summer in a nutshell

well, it has been quite awhile since anyone has added any posts here so i thought i'd recap the summer for everyone. the month of may was filled with outdoor park time. we had our first "picnic in the park" at warrior's path. it's an awesome newer park (most new parks often aren't very cool), i mean it has a seesaw!!! most of the real fun took place in the creek though. the kids built a dam spectacular enough to inspire the people over at TVA. then there was the barge ride up at bay's mountain courtesy of betty. we saw some really beautiful water lilies and sadie spotted a big turtle. we got to walk around the animal areas and watch the wolves, deer and bobcats (i think), and small turtles and some other animals i can't even remember now. we had yet another "picnic in the park" day at steele creek. of course there was a lot of time spent in the water again. we got to meet new people and see some old friends we hadn't seen in a long time. we ended the month with a trip to the power board for a talk on electricity. the general consensus is that while we really enjoyed and appreciated the speaker, tyler could've easily done better...and did by answering questions that he couldn't. afterwards we headed over to winged deer park for some much needed play time after sitting so still for so long. then the kids talked us into going to marble slab for ice cream. we spent enough time there to get a good burn on parts not protected by the outdoor umbrellas. it was a long delicious day.

june started with a mild pop as we thought that the idea of a free movie at winged deer park would be fun. it wasn't. well, except for the blanket time we spent with ren and kass. and the kids did have fun playing on the playground. we left before it was all over, it was crowded and we couldn't even hear the movie. but we did find our way back to the exact same spot for a "picnic in the park" day later in the month. and as usual, the kids gravitated towards the water where they spent most of the day. the friday before we had an impromptu get together for "music on the square" in jonesborough which included a homeschooling dad all the way from columbia, sc.

july was filled with lots of get togethers that weren't all necessarily sofh gatherings but most everyone involved was from the sofh family. we had a potluck at our house to celebrate scotty's birthday, celebrated nesta's birthday at the nolichuckey river, had another "picnic at the park" at warrior's path and again at boone dam swimming area. one of the more exciting gatherings was for "learn nothing day" at rock creek. we had homeschoolers from georgia come up for that one...and a big bunch of people from sofh of course. it was an all day hang out that included food and swimming and talking and laughing and making new friends. we ended the month with an ATC create and trade gathering of the local "imagination tribe" which isn't an sofh group but as i said before includes many of us.

so far august has been just as full of fun and friendship. several of us got together for the downtown first friday and had a blast! the following week, we had our first "not back to school picnic" at steele creek park to jump start the "school year" as well as filling up the acoustic coffeehouse with sofhers for a concert by our very own heather. finally, we went to a little out of the way place called clarke's creek the other day for some crawdad and millipede catching and a picnic on the water and then yesterday we had our first activity day of the year where we dissected owl pellets, so awesomely organized by jess c., which ended in our annual planning meeting while the kids played in the gym and on the playground and had lots of yummy snacks together. we'll get together again on monday at the riverview splash pad for another "picnic in the park" day which we're really looking forward to as it's our first time going there.

well, that's our sofh summer in a nutshell. hope you enjoyed it! we did!!

now for the slideshow: