Happy Mother's Day

Today we celebrated Mother's Day with our kids in our new city.  I was given the luxury of choosing a fun activity for the day, so of course, I chose to do something with photography : ).  I always love going places that involve beauty, history, education and getting outdoors... so I surprised the family with a local adventure to a place my kids are super familiar with:  their school.  Their school is a pretty amazing place.  Not only is it a fantastic school, but the school grounds themselves are pretty cool.  It backs up to a nature preserve area and is adjacent to a very old church and cemetery.  I know it sounds unusual, but Tim and I have always enjoyed visiting old cemeteries.  This one is especially amazing as there is just so much history to this place.  The church was founded in 1767 and there are Revolutionary War veterans as well as Civil War veterans buried here.  Lord Charles Cornwallis, the famous British General, was here at this site with his troops during their attempt to overtake Charlotte. 

I love this stone wall.  It is original to the property and is just rough stacked.... not cemented in place.  

This very special place above is the Slave Cemetery.  It's just behind that beautiful stone wall.  All of the graves are now marked with aluminum crosses, but originally the grave of a slave was noted with just a simple rock.  The church has gone back in more recent years and added these crosses.  My picture doesn't show how large this area, but there really is quite a large area of graves. 

And of course, I couldn't let my kids get away without a day of some portraits...

Here are some native plants on the grounds of the school.  Our kids showed us this most amazing little bog garden they pass through on the way to the lower field.  These plants are Venus Flytraps and Pitcher Plants.  I didn't realize that they were native to North Carolina, but they are.  And how cool they are!