Austronaut food

When we were at the Naval Aviation Museum in February, I bought a package of astronaut food. It was an ice cream sandwich. I had been told that it was "the best of this kind of food." I will never be an astronaut; if only cuz the food is so NOT good. Interesting yes. Good no. It's free dried so kind of "rehydrates" on your tongue.

Here is K pretending to like it.

C's face tells more of the true story.

It was an experience. But I sure do feel sorry for those astronauts.

Honey Bee Farm

A friend from another church set up a field trip to a "local" honey bee farm. Not very local for me; it took me at least an hour to get there. I thought the tour was so interesting, but then again, I love honey! I think the kids liked it OK. They at least learned something out of it. We learned about the different types of bees (queen, workers, and drones) and the different types of workers (there are 4). We learned why smoke works to calm them down. We learned that bee keeper suits are NOT "sting-proof." Interesting.

The kids got to make a bees wax candle and I filled up a honey bear. YUMMO. I also bought some honey teryaki marinade. I can eat that stuff straight out of the bottle.

After the tour, we went to a park and ate lunch together. It was hard to get them to eat lunch since the kids only wanted to play on the park. It was a long day but tons of fun.

Good 'ole fashioned field day

Aunt T organized a field day for a bunch of homeschoolers on May 6th. It was a beautiful day! I ended up with burnt nose. C got a nice tan (lucky). K got a little burnt on her shoulders.

It started at 9:30 but we left the house at 8:30 to get ice and drinks. (We didn't get back to the house until 3pm). I think there were 15 kids that participated, 5 little ones, and 6 moms. Here are all the kids, except for the little ones. I think we had a pretty good turn out.

C getting ready for the obstacle course. They had to ride a tricycle, do jumping jacks, do forward rolls, jump over some orange cones, and run to the end.

Here is K's version of jumping jacks. Too funny.

I think the tug of war was the best game of the day. The kids did a really good job at it.

I call this the balloon dance. Each kid had a balloon tied to their foot. The goal was to protect their balloon while trying to pop everyone else's. C was one of the last 3 left standing.

this is K trying the sack race. She had such a hard time. The sack was bigger than her!

And there goes C in the sack race!

This was the water balloon fight (FYI: I filled the water balloons that morning. OMG! They are not easy) C won! He never dropped the balloon! Good hands!

This is K and the little guy I used to babysit doing the 3-legged race. (Funny side note: when Aunt T was setting this up, she kept calling it the one legged race. HUH?)
Aunt T even had medals for each kid. C getting his medal.

K getting her medal

After lunch and all the games, the kids went across the street and played on the playground. It was a very busy playground by that time.

All in all I think it was a very fun day. I was tired. The kids, well, do they every get tired?

Lions and tigers and bears! Oh my!

Last Friday we went to the zoo for a "field trip." Daddy was able to take the day off work and come with us. We had such a nice time! We were able to see everything we wanted to; we weren't rushed; we got to see the dolphin show and an elephant show; we saw a lot of animals; we all got to touch a shark; we saw a purple tongued lizard; it wasn't too hot; we had a picnic lunch; and even had ice cream! It was a good time!

And here are some pictures to prove that we had a good day! Enjoy!

These pictures are in backward chronological order. For some reason, blogger won't let me move them---again!
As part of the zoo admission, we were able to get into the gardens and butterfly house that are next door. The gardens are beautiful! Daddy has actually taped 2 weddings there. The butterfly house was really cool. There were many kinds and colors of butterflies in there. Daddy tried to get a picture but its wings were too fast.

C actually took this picture. Not bad.

Isn't this cute? Wish they were always this love-y.

We took Flat Stanley with us. And we currently have company--meet Flat Grover. He belongs to the sister of a friend. We have traded "Flats." Kinda cool.

This is how tall K is in "hands." We actually measured her the other day and she is 37 inches.

Here is C's measurement in hands. He is actually 47 1/2 inches tall. He will be tall enough for most of the rides at Disney. Whew!

The kids got to touch a cockroach. Now, why in the world they had them to "pet" I'll never know. Where I used to lived, we killed them!! Now granted this was a hissing cockroach (that makes it better?!?!), but I would have no part in it. They can pet away. I stayed far away.

One of the main reasons I wanted to go before Labor Day was the special exhibit going on. They had 2 komodo dragons on loan from the Denver zoo. (A friend's 6 year old was convinced they would be gigantic and fire-breathing). C said later that he thought they would be bigger-like on TV. Reality vs TV. Hmmmm. Thought we had talked about that. For being lizards, I thought they were huge. And they looked really scaly. According to the information, they are very mean to anything, even one of their own--adult or their own off spring.

I thought they were really cool. The 2 that they have are kept separate. It they are together, they will fight to the death.

The kids got to fee the giraffe. $1 for one slice of sweet potato. Oh well. They thought it was cool.

Their tongues are really long and kinda purple in color.

C was pretending the huge snake was attacking him. Crazy boy! I think every time we go to the zoo, we take the kids picture on this snake.

This was meerkat manor. These are funny and interesting animals to watch.

K girl before the dolphin show started.

The zoo has a lot of "statues" of animals all over to take pictures with. Here are 2 cute kiddies and a walrus.

And there you have it. Our fun trip to the zoo.

Airport Field Trip

Monday March 16th, we went on another field trip. This one was to a little, local airport. It's only a one-runway airport and is used mainly for locals and their private planes. When I set it up, my contact said that there wouldn't be much to cover for this age group. He said it would last about 20 minutes. But since it was free and wasn't too far away, I was OK with that.

Two other moms and their 3 kids met us there Monday morning. We started out watching a short video about the shuttle that had been launched by NASA the night before. Then we went out to the edge of the runway. He showed us the snow truck and explained some of its equipment. Then the kids actually got to get in a small airplane and look at all the controls. He explained a few things there and then we took a tour of the runways. We got in one of the airport trucks and rode out on the runway while he explained the lights and lines used for landings and take-offs. Then we drove to a hanger where an older gentleman was waiting to show us his plane. He had built this plane by himself! It took him about 4 years. We asked a few questions there and then went back to the office. He had goodies for the kids: a bouncy ball, a Frisbee, a Styrofoam plane, and some color sheets. All in all we were there almost an hour. The kids loved it! He might not have covered some of the technical stuff (we didn't even see the "control tower"), but the kids were able to get in a plane and that made it all worth it! The tour guide did an awesome job! I would definately go again--maybe in a year or two and we can take the "more technical" tour.

Catch-up

It's been a few days and a few things have happened so I need to play catch-up.

C used to do his school upstairs in our room every day. Due to some very poor choices on his part (loooong stories), for the next few weeks he has to do school downstairs in the living room where I can keep a close eye on him. He'll be down here until he can prove that we can trust him upstairs by himself. Needless to say, it has been hard to keep K from bugging him or being too loud, etc. School just got harder for me. All this happened Thursday and Friday of last week. So all that to say, I haven't had as much computer time cuz I'm trying to entertain K.

Last Saturday we took the kids to the "big" park and played for awhile. We took a walk on one of the nature trails and the kids collected leaves to bring home. That afternoon I put out all my fall decorations and used the leaves as fillers. I think it looks nice.

Sunday was church. Monday was Wal-Mart day. Tuesday we did a little bit of nothing around here.

Wednesday we had a field trip planned for a local apple orchard. We were going to take a tour of the orchard and the barn and the kids were going to get to pick an apple. Then we were going to have a picnic lunch and then do a hayride to the pumpkin patch where the kids were going to get to pick a pumpkin. Well, it rained so we had to cancel the field trip. Since my kids were already dressed for the outside and I had the lunch packed, we went back to the same "big" park and met some friends and played for a little. All the slides were VERY wet and it was a little cool, but I think they had fun anyway. It was nice to get out of the house. I'm going to try to re-schedule the field trip for later.

Thursday was my birthday. Yeah! My brother sent me an e-card that said "Happy Sweet Sixteen or multiple thereof" Exactly. We had Panera bagels for breakfast and went to McAlister's for lunch. Dinner was at Red Robin and then we went shopping for a little. I had opened presents Wednesday night after AWANA cuz we weren't sure how long we would be out shopping. My biggest present every year is the ESPN college football game plan so we can watch FSU play more often. Then the kids got me a new book (K.Kingsbury's Sunset), a new CD (Casting Crowns) and a fall-smelling candle. The book was good, I really like the CD, and the candle smells yummy! After we shopped, we came home and had some birthday cookie. I ate WAY too much yesterday! Oh well. Your birthday only comes once a year.

Today I must do some cleaning. Kinda slow going when your 2 year old wants to help and you have to keep a close eye on your 5 year old. Oh well. It's Friday!