Pumpkin Carving

Prisoner & Pocahontas!

Niña & Pinta Field Trip

The Pinta

The Niña

The group in front of the Pinta

A friend told me about touring replicas of Columbus' Pinta and Niña, so I scheduled a co-op field trip to Chattnooga to see it. What a thrill!

We met for a pizza lunch, saw an IMAX show on surfing in Tahiti, toured the boats, got ice cream, and drove home. It was a beautiful day, too!

(If you notice Emily's change in attire, it is because she slipped in mud playing at a park when we arrived early to scope out everything, and changed into the "emergency" clothes I keep in the car. I must say, I've kept stuff in their for years but we rarely have to use it.

Grandson Prather's Third Birthday!

Cowboy and Cowgirl

Took a trip to West Texas and the kids got to ride Abuelo at our friend's house.

Lego Contest

I got an email this week from Hobby Town saying that they were having a Lego contest on Saturday. Daniel is always creating something with his, so I asked if he wanted to enter.

We took his creation in today, a house of his own design -- and he won 1st prize in the 6-8 year old category. (There were more entries in this age group than any other, too!) He prize was the Lego Torch seen in the photo (the large Lego man with lights in his legs.)

I cried happy tears. A few years ago Emily placed 3rd in an art contest. Now Daniel got recognized for his building creativity and favorite hobby. It is such a blessing to see your children's gifts showing up, and acknowledged, at an early age!

Chihuly Nights

Went to Cheekwood to see the Chihuly exhibits lit up at night. It was beautiful! The kids had a fun time running around in the dark, too.

Road Trip Day 4

Swimming in hotel pool for 20 minutes (it was chilly)

Driving to Tuscumbia, AL to see Helen Keller's home

Highlights: Seeing a Braille writer (descriptions didn't quite give me the mental picture I needed -- the real thing makes sense) and THE water pump

Road Trip Day 3

Drive to Shark Tooth Creek (trailer ride to the creek, 90 minutes of tooth hunting, lunch, playground and zip line) Found out about this place in an issue of Family Fun, only to find that the owners are related to friends of mine!!!

Highlights: Actually finding teeth just lying on the ground!!! Daniel won a t-shirt for finding one of the biggest/best teeth, too!

Drive to Florence, AL

Road Trip Day 2

First Stop: Explorations in Antiquity Center in La Grange, GA (walk through reproduction of Biblical tent, garden, house, tomb, well, etc. with fascinating details and symbolism & Biblical meal.)

Highlights: Symbolism of the four stages of the olive press; sitting in Jesus' spot at the table of the last supper while eating our Biblical meal; Emily getting to pull water from the well

Driving to Tuscaloosa

Adventure: Walking to dinner -- across 7 lanes of traffic. Clearly most people do not walk in that part of town!

Road Trip Day 1

First stop: Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta.Highlights: Rain table (hold a wand over the table and watch computer generated rain hall and roll down mountain slopes -- cool); eye and ear exhibit as we are studying the five senses this week; twisting stairs; huge dinosaur bone reproductions; IMAX video on the Nile, which we are studying in history

Adventure: Driving back to Pizza Hut for Noil, Emily's new sea lion stuffed animal (name is lion backwards)

Then drive to La Grange, GA for the night.

Zoo with Friends

We met friends at the Zoo today. The kids had a fantastic time hanging out together. Daniel pushed Kimberly around most of the time and loved it.

The most interesting part of the visit was the raccoon. You know, the kind NOT in a cage. While watching the meerkats my friend noticed that things kept dropping into the enclosure from above. She looked up, assuming it was a squirrel, to see a raccoon sitting up high in this huge old tree. As we watched, he started climbing towards the trunk, and then down. We sat down on the ground out of the way to see what would happen, recognizing that this was odd behavior for the daytime. Sure enough, part way down the trunk, he fell. He got up, and then started wobbling and walking down the path, not bothered in the least as we followed.

I ran to the cafeteria, the closest building, to tell them to call someone because this was not a healthy animal. A few minutes later the head chef, not a zookeeper, came walking up. We described what happened and told him where the raccoon was. He said it had fallen out of a tree yesterday, too, and they'd been trying to trap it.

Strange.

I Love Fall

First trip to the pumpkin farm this year. The see saw was the favorite!