One BUSY Day!!

Here they are outside the planetarium at IRSC. We went with our homeschool group to see the show Trip into Space. It was very cool!! Bryce and Caitlan were interested in the whole show, but Taylor wasn't very fond of being in the dark for so long.

They like being at this college because they know this is where I went to school to be a nurse.

Checking out all the astronomy stuff.

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Next we went to the Manatee Viewing Center on the river. It has been usually cool here so I thought there would be a good chance of seeing a manatee or two, but no such luck. We did however strike up a brief conversation with a fisherman who was using mullet as bait. Taylor informed him that the fish he was catching (the mullet) were swimming in school (school of fish).

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We still weren't ready to go home so we drove over the bridge to the St Lucie County Historical Museum. At this museum there is a lot of local history. I went to this museum when I was in Elementary school.

Bryce showing off the "little cannon".

The kids really liked this exhibit, where the family lived in a one room house. They couldn't believe that they had to eat, sleep and work all in one room.

I really thought this was a cute picture. That's just Taylor being Taylor!

Here this nice lady was teaching us about the "ice box". She said every few days the ice man would bring in ice with the "pointy tongs" (my words not hers). The family would have turned that yellow sign on the wall to the number of pounds of ice they wanted for that delivery. This is how food was kept cool before electricity. However, sometimes not cool enough and people ended up with food poisoning quite often.

Five in a Row

So we started our new curriculum this week. We had so much fun. We read the book The Glorious Flight by Alice and Martin Provensen. It's about an aviator from the early 1900's who like in France and after many tries (and many planes) he flew over the The English Channel.

One day this week we learned about the foods that people from France might eat, such as baguettes. We went to Panera Bread and had an Asiago baguette and tea then we had a cherry pastry (suggested by Caitlan). They had such a good time.

During one of our errand runs, I caught the girls running pretending to be airplanes.

Happy Halloween

Here are the pumpkins we decorated. We (I) usually carve our pumpkins, something that I really enjoy but the kids don't like to get their hands icky. So, this year I decided to let them decorate their pumpkins from the farm (they last much longer this way, too).
Here are the kids all dressed up to go trick or treating. Caitlan is Hannah Montana, Bryce is Indiana Jones and Taylor is a Fairy Princess. Bryce really likes his whip, it makes real whip sounds and plays the Indiana Jones theme song.

Ok, so we totally cheated this year. Uncle Billy brought over a golf cart. Every year we make it a few streets away and then it pour and the kids come back with their costumes soaked and their candy all wet. This year we not only got out before dark but we also got to ride the golf cart. It rained about 6pm. All of us piled on the golf cart (Billy, Ashley, Kylie, Mom, Tommy, all 3 of our kids and me) and went back home. What I wouldn't do for a picture of all of us on the golf cart. We were back out trick or treating within minutes (I love Florida's weather).

This is what we saw before the rain came down. God's promise. It was beautiful...and in about five minutes it was pour big fat cold rain drops.

Imagination + Pretend Play = LOTS OF FUN!

Today we had Kenneth over. He and Taylor had a great time playing with a sheet and an umbrella. They would pretend to be sleeping and then "wake up" saying "it's raining" and get up and go walking in the rain with their umbrella. I loved just sitting around listening to their conversations.














Then there is Caitlan who really enjoys playing alone. She will play with Taylor for a while and then come to me asking for some time alone. How mature of her! Today she was (as usual) playing with her horses. She will find anything to make bridles, reigns and saddles for them. She's had the horse in this picture for sometime now. She has tried to ride him, cut his mane, braided and unbraided his tail about 100 times, took him swimming (where we learned that he can't swim) and he is still one of her favorite horses. She keeps asking me for a "real live horse"....one day little girl, one day!

Green Meadows = Family Time

Last Thursday we went to Kissimmee to Green Meadows Farm with our homeschool group. Caitlan and I had been twice before, but we were still very excited to show the rest of the family. It was really fun to have Daddy with us this time. We spent the morning looking at animals, then we took a train ride, more animals, a hay ride, we all got to pick a pumpkin and the we ate lunch together.

Maybe next year we can take Kensie, Anthony, Kenneth and Kylie with us!

Shhh...the baby chick is sleeping!

Here the kids are milking "Sweet Lips".

These girls aren't scared of anything...they both caught chickens on their own.

And here we are with our pumpkins...