More December Celebrations

(click on collage for a larger view)

The morning after my birthday, the kids and I joined a number of others in an empty field not to far from our house.  For what?  The new charter school M attends was FINALLY breaking ground on it's permanent location--WHO-HOO!!  At the ground breaking ceremony, the school choir sang a few numbers, the school founders and the mayor spoke about this BIG step for the school and the town, and then the founders got to be the first to use the golden shovels to officially break ground.  After the ceremony, the golden shovels were made available to those present with which they could pose and take pictures.  M and Li'l J were very excited to be able to do that!

After the ground breaking ceremony, the kids and I...and most everyone else in town...headed over to the new McDonald's for their Grand Opening.  You know you live in a small town when one of the biggest 'happenings' going on is the opening of McDonald's!  Ha, ha!  Anyway...I will say that this new Mc D's is one of the nicest Mc Donald's I've ever been to, with one of the better indoor playlands around. 

The  playland is split into two sections: a '3 yr and under' section that is made up of all sorts of big and soft musical instruments the kids can climb around on and play; and a '4 yr and older' section with a fun slide.  While Li'l J was excited to try out the slide, he was hesitant once he realized just how FAST a slide it was.  You can see from the pictures that the kids were being shot out like bullets at the end!!  (We've been back once since, and it isn't nearly as fast anymore...guess it's been nicely broken in now.) On the outer edge of both play areas there is a big piano board on the floor (just like in the movie BIG from way-back-when) where both M and Li'l J enjoyed playing some of their favorite tunes with their feet: Star Wars and Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

Ahh, we love being a part of all this exciting progress! : )