Blue Jay Point

Today was field trip day and we visited Blue Jay Point County Park.  We had a lovely day for our program and it was nice to be able to spend time outside learning and the playing.  I was thankful to have some time to just chat with the other moms.  It's been awhile since we have had weather condusive to just playing and hanging out at the playground.

Our program today was on tree identification.  We tried this earlier in the week during our nature studies and I realized how very hard it was (for me) to identify trees without any leaves).  It was so interesting to hear all of the various ways that you can tell what type of tree it is without any leaves.  Bark, stems, and buds were all a big clue to the type of tree.

We split into 2 groups for our program.  The younger kids went first (5-10 year olds) while the older and younger kids could either play a game with one of the nature boxes available from the park or visit the education center.  My oldest two took Eliana with them so that I could focus on the program with the younger boys.  It was a lot of fun!

We stopped at various trees and looked at its features.  Like the musclewood with the trunk looking a little like a muscle.  They had lots of opportunities to touch the bark and look for details - and remember them later when we came up to other trees of the same variety.





Or the beech with red, cigar-shaped buds AND the leaves hanging on to the tree even though they were dead.  (This is the tree I picked up on today and hopefully will remember.  I figure that I'm doing well if I learn at least one new thing!)



We lookd at maples, sourwood, ironwood, hickory, holly and more.  We learned that the hickory has a "monkey face scar" where branches once were that help you to identify the tree.  They also discussed deciduous and evergreen trees.



The program ended with the children working in pairs with one child leading a blindfolded child to a tree to try to identify.  They then had to try to find the tree without the blindfold.





When we finished, the younger kids played a game in a nearby field (and I have no photos because my camera died) while the older kids went on their walk.  They went on a different path with more trees and a longer walk.  I listened into the beginning of their program.



They were in a picturesqe place in front of a pond.  (Don't look at the next picture if you don't like reptiles!!!)  I took some pictures of the group and then one of the pond.  I'm not putting in the close up for a friend that won't want to see it - but can you see what is on the log?  I thought it was a fake - a statue just for looks.  Turns out that it was real.  A snake that mimics a copperhead.  Lovely.  Thankfully we didn't see any on our walks.



Had to share at least one photo of this little cutie.



We briefly visited the educational center which was for the most part was very nicely done.  One of the exhibits was a little offensive (on a personal level) and sadly one of my children pointed it out to me.  Its was good opportunity to talk about how the world's view and God's view are sometimes different and that you don't have to believe all that you read! 

We stayed for a picnic lunch and several hours at the playground.  A lovely day.  Eliana had a delightful time playing with the other children and in the sandbox.  It was fun watching her.  We look forward to coming back another day.

Blessings
Leslie

Beautiful day!

I've been trying some new things this week.  We are still using our workboxes.  I love that they help *me* with planning.  The time it takes for me to fill the boxes has decreased significantly from when we started with them too!

What I was finding though is that *my* time wasn't being used as effectively as I wanted.  I didn't feel that I had enough time with my older children and wanted to correct that.  So, what I did was outline a scheulde to go along with our workboxes.  It's mainly a schedule of where *I'm* spending my time.  I divided up my time with the children and am trying to work with the boxes so that when they are with me we are covering the things that they need help doing. 

I've also scheduled Eliana's time so that its a little more structured which I think will be good for her.  The last piece was doing a little more scheduling of our chores.  Not all of them as I'm taking baby steps.  We are working on morning chores and helping in the kitchen.  We'll add to this as we go hopefully!

The verdict so far - after just 3 days - is good.  I think it is helping me to get more done and balance my time.  Now, I realize that 3 days is not a huge success, but we'll take what we can get.  It's hardest on the days when I'm out of the home for a large chunk of the day, but since that isn't changing, we'll learn to work with that too.

Today we had therapy for two of the younger kids.  I had a good talk with one of the therapists about goals which was good for *me* as I want to know what we are doing and where we are heading.  By the time we got home, it was still early in the day - and beautiful!  I decided that we would we'd do what we needed to indoors and then move outside.  The kids were all for this!

I don't have any pictures of our outside schooling as we were just busy enjoying it.  Isaiah came up with his own way of doing math today. He asked if he could do a problem and then ride his bike down the street and then come back and do another problem and ride his bike again.  I agreed and thought this was a super idea!  It really worked for him too!  No complaining about math.  He worked more quickly than usual and got it all correct too.  I think we may be doing this more often.

We have been working more on our nature journals this spring.  I've always been sporadic with this, but do enjoy what we are doing.  I love looking back on some of their earlier entries too and seeing the handwriting and pictures from years gone past.  We have had a treat this week as a couple of wrens are building a nest on our front porch on top of one of the columns.

We have been watching them flying to and from the nest with twigs and things.  I tried to get a closer peek into the nest, but can't really see anything in there yet.

It will be fun to watch for the baby birds.  This is a great protected spot for a nest - and not the first year we've had birds there.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch outside too and then did some yardwork.  It was a productive day. 

We had a treat this afternoon as Rebecca planned a tea party.  She sent us each lovely invitations and we arrived at 3:30 to find this scene.  (Yes, I realize that our Christmas tree doesn't add a lot to the spring scene and hopefully it will find it's way off of the porch soon! lol) 

She had been baking and preparing for us and even made placecards (which I saved in case she wants to do this again).  We had popovers with jam and butter, ham and turkey roll-ups (no carbs!), snickerdoodles and lemonade.

Everything was delicious and we all had a great time together.  (Eliana was napping and Christopher was running but they each got some goodies later.)

Thank you Rebecca for a wonderful time!  You are such a sweet sister/daughter!  I often tell the boys that they have the best big sister.  I hope they realize how wonderful she is to them!

We are looking forward to a fun day tomorrow with our FIAR group.  I hope you are having beautiful weather and able to enjoy it too.  God has placed so many beautiful and interesting things in nature for us to enjoy and learn about.  I'm thankful for the opportunity to spend time outside (especially before it gets too hot!). 

Oh, I almost forgot!  One more fun thing to share today.  Eliana used the potty!  Yippee!  It was after her nap and I just sat her down and encouraged her to stay until she went.  I'm not sure she "gets" it, but hopefully it's a start.  She liked the cookie she got afterwards.  I think she will be a girl that is motivated by treats.  lol  So, while I'm not sure if this is the official start of potty-training for us (I really don't like potty training!!!), it just might be.  We'll see how it goes. 

Blessings

Leslie

Birthday pictures and consignment sale

Can I start by saying that I hate it when you have typed in a long entry - and it crashes and gets lost!  I had just finished typing the whole thing and then instead of saving it (my mistake) I went to get some pictures.  Something happened at the photobucket site and crashed both that open window and my blog.  *sigh*  I'll try again.  Maybe there was something else I needed to share.

I wanted to share a few photos of Christopher's birthday.  He started with the red plate!  I'm so glad that they remembered.  I have a few for whom tradition is important and it's sweet to see them carrying on our traditions even when I'm not there.  :-)



Breakfast was Roger's specialty - waffles.  There was also gift giving.



I liked this picture even though it is fuzzy.



The day closed with a birthday cake and lots of candles.  I can't believe he has that many candles!



Earlier this month, I went to the semi-annual consignment sale.  I found lots of great things for the 4 youngest children (and even one dress for Rebecca).  Rebecca went with me to help and it was great having her company.  We also bought more clothes as there were some she just couldn't resist. 

When we got home, there was a fashion show for several days as Eliana tried on her new clothes.  Here's one photo.  You can visit Rebecca's blog if you want to see more.



Rebecca also found an outfit for Eliana that was a lot like one she has.  Don't they look cute!



I am too tired to take a good photo of all the clothes I bought, but we got a lot of good deals.  I think the younger children are set for the summer with the exception of shoes.  I also bought some books, games and hands-on items to use in our schooling.  I love finding these deals!



Our week is going well.  We are healthy - something I'm always incredibly thankful for!  We are having fun.  Rebecca is involved in a play (production is next month) and it is keeping us both busy.  I've been working some this week with costumes.  We've been enjoying being outside more as the weather is gorgeous.  We have birds building a nest on our front porch and it's been fun to watch them - and sweet since we are actually rowing a book about birds that build a nest this week!  Gotta love God's great timing and the little gifts He gives us each day.  I tried to take a peek and don't see any eggs yet, though they may be there and I just can't get a good look yet.  We'll keep our eyes open!

I hope you are having a great week filled with joy, laughter and the security of knowing you are deeply loved.

Blessings

Leslie

History Museum

I'm going to try to play a little catch-up with this month.  We went to the History museum about a week and a half ago.  Our regular field trip was cancelled due to pending rain and so some of us decided to meet at the History Museum in Raleigh instead.  It was a fun morning.  It's always nice to spend time with friends and I think hands-on learning is the best!

In front of the museum with some of our friends.



While we were waiting to meet up with friends in the lobby, I saw a sign for a backpack for younger kids that could be checked out.  I decided to get one and try it out.  It was a really neat way to make the exhibit come alive for the younger kids.  It was geared for ages 3-5.   If you are there, I recommend you trying it out for yourself.  I kept trying to think how I could take this great idea and use it at home. 



We used the backpack called "Good Sports" that went with the sports exhibit.  The older kids had a scavenger type questionnaire to fill out as they found answers to the questions.  The was a guide back to go with the backpack listing questions to ask and what to do each step of the way.  Our first stop was at the gold exhibit and there was a bag inside the backpack to open.  Inside were two golf balls - one intact and the other cut in half.  The children felt the balls and we talked about what the inside was made of.  They also looked at the outside of the ball and we discussed the dimples and why there were there (to make the ball go farther). 

At the baseball section, there was a neat book to read that was the song Take Me Out to the Ballgame with pictures.



Next was the race car displays.  Inside were a pair of racing gloves to try on while you watched a video and pretended to be driving a race car.



There was a jersey to try on in the basketball section.  As you can see, Daniel really enjoyed doing these activities.



There were a few more, but hopefully this gives you an idea.  What a great idea for making the museum more accessible for younger children!



There were also phones that you could listen to famous atheletes talking.





We also saw some exhibits on transportation.



And one on various wars - no pictures in this gallery though.  We also visited an historical mystery exhibit.  There were many items on display and you had to try to figure out what they were used for.  Some were behind glass and others were more interactive, talking to a museum worker.



We enjoyed a picnic lunch and then headed home.  It was a fun day and I'm thankful we had the opportunity to go!

Blessings

Leslie

Bentonville Battlefield

Today we visited one of North Carolina's State Historic Sites.  Bentonville Battlefield.  This is the site of the largest Civil War Battle in North Carolina.  The site hosts a reenactment once every 5 years and this week-end was it!  We were there 5 years ago and it was fun to go back again.  (And hopefully we will be there again in another 5 years for the 150th anniversary of the battle.)

The site is set up with many costumed interpreters doing various things from that time period.  We listened to an embalmer talk about his trade and even the specifics of how he embalmed a body (even showing the tools that he used).  He shared some comparisons of what was done then compared to how things are done now.  It was interesting.



The children were interested in the herbs and medicines that were available though we missed the reenactor at this station.



So many of the reenactors are eager to talk and share what they are doing or what they have learned.  If you just get them started, many will share very interesting things.  This is one of my favorite parts of visiting historic sites.  It just makes the time period come alive!

This man shared about how he lived, explained why his hat was pinned on one side (to keep it out of the way of his gun during battles) and even showed them his gun and how it worked. 



The items on this table were the types of things that would have been sent as a care package to one of the soldiers.



This man was the engineer.  He helped to plan the movements of the troops, drew maps as well as any building (bridges) or construction that might have been done.  He explained that the men that were the top of their class at West Point were the ones that were chosen to be the engineers.  West Point was started in part so that our country would have it's own corps of engineers.



As we stood talking with him, Daniel was very intrigued with his desk and all of the items in the cubbies.  The man then started looking for something to show  Daniel.  He pulled out a small round metal container and handed it to Daniel asking if he knew what it was.  Do you?



He answered immediately and correctly, shocking the man.  The man then asked me if he had seen one before.  I told him that I didn't think so.  He said that in all the years he has done this that he has only seen a couple of people guess it correctly.  So do you have a guess yet?  He also said that most people could not figure out it by taking it apart which Daniel also started doing immediately. 



It's a pair of candlesticks.  The two outside pieces were the base of the candlesticks and the holder pieces were inside of it.  This was a more compact way to carry them.  I loved watching him figure this out.

We talked with people about their cooking.  It's a lot of work to cook over a fire and haul in the water!  Just being here reminded a couple of my children about their desire to be reenactors. 



We had started looking into this before Eliana was born, but thought we'd wait and pursue it after she arrived.  Obviously our years have been filled with some other things since then.  Perhaps though now would be a good time to try again.  I have 2 children that are very interested in this.  Can you guess who they are?

There were also sutler's tents - people who sell a variety of wares for those who are reenactors or those who just enjoy things from this time period.  Rebecca enjoyed seeing the clothing and we found one woman who made and sold beautiful bonnets!



We had a picnic lunch and shortly afterwards it was time to head toward the battleground.  We watched a number of the soldiers marching into the woods to prepare for the battle.  I remarked to my friend that I wasn't sure that the way that they were going was also the way we needed to go.  A man heard us and said that yes, this was the way to go. 



After we had walked for awhile, with soldiers all around us, I thought this was not the way we went the last time we were here.  What we didn't know was if this was also an acceptable route.  We asked several people and were told it was fine or that they didn't know.  We walked until the field and found out it was not the way to go.  Oh well.  We had a behind the scenes look.  We then ran to try to make it to the battle.  This was not a short distance.  It was good exercise.  lol

We made it for the battle and watched for about an hour.  The cannons were loud and earplugs helped some that were more sensitive to it.  Can you see the man next to the cannon with his hand over his ear?



We saw the infantry and artillery.



And the cavalry.





Afterwards we toured the Harper House which was used as a makeshift hospital. 



They were successful in treating many of the wounded, though many later died of infection.   The surgical table is a door on top of two barrels.  They did the best that they could.



This is such a sad period in history in so many ways.





All in all, it was a wonderful day.  I think it is important to understand history.  We need to know what has happened in our past and why.  We can only see the present clearly when we understand our past.  I'm praying that God would open our eyes and give us wisdom to truly understand His role in our history and our role in our present.

Blessings

Leslie

Beautiful Day

Today was a lovely day - in more ways than one.  The sun was out and it was just beautiful.  It started off on the chilly side, but warmed up nicely by lunchtime.

We were up early to head to an event at a local church.  Christopher was participating in the 5K and there was also a festival for the family there. 

We waited at the finish line for the runners.  The boys liked seeing the clock and the place where the runners crossed to get their times. 

As Christopher neared the finish line, he had several little boys running along beside him trying to spur him on.  He definitely ran a little faster then.  lol  Christopher is in black in the center and if you look you can see 4 little boys around him cheering him on.

There was a small fun run for the younger kids.  Eliana participated with the encouragement of her big sister.

To my surprise, Daniel also ran and really appreciated the ribbon he won at the end.

One of our neighbors attends this church and we enjoyed hanging out with them there. 

There were bounce houses for little people ...

and some more suited for bigger people.

The boys had to remove their glasses in this one which makes things a little more challenging for them.  They had fun with it though!

There were even ones that were obstacle courses which the boys like racing in to see who could go through the fastest.  It was very hard to get good pictures in these because they moved so quickly!

There was a train riding around the parking lot.

And snow cones to eat.   This worked out really well when Joshua tested at 54 mid-morning (and had no idea that he was low).  He really was happy to be getting this even though it doesn't look like it.  As an fyi, it raised his blood sugar by 100!

There was a baseball pitch that measured how fast your pitch was thrown.

There was also a bungee jumping.  This was very popular and by the end of the morning, the line was quite long!  This is Rebecca doing a flip.

It was a fun morning and I'm glad we had time to hang out and play.

The afternoon was spent with more time outside for the kids and Roger.  I was inside sewing up 5 sets of spider legs (for the play Charlotte's Web that Rebecca is going to be in.  If you are local, we'd love to have you come!).  I also got some scrapbooking done!  I'm journaling on some completed pages and trying to finish up 2006.  Yes, I'm that behind.  I have done some scrapbooking for 2008.  I skipped 2007 trying to get more current.  I'm planning to go back, but ... well, you know how it goes.  This is a fun hobby, but one I'm always behind in!

Tomorrow looks to be another fun family day.  I hope your week-end is filled with fun too!

Blessings

Leslie