SCHOOL-N-SUCH

Plans for the future.

2010-08-31T21:13:00.006-04:00

I want to do some special things for my girls this year. Demi is now school age and I want to make her school year as fun for her as it was for Travis when he was 5 years old. The problem is Travis and Demi are such different children. I figure the easiest way to make it fun is to start with the things she likes. She LOVES the TV show Little House on the Prairie. We DVR it every day so she doesn't miss any of it. She pretends to be Laura. She talks about her Ma and Pa all day long. This is wonderful because it does fit into some of our history reading. I plan to read all the Little House books to her this year. I am sure doing some of the things we read about in the book will be fun. I know my girls would love to have a corn husk doll and a rag doll or two. This should be a good way of making history fun in the winter.

Making mosaics, spinning yarn, sewing, hand embroidery, knitting, baking, candle making, and painting might be good school projects for Demi. She doesn't sit for hours reading the history Encyclopedia like Travis did BUT I think she will listen to me read our history encyclopedia while she crafts.

Another idea I have is to let her have a proper tea. I would like to make up some new princess costumes (or finish the one I have started for Demi) and teach her some etiquette for an afternoon tea. Our history class starts out with Late Renaissance so this will fit nice and make history more fun for her. Hmm.... I can invite some of her friends over and have new princess costumes sewn up for all of them. They could all have tea time together. Maybe after tea they all could make some crafts that go along with that time in history. We have done princess parties with friends a few times in the past. We have tea parties all the time but I never thought to invite friends over to join in. I think my girls will love it. YES, they will love it! I am adding a tea party in Oct. on my to-do list. Fingers crossed stuff like this will create a wonderful school year for Demi.

My plan right now is to do some catch up blogging in the next week to share some of the school things we have done already this year. While I am doing my catch up blogging I need to get busy sewing up some school clothes for my girls so they don't freeze this fall (the temps. drop fast in PA in Sept). After the girls have some jeans and tops with sleeves in the dresser I will whip up some princess costumes and work on teaching some etiquette to my girls so we can have our tea party before Halloween. The only problem with working out our tea party might be that our public school friends only have Saturdays free and Travis has soccer games on Saturdays. I will either need to plan the party for a Saturday that Rob is off work. I can send him to the soccer game with Travis so the girls can party at home. If I can't work that out I will need to find some homeschoolers with free time. Most homeschoolers I know are busier than pubic school kids so I might have a hard time finding any free homeschoolers. I'll am sure I will be able to work something out. If nobody is free will will have a formal tea with family (and Grandma Em).

I am signing off of blogland so I can get busy making up patterns for my girls school clothes. I will be back tomorrow to catch up with some of what we have been doing over the last month.

American Revolution why read about it when you can live it?

2010-07-22T15:29:00.017-04:00

I have to take a small break from summer fun pictures so I can blog about our school year. A few weeks ago we went see Escape From Wyoming a Living History of the American Revolutionary War. It was a wonderful way for the children to learn about a part of the American Revolutionary War (the part that took place where we live).

The man in the picture above gave us a lesson on clothing, weapons, the war, and the way of life in 1778.

He told me the girls might not like it in the woods with all the noise and they might have a hard time. He kept stressing to everyone in the group how "dangerous" it was and how you needed to be very careful you didn't get hurt on the rugged trail in the woods. He said the battle was very safe but the woods are the woods and be careful you don't trip on a stick or stone. I reassured him that it wouldn't be a problem that my girls are not afraid of loud noises (we had just celebrated the 4th of July). I let him know my girls are use to walking/running in the woods and if they didn't move along or if they had any problems my husband and I would carry them. He did an awesome job at preparing everyone! He had several people in flip flops and summer shoes a bit afraid to enter the woods. I could see the path was a very clear worn path and it was short (very short compared to the hiking my girls have done). I knew once the guns started firing if my girls got afraid all I would need to do is say "It's OK it is a boom boom fireworks" and that would keep them from getting afraid (funny side note: if a loud noise happens around my girls and you say "boom boom fireworks" they will start singing Boom Boom Pow by the Black Eyed Peas and not be afraid). I knew if that didn't work picking them up in our arms at any thing scary would comfort them and keep them from being afraid. We had already told the girls that we were going into the woods to see a pretend fight that would have some fireworks. I was a little worried about the older man in front of us he was "afraid" of the woods and told his grown boys that he had not been in the woods in the 20+ years he lived in PA (I felt sad for him never being able to see how beautiful our forest, mountains, and trails are in NEPA).

The man in the pic above was so nice to us! He represented the Oneidas. The Oneidas and Tuscaroras supported the settlers at the time of this war. You can read a little about the Battle of Wyoming here.

Travis learned so much on this adventure! I learned a lot! I learned that this area wasn't part of PA It was part of Connecticut! This sounds very odd to me because NY is between PA an CT. I wonder if the bottom of NY was part of CT. at that time? I had never even heard of the Battle of Wyoming until a few days before this event (I think I must have been sick the day we read about it about it in school).

Here is Demi with Daddy just before we went into the woods.
Here is Zee holding her dress so she doesn't trip in the woods.

Travis is one excited boy! He loves history and reading about the wars is his favorite part of History class.

Some pics from the battle in the woods.

Man down! It is so cool being right next to the action! Travis learned (by watching) how to load the muskets by tearing off the paper (using teeth) then pouring it in and packing it down before you could shoot.
This was a bit sad. Our Native American friend didn't survive the battle.

Pictures from the field battle...
OH NO! Things are not looking good for us.

See all the red coats marching at us? They came to capture us and take us to Niagara! They marched us to a camp up the hill.

After being captured we got to ask questions and see how they lived back in the 1700's.

A camp stove.

Spinning wheel. I spin yarn on my wheel and on a drop spindle so I love seeing people spin yarn.

One of the camps.

This boy was so cute! He shared his wooden gun and sword collection with my children so they could play with him.
I made the girls dresses. They look sort of colonial. I didn't want the girls to have to wear all the heavy hot layers people wore back then. I also wanted to make the dresses a bit more modern so if they wanted they could wear them out in public today without looking odd.

I decided to make up the dresses at the last minute. I had less than 2 days to make up a pattern and sew both dresses. They are not my best made dresses but they look good when I think how little time I had to make them.
Demi making friends with a little girl.

Rob talking history and politics with our new Native American friend.

I think this was a WONDERFUL way to teach children. It was a fun day and we all learned a lot. Seeing, touching, living in the time can give let you experience things you can't get by reading a book. He will read about this time in history later in our school year. I hope when he does he remembers how much fun we all had on this day! I would like to take my children to this next year. I hope to see you all at it. ;-)

Just a few more pics.

2010-07-19T22:00:00.009-04:00

A bit more ball play...

I already have play ball listed as a summer fun activity #2 so I am not counting this.
When Travis had a friend over after they made a movie, swam in the pool and they played ball in the yard. This was so much fun for Travis I felt that I needed to post it here.

I think the only thing that could have made this more fun would have been to play ball then go together to see a real ball game.

I think baseball is something that all men have wonderful memories of playing with friends when they were young.

Did you make time to play outside today?

Summer fun #6

2010-07-18T00:48:00.005-04:00

Fun #6 is play football in the pool with a friend.

This is another thing the boys did when Dante was over for the day. This was so much fun for Travis because we have only had our pool for a couple weeks.

I have been busy trying to get the two girls adjusted to the new pool. Because of that I don't get to play a lot with Travis when we are in the pool. I play with him but it isn't very fun when I have his 2 year old sister on my hip (she was against getting wet in the pool until today). Travis had so much fun playing a game of touch football in the pool with a friend. It was so much more fun than the normal game of catch a football with mom who has little sister in her other arm. I'm sure Travis will be talking about this for months.
If you don't have a pool you can take a friend to a public pool (we don't have a public pool near us).

or you could set up a sprinkler in the yard to play football in.

Until we got a pool football near a sprinkler was a favorite summer activity for him.

I hope everyone is enjoying summer as much as we are!

Summer fun #5

2010-07-17T21:57:00.007-04:00

#5 is invite a friend over and make a stop motion movie. Travis has a friend named Dante that he only gets to see once or twice a year. He often says this boy is his best friend. I have always been a little confused why he calls someone a best friend that he hardly ever sees. I understand how as an adult we can keep a best friend without seeing them every day but I thought a childhood best friend is someone you see a lot. After the other day I have changed my mind. Watching the two boys together I could see they understand each other. They are the type of kids who will spend hours planing out a pretend war. The planning to them is more important than the playing war. Other boys who come over to play get right to the war play. They could care less about creating a story. Dante is so much like Travis I think they could have spent the entire day planning out this Lego war. Making the story and creating the characters was very important to both of them. Making a plan, thinking things out, being as historically accurate as possible is what they both care about. I watched them for 15 minutes deciding what would be the best way to have a Lego man hold the gun (they called it a flintlock musket loader or something like that). The day was full of things that they both do in the same way. I think it was a dream day for Travis. I think 100 play dates with other children would never equal one afternoon with Dante. Travis likes making plans, learning about things, reading books, writing his own books all things his friend Dante also likes to do. I am not sure what kind of friendship Dante thinks he has with Travis. With only seeing him once or twice a year he might not even think of him as a friend at all. No matter how Dante sees it I will never again wonder why Travis calls him as his best friend. After all isn't a person who understands how you think and has fun doing the same things you do reasons we cherish our best friends? Dante had never made a stop motion movie before so I don't think he knew how short they are when you put the pictures together. Travis knew but I think he was so excited making this with a friend he forgot how stop motion works. They spent a lot time acting out the Revolutionary War (or maybe it was the Civil War). They took about 100 pics. I think they both were shocked they only had a 12 second movie in the end. Once they added in the voice they thought it was very cool and wanted to make more movies. That is when Dante's mom came to pick him up. Maybe they will get a chance another time to make more movies or do some other thing they both like. Here is the movie they made.

Summer fun #4

2010-07-17T12:48:00.004-04:00

#4 is put on a show. It cost nothing and will entertain everyone for a long time. Demi entertained us all the other day with her show. She dress up in one of her last years Halloween costumes (Dorothy from Wizard of OZ dress) and slipped into her old rain boots. She used our porch for her stage.

She did some kind of ninja moves.
I don't think I have ever seen moves like this.

She started out very serious. I didn't know she could go that long without smiling. I guess she was concentrating on her moves.

I think she is ready to fight.
Just when I thought it was going to be all fight moves she put down the stick and....
She started to dance.
And sing! She didn't seem to care her sister was in the way eating a slice of cheese.
I found it very entertaining. I might have to pull out my mud boots and give this a try. I doubt I can do an action/musical the way Demi did but I can give it a try.

Summer fun #3

2010-07-16T01:35:00.004-04:00

The #3 summer fun activity is one anyone can do. Sing loud into a running fan to hear your voice sound really strange. If you have several children they can all take turns trying different songs or sayings. This should give you a good 30 minutes of laughter.

When it looks like my children are loosing interest in this activity I go over and ask a question to them in the fan. They follow by answering in the fan then the fun starts all over with them asking and answering questions to the fan.

To get even a bit more fun time out of our box fan I will say lines from Starwars into the fan. A simple "Luke, I'm your father" is enough to get the children to try saying voices from movies into the fan (giving me a bit more free time to work on other things).

Summer fun #2

2010-07-15T15:15:00.000-04:00

#2 for our summer fun is Play ball. My children love all kinds of ball play. On this day they chose to play baseball and soccer. We have a very large back yard (over 10 acres) but my children choose to play in the small front yard most of the time.
Picture above you can see all 3 children playing games alone yet together.

If nobody is around to play ball with Travis he will spend hours tossing balls in the air and hitting them with a bat. He will run the bases as fast as he can to make sure the imaginary other team doesn't tag him out.

Demi is getting good at soccer. She decided she didn't want to join a soccer team (she wants to join dance this year) but she has fun playing soccer in our yard.

Zee also likes to run with a soccer ball. I love that my girls choose to do it barefoot! My children do own shoes. My girls have a very large collection of shoes. I have no idea why they always play in the yard barefoot.

she wants to be just like her big brother and sister.

See my little hippie girl? She is wearing a beaded necklace, a hand smocked peasant top, pink bandana pants, and barefoot. I am sure she will tell you it is the only way to dress when you are playing soccer.
Carefree, peace, love, fun, all are words I would use to describe her.

The day I took this set of pictures my children ran around and played ball for a few hours before taking a break (to eat a freeze pop). They played alone and together. lots of running, laughs, and fun.

When is the last time you ran barefoot in the yard?

Summer fun #1

2010-07-15T07:00:00.001-04:00

I notice I have been taking a lot of pictures of my children just having fun. I thought the best way to share them is to do a running count of fun things they do. I think if I take the camera with me as we go places or when I play outside with the children I can easily get pictures of 7 activities in one day and then have a week worth of things to blog. I noticed my children hardly ever say they are bored. I feel so blessed I don't hear my children cry about being bored I thought maybe sharing what we do might help another mom from having to deal with it.

Yesterday I shared our fireworks from the 3rd of July. Today is summer fun #1
Going to see fireworks on the 4th of July with Daddy. Rob had to work on the 3rd so he couldn't go with us. You can find lots of places to see fireworks even with the 4th being over. Check out ball games, parks, and festivals. I am sure you will be able to find some that you can view from a grocery store parking lot in your area.
Below is a picture of poor Zee with a dirty and bruised face. She took a jump off the coffee table.
Travis sitting on the sidewalk watching the fireworks.

I am trying to blog again.

2010-07-11T11:20:00.007-04:00

Once again I am sorry I have been away for so long. I am once again going to try and blog our school year. I can't promise I will get very far but I will try. Our last school year was our best year ever. My children finished all lessons early and we took some amazing trips. I doubt this year we will be able to go to Disney, Seaworld, or other far way trips. I will try to make it fun even if we can't get out of PA. Last year our school year ran from July 20-June 24. We like to send out our paper work very early then turn in our end of year papers very late so we can count all of our fun learning adventures. We ended the 2009-2010 year June 29 so we got to add soccer camp in our yearbook/portfolio. This year we started July 4th. July 4th you ask? The reason is we will be learning about our independence this year. I thought if it is something we are going to read about why not count the July 4th holiday for a school day? After all, it isn't like we can find a 4th of July celebration in January when we get that far in our history books. We went to fireworks on the 3rd and 4th. We spent the 4th doing fun activity pages, watching a U.S. history special on the History Channel, reading July 4th fact sheets, and having our own celebration. My children learned a lot and I am sure it was the most fun first day of school my children have ever had. July 5th we went back to or normal summer vacation.

Here are a few pics from the fireworks taken on July 3rd.

I hope everyone is enjoying summer as much as we are!

Travis in action (soccer pratice pix)

2009-10-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

If you are wondering why in some of the pix you can see a ton of balls in the goal it is because all the children will take shots at the goal then go off to do other drills leaving the balls in the goal for later. Can't miss him he is the boy in the orange shoes.

History project mosaics

2009-10-21T10:36:00.009-04:00

I think I might have already posted the activities below (we already did them a couple months ago). We did them again yesterday because our History book had 2 pages on "The Arts". Travis reminded me we don't "write about arts" we are the kind of people who "Do the Arts" (he is so cute I love him so much). Some of the arts popular in the time period we are learning about is wood carving and mosaics. We did 2 mosaic art projects for History class yesterday.

The first project was paper mosaics. I know paper mosaics is nothing new. I remember making a lot of them in art class when I was a child. We did them yesterday because we already had all the supplies ready to make them. We had a ice cube tray of colored paper cut in squares in our craft cupboard (left overs from the last time we did this project). I gave each child a large sheet of paper, the colored squares, a tiny cup with glue, and a few Q tips to apply the glue. I let them make mosaics however they wanted.

Below is Zee's finished mosaic.

Here is Demi's finished mosaic.
And this is Travis'. He named it A Sunny Day.

While they worked on making paper mosaics I got busy getting ready for the second project. I got out a large pot, sugar, corn syrup, and a candy thermometer and started to make some candy. I am sorry to say yesterday I made a BAD batch of hard candy (not my first time making a bad batch of candy this happens 1/4- 1/2 the time I make candy). I love making candy art but I often mess it up. This batch was thick and dark. It still tasted fine but it didn't spread out as thin as I would have liked it.
After the kids finished making paper mosaics I cleared and washed off the table (I put the candy in the freezer to cool faster). The children then got busy making candy mosaics. I got this idea a few months ago when I was trying to find a fun way to "do history" (we like to try to do a lot of what we learn about in school) to keep it fun. My first idea was to make real mosaics but I didn't want to have my youngest children touch sharp pieces of broken glass or ceramics. My second idea was to use tiles to make real are pieces from glass or ceramic tiles. My hubby works at Lowes so I am waiting for him to buy us some tiles to do that project. I really wanted to figure a cheap, fun, and easy way to make mosaics. I really want to make real mosaics but I will have to wait until we have the extra money and until Rob remembers to buy them. Back when we made our rock candy pops (we called it rock crystals to use for science) I started trying to think of other school projects we could do with candy. The children wanted me to make normal hard lollipops. I thought maybe if I poured hard candy on a tray (not in normal candy pop trays) I might be able to make candy sheets to break up and make our own candy mosaics with. I think over all my idea was a good one. I can't say my children made beautiful mosaic art (beautiful to me yes but perhaps not to the rest of the world). It was an easy to make project and fun (and tasty) to make. I will admit that it is 100% sugar project so I am sure many people might not want to try it.

I wanted to make it 100% edible so I had the children make some icing by mix a tiny bit of water in some confectioners sugar to use for the mortar to hold our tiles (candy glass). They spread out the icing on some wax paper.

Next they covered the candy sheets with wax or parchment paper and hit it with a hammer to make tiny glass tiles.
With 3 children all taking turns breaking up candy with a hammer it didn't take long before the table was covered in candy and starting to fall on the floor. To keep the mess from going all over the house I put all the candy in a flat dish.

The one below is the one Travis made. If you turn your head down to the right you might be able to see he made a person with his candy glass tiles.

This is the look I get when I take the candy away! LOL!NOTE! The candy was a bit sharp on the edges. I made sure my smallest child didn't get any with sharp edges. I was worried she might cut her mouth with the sharp ones. I just want you to know that before you make this with little children. I think if I would have spread out the pieces on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and put them in a hot oven for a minute they would have melted a bit and not been so sharp on the edges. If we ever do this again I will give that a try and let you know if it works. I made a large batch of candy so I found more than enough pieces without sharp pieces for her to eat and create with.

Falling behind again.

2009-10-19T23:03:00.003-04:00

I need to remember to keep up with this blog. I have to admit I have been very lazy lately. My s key is broke on my computer so it a pain in the *** to type (I have to copy and paste the letter when I need to use it). I might bring down a wireless keyboard we have upstairs and use that until we decide what to do or I can use Rob's computer but all pictures are kept in my computer so maybe a keyboard would be a quick free fix for right now. MumMum and Poppy if you are reading this I want to let you know we are talking about getting a new computer (one we will not let the little children type on and break the keys). If we do that the new computer will have a web cam (reason I didn't buy the kids one yet). If we decide against the computer I will buy one to put on this computer (or to put on one of the kids computers so they can visit with you).

We are in the middle of soccer season. Travis loves playing goalie. He is an awesome goalie. I get nervous that someone might score on him. The shots fly at him and he finds a way to stop them every time. OK, not every time. One child scored on him. The child is friends with Travis and a boy who has an incredible kick. Poor Travis didn't have a chance to stop that ball. Travis has played 5 or more games so far this year. He has had more shots kicked in front of him at the goal than I can count and he stopped them all but that one. I think that is very impressive for a 9 year old! I feel bad that I don't have many pictures of him playing soccer this year. I hold my breath when the ball heads toward the goal and I forget to take a picture. All I have is a few pix of him standing at the goal (they don't show how incredible he is). Maybe taking pictures at practice would be better than pix at the games (I will try to remember to take the camera tomorrow). Here is Demi with Uncle Mike. Mike is a wonderful Uncle. My children all love him. He left this week and will not be back until the holidays.
I notice more and more how cute and peanut size Demi is. Zee is only one size smaller than her in clothes and shoes. All of Demi's friends tower over her. Below is a picture of one of her friends. They are the same age but her friend is a LOT taller (face is blocked because I didn't ask her mom). I think Demi might always be short like me and my family.
Here is Zee. Cute as ever. she is the tough one in the family. she beats up her big brother and big sister.
Please forgive my poor writing. Typing without a popular key makes typing hard. I couldn't find a capitol s key to copy and paste so a few of my sentences have a lower case letter at the beginning. I will get the bad key problem worked out in the next few days I hope.

fun at the fair

2009-10-07T15:15:00.008-04:00

Last week we went to the Bloomsburg Fair (largest fair in PA). It was a wonderful time.

Demi loved the pony ride.

She also loved pretending to be a princess.
We looked at and talked to lots of animals (Zee LOVED the animals).
I think Daddy O must have had a sore back from holding the girls up to see everything.
We all enjoyed the food.
I tried to get a nice picture for my mom but it didn't work out.

Yummy food!
We played games.
and won some prizes.
We all ate some more yummy food.
Did I mention we really liked the food?
Rob did some teaching (he really gets into his lessons).
A bit more yummy food.

Happy children!
We learned about lots of things.

We smiled a lot.
We learned a lot (Rob did most of the teaching).
We enjoyed snacks. Honey sticks anyone?
The children got toys,
raced down the slide,
And played games.
They really enjoyed the games.

I think the best part was the tasty food! What's that? Did I already mention all the wonderful food?

It was a great day!

Happy Birthday Zee!

2009-10-06T13:08:00.005-04:00

Zee is now 2 years old! She turned 2 on our vacation. Mum Mum got her a beautiful cake to celebrate.
Zee got tired of waiting for the cake and decided to taste some of the icing with her fingers.

Wetlands Institute Part 3 (last part)

2009-10-05T10:57:00.001-04:00

Animal feeding and touch tank.

Zee got tons of rest on vacation!
puzzles.

silly boy

Some big kid learning.

Demi checking out the bird's nest.

Travis in the nest getting a bird's eye view.
Zee loved this little spot. It had little steps and a rail just the right size for her.

Beautiful Gardens.

Wetlands Institute Part 2

2009-10-04T08:00:00.003-04:00

Walking the trail in the wetlands. This trail was neat! We had a book and some papers that told all about the wetlands. You could also dial a number on a cell phone and listen to a recording. Travis started with the cell phone but quickly asked not to do it because he likes to gain his knowledge by reading and seeing not by using the phone (I think if my family reads this they might question if Travis really is my son because everyone knows most of what I learned about in school was learned when I was on the phone. I had a phone glued to my ear from age 13-20+). LOL!

Here is Travis and Demi 0observing some of the wetlands.

Daddy-O teaching Travis.Remember me saying about the phone number you could call on the cell phone? Well, before Travis turned off the phone a man walked past us and said to me "That man on that phone has a wonderful voice". Once he said that I noticed the voice on the phone was the same voice the man had who was talking to me. He is a marine biologist who works at the Institute. He is a very nice man. We learned a lot from him. In picture below he is the man on the left.
He was checking the nets (something they put over the turtle nests to keep them from running off and getting killed. Here is a baby one we found that wasn't in a net. We asked why he wasn't in a net and the kind man explained that they don't always find all the places that have eggs (I guess sometimes a mama turtle lays eggs and nobody sees it).

Travis liked walking in all the water (yuck, he is such a boy).

Wondering what Zee did all vacation? She relaxed (maybe a bit too much). Here she is sleeping again.

I love the picture below of Poppy and Demi.

Travis got into learning about everything in the wetlands (he is such a good student).
Rob and Travis walked out on the boardwalk and spent a long time shooting the breeze and asking questions about wetlands with the kind man (I wish I could remember his name).
A picture of another baby found on the walk (this one was found in a protected net)

We saw a lot of cool things on our walk. I am short on time so I will have to finish up our wetlands trip tomorrow.

wetlands Institute Part one

2009-10-03T08:00:00.000-04:00

This place was awesome!!! It started out on the wrong foot (one of the children was a bit bold with us when we first arrived). After we worked that out we all got to enjoy it.
Here is Travis climbing up to the lookout.
View of some of the wetlands.
My talented hubby took the next three pics.

Demi was a bit ahead having fun with Mum Mum and Poppy. The rest of us went into to learn about the terrapins.
Here is Travis observing and learning about terrapins.

Below is the moment things took a turn for the worst! Sometimes I wish my son didn't always NEED to read and learn about EVERYTHING! I know it is a gift he has but it is sometimes a curse. He is only 9 and has a very big heart.
At the moment I snapped this picture I realized something was very wrong with our son!
A second after that picture snapped he turned around with tears in his eyes and was having a hard time speaking. He was so shook up over this! The wall gives lots of info on how they are now endangered animals and how many are killed by being run over by cars. He just kept chanting to me "This shouldn't happen Mom it just shouldn't happen". I wanted to take his hurt away and make things all better but I didn't know how to fix the problem with the endangered turtles. I could see my son was seconds away from falling apart so bad that he wouldn't be able to get himself back together to enjoy the rest of the day (he was ready to fall apart emotionally in the same way I did when I would have a fight with a boyfriend when I was a teenager). I noticed a terrapin donation bank on the end of a counter with his mouth open for the donations and I quickly offered Travis money to help the save the turtles.

I only had about $4.00 in change and I was already counting up dollar bills trying to measure the amount of money that it would take to make my son feel better when my hubby noticed something was wrong. Travis explained to Rob about how the endangered terrapins can become extinct because of cars killing them. Then Rob didn't know what to do. I noticed we all had tear filled eyes very sad for the turtles and for our son. My brilliant hubby picked up his head, raised a finger in the air, and gave a wink (his sign for I have a solution). He ran off and came back with a paper on adopting a terrapin. He asked me if it was OK. I of course was thrilled to know he might be able to save the day. Rob hugged Travis and gave him the paper. He asked Travis if it was something he might want to do (of course Travis was thrilled to be able to help a turtle). Rob and Travis walked off to the main building and left me with Zee (who was sleeping in a stroller). They returned both with big smiles and very happy to go back in the turtle building to read a bit more about them. Rob said that when the turtle was big enough they would let Travis know so he can come to release it into the wild. I am not sure if we will be able to make the trip back out to Cape May but I think that is nice that people can go up to see the turtles they adopt be set free.

I have so many pics on this post I will need to wait until tomorrow to finish up our visit at the wetlands institute.

Gilligan's Island

2009-10-02T08:00:00.003-04:00

I have already shared this with my family and facebook friends. I know I have lots of friends and family who haven't seen this so I thought I should post it here. The children and I made this video up the other day. I thought I was done with vacation posts but it looks like I have one or two more to finish up. I need to share our trip to the wetlands and my daughters birthday because they are both so much more fun that what we have been doing over the last week now that we are back home. In another couple days my blog will return to our old routine.

RIDES!

2009-10-01T08:00:00.001-04:00

Here are the 3 best pix of our trip (bought them at the souvenir stand and well worth the $6.25 a picture).
First picture is Rob and his Dad riding the Canyon Falls Log Flume. Please notice how calm and cool Poppy looks. Then notice how scared Rob looks!

Next up is Rob and Demi. Rob still looks scared. Poor Demi looks as if her eyes are going to pop out of her head.
By Rob's third trip down he knew I was buying pictures of his rides down the flume. You can see he is trying hard to show a face of a person having fun (no fear showing on his face this time). Poor Travis looks very scared!

Pictures of your family looking scared to death....
PRICELESS!!!!!

On the boardwalk again.

2009-09-30T08:00:00.000-04:00

Really what is a trip to the shore without lots of trips to the boardwalk?

PIZZA! I think I already told you we eat a lot on vacation!

I thought fudge was the perfect desert to eat after having pizza.

I can't imagine working that hard to make fudge! I bought the chocolate marshmallow and it tasted delicious!

Of a bicycle made for two...three....four... OR FIVE????

2009-09-29T08:00:00.000-04:00

Daisy, Daisy,
Give me your answer do!
I'm half crazy,
All for the love of you!
It won't be a stylish marriage,
I can't afford a carriage
But you'll look sweet upon the seat
Of a bicycle made for two.

In this case our bicycle was a surrey made for five. Travis wasn't with us because he went to play tennis with Mum Mum and Poppy. The four of us decided to be tourist and rent a surrey to ride up and down the boardwalk.

This was so much fun! It was the PERFECT thing to do with an almost 2 year old! Zee has napped a lot of our vacation so she missed out on a lot of our fun (she slept the car ride down, three full days on the beach, at the zoo, on the boat, on the board walk, and many other places). This bike ride she was awake and had a BLAST! She kept yelling WHEE! Go FASTER!!!! Need to go faster! She was so much fun.
Look below she really thinks she is the one doing the driving.

People up and down the boardwalk pointed at our two very blond girls and waved saying look at the cute little girls having lots of fun. I took the picture below when I got out to buy a shirt (shopping on a bike ride makes it lots of fun for mommy).

Joggers ran past us like we were standing still!It was a beautiful day for a family bike ride.

Demi wanted to try out the middle seat so below is a pix of her sitting in the back with us.

Rob got out to buy a gift for his brother.

We will do this again! I recommend any one with a toddler giving this a try! We laughed and had a great time. I hope next time Travis is with us so he can join in the fun.

fun on the playground

2009-09-28T08:00:00.001-04:00

The boys all went golfing so us girls went to the park down the road.

See Zee's tie dyed shirt? She was sleeping on the board walk yesterday and when she woke up she started pointing at tie dyed shirts and yelling HAPPY! It was so cute I insisted on getting her a "happy shirt".

Honestly, what is more fun than seeing Grandma (Mum Mum) go down the slide?

I am sure you can see by the huge smiles on my girls faces that they liked the time we spent at the park. This park is much larger than the parks near our house!

Sorry google readers!

2009-09-27T20:08:00.004-04:00

I need to explain a tech (rather no tech) problem I have been having. As most of you know I do my blog post half a week to 1 week in advance (only once or twice a week and I schedule them to post automatically. When I am drafting up a post I often have to set the laptop down and go help a child (it seems that children want to eat, drink, diaper changes, get an education, and my help with things to keep them busy every other minute in this house). Now that I have 3 children I notice that when I leave a room to help one I am leaving 2 children a free minute to get into something. Zee and Demi both love to play with the computer ESPECIALLY when they see pictures of themselves on the computer. My blog almost always have pictures of the children. Because of that they often run to the laptop when I put it down so I can go help someone who needs me. When that happens they often get my blog to publish my post. I don't know if they are hitting the orange publish post button or a shortcut key but I do know they are both good at scrolling around clicking on buttons on all our computers. Today they did it again and I think this has happened 3 times in the last week so I thought I better explain the situation (don't want any of you to think I am using mind altering drugs). The Gilligan's Island post is one I have planned to share Oct 2. I just want to explain why my blog gets some ODD posts and some double posts. I know my children will outgrow this phase. To be honest, I rather have the tiny problems like posting unfinished blog posts than having to navigate my way along the teen years. I am not ready to have them grow up. I hope you all will be able to laugh next time you see a double post or a post with no writing. If you click on my blog you probably will never see this because I do quickly fix the problem once I see what one of the girls have done. I was told that Google Reader does an instant update so anyone who uses that for this blog sees my girls being (a bit cheeky) often. Thanks for understanding!!!! BTW google readers Fri. Sept 2 will be a rerun on this blog feel free to check out another channel.

lots of eating on vacation

2009-09-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

After our boat ride we enjoyed watching a trolley go down the road.

The children were very hungry so we stopped at a nice restaurant to eat (we couldn't find any kid friendly places to eat). We were under dressed and a bit too tired to truly enjoy the meal. I think Rob will always remember it as spending $50 on 2 child size meals and a couple sodas. LOL!

Before bed Mum-mum and Poppy took us all out for ice-cream.

Thanks Mum mum and Poppy!

So join us here each week my freinds, You're sure to get a smile, From seven stranded castways, Here on "Gilligan's Isle."

2009-09-26T08:00:00.001-04:00

Come on! Everyone sing along with me....
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip That started from this tropic port
Aboard this tiny ship.
The mate was a mighty sailing man, The skipper brave and sure. Five passengers set sail that day
For a three hour tour, a three hour tour.

The weather started getting rough,
The tiny ship was tossed,
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
The minnow would be lost, the minnow would be lost. ................................................................................................. OK, I know I got a bit carried away! BUT we did ride a tiny ship for a three hour tour. We didn't run into any problems (praise God)! A storm did hit up in Ocean City but only MumMum and Poppy got to see it. Down in Cape May out on the ocean the weather stayed nice for us. We went on a whale watching trip. I was SCARED TO DEATH to set out on this trip! I get motion sickness, I had my 3 little children on board, and I knew we would be off shore for 3 hours! I ONLY signed up for this whale watching ride so my children could get the education (I swear us homeschool moms will stop at nothing to give the best education possible). I knew the ride on a ship, learning about whales and dolphins, observing animals in the ocean, and touching the critters in the touch tank would be so incredible for my children I had no choice but to pretend I was happy to get on the ship and not let on that I was afraid at all (our children always look to see if I look afraid in new situations). My hubby loves boat rides so he was very excited with no worries about taking this trip.

Below is Mum Mum and Poppy waving good bye to us (you can call them chickens for not coming along with us). Zee slept for the first half of the trip. It was a BEAUTIFUL trip!!! LOTS of learning. Lots of laughing. Below is a pix of Travis watching a video on dolphins and whales. Then he read the information books (this boy never gets tired of learning). We got up close to a LOT of dolphins!!!!! How cool is this??? Such an awesome science class!!! Some things are so much more fun to learn without the books! After the learning about dolphins we went to the back of the boat to experience the touch tank. Talk about hands on learning! We (I) held and touched every thing in the tank (I as mom and teacher felt I had no other choice). Travis touched a few of the things. Below is Demi's hand doing a bit of touching herself. I was SOOOOOO AFRAID of all the thoughts with what might/could go wrong on this trip but I have to say is was SOOOOOOOOOOOO much fun! The experience and the amount of learning my children had was priceless and I am 100% positive we will take the children on another whale/dolphin watching boat trip again (already making plans for next year)! I will not be so afraid to climb aboard next time.

Cape May Zoo

2009-09-25T08:00:00.002-04:00

It is a very nice little Zoo. It's one we will make a trip to see again (on next year's beach trip).

Travis the map reader, man full of questions, our tour guide for the trip (in pic. below he looks like he is also the babysitter (the boy with many jobs).

Below is Demi hitching a ride on Poppy.

Our family PIX...

2009-09-24T08:00:00.000-04:00

Ocean geology hands on learning

2009-09-23T08:00:00.001-04:00

Travis spent several hours doing some serious ocean studies. We found a large sandbar out in the ocean. We walked out to the water being thigh deep (closer to belly deep for short people like me and the kids) then this huge sand bar stuck up for us to climb on making it so the water was at our ankles. Picture below shows the water all around the sand bar with the sand spot poking out in the center of the picture.
Below is a picture of Travis, Rob, and Zee standing on the sandbar. It was kind of strange seeing them standing ON the ocean! I wish I would have thought to take a picture showing the sand on the beach so you could see how far out this was. The water would have been over Zee's head without the sandbar.Travis got to observe a lot from the sandbar. He saw a lot of large clams and many other living ocean critters.

Poppy did some of the teaching.

Travis found a gold colored shell.
He found a hermit crab.

and a horseshoe crab.

Travis spent hours digging, searching, observing, and asking questions. He wanted to learn about EVERYTHING having to do with the ocean, sea life, and the beach. He even took time to teach his baby sister. Zee seemed to enjoy the science lesson from her big brother.
Demi gave Poppy a workout (guess he got his PE class in for the day).
In our outdoor class room we allow nap time for the preschoolers. Zee took advantage of this and did LOTS of napping on the beach. She slept for hours. I guess the breeze, sun, and sound of the waves make the perfect sleeping conditions for a little one.

Too bad all our school days can't look like this!

Travis (the cool kid on the board)

2009-09-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

Good Morning

2009-09-21T08:00:00.002-04:00

Zee dancing with daddy in her PJ's
Breakfast.

Checking out some seashells.
Beautiful sunny morning.

Mini Golf

2009-09-20T08:15:00.000-04:00

Going around and around

2009-09-20T08:00:00.000-04:00

That was the best I could do with pix! Ever try to get a picture of people flying around in circles?

Vacation

2009-09-19T08:00:00.000-04:00

Morning crafts.
Some play dough lobsters

Then hit the beach.

Life is good. Sunny and hot here in NJ. So much warmer than it was in NE PA.

Ocean City NJ pix

2009-09-18T08:00:00.001-04:00

Demi playing play-dough with Mum Mum
Travis playing his own version of the video game civilization (he uses Lego people) with Poppy.

Silly girl.
The cool kid.
Cheeky Monkeys

Zee is busy coloring.

This is the life!

2009-09-17T08:00:00.002-04:00

Here is my view! That blur at the bottom of the picture below is my big toe.
Yes this is the life for me! I was so lazy yesterday I didn't take any pictures (other than the ones I took driving in Philly).
The boys (Poppy, Daddy O, and Travis) are out golfing on the beach.

Demi went for a walk with Mum Mum (her new BFF)
Zee is here with me.
Want to take in the view with me?

Everyone in the family has gone vacation crazy EXCEPT for Zee. We are all busy saying look at the view, the ocean, the beach, and the sand! OH how beautiful! Zee doesn't seem to care to her it is life as usual. She doing her favorite thing......
Playing with shoes, it is her favorite game! Below she is kicking off her big sisters shoes (they almost fit her). To her life at the beach is just like life at home.

VACATION!!!!

2009-09-16T08:00:00.002-04:00

Vacation this year was a trip to Ocean City NJ. Below is my very Happy Hubby.

Sleeping little one (she slept the entire way).
The older two behaved all the way down (first trip ever with nobody needing us to stop).

Very excited happy little girl.The car was FULL. Trunk with not an inch to spare. The inside of the car was also packed up full and tight. Not an inch of free space.

Below is some of the view of Philly.

Beach pix will be next!

Happy birthday Grandpa and Barbie

2009-09-15T08:00:00.000-04:00

My Grandpa
and some of our family

canyons.

2009-09-14T09:06:00.003-04:00

We read about canyons the other day and then decided to try to make our own. First we made a tiny ditch in some sand (old sand in the driveway that Rob dumped out from one of the sandboxes). We then ran some water down the ditches to make little rivers. Last we poured a gallon pitcher fast into the "river" and flooded it leaving behind a canyon formed from a HUGE flood. I wish I would have taken a picture of our little river. Below is the picture of our canyon we made. After that they did some sand play and experiments without me.

Can you tell me how to find Standing Stone?

2009-09-12T08:00:00.000-04:00

Have you ever heard of Standing Stone? We found information on it here (picture below came from that webpage)

and a bit of information here (picture below came from that web page)

Rob and I had never heard of Standing stone until I stumbled across it online so we took a family trip to try and find it. We stopped and looked at Wyalusing rocks and Marie Antoinette Overlook hoping to figure out were on the river it was. We drove up and down the river on back roads and even a bit off roads (Rob kept driving a couple times after the roads ended) thinking that we might be able to see this huge stone from the other side of the river. I am sorry to say we didn't find the Standing Stone. One would think a stone that stands over 25 foot tall and 13 foot deep (the other web page says it is 44 foot tall and 16 foot wide) would be easy to spot! I really wanted to find this interesting rock but it might not be visible at all from land. I know you can get to the stone by boat but I think taking the 2 youngest children in a boat on the river would be a bit dangerous. I am going to ask around to see if anyone I know has ever seen this rock. If I find out we can see it from the other side of the river or by hiking along the river a mile or so from the place the stone stands we will take another trip to try and find it. The good news is PA is full of interesting rocks so we have a lot more chances this year to visit and learn about other strange rocks. The trip was a nice drive with two beautiful overlooks to stop and enjoy. I posted about the first overlook yesterday (Wyalusing Rocks). Just up the road a bit is The Marie Antoinette Overlook. They just restored it (I think the formal reopening is next week). Below are some pictures we took from this newly restored overlook. I can't find a webpage that gives much info on Marie Antoinette Overlook to share (sorry). It is right on route 6 in Bradford county BUT they haven't put up a new sign yet so it might be a bit hard for you to find. I imagine a new sign will be up before the grand reopening. I am sure with how nice it looks now they more info will pop up online soon. It has a Castle like feel with 2 round stone lookouts (fits nicely with the time period we are learning about in history this year).

The view is every bit as nice as the view I posted yesterday.
I notice how strange our outfits look! Rob and I took Zehira to the funeral with us (reason we are all a bit dressed up). Travis and Demi stayed with Uncle Mike. They did school work and played outside (wore play clothes).

I think next year in school we will be reading about Marie Antoinette when we get to her in history we will come back and tour the French Azilum

Wyalusing Rocks

2009-09-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

After my Grandma's Funeral the other day we took the children for a little drive. We stopped at the Wyalusing Rocks. It is a very pretty view. I will try to take the drive again in another month to show you how nice it looks in the fall.

You can see an awesome picture of this view here

Summer

2009-09-10T08:00:00.001-04:00

Enjoying the last days of summer.

rock candy pops

2009-09-09T11:30:00.000-04:00

I forgot to post how our sugar crystals turned out.

The children all gave them a thumbs up.

Landscape Pictures Travis Took

2009-09-05T08:00:00.000-04:00

Below are some of the pictures Travis took. We snapped our pictures in the same places but I think his pictures look a lot different than the ones I took.

My Landscape Pix.

2009-09-04T08:00:00.000-04:00

Travis really enjoys photography. We gave him our old camera when we got a new one last year. He has learned a lot when it comes to taking a nice picture. I noticed that most of his pictures are of people, insects, animals, or flowers. He has never taken a picture of the mountains, fields, sky and other things in the far off distance. Last Thursday we finished up school very early in the day so I took him down the road (but stayed close to home) and took some pictures of some of the beautiful landscape around us (I used this as art class for the day). It was so nice because Rob stayed home with Demi and Zee. I don't get to spend enough alone time with Travis because when Rob is off work Travis asks to do things with Daddy instead of me. I guess 9 year old boys think Dads are so much cooler than moms. Rob will plays sports and video games with Travis. I suck at video games and I can't swing a golf club or tennis racket to save my life. I loved having this time hanging out with Travis. We watched clouds, looked at mountains, talked, and enjoyed the wonderful beauty around us.

I had Rob look at all the pictures I took and he picked out the ones he liked. Below are the pictures I took that Rob picked for me to share (tomorrow I will share pictures Travis took). I am not a skilled photographer but I think some of the beauty of NE PA (Endless Mountains) shows in a few of the pix.

I think I live on a BEAUTIFUL road! The road itself is full of potholes but the view is really pretty.

I am adding in one of the pictures that I like but Rob didn't pick.
Picture above shows the mountains that I love to look at. I love driving this road looking at all the blue/purple mountains in the far off distance.

Candy Straws

2009-09-03T08:00:00.000-04:00

I took a look at a few recipes for old fashioned sugar sticks. I mixed them up to fit the ingredients I had on hand and changed the citric acid to fruit pectin. They turned out wonderful! It really tastes exactly like pixy stix. It is all sugar BUT 6 tbsp makes 30+ straws so one straw isn't a huge amount of sugar.

Pixy stix

6 tbsp sugar
1 tsp kool-aid (any flavor of drink mix we used pink lemonade)
1/8 tsp Fruit Pectin
straws

Mix all ingredients and pour in plastic or paper straws (can make your own paper straws). I melted the straws shut in my food saver (hit only the seal button). The ends could be closed with tape or twisted close.

My Kids Rock!

2009-09-02T08:00:00.001-04:00

I think you can tell I was a bit worried about Science this year. Most years Science,History, Art, Music, and PE are not even called "school". We have so much fun with them we don't call it school time (they are family fun time after basic subjects are done for the day). This year Travis complained a bit claiming I was making him write too much in science class. I wasn't really making him write that much. He was just complaining and that was making science a chore (he took all the fun away with his fits). I worked hard on keeping the focus on the fun and trying to ignore the protesting. I now see that it worked! The days of Travis complaining about Science have vanished. Sunday I found my children in the yard learning about rocks all on there own. They were digging them up, washing them, looking for info on the rocks in our rock and mineral field guide, then breaking them open with a hammer to see what was inside the rocks. I thought cracking them open was silly because I was sure a rock is just a rock same inside and out (except for geodes but I didn't think you could find geodes in my neck of the woods). Imagine my surprise when my son showed me a rock with a kind of white/kind of purple lumpy sparkles inside it. They then showed me how they found what looks like rust in a different rock and several other interesting things in other rocks. I felt dumb BUT I also felt good! It was easy to see that my children have got a lot out of the rock studies we have done. I can tell that my 4 year old knows more about rocks than I do! I decide that I am going to let them keep using the hammer and safety goggles, dig up the yard, and explore rocks. I am a bit worried they might get hurt (4 year old with a hammer makes me very nervous) but it looks like they are being careful and learning a lot. I am sorry I didn't take pictures of the broken rocks but I noticed they are keeping all rocks in rock boxes. I will try to get pictures of some of them later in the week. I am so surprised Travis and Demi spent over 1/2 the day on Sunday happily playing with and learning about rocks. To think I really thought they were looking for bugs or playing golf (they play a lot of golf in our driveway). I am such a proud mama!

Deep Sadness.

2009-09-01T08:00:00.001-04:00

Blogger has been publishing my post on schedule making my life look happy and normal. The truth is my life isn't happy or normal right now. A tragic accident happened the other day and I loss my grandma. I want to say so much but I can't seem to find the words. All I can say right now is my grandma was an amazing person whom we all love. I hope to find the words later in the week to write how wonderful she is. The only thing I have the energy to do is copy and paste her obituary (I am adding that to the bottom of this post). I hope to get my thoughts and emotions together in the next few days to let everyone know how wonderful she was.

During this emotionally difficult time I want to find a way to keep blogging but try not to fill this blog with the deep sadness I feel right now. I am thinking that I have a few pix of the children, in my camera, from the last couple days I can try to turn them into a post or two. I will jot some words to go with the pictures and have them publish over the next few days. During this time I will be away at the viewing, funeral, and spending time with family. Rob and I plan to try and take a short school field trip this week and I will share that with everyone if we get to do it.

Carolyn M. Weaver, 78, of Noxen, passed away Friday, August 28, 2009, shortly after admission to the Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center, Plains Township, due to injuries from a motor vehicle accident in Dallas Township.
Mrs. Weaver was born in Noxen, May 9, 1931, and was a daughter of the late William and Agnes Shook Butler.
She graduated from Tunkhannock High School and was employed as a notary for several car auctions and was currently employed by Weaver’s Auto Body, Noxen.
Carolyn was a member of St. Luke’s Reformation Lutheran Church, Noxen, the Pennsylvania Association of Notaries and the National Notary Association.
She enjoyed camping, hunting and polka dancing.
She was preceded in death by children Charles D. Weaver, Elwood Weaver, Gail Weaver and Debra Doughton; and grandson Charles Beck.
Surviving are her husband of 62 years, Charles E. Weaver; daughters Linda Patton and her husband, Osbert, of Mill City; Dorothy Konopatski and her husband, Frank, of Falls; Karen Eaton and her husband, Kenneth, of Lehman; Barbara Weaver of Germany; brothers Leroy and Larry Butler of Noxen; 13 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.
Funeral will be held Thursday at 11 a.m. from the Curtis L. Swanson Funeral Home Inc., corner of Routes 29 & 118, Pikes Creek, with the Rev. Linda Bryan, pastor of the Noxen United Methodist Church, officiating. Interment will be in the Dymond Section of Orcutt’s Grove Cemetery, Noxen. Friends may call 7 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday.

Our stop motion Lego movie.

2009-08-30T08:00:00.000-04:00

We made a tiny stop motion movie today. The children really like trying to make stop motion videos with Lego toys.

I wanted to post pix of Travis at the driving range (he is loving golf right now). I reminded Rob to take the camera. BUT! He left it in the car and forgot to take any pix! Because of that, this stop motion movie is the only fun thing I have to share from today. (I am full of excuses lately).

ART?????

2009-08-29T08:00:00.000-04:00

Yet another sad post. I am calling this the busy mom's art class. We didn't have enough time to do the art project I had planned so we decided to make stained glass pictures with window crayons. Well, Travis made attempts at stained glass. Demi and Zee just scribbled all over the windows. I think sometimes scribbles and coloring out of the lines kind of art is fun! It keeps children buys and happy for a long time. The picture below is my kitchen window. The electricians looked kind of surprised that I allowed coloring on the windows. LOL!

BTW window crayons are GREAT at keeping little ones quiet when you need to teach a math or English lesson with an older child. I don't think Rob is crazy about the look of our front window. I feel we are lucky because Demi likes to wash the windows as much as she likes drawing on them so I don't have to do a ton of washing windows right now. Travis had the right side and Demi and Zee had the left. Demi and Zee kind of took over the window! Beautiful? Art? LOL! It doesn't look much like stained glass but it is the only picture I have. I will try harder tomorrow!

Falling a bit behind!

2009-08-28T08:00:00.000-04:00

I want to tell you all I am very sorry because all I have is a few pix from one of the soccer practices this week. Next week should be a bit better (I will try to stay on top of things). I am going to try hard to find blogging time so our family can see my children grow up and learn.
A note with my sad excuse to this dull post is below.

Travis started soccer this week and I can see that it is already getting in the way of me blogging. Soccer practice this year is 3 days a week. Once the games start we will be going to soccer 4 days a week (that is a lot more running downtown than I ever do). I am sorry that I didn't take many pictures of my children over the last few days. I feel sad because I don't have anything nice to share with friends and family(sorry). We have a lot of work on our house going on that is also messing up my schedule. We got a new water softener installed, new reverse osmosis drinking system put in (Rob installed that for me), and we have men here doing a lot of electrical work right now. Having so many people in and out working on our house is hard to get use to. Having things moved all over and tools laying around makes life a bit difficult. Zee wants the climb the electricians ladder in the kitchen or bang Rob's pliers on the floor and walls. Right now I have a closet and a table in the middle of my bedroom floor! CRAZY!!!! I know it will be so worth it when all this work is done. I will have a sewing room in the back of my bedroom (and I will not need extension cords to use them). I will be able to plug in an iron and not kick the breaker. My girls will be able to have a reading lamp for our bedtime stories. Travis will be able to have his computer, TV and Xbox all hooked up at the same time. The best will be being able to run the coffee maker and the microwave (or toaster) and not have to run to the breaker box to turn it back on. OH! maybe that won't be the best, maybe being able to run the dishwasher and not have to go out to the outside GFI outlet and hit the reset button 6 times so the dishwasher can run a complete cycle (reason I wash dishes by hand most of the time). I just need to keep remembering all the good that will come from this as I have to run to grab our little one who makes a run to play on the steps every time the baby gates are left open. I think all the baby gates are driving the repair people crazy because they are hard to open and get in the way of them finishing up the work they are trying to do. I hope by next week things will be a bit easier here. I hope to have something a bit more exciting tomorrow.

Hickory Run State Park

2009-08-27T08:00:00.001-04:00

I have heard many homeschoolers talk about doubling up on school days. I have never understood how people can do that. It seems our school takes so much time doubling up on school even if only one subject seems like it would be impossible for my family. BUT we did double up this weekend with school field trips. We left just before lunch time to go to the viaduct. Right after we ate lunch and then went for another long drive to hit another field trip. We spent 11 hours out that day (a lot of it was in the car on the road). I think to some people that would seem just as hard to do as doubling up on school seems to me.

Our second trip was to the boulder field at Hickory Run State Park. It is another AWESOME sight! WOW! Everyone should try and see this! I don't know how to explain how amazing this place is. It is like a sea of rocks! The rocks are all about the size of Zehira (many are a lot larger than her) and it seems like counting the rocks would go into the millions.

I think anyone who looks at this blog post will be thinking.... Wow! That homeschool family takes rock studies very serious! LOL!

Enough of me talking here are the pix.

Isn't this beautiful?

Amazing!It looks so flat in the picture below.But it looks so huge and bumpy when you see an almost 2 year old try to climb across it.BTW, Zee LOVED climbing the rocks!
Demi also loved the rocks.
This place was a VERY POPULAR place! Many people came and went during our visit. Everyone seemed to have the same response either silence and a look of awe or saying WOW! this is incredible!
This picture cracks me up! Everyone will have to agree that Traivs takes his rock studies very serious! LOL! This boy is really getting into the rocks!
I didn't walk all the way across the rocks (that would take all day with our two little ones so I played on the rocks closer to the edge with them). Rob and Travis did walk all the way across and back. Next time we go I will walk to the other side (Rob will stay with the little ones). I am guessing the picture above might be Travis looking down at this...That spot has water down in it. They say the rocks are 12 feet deep!

Here is Travis all the way on the other side of the boulder field.

A tree is growing in the middle of it. Only one lonely tree. Strange!

Travis under the tree.What a beautiful place God has made for us!

Demi and I.
Travis loved the rock below it has 3 large indentations in it that he wonders how they got in that stone.
Our family picture.

The boulder field is made up of two kinds of rocks sandstone and conglomerate.
Conglomerate rock below (see all the little stones that make up this rock).

If you ever have the chance VISIT THIS PLACE! I am so thankful to be studying geology this year. I don't know that we would have ever stopped to see this place (or the Starrucca Viaduct) if we didn't study rocks this year. I think we will make many trips back in the future! I think this is the most incredible school day my family has ever had! We made lots of beautiful artwork in the car this day AND we got to see and learn about a LOT of AMAZING Rocks! I don't know what one we found more amazing. Both the Starrucca Viaduct and Hickory Run Boulder field are amazing works of art. One made by man and one by God but both are amazing and beautiful to look at!

Starrucca Viaduct

2009-08-26T08:00:00.000-04:00

We have have had no computer for almost a week now. A storm wiped out our network. Good news is my blog posted automatically so you didn't even know I was gone. We are up and running again thanks to our very nice, local, DSL man.

We went on some awesome school field trips this weekend! Both trips we plan to go on again in the next few years. The first trip was to a tiny town in Susquehanna county. The town's name is Lanesboro. I want to let you know that Lanesboro is hiding an incredible treasure! I have lived in this area all my life. I NEVER have heard of Lanesboro or it's secret treasure! My husband has also lived in this area almost all of his life and didn't know of Lanesboro so I am guesssing many people don't know what is tucked away in that little town.

Lanesboro is the home of the Starrucca Viaduct. This viaduct is made of stone. When someone says viaduct in NE PA we all think of the Tunkhannock viaduct. I think everyone in PA knows of the Tunkhannock viaduct/Nicholson Bridge but honestly I have never heard anyone tell me about a stone viaduct in Lanesboro.

If you happen to be studying or curious about the Geology of NE PA I will tell you the type of stone the viaduct is made of is PA bluestone. This bluestone is only found in small parts of Northern NJ, Southern NY, and Susquehanna County PA. Most of the bluestone is found in Susquehanna County (my house sits on this Bluestone). I read that this stone is a valuable stone because it is not real slippery when wet like many other rocks so it is used for walkways, patios and around pools. It is a very strong stone (the Starrucca viaduct is proof of that), and it is beautiful (it has a blue tint to it). We have a ton of rock quarries near my house (several on the road we live on) but I never knew the rocks that came from them had rocks that were any different than the rocks found all over the USA. I am starting to realize that I am learning just as much as the children with this year's school.

Back to the Viaduct! The Starrucca viaduct is made up of PA bluestone. It has 17 arches, It stands over 100 ft high. It took 800 workers (paid each about $1 a day) to build. I think I read it only took 1 year to build. It is wide enough for 2 sets of tracks. It is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen! I find it sad that it is not marketed to the public as a popular tourist spot anymore. When we went to see it nobody else was at it (nobody was at the pothole to see it the day we went to that either). The man at a local hardware store said he doesn't hear many people come in and talk about visiting the viaduct anymore. What I think is the most amazing thing about this bridge is it is still being used! It has had trains running across it and has been continually used from the day it was built! I guess the rock is very solid here in NE PA!

Here are some of the pictures we took. It is a place you should try to see in person (it is so much better in real life than it shows in pictures).

Travis is asking about some holes he sees in the picture below.
Here is a look up if you look close you can see a tiny hole in the top and another on each side. I read someplace that they are believed to be holes that held wood beams to support it when the arches were being made.

To give you an idea of the size of this Rob parked the car under one of the arches. Our 2 little girls standing right behind the van. Travis is leaning on the pillar on the left and I am standing in the grass.Here is the part that little Zee found most interesting.

To her a tiny puddle was more fun than a giant stone bridge.

We drove up the hill and Rob walked up the train tracks. The children didn't want to walk on it because they worried a train might come down the tracks and hit them so I we all sat in the car while Daddy went off with the camera. Here are some of the pix Rob took.

This is a picture of downtown Lanesboro.

And an old water tower in town.

I hope someone reads this and takes a trip out to see it someday!

I think some people might wonder how this relates to our school this year. You might be thinking that we are learning about medieval/renaissance time and this viaduct was not built back in that time. It is the actual rock it is made of that falls into our school year. I have added a list of links on our blog for the field trips we have taken so far. We plan to take most of our trips in fall and in the spring (we don't do much traveling in the winter) so expect the list to stop growing in the next couple months then pickup again in the spring.

I hope to have another incredible trip we took post tomorrow!

Geology field trip (to the pothole)

2009-08-25T08:00:00.002-04:00

I am starting to see that Geology is a lot of fun and very interesting to study. I think finding geology related trips to do for some hands on learning is easy to do and it adds fun to the school day. Today we took a small trip (our original plans we wanted to take a further away field trip). School ran a bit late and we had some people installing a new water softener earlier in the day (our old one was 10 years old and broke a week ago). We decided last minute to go to the Archbald Pothole. If you don't live in NE PA I doubt you have ever heard of a famous pothole!

Some info on the pothole....
I think scientist are still debating on exactly how it was formed (the website above gives at least one idea on how it was formed the sign at the actual pothole list two ideas). It is a natural pothole and it is HUGE! It is 38 feet deep and 42 feet across. It was found in 1884. A coal miner set off a blast of explosives to extend the coal shaft and when he did water rushed out. The miners ran thinking the mountain was falling down on them. I bet you are thinking that I have given you more information then you ever wanted to know about a pothole! Here are some of the pictures we took at the pothole (the lady with us is Rob's mom).

It is hard to see how large the hole is from the pictures above so I am including the two pix below. The first one is of Travis standing right at the pothole (it is right in front of him).
This picture I am standing in the place he was and he is on the other side and you can see the other side of the hole. It really is a large hole.
After checking out the pothole and reading about it we decided to check out the little trails. On our hike we found many rocks to start our new rock collections. The trails have large amounts of coal shinning on the ground (with lots of other interesting rocks). In PA it is legal to collect rocks and fossils at the state parks. Because of that I now have dirt in my purse. My children asked me to hold the rocks for them (just one of the crazy things I do to give my children an education). I wonder if all moms have dirt from rocks inside their purses? I heard many times of children with coal in stockings but I don't think I have ever heard of mom with coal in her purse (I must be a really BAD MOMMY).

Travis liked collecting rocks. Demi enjoyed picking up acorns, and this is what Grandma M enjoyed checking out. It was some very green, soft, fluffy, mossy stuff.Here is what I enjoyed finding. I have never seen a large red mushroom before.

I think I like this picture the best.The rocks in the background, in picture below, is what Travis is standing on in the picture that follow.

How is this for hands on (perhaps feet on) rock studies.

The rocks on the trail are beautiful!

After the hike we left the pothole and took the children and Rob's mom to Olive Garden for dinner.

Then hit the fabric store and toy store before heading home.

Tues.

2009-08-24T08:00:00.000-04:00

Travis doing school work up in his room (I think he is drawing a picture of a dragon to go with his history lesson today we read about China). This tiny old school desk is giving him a way to get away from his noisy little sisters (they are downstairs). It doesn't take up much space in his room so he still has a lot of room to play with toys (when his school day is over).

Demi spent a lot of time painting today.

Zee painted then fell asleep on the floor! I went to help Travis with a question and found Zee sleeping with paint on her face a few minutes later. She slept for a couple hours in the middle of the living room floor!
Demi with a fudge pop she made with pudding. in a recycled yogurt cup, with a spoon for the stick. It was the only way I could think of to make pops with left over pudding once our pop molds were filled.
With one child sleeping on the floor in the middle of the house I didn't get a chance to take many pictures today. I chose to tiptoe around, whisper softly, and let sleeping babies lie.

Last Monday

2009-08-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

Travis is starting to love studying rocks and minerals. He wasn't thrilled doing all the note taking at first but now he is adding a lot more to his class than I am asking him to do. He is reading the science book, looking up info online (this is not something I asked him to do), finding the rocks in our rock collection (not something I asked him to do), taking the notes, reading in the book that came with our rock collection a rock set we bought 4 years ago (and this also is extra work he wants to do), he is making observations and asking questions (Yippee!). If only his print was as neat as his cursive (sigh).
I think we need to move over to the big table to do this because he has more stuff out than will fit on the tiny table in the kitchen.

After school we made some homemade fudge pops. All the children even Zee helped make them.

It was a bit messy but fun.They also painted a ton of pictures. Demi started then Zee and Travis followed.

Travis said he made a real masterpiece....

I set up a new art wall for drying paintings and displaying the art (it is just cotton yarn and clothes pins). We had three times this many painting hung by the time everyone finished.

Our fudge pops we made with chocolate pudding (Just one pack of instant pudding with 2 and 1/2 cups of milk. The children really liked them we will make them again.

That is about all for today (everything else was just our normal book work for our school day).

Sun

2009-08-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

Sunday afternoon was very busy for us. We went to the American Red Cross Summer Spectacular Fun Day. It was at the small airport in Tunkhannock. I don't know that I would call it spectacular but I will say my children had fun.

The children had cherry snow cones.

Travis tossed some balls at the dunk tank. They made sure Travis got to dunk the man in the tank.Demi got her face painted.
She loved her pink butterfly.
It was at the airport so we got to see lots of airplanes.

My FAVORITE picture is the one below. I don't know the plane or the man in the picture but I think it is a very interesting picture.

Some men working with parachutes.

We got to learn about the Red Cross and about our local ambulances. I didn't know an ambulance carried so much stuff! WOW!

Before we left the children had some cotton candy.

We then went to MC D's (snow cones, cotton candy, and MC D's made a very unhealthy day). I was on the search for a candy/fry thermometer (I have an idea for a fun art project that will need one) and it was getting close to dinner time so I had to let them eat fast food (small town I was in doesn't have many choices to eat at). After eating up the happy meals they ran off to play. Travis was the only one who went into the play tubes. The girls played a game called pick the slide brother was going to come down.

After MC D's we came home and the children asked to read about and break open the geodes. My children asked to do school on a Sunday? Are they really MY children? I am sure my parents are wondering if the children are really mine (I never wanted to do school stuff on the weekends). I decided to break open Zee's first (she is too young to fuss if we mess it up). Travis took a lot of the pictures. I used a punch and hammer (something I read someplace online). I started in the grass then after a few minutes I decided to put it on the concrete walkway. I poked a hole in it and started to wonder if it would ever crack open!

After what felt like forever of rotating and chipping at the rock it finally broke in two.
Zee ran off with a small toy football. She could care less about her rock. The older two children found her open geode very interesting.Next up was Demi.
She was all ready to use the hammer! OH! I should mention the white spray paint all over the grass in the picture is from me painting the girls beds. It will wear off in a week or two (I paint in that spot a lot and it always washes/wears away).I put her geode in a sock and let her whack the rock many times.
when she got tired I gave it one last hard whack (I knew she didn't break it open) and she got to empty out the sock.
Here is another picture of Zee just so she can be included (I think you can see opening geodes wasn't very exciting to her).Time for Travis to give it a go. He had watched both ways to open the geodes and decided he wanted his broke in a nice half like Zee's geode. He didn't like Demi's handful of smashed pieces. He tried the punch and hammer for about 10 minutes.
Once I noticed he was getting frustrated I told him he could smash his in a sock (like we did with Demi's) and I told him if it smashed in a ton of pieces he could trade for Zee's. He eventually agreed and used the sock method.
Here is his geode. He was happy with the one he broke open but liked the look of the one cut in two so I let him have both geodes. Demi's is in the girls room so she said she will share her rocks with Zee.

Craft time last Sat.

2009-08-21T08:00:00.000-04:00

0The children asked to do some crafts (after many hours of playing outside). I tossed a few things on a tray (giving each child a tray with the same kind of things on it). I gave them some glue and told them to have fun creating.

Here is Demi's trayAll the trays looked the same except the pompoms and pipe cleaners had different colors. Zee didn't get any craft eyes because I was worried she might try to eat them. She doesn't eat pom poms so she did get some of them. I gave them some one inch squares of colored paper and glue. Demi paints her glue so hers is in the yellow cap and Travis uses the bottle.

Here is what Demi made. It reminds me of the big feet fury critters from when I was little.

She gave it a bunny tail.

Here is what Travis made (this creature did have eyes I think Zee pulled them off).
Travis also made this.
Zee played with her pieces than ran off to play with toys. She didn't end up with a finished project.

Sorry Sat was such a lazy relaxed day I don't have anything else to share.

Some swimming, mosaics, and star gazing

2009-08-20T08:00:00.000-04:00

This is stuff from Friday Aug. 14 (last day of Rob's vacation). I am posting a week behind because I feel if I try to jot down 4-7 days of stuff late at night once or twice a week and then set them to post automatically several days later I will have more time to blog. So far this is working so expect all my stuff to be about a week behind from now on (or until the schedule changes in my house).

In our history book we read about mosaics so we did a simple mosaic art project. We used colored paper this time because we are waiting for Rob to bring home tiles from work (he works at Lowes so shopping for tiles is easy for him) when he remembers to buy tiles we will be able to make some real mosaics.

Demi made a mosaic that she named Robot With One Leg.
I call mine Ladybug in the Grass on a Sunny Day. Can you see it?

Here is Travis happy to show his off. It shows his happy face but his hand is moving so the picture is blurry.

I think his was called Buzzing Bee Chasing a Train Going Down a Hill
We did school early and had free time late afternoon to play in the pool.

Rob took the pictures. I am in the picture below. I was watching the family have fun and at the same time surfing the web for science or history related field trips to take. I had over 50 trips planned for this school year on my list weeks ago. I have no idea why I was still looking for stuff (I should have been in the pool with everyone else). In case you are wondering, I officially stopped looking for trips related to our school this year. I am now busy trying to pencil them all in with Rob's work schedule and our school lessons. I have to cover all lessons and cover everything in all our books (Rob's expectation not state required) so time to take trips isn't easy to find.After dinner we drove up to the Kopernik observatory to see a program on Jupiter (poor kids are now doing night school).

Here is a picture of Travis standing in front of a computer that was on the space shuttle.

The girls liked looking at the astronaut Barbie dolls.After the lecture. We got to look into space with the awesome telescopes they have. The camera was in the car by this time because the girls got tired so Rob and I took turns in the car with them watching a movie on a laptop while the other was with Travis checking out the telescopes. I think it was too late for the girls to go out (I don't think either of them got much from it but we knew this before we left). Demi did sit quiet for the lecture (that shocked me). I think Travis really enjoyed this trip and learned a lot from it. I was surprised watching him in the lecture. We sat in the very back row (knowing we would have to take out at least one of the little child during the program a seat in the back by the door was our quick way out to keep the little ones from disrupting others). I noticed Travis stood up to get a clear view every time the screen changed (he needed to see over the tall people's heads). He sat quietly, paid attention, and was happy to listen and learn. I am so proud of him. He is growing up so fast! I wonder what happened to that boy with ants in his pants who couldn't be quiet or sit still for 5 minutes? I guess growing up changes a child. I never thought he would learn to sit still!

Making Crystals

2009-08-19T08:00:00.002-04:00

Our science this year is Earth and space. A lot of this year we are learning about rocks, minerals, and such. Travis learned about rocks and minerals 4 years ago and he still remembers a lot of it. I got an idea to make this reading and note taking a bit more fun (less like work). I thought we should try doing an experiment on growing sugar crystals (making rock candy). I think it was the perfect solution for a child tired of taking a bunch of notes on rocks. I looks like Travis is now very happy to read and take notes on rocks, crystals, salt, and other stuff found in the earth knowing that he can check on his candy pops growing. I hope in about 7 days to have pops for them to eat (if they grow and he finishes taking all his notes in time). We will let you know how it turns out.

Here is how they look.

Gym class?

2009-08-18T08:00:00.001-04:00

All I can say is PE class NEVER looked like this when I went to school!!! I think homeschooling has some wonderful advantages! Pictures below are all ones I think Mum Mum and Poppy (Rob's parents) will enjoy looking at. Rob and his brother took Travis golfing last Wed. and Travis had a blast. Rob took Travis to the driving range a few weeks ago but I didn't remember to give Rob the camera so we don't have any pictures from that day (sorry about that). I hope the golfers in our family enjoy this set of pix.