half-day camp.

When we first got back from the road trip, I found myself wishing that I hadn't signed the kids up for any camps. I just wanted some down time at home. But in retrospect, I think this worked out perfect. We still had some lazy days here at home, but the kids never got bored. We have one last week of summer left and we're going to squeeze a few more fun things in before I ship all three of them off and have the house all to myself.  Yikes. Mixed feelings about that.

Panthers Fan Fest

At the beginning of the summer, we made a list of a few activities we hoped to do during our time here at home.  We've made it through almost all of them. Andrew's only addition to the list was a trip to Charlotte for the Carolina Panthers Fan Fest.  We had never been, but were excited to try it out. We had fun! It was a little on the warm side, but I would totally do it again.

We got a few autographs.

And found that having a cute 5-year-old girl holding

out the football to be signed helps. A LOT.

 We were glad that they signed their names AND jersey numbers.

Because most of their names were illegible, so we could at least

look them up later.

They had little bouncy houses.

 Care Bear on the 50 yard line.

 The kids got to take a turn on the Panthers drum.

Keep pounding!

Then we got to go in the stadium and sit in the close seats.

Those expensive ones where I've never actually sat before.

Cool. I liked the view from there.

 The boys got to go down on the field.

And Andrew got to attempt a field goal.

We were treated to performances by the team dancers,

(not pictured due to scantily clad nature of dancers)  :)

 Sir Purr,

(who Andrew believes may be the worst mascot in the NFL)

and the PurrCussion crew.

(They were good!)

Then they had an open practice where we could

watch the Panthers in action.

 Including Cam doing the airplane as he entered

the stadium to the roaring cheers of the crowd.

We watched practice for a few minutes.

Then this rosy-cheeked girl was ready to get out of the heat.

And so were the rest of us.

 Oh, wait!

I forgot one of the most exciting parts of the day.

(At least for me.)

I caught a Panthers t-shirt!

Finally, all my years of softball practice paid off.  :)

The Falcons fan in me cringes when I see that picture,

but I will admit that turquoise is a nice color.

Cool way to spend the afternoon.

And we all caught a little football fever.

The fantasy draft is right around the corner.

And Drew can't wait to get cable again.

Friday Night Live

My kids love heading downtown on the first Friday of the month. But it seems like we almost always have a conflict in our schedules.  Not this month! 

Bubbles, sidewalk chalk, and giant stamps

 There was a dance performance inside.

It was a collaboration between dance and art.

 In theory, I thought it sounded cool.

 In practice, it turned out to be awkward.

 Whit brought one of her BFF's along.

 They got their faces painted: a butterfly and a cheetah.

B-train opted for the design-your-own-mask table.

 Yee haw!

The weather was PERFECT for the outdoor concert.

The first band was...hmmm...interesting?

The second one was pretty good.

The girls showed of their moves.

Care Bear practiced some gymnastics.

It was such a relaxing night,

hanging out on our blanket with some snacks.

Even though the night was NOT warm,

the girls couldn't resist the fountains.

Our mini-Bellagio.

Andrew and I played a little frisbee

until it got too dark.

Such a fun, affordable way to spend an evening. Love it.

Let's go ride a bike

Right before the road trip, Caroline asked Andrew to help her learn to ride her bike without training wheels.  They spent one afternoon practicing. She did pretty well.  Then we left for a month with no bike for her to practice on.

In that month, her same-age cousin learned to ride.

Caroline couldn't be outdone. As soon as she heard that Macy could ride, she was convinced that she had to keep up.  Silly girl.

She has loved every minute of learning how to ride her big girl bike.  I can't believe how quickly she took to it. She has good balance, is careful without being too nervous, and is very determined when she decides she wants to do something.  We had a two-day bike-riding-lesson frenzy. And that's all it took.  She's a pro now! She can't get enough. She spends time riding her bike every day. It is so dang cute.

Brandon is hoping that we have another BMXer in the family.

Speaking of BMXers....

Check out Andrew's bunny hop.

He's still got it.

And he's passing his moves on to B-train.

Who, by the way, resorted to BMXing on his mountain bike

after he popped the front tire twice in two days on his BMX bike.

We have since purchased puncture resistant tires

that we're hoping will last more than a week.