WALLS!!!!

We have walls! We are so excited that we cannot even express it in words. Please PLEASE drive by and see the progress of the week.

There are LIMITED spaces available in the half-day program for September. Please contact us ASAP to enroll. We will write a mid-week blog on Wednesday with photos of the new rooms. You are also welcome to stop by to see them yourself. They are ADORABLE and we are very excited to see how Rachel and Sean put them together next week.

Glimpse: We want to use this glimpse to share with you our gratitude for the tremendous generosity of our community. We have been receiving many, many donations of toys and interesting pieces of furniture for many months now. One family in particular (they have asked to remain unnamed) has gone above and beyond and we are just so thankful. To those of you asking about where to leave donations, we are very happy and thankful for any of the following items:

1. Outgrown toys.
2. Children's or parenting books.
3. Unique or interesting pieces of furniture big or small- those pieces are what make our program's appearance charming.
4. Kitchen equipment and pots, pans, baking dishes, utensils, etc.
5. Interesting window coverings.

The truth is that we will accept just about any donation and find something wonderful to do with it. As you know, we like to take unusual items and find strange places for them. We are just so thankful that so many of you are thinking of us and helping us to get ready for our opening.

At this point we are still being told that our time line has not changed and that they are hoping for a November certificate of occupancy with a worst case scenario of December 13th. The great news is that we can open the buildings one at a time and we will do exactly that starting with the big classroom building provided that nothing changes the order of building completion. We are truly confident in this time line.

Foundations!

We have finally been able to pour the foundations for our buildings! What a glorious thing to be able to report to you. Our contractor is waiting on a mechanical plumbing change on Building B and then they will pour that last slab of concrete AND THEN framing will begin. Our contractor said we should see framers by next week!!!!

We will FINALLY be 3-dimensional!

We are being told that once the framers and roofers are finished things will move very quickly. Our interior is very sparse and simple. We are hoping/praying/wishing/counting on that simplicity equalling easy and fast to finish.

We will keep you posted.

The half-day program classrooms will be painted this weekend. We can't thank the Hillsborough United Church of Christ enough for their willingness to once again share their space with our school family. We have been told that we have Mr. Fred Jordan to thank specifically for these classrooms as he believed very strongly that this is a good use of space for the church. While Fred is our champion on this issue, the entire church has been nothing but supportive, loving, and embracing of our community and our mission. We are so grateful to the church as a whole.

Glimpse: Carrying the topic of foundations one LONG step further, we are beginning to consider the smaller details that make our program what it is. One of our great fears is that our little homey school will not translate to the larger campus. We are fully committed to doing everything possible to ensure that we don't ever feel like a big institutional school. We are choosing paint colors that are similar to the paint now, buying lots of furniture at garage and yard sales so that we carry the character and charm with us, and even thinking about the music that we will play in the classrooms for nap time being sure that the music selection is broad enough that each teacher can choose music that reflects his or her group of children and not the corporate philosophy of our school. We are again open to suggestions from all of you.

What are the foundational pieces that you want to see us build upon? What pieces of the current school do you most want to see us recreate at the new campus?