7 - 8 yrs
May 23, 2009 - May 23, 2010

May 23, 2009 Lars turns 7!
click here for details and pictures

June 10, 2009  Last day of school for Lars.
Last week we received a call from one of his teachers, Mrs. Holste, and she informed us that Lars was to receive an award on the last day of school. She wanted to be sure we would be there to see the ceremony. Of course we would be there.  He spotted us as he entered the room and wondered what we were doing there. He actually received 2 awards during the ceremony, outstanding achievement in Spanish and the honors of the Principal's award "outstanding achievement in all IB areas".  Later that day he also received another award in his class for being the "King of 3's".  Every day the kids start with 3 points. If they misbehave or do something wrong they receive a count and lose a point.  If they lose too many points they go to office or have parent called, etc.  Anyway, Lars said he was the only one in his class to have kept all of his 3's for the entire school year!  :-)

June 10-13, 2009 Great Wolf Lodge -  Concord, NC (Schools out for summer!)
We decided to take the kids to "The Lodge" to celebrate the end of school and beginning of summer. Oh what fun it was. We did everything except take loads of pictures, as we were in water most of the time. We love when the bell began to ring and we knew the big bucket was going to dump.  Anya's favorite seemed to be the wave pool. Lars and Alan loved the "Tornado", I thought it was frightening and took me all weekend to work up the nerve to give it a try. Lars loved playing on the ropes and we all loved the slippery snake as well as the remaining waterslides.


June 2009 Summer Camp has arrived- The kids just love Camp O!
Anya is very excited to go to camp with Lars this year. They are singing cheers and songs in the car together and are really bonding again. After just 2 weeks of camp, Lars prompted Anya to test for her yellow band. This is a swim test to be able to swim in pool without flotation devices. Anya had to swim 25 yds and then tread water for 30 seconds. She now sports her Yellow band around her neck as a badge of honor. It is worn as often as we will allow, even when we are no where near the Y pool.  She is really growing up on us this summer. I wasn't quite ready for this, but guess it has to happen.

Wacky Wednesday's:
Lars still adores those Wacky Wednesdays at camp and Anya can give or take them. She wants to earn her bead by dressing up, but she doesn't like to go all out like Lars. I think we are going to try to be a little more low key this year, as it is tough on the parents to go all out too.
6/17/09 Mad Scientist: 
6/24/09 Wet n Wild Beach day: 
7/1/09 4th of July:  

Family night 6/25/09
We attended our 1st Family Night June 25th and it was fun! We started the evening with a few rides on Nessie, then on to the races and finger jousting. We spent loads of time at the water balloon launch. Lars decided to go out and catch the water balloons with the counselors. Next it was inside for assembly a skit and loads of boogie time! Both kids are so attached to all of the counselors, we love the Y.

6/26/09 The Tooth Fairy has been busy!
Lars lost his top front tooth and the other is soon to follow. I guess that song "All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth" may apply this year. The Clements family was over to play with us as well.

7/4/09 Happy 4th - The family is loving the training too!
We purchased a trailer cycle for Anya, so she can enjoy the long bike rides with us. We spent the full morning on every inch of Black Creek Trail as well as Lake Crabtree. This was a great purchase 'cause now we can get some speed and Anya didn't complain one bit. It is loads more work for Alan, but we love it.

July 15, 2009  Hillbilly Wacky Wednesday at Summer Camp

7/22/09  Wacky Wednesday Christmas in July

August 20, 2009  Double Milestone Day!
Anya started Kindergarten and had a fantastic time. Lars lost another front tooth, "mr. gap"

August 25, 2009 Lars is in 2nd grade

August 29, 2009  An exciting Wagoner Day!  Lars completed his 1st Triathlon.

September 5, 2009  Hope Depot Kids Workshop
The 1st Saturday each month they have a workshop for kids at Home Depot. We have been a few times and made some cool things. Anya has just one more workshop to earn her free "tool kit". They each have their own apron and each visit they take home their craft as well as a button for their apron. It is fun.

September 8,2009  Lars gets glasses
Last week we were at the bus stop and Lars said he thought he should get his eyes checked. He was have a tough time reading the chalk board at school. We called and popped in for his appointment later that week and yep, he needs glasses. He is very excited, but just not in this picture. He didn't want his picture taken.

October 9, 2009 Bear Fun Run at Farmington Woods - The kids had to run as many laps as they could in 20 minutes. Lars loves to run and took the lead from the start. He kept a very steady pace the entire time. Parents were manually counting the laps as all of the kids came by, so we think Lars did either 21 or 23 laps.  We were lucky to have family in town to come cheer Lars on as he made each lap (Grandma Bev, Aunt Karen, Uncle Eric, Cousin Carson). Carson was a bit tired watching, so opted for a little nap. Great Job Lars!

Family Visit October 8-12, 2009
 
Alan was getting artistic with the new camera

Happy Halloween 2009
We started off joining the neighborhood parade at 5pm. We all walked together in the parade the few blocks to the clubhouse. There we were served pizza and juice boxes. The kids all had a good run up and down the embankment and played in the playground. Then we headed home and waited about 30 min, before hitting the streets.  Time to trick or treat!  We always start with Judy and Saiid and we looped the entire block and down the road to a couple of cul-de-sacs as well. An hours of Joy and time to go home.  :-) 

Picasso inspired art by Lars

Report Cards are in!  Fall 2009
Lars - 2nd grade

Beaches Resort in Negril, Jamaica  November 20-27, 2009
Thanksgiving week!

12/5/2009  Heidi and Lars do the 4th Annual New Balance Reindeer Romp 5k
Results:  
Lars bib 88 placed 56th overall and 4th for his age group.
 

Heidi bib 1337 didn't run competitively, but finished smiling. 
 

Lars opted to sign up for the competitive, while I chose recreational run. We neglected to train for the event, but both felt we should give it a go anyway. It was about 45 degrees and raining that morning, so we had to be nuts to be there. There were over 1000 people there in the soccer field and we were standing way in the back of the pool of people. Anya and Alan had just arrived and asking questions about where and when the race starts. I said that I wasn't sure what was going on and not really sure where to start. At that moment a big air horn went off and the pool of people began to run towards the woods. We all looked at each other and I told Lars that was it, time to hit it. Off we went.

That was the last I saw Lars for 28 minutes. He was weaving and tunneling his way through the masses as we all fed into a 10 ft wide muddy trail.  It was tough to navigate the herd and break through, but after 6 minutes it was beginning to thin out a bit. I was jogging away and the "snap", I felt it just behind my knee at the top of my left calf.  Oh, it was painful. I could barely walk. I went to the side and massaged and stretched for a bit. I then was able to walk and was torn about going on or heading back. I really wanted to do this race. I thought, even if I walk it I can finish. So I walked a good 10 min and stopped to stretch again. I then did a light jog for a while and kept up that routine to the end, adding a little more jog here and there.

The run was a 2 mile big loop and then a 1.2 mile inner loop, so they crossed by each other at one point.  28 min in to the run, I had just passed the 2 mile mark and coming towards me on the other side was Lars. He had less than 1/4 mile to the finish. I yelled out his name and said I was proud of him. He yelled back "I am proud of you too mommy, you are doing great!" Ah, what a sweetie! about 15 min later I approached the up hill finish and saw Alan, Anya and Sue Ellen cheering me on. Then a few feet further up was Lars. He was so happy!  Lars had finished so fast that Alan and Anya didn't see him come in. Lars waited just where I asked him to, until he saw me come in. It was muddy, wet, cold and a load of fun. I must say, I don't think I have ever run in 2 inches of soggy wet mud, but I guess that is why it is the Reindeer Romp! Until next year.

12/03/09 The kids visited with Santa at the YMCA.

Christmas eve and day 2009
The kids had the full day with Grandma, while we were at work. They made the foundation for the gingerbread houses and made then decorated cookies for Santa. That evening the Clements family came over to enjoy a turkey dinner with us. After dinner it was time for hot chocolate and decorating the gingerbread houses. That was followed by roasting marshmallows by the fire pit, singing Christmas Carols.  Better go to bed now, time for Santa to come.

Christmas Morning was fun, of course the kids were up very early. We enjoyed our day and all of the new toys. It was a rainy day, so we were inside all day. There was plenty of snuggle time for us all. The next day we went out for dinner and when we arrived home the kids and grandma performed a show for us. It was wonderful.

Christmas Break 2009 & Beech Mountain, NC

January 30, 2010 Snow Day! So it was already a stay at home day, but snow is fun no matter how it falls. They forecasted 5-8 inches and over night we received about 3. In the morning is was sleet, sleet, sleet and occasionally snow. We played out front and tried to sled down the side of the house. Then Alan braved the icy, snowy roads for us and drove us to the neighborhood club house. There is a big hill and it was the popular place for the day. We really got some speed there!  The kids not only went down the hill, but jumped the curb and skid across the icy parking lot.
   VIDEO Anya      VIDEO Lars

February 2010 - More Snow! This sure has been a cold winter, but we are keeping busy.
Valentines weekend Grandma Linda came to visit and of course it snowed again. We woke up and went outside to build a snowman, but it quickly turned into a crazy fun snowball fight. :-)  Later that day we were off to the Planetarium to learn about black holes and see a scientist show us all about "matter". We ran some errands that evening and stopped by Old Navy. Anya and Grandma went ahead into the store, while I put some things in the car. When I arrived at the store, there was Anya posing. I just had to snap a pic with my phone.

February 6th we went to the Home Depot kids workshop in the morning. That evening it was off to "The World's Toughest Rodeo". Alan received some free tickets and an awesome parking pass from work, so off we went.

February 22, 2010
Lars had 1 month to complete a book related project. He chose to create a book jacket of the book he finished last month. He did a wonderful job and full of detail with binding, inner flaps and even the bar code.  I could scan the full inner flaps, but most of it is pictured here with his grade too.

February 27, 2010 Day at the Durham Museum of Life & Science
Alan wasn't feeling well today, so the kids and I were up and out of the house early.  We drove out to the museum and spent almost 6 hours there.  They have expanded the outdoor area, so there was loads to see and it was the 1st semi sunny day in a long time.  We spent a good 4 hours in the outdoor section (playground, butterfly house, train, bears, wolves, wind section, lunch, etc). It was fascinating playing with all of the "catch the wind" exhibits. They were very interactive and had great facts about wind.  The kids got to sail a remote boat, flap winds like a fly, make sounds on drums that caused wind and much more. We headed inside for the coolest science experiments and they have a new sound room too.  You run around the room and that causes different sounds to play, it was fantastic.
 

March 6, 2010   A busy day for the Wagoner kids
The morning started off early with our trip to the Home Depot Kids Workshop. This month it was building rain gauges. We arrived a little early, but they let us get started anyway. Both kids are really getting the hang of this workshop and reading the instructions and putting things together with little to no help. This was their 5th project completed, so that means they earned a tool box. I was expecting a little toy tool box, but NOPE they got the real deal. Lars was a little disappointed it was empty, but excited.  We headed straight to the dollar store to pick up a few tools (screw drivers, goggles, hammer and measuring tape). 

We were doing some spring cleaning at home later in the day and we rearranged Lars' bedroom.  We weren't sure if the bed would fit between the dresser and the bookshelf. Off he went to his tool box and got out the measuring tape. We measured and had 2 inches to spare! This is kinda cool.  :-) After cleaning the bedrooms it was off to do some Rock climbing.

Last weekend Alan was sick, so they missed the Y-Guides event rock climbing.  We took Lars today, so he could earn his patch and burn some energy.  He had a tough time the first couple of tries. Then another kid gave him some pointers and he was up up and away. He was just beaming when he reached the top (12 or 15 feet up). We couldn't stop him after that, it was up then climb down and back up.  It was great to see him so excited. Anya gave it a little try here and there, but she wasn't wearing the proper shoes.

March 10, 2010   Lars and the AR Program
Lars has been doing a lot of reading lately.

March 12, 2010  Class Pictures

Spring Break 2010 Florida (March 27-April 3)
Photo Gallery Here

Happy Easter April 4, 2010
 

April 24,2010 Lars lost another tooth! He left his tooth along with a note for the tooth fairy.

May 9th, 2010 Happy Mother's Day!
Alan and the kids mysteriously disappeared from the house the day prior. It turns out they went to the strawberry patch and hand picked strawberries 2 big buckets of strawberries. Later that night they banned me from the 1st floor of the house and they hand dipped about 3 dozen of them in strawberry, white and milk chocolate. The the kids also each made me and painted a planter with a cactus and an Iris. Alan iced the cake with a gift card for the spa! We had a wonderful lunch at Red Bowl and even had the car washed. Then Lars and I went out for a bike ride and I mowed the lawn. I know many would say that is not a good thing to do on Mother's Day, but I love to mow the lawn.
A perfect day!

Fun play in May 2010.  Lars received some water guns from his friends at the party, so the next day it was time to play. Saiid and sons played too, with the hose.