More Tyler Fun

We have enjoyed several more fine trips to Tyler Arboretum in the last week. It really is such a great place to just be outside! We took a scavenger hunt with nature journals in hand last week to look for clues that fall is coming. We also took Matt to see the tree houses before they are closed (and dismantled) for the season. We visited again today to explore and play.


Not too scary-looking from here, huh?

How about now? It only took them two or three visits before they got up the courage to venture up. Today, they loved it!


A fun area where you can make pictures or build with different pieces of wood, sticks, pine cones,...

Liam got into it today, making a tower and other things...

Of course, I had to play, too...

Something Old, Something New.....?

We even had a short history lesson while we were at Grandmother's house.......

Our Vacation: Entry 1

In an attempt to actually update this blog, here are some shots from our vacation last month.

It was hot in the south! Hot! No other word to describe it! Hot! Not that I should have been surprised - I grew up there. But we have obviously been spoiled up here this summer, and it was HOT there! So, we did lots of hot weather things, like swim and play wii and swim and play some more wii and swim and visit playgrounds (did I mention that it was hot?!) and jog (again, hot!). Well, at some point we were trying to figure out what to do that might be inside, and we came up with the idea of touring Mayfield Dairy. We have always passed the sign on the highway driving to and from Atlanta, so we thought we would give it a shot. My sister-in-law, Sarah, was gracious enough to brave the unknown with us, so we set out....

Biggest cow we had ever seen.....
It provided great entertainment for the kids until it was time for our tour to begin...

We watched a short movie about Mayfield Dairy and their products, and then we got to tour the facility. The one we toured processes and bottles milk (too bad it wasn't the ice cream one!), so we saw the process from beginning to end. The girls were the most impressed with the machine that was bottling strawberry milk at the time we were there. Lots of pink foam everywhere! They have some pretty impressive technology, and their milk is really pretty yummy, so it was fun. I have to say, though, that I think the highlight for most everyone was the $1.50 (biggest you've ever seen!) one scoop of ice cream we got at the end of the tour!

Our tour attire. Katy almost didn't make it - we had to do some serious and quick negotiating when they announced the hairnets beforehand! :)

We Finally Joined!

After saying we were going to join for over a year now, we finally joined Tyler Arboretum this week! So, our first nature walk of the school year took place yesterday, as we set out to visit the treehouse exhibit. Here are some pictures to share our outing.......












Another cool thing is that, with our membership, we also enjoy reciprocal deals with other nature areas around the country, and some are in the Atlanta area! So, the next time we're down, we get to go exploring!

First Day of School!

I'm going to try to catch up now that we're back from vacation and I'm actually feeling human again. :)
Yesterday was our official first day of school. We have actually already logged several weeks worth over the summer, but this marks the start of our official schedule, adding math and language arts to what we have already been doing. So, yesterday we oohed and aahed over school supplies, looked at books and workbooks, decorated things to use over the year, and generally piqued their interest enough that they were begging to actually start in yesterday on everything! (I think the biggest draw, however, is the 15 minutes each of computer time I've worked into their schedules - they love playing games on the computer and now they get to do it every day!). Anyway, today we dive in full tilt, so we'll see how the schedule that looks so good on paper actually works in real life! You can pray for our family as we adjust to a new schedule for the school year!