Easter week-end

We spent the week-end in Virginia with our dear friends that moved here almost 6 years ago.  Its been a fun tradition for most of those years.  I'm glad we have time to spend together and just wish that it was more than we are able to squeeze in.  (More often!)

We spent our time just playing together and having fun.  No huge plans.  Just relaxing and we all had a great time.  I love seeing the mix of ages playing together.   (And especially the older ones with the younger ones.)

From tag...

To board games.

 Inside or outside.  There was plenty to do.

 Eliana and her constant friend George on the slide.

 Playing Can Jam.  (Christopher's birthday gift)

 We all took a turn at this game.

 Some were better than others.

 The game is played in teams of two.

Aim and skill are both important.  

Even the moms took a turn playing.  I did like it but I'm not very good.

 Friends having fun.

 The girls have been friends their whole lives (the older two of course).

 After spending a fun day playing outside.

 Testing our skills.

 And hoping for a good throw.

 It was time for a different kind of fun.

Sweet fun.

 S'mores outside are always a hit.

 Our days were beautiful.  Enos are a favorite with our family and we like to share with friends.

 We had an egg hunt for the younger children.

 Eliana loved finding eggs.

 She likes to collaborate with her buddy Caleb too.

 We color coded the eggs so that each child knew to look for a certain color.

 Yum.  Finding the goodies inside was a lot of fun.  She was much more interested in them this time.

 I think they cleaned out their eggs in one sitting.  LOL

 After dinner, we played outside waiting for it to get dark.

 Four square, scooters, chalk and more kept everyone occupied.

 Testing out my night setting.

 Once it was dark, we had a fun surprise for the older ones - a flashlight egg hunt!  They had lanterns, flashlights and a glow in the dark wand for one princess.

 I tried to take pictures, but between the darkness and the quick movements, it was hard.

 I did manage a few though.

 We counted out the eggs so that we knew how many there were to find.

 Amazingly, they found them all too!

 Though the last few were a little challenging!

 This was fun and I think the start of a new tradition.  I enjoy finding ways to keep the holidays fun no matter what your age!

 Easter morning and time to get dressed up.  Wish I had gotten a better picture of our princess (again with her constant companion).

 Rebecca is fabulous with styling hair and loves to help out the little ones.

 Pretty girls - inside and out.

 With their Daddies.

 All of the girls.  Is anyone surprised that the boys didn't want a picture of themselves?  LOL

 Family photo just before it starts to rain.

 This is fuzzy, but too cute not to share!  The tomb that was guarded now is opened and empty!  He is risen indeed!

 We share a delicious lunch.  Note the cute "carrot"  napkins that the older girls made for our meal.

 Thanks Couch family for a wonderful week-end!  We look forward to our next time together!

Love  
the Nelsens

Field Trip to Old Time Draft and Wagon

Well, I seem to be on a roll of publishing posts at the beginning of the week and then falling down the rest of the week.  This week, look for a new post each day.  :-)  (Monday through Friday)

This was a really fun field trip.  One that I've been looking forward to for awhile since it was a new place for our group to visit.

It was a cool and gorgeous day!  We gathered around for an intro to our morning by the owner Jackson.

 We headed inside for the first part of our morning.  The owner, Jackson, was animated and engaged as he talked with the students about the history of transportation, various types of horses and also the history of this site.

 There were so many interesting things to look at in this room.

 Jackson talked about many of them including some of the equipment that had been used by his grandfather.

 Lots of learn about and he was encouraging and impressed when the students knew the answers to his questions too.  His style and demeanor was perfect for leading this type of activity.

 An up close look at a horseshoe.

 Then outside to look at a horse while learning more about the equipment used to ride a horse.

Most of the group was attentive.

 There are always a few little cuties that have a harder time staying still.

 When we finished, we spread out for a picnic lunch and took turns going for a wagon ride.

 The differences between girls and boys never cease to make me smile.

 The wagon ride was fun!

 Eliana loved it and went a second time when there was room on the last wagon.  (As did a couple more of mine.)

 Beautiful day spent learning with friends.  One of my favorite ways to spend a day!

Thankful for this hands-on style of learning and also for friends who join us in the fun.

Blessings
Leslie

Beyond FIAR Co-op: Neil Armstrong 1

Our Beyond FIAR co-op is on its last book.  *sniff sniff*  I'm so not ready for this to end!  Thankfully, the group is not ready to end our times of learning together either and we are planning to do more literature studies together next year.  Our topics are still in the planning stages, but I will be sure to post about them.

Our final book of the year is Neil Armstrong - one of the Childhood of Famous Americans series.  We covered topics from the first three lessons in this meeting.  

We started with a devotion from this book on the dreams and hopes we have and how those sometimes look different and yet can still come true.  

Our topics for today included the 1930s and Englad.  

We talked about Edward the VIII, King of England and his abdication.  This came up in the story as the Armstrong family listened to a radio broadcast about his abdication and the ensuing coronation of his brother as King.

We also listened to part of the speech of the new King - George VI.

While the students were listening to information on the history of England, their hands were busy in coloring a flag and map of England.

They listened to 60+ interesting facts on England.  Click on the link to read some for yourself!  We did not read or share all of these with the children.

Some of the information was familiar and some was not.  Here is a peek at the first three.

1. Big Ben does not refer to the clock, but actually the bell.
2. London has been called Londonium, Ludenwic, and Ludenburg in the past.
3. French was the official language for about 300 years

The last part of our morning was spend learning about the comedy style that was popular in the 1930s - slapstick.  They learned about the elements of this style of humor.

Then we watched some ourselves.  They really enjoyed this too.  Pictured below is the routine "Who's on First".

Our food was a down home meal made by Mrs. Armstrong - fried chicken (nuggets), mashed potatoes and green beans.  Yum!

We went home with a timeline of England to work on later.  My boys did this together doing some research on their own for as much as possible.

This was a delightful start to our unit and I look forward to more fun times!

Blessings

Leslie