Field Trip!

Yay for pumpkin patches! I love this time of year! Both my kids were born in the fall & I have always been a huge fan of this particular season....the autumn colors, Halloween, celebrating their birthdays, etc., etc...
One of our favorite activities is visiting the pumpkin patch. I don't know why this is so fun, except that is encompasses all our favorite things about this time of year into one area. Our favorite pumpkin patch has a a huge cottonseed hill that the kids can slide down on little sleds that are provided there. There are hayrides, petting zoos, playgrounds, mazes, etc., but the kids spend most of their time on the cottonseed hill.

Art

We started a project today with another homeschooling family. But shhhhhh! We didn't finish yet & it's going to take several get togethers before we can present the final product, so....more on this later.

Camping Trip

This weekend, we took the girls camping very near an old mining town. One of our mornings there, we took the girls to a fun place where you can sluice for gold or gemstones & press your own apple cider, just as folks did in the 'old days'. The sluicing was very fascinating to the girls...they found not only gemstones, but arrowheads, fossils and bits of old pottery from native Americans. They got to drink the very own cider that they pressed, which was pretty cool them & also pretty tasty. They had a blast.

Hamsters!

Lola was able to take home the class pet this weekend...he is a hamster named Stormy. Very cute little thing. Lola was so beyond excited! But we learned that we really didn't know anything about hamsters...we have a guinea pig & dogs, but have never had a hamster. I took the opportunity to do to a project with Lola about hamsters. We looked up info on the internet and she wrote down the new facts she had learned and drew a picture of Stormy. The girls had a blast with him. In retrospect, hamsters seems much easier to take care of then guinea pigs, I kind of wish I would have known that! :/ (just kidding, we love our guinea pig.)

Bontannical Gardens

We are so lucky to have a place like this within a decent drive. It is amazing beyond words, I wish I could explain. The kids can literally play here for hours without a single complaint or whine. There is so much for them to see and do. We had a very memorable afternoon here and managed to sneak in a little learning too.

Farmer's Market

A great trip to make with kids. I gave Lola $6 and a shopping bag. I let her pick and choose the items that she wanted to buy and encouraged her to count her money & change. She needed my help, but she ended up spending the whole $6 and had a great experience chatting with the farmers and tasting the produce samples.

Museum of Man

Lola loves this museum. Downstairs is an amazing Mayan exhibition, but it's upstairs is really where it's as far as she's concerned. Besides the really neat primate exhibition, human evolution exhibition, *real mummies*, there's the Egyptian dress-up/playroom. We save this part for last because it's Lola favorite part. She will play here for hours (if I would let her!). Here is photo of her dressed up and playing on the boat in the playroom, after a great tour of the museum.