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!

Crossing the Delaware

Since we read several books about Independence Day and Washington Crossing the Delaware this summer, we decided to take the girls to Washington Crossing Park to see where Washington actually crossed.

Family Field Trip!

Since Matt's mom is visiting and we have been so busy lately, Matt took the day off and we headed to Cape May, NJ yesterday for a family field trip. It was a wonderful day! We started out at Cape May Point State Park and hiked onto the beach for a picnic lunch. After playing for a while, we took the yellow nature trail through the marsh and wetlands to explore a bit. I would love to come back again when it is a bit cooler - there are so many birds to see! We admired the lighthouse but opted not to climb it - 199 steps each way and $7 per adult - seems a bit high to pay that much for hard exercise!
We headed into the town area afterwards and walked around the shops and a small flea market. After a snack of yummy ice cream, we parked the car in the shade so Matt could nap a bit, and the girls and I sat on our picnic blanket and read a book together.
We drove around a bit to explore and admire all the beautiful houses in town, then we picked up a pizza and headed back to the state park to sit and eat dinner. It was a perfect dinner setting - cool but not too cold, clear, the sound of water and breezes blowing through tall grasses.....
After dinner, we visited Sunset Beach so the kids could pick up rocks (it is covered with rocks, small smooth stones). Liam actually enjoyed this part (as you can imagine, since he could pick up rocks and throw them into the water to his heart's content). There were lots of dolphins, some of them right off the shore, so we sat and enjoyed watching them for quite a while before packing up to head home.
Then, we slept really well! :)

Camp!

The girls thoroughly enjoyed their week of Makin' Music summer camp last week. It was titled "America Sings," so we have had girls marching around singing "You're a Grand Old Flag" and "This Land is Your Land"all week and since. It is always fun to take them back and see everyone there - Matt said it is like going back to see family, in a sense, since we spent several years working with all of them.

They did a great job in the camp show! This year, they had the kids sing with just guitar for accompaniment (in the past they have used the soundtracks), and the kids sang GREAT! It is pretty amazing, when you think about it, that they can learn and memorize that many songs in one week!

Large group song

Just the older kids

After the show, we headed to Rita's for our traditional after-show treats. Darsie's eyes lit up at the icecream cone with sprinkles on it, though I think she wore more of it than probably got into her mouth! I dont' have any pictures of Katy because she informed us as we pulled into Rita's that she needed to go potty (we had already asked as we left Makin Music), so Matt had to take her to Wawa for a pit stop. Anyway, enjoy!