Bright and early Friday morning we headed to Atlanta to work at the America Sings festival. I have enjoyed taking my students to America Sings festivals for many years and those of you who know me well know that I LOVE John Jacobson's message for kids. Check out the AS website here: http://www.americasings.org/ and John's site for his Congressional campaign here: http://johnjacobsonforcongress.com/.
Matthew's favorite part was loading the truck - you can see from the pictures above! He made a new friend working on the food bank truck - Mr. Kevin was great to work with Matthew and we all had a great frisbee match on Saturday night which MVP really enjoyed!
Sunday we took some family time and enjoyed the beautiful day exploring the park. The last time I was there Timothy was Matthew's age and it was very different. Matthew really wanted a "quacker" so we rode the Duck (I didn't get wet, much to my relief!) around the park and into the lake and then spent the next several hours walking around exploring other parts of the park. I enjoyed seeing the view from the top of the mountain but was absolutely terrified when Andy took MVP down to the fence on the edge. I sat down and closed my eyes. They made it back. Andy laughed. We came back down. Back on land, Andy showed MVP how to flatten a penny on the railroad track, yet another really safe adventure. :) We came home. With all our fingers.
It was a wonderful weekend and we are gearing up for the last few weeks of the school year - my students are preparing for a musical and a Six Flags performance in May. They have a performance at an assisted living facility this Thursday so we are staying busy as usual!
We love you all and hope you are happy and well.
~C, A and M
4 comments:
It's a peacock.
It's a duck.
Matthew really did a significant amount of work in filling up the truck from the Atlanta Food Bank. Of the 1,500 students who participated, about 1,000 came with contributions - ranging from a couple of canned items to entire grocery bags of food. It's hard to tell from the photo (with his other new friend, Elijah - but the truck was about the size of a U-Haul moving rental. It was stuffed full by Saturday afternoon. Ask Matthew sometime to tell you about it, and where the food is going and why he helped!
When I made my last trip to Stone Mountain, Cherith was probably Matthew's age. That was the first place I went fishing, and I was very successful. Probably because all you had to do was throw a baitless hook in the water and they would fight for it! I caught about 5 fish, each approximately the size of my finger, and insisted we have them for dinner. My Dad managed to cook them, though he had a hard time keeping them from sliding through the grill. They were about 90% tiny bones and gristle. But I remember them being delicious!
We all had a great time working with America Sings, and meeting the Jacobson family and other volunteers. Cherith has admired John and his work for years, and it's easy to see why. I tend to be pretty cynical about the "we can change the world" ideals...then you watch John work the crowd of kids - and see how they respond to him - and you start to believe, just maybe...
Of course, helping fill a truck with a few thousand pounds of food is pretty convincing, too. Everyone should have that experience.
IT'S A PEACOCK! AND HARD TO BELIEVE THAT YOUR FISHING WAS PRE SCOTT....I CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE THAT! PEACE AND QUIET...AHHHHHHH!!!
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