1st Day of School

We woke up early to take Kevin to the Metro around 7:00am. When we got home The kids had some breakfast and we got Jared ready for school. The bus picks up right at the entrance of our complex which is very convenient. Jared was a little nervous, but when he got home he was beaming from ear to ear. He really loves school. He had art today (his favorite subject) and discovered there are two recesses in 1st grade. Nothing gets better than that. He says his teacher is really nice and that he is lucky because he gets to sit at the only non girl table. He can't wait for tomorrow.

WALMART

Ok so I know when we hear Walmart we have all kinds of preconceived notions like cheep quality, big industry destroying all the ma and pop stores, or we think of all the questionable political parties they support. Well, maybe you don't, but when Walmart is the only store within an hour you tend to think about these things. We use to complain all the time that we only had Walmart as an option when we lived in Buena Vista. "What I wouldn't do for a Target or a Vons, or a Mall or anything." I use to say. Well, now that I'm surrounded (literally Food Lion is in my back yard) by tons and tons of shopping options and all I really want is a Super Walmart! What a pain to have to make two to three stops just get get things we need. ALDI's for milk, Target for socks, Food Lion for food and laundry soap. Not to mention the gas it takes driving all over town to these places. You can forget it I'm not buying. (I know poor use of play on words) All I really want now that I could have anything is a WALMART! I've been asking around and looking on line for a Super Walmart and I finally found one! Yeah! About 15-20 minutes away in Cockeysville. The drive is beautiful back roads through horse country. Jared and Anna spent the drive counting how many horses they could find. The Super is a new store and I can't tell you how refreshing it was to walk in and fill up my cart with all those Great Value products. Even the kids were excited to be around the familiar running up and down the isles. So no more complaining from me about living in a huge city where I don't know anyone and everyone is rude and in a hurry because I have WALMART! I know it is crazy and probably a little simple minded but what can I say I thrive in the familiar.

Bubbles

Jared and Anna are finding new ways to play outside. They love to go out on our deck and blow bubbles. Today Anna was the one blowing the bubbles and Jared was popping them with his popper gun. They were having a lot of fun.
I have to say they are adjusting to this new way of living better than I am. Everything is just so big and fast paced. I'm really missing the slow and easy way of life in the south. We have made some nice friends from church and they all have kids Jared and Anna's age. There was a play date at the park yesterday and the kids really enjoyed themselves being able to run around and just be silly.

Finding Things to Do

Well, we have been here for almost two weeks and have become a little familiar with our new town. We have found the food stores, parks, library, and other miscellaneous places. There is a parks about a mile down the road from us that we have been to a couple of times. It has tons of toys and a few baseball/softball fields.




We found another park a mile away in the other direction, but haven't played there yet. We had some new friends over the other night for dinner and they told us about this fun pick-your-own fruit/veggies farm about 20 minutes north-west of us. We checked on line to see what was in season and when they were open and made and afternoon of it. I grew up going to the Avilla Beach barn when I was little and so I was excited to see what this little farm would be like. We had so much fun. There was a tractor ride to the orchards
We let the kids each fill up a quarter of a bushall basket. The peaches they grabbed were a little on the firm side, but they were enjoying themselves.

After we bought our peaches we went down the road to the little petting zoo they have. There were donkeys, goats, pigs, llamas, bunnies and peacocks. Jared and Anna loved the donkeys. they kept following them around.

Needless to say we had a great time at the Baugher Orchard and look forward to going again. Jared says he wants to go in about a month and pick apples and of coarse we will go back for the pumpkin patch.
We have enjoyed being together the last two weeks and exploring our new surroundings. Next week will be exciting as well when Kevin goes to orientation and classes start!