Botanical Gardens

Earlier this week, a friend from MOPS, Liz, invited me to bring the kids to the Botanical Gardens.  I have heard a lot of friends talk about this place but always thought, "what's the big deal...it's a place with a bunch of plants". haha

It actually was very beautiful.

very peaceful.

and very fun for the kids.

We did not see the entire thing...we basically hung out in the children's area, which was so much fun!  They have a large, contained butterfly garden.  All three were excited to be in there. 

But, Nathan and Hannah enjoyed it the most.  

Nathan, I'm sure, wanted to catch a butterfly and crush it in his hands...Hannah was desperate for one to land on her finger.  None did (mostly because she was running around chasing the poor things).  She did touch one though and squealed with delight.

They also had several small garden areas for the children to play in.  One had a little house, complete with a table and brooms to sweep the house with. 

They also had water pitchers to water the flower with. 

And, the only way to get water was from a pump....not from a faucet, so that was great fun.

Everything was cut really low for the children. There were arches to play under, plants to water, items to find, and floors to sweep. 

We also found a "tree house" (except it wasn't in a tree).

And we spent some time playing in the water area.  All three are maniacs in the water. Even Nathan was sticking his head, face first into the water spouts.  After about 20 minutes, he finally crashed, and found a place by a rock and just sat alone for a few minutes. Wish I had a picture of that.

It was a very enjoyable morning/afternoon.  Thanks for inviting us Liz...we'll have to do it again sometime.

Train them up

I believe in training my children early

 Actually, Nate always sees his sisters helping me, and he voluntarily helped me unload the dishwasher the other day...while Nicole (the official dishwasher unloader) played.  

He seriously took every piece of silverware out of the dishwasher and put it on the counter for me (except of course the knives....I grabbed those first).

He is such a sweet sweet boy.  I love him so much. 

Last Day of school

The foundations group for Ft. Myers Classical Conversations

Yesterday was our last day of CC for this school year.  It was bittersweet.  Nicole really enjoys going to school every Tuesday. She always wakes up, runs out of her room and yells "It's school daaaaaayyyyyy!!!!!"

We are leaving our sweet group next year and joining a new group much closer to home.  It was a difficult decision that I labored over for nearly 2 months.  I really enjoy the people in our group but it just made more sense to be in the group that is literally minutes from our house.  And....right now, I have plans to tutor next year.  That will be exciting.

Back to yesterday.  Unlike most schools, the last day went just like normal.  We went through all of our typical schedule.  Mr. Jackson introduced new material, the kids played games and learned new movements, and we had the grande finale science experiment.

Mr. Jackson teaching the kids their science memory work

Nicole is writing a "V" for volts

Learning their history sentence

For the past three weeks, the students have been paired up and they have been working on an egg protector.  They could use up to 50 Popsicle sticks, 12 napkins, and 20 rubber bands.  As a team they came up with a plan and design to make a contraption to keep their egg from breaking when dropped from ten feet high.

Nicole and Anders working on their egg protector

 Nicole worked with a little boys named Anders in her class.  I helped guide them as they got started last week (both missed the first week of this experiment, so they had to work fast).  They built two small triangles about 5 Popsicle sticks high.  then they wrapped their egg in all of the napkins allotted to them, gently placed it between to the two triangular pieces and held the top and bottom on by a bunch of rubber bands.

Nicole and Anders

Dropping their egg from 10 feet high

Did it break?

What do you think?  Do you think their egg broke?

Patiently waiting to see if it broke

Nope...it sure didn't!  It was kept perfectly safe.

NOOO...it didn't!  They built a great protector.

They were excited!

As a reward, they got to pick a piece of candy and an Easter egg out of a gift bag (I  just want to note that I did NOT steal her candy!  I did take a bite of the chocolate bunny...but it was with her permission.  I must have a bad reputation when that is the first question the grandparents ask when they find out Nicole wins chocolate:).

We had a pot luck buffet lunch as celebration.  Then, after lunch, we were all invited to stay and listen to the older group, Essentials, do their final presentations.  Essentials is a writing program for ages 9-12.  This year, they each picked a famous person that lived during the mid-evil times, researched that person and then tried to dress like them and do a 5 minute presentation about their person.  They did a wonderful job!  I learned so much about people we mentioned in history sentences this year but did not know their story.  It was so encouraging to see these young people do such a wonderful job researching and presenting their person.

The Essentials group before their presentations

It has been a great first year of Classical Conversations.  I am happy we were able to be a part of the Ft. Myers group.  We will miss our friends our next year, however it will be exciting to make new friends again. 

Nicole's little friends- Rebecca, Abigail, Ruby and Nicole (and Banner, Ruby's brother:)

We are not finished learning though!  I am exciting for this summer. We will be finishing the My Father's World curriculum that we started in the fall but put on hold through CC time.  This will be a fun, lighthearted study that I know even Hannah will enjoy.  I hope I can write one post a week on our adventures through My Father's World.  Until then...

Grace and Peace.

Butterfly Garden

After several years of attempted vegetable gardening, it was clear that we had a black thumb and did not posses the "know how" to maintain organically.  This winter, we actually did much better growing our veggies in pots. 

So, here lay an empty and overgrown patch in our yard that was getting ready to be covered over with grass. 

Then, I started planning the summer curriculum and realized that we were doing a unit on the lifecycle of a butterfly.  What better way to learn about that, then to "hope to" lure them to our home.  We researched the best plants for our area and today we planted our butterfly garden.

We decorated it with garden accessories too.

We used milkweed...the absolute must have butterfly drawing plant, a butterfly bush, several pentas and, I forget what the yellow plants are called. 

The girls had fun clearing the vegetable garden out last weekend. 

Nathan was fascinated with the rainbow pinwheel I bought at the dollar store.

I love our little garden, it's so pretty!  It will be easier to maintain because we will use weed killer to keep the weeds at bay.  We didn't do that when gardening veggies.  We will not use pest control though because then our little caterpillars would die...and we actually want them to come eat our plants.  I hope we planted enough flowers to attract some butterflies to eat and lay eggs so we can have a real live classroom in our backyard.

A visit with the cousins

Last week, Tiffany and her family came down for a nice long visit.  I am glad it was long because we didn't get to see them the first half of their trip due to all the sickness in our household.  However, I think we more than made up for lost time!

My niece Susannah (Susie) and I.  She just turned 2 a couple of months ago. 

The kids LOVED....LOVED playing with their cousins.  Seth is 4 and Susie is 2.  Nicole and Seth played, nearly non-stop.  Hannah and Susie hung around with the bigger kids and also played together a lot.  This was such a great trip because the kids all remembered each other and felt comfortable together.  They enjoyed every moment they had together.

Gramps getting some reading time in with his grandbabies.

Hannah and Seth playing at the park

Grammy spinning the kids on the....well, whatever it is.

Nicole was laying on this couch, Set was laying on another couch and they were playing some sort of game, giggling together.  They were super cute!

Again, Nicole and Seth were playing some sort of game, this time on the floor.

Waiting for dinner, Susie joined them when she woke up

 Uncle Jeremy taught the kids a new game.  The object is to roll a quarter off your nose and make it land on the X in the middle of the page.  They worked and worked and worked at it.

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Hannah rolling her quarter

Seth rolling his quarter

 What they didn't know was that every time Jeremy was circling the quarter, graphite dust from the pencil was being drawn on the quarter. So, when they would roll it around their face and down their nose, a mark would be left.

Nicole's expression when she saw her face for the first time

Seth's dirty face

Two cousins, enjoying their game.

These two really had fun together.  They kept the markings on their face the rest of the day.

 Tiff, Grammy and the kids spent a couple of our at our house one day too.

Aunt Tiffy showing some love to Hannah girl.

Doing play doh of course

Me, reading to my nephew and daughters.  I'm not sure what Jeremy is doing.  he looks really mad.  I guess he didn't like the book.

It is so great to see that they will have memories of each other as small children, even though we only get to see them a couple times a year.