Fall Leaves

It's seems like fall was a bit late coming this year. Even though we're only 2 days away from December, we still haven't had many consecutive days of cold weather. Unfortunately, the random bits of cold weather in conjunction with the heavy rains made for a short amount of tim to enjoy the beautiful leaves changing colors and left piles of dead leaves on the ground.

The kids and I spent some time last week raking leaves and they enjoyed getting to play in the piles of them that we made on the front lawn. Harbin and Catherine also enjoyed walking through the backyard hunting for acorns. As part of our homeschool art lesson, we painted with acorns. I was pretty proud of my ingenius idea (if it's already been thought of, please just let me think it was my idea). We put a piece of construction paper on a cookie sheet. Then we rolled the acorns in paint and the kids rolled them around the cookie sheet. It made some pretty neat pictures and entertained the kids WAY longer than I thought!!!

Anyways, enjoy the pics of the kids outside, since as the weather gets cooler and the days get shorter we will spend less and less time out there!!

The mom.

Free Fallin'...Now they're Free Fallin'

Scott and his brother Skylar are exactly 2 days shy of 10 years apart. They have grown up celebrating their Nov. 3rd and Nov. 5th birthday together and had vowed to go skydiving for Skylar's 18th birthday. Well, last year, Skylar turned 18, but neither Scott nor Skylar had the Skydiving funds.

So, this year they decided to fulfill their promise to one another and went skydiving 2 days before Skylar's 19th birthday.

We drove out to a small town near here, called Monroe, and arrived at the skydiving place- greeted by about 6 or so parachutes coming out of the sky. The day was beautiful and the guys were super excited about their jump.

We all went into the tandem training room to fill out paperwork and watch the "you can't sue me for ANY reason" video. Lydia was hilarious- when the lady asked who was jumping, she just raised her hand high and said "ME!"- the scary thing is she probably would jump!!!

Anyways, after the video and paperwork, we went back out into the airport hanger area and realized they had halted jumping because of the could cover. Something about it being too dangerous to jump through clouds because low flying planes and gliders couldn't see you when you immersed from the clouds.

We waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. THREE hours total we waited. The kids did really well and enjoyed watching the gliders get pulled up into the sky and then soar back down and land.

Finally the boys geared up and loaded the plane to jump. I guess they were sure about it at this point since they had 3 hours to change their minds. They were both jumping tandem with another instructor and you can see the pics of the instructor giving them last minute reminders on what to do in the air.

Both of them landed safely and I think they had a great time. Scott said that it was a blast but compared it to sledding saying it was a lot of work for just a short moment of fun. They seem to be excited to have done it, but I don't know that they will become "regulars" in the sky.

That's all for now... more in a few days.
The mom.

A Duck, a Pig, and a Pirate

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Lydia went as a duck (thanks Kassi for loaning me the cute costume). Catherine decided she wanted to be a pig, so I decided she could be kind of like Miss Piggy and I made her a tutu and a pig nose and ears. Harbin wanted to be a pirate and he had a great Jack Sparrow costume in his dress up box.

Before Halloween, we spent a homeschool unit on Fall, where we studied some things like spiders and pumpkins. To wrap up the unit, Harbin and I made a spider cake and we did a pumpkin lab. The spider cake turned out great, the pumpkin lab not so much. We were supposed to weigh the pumpkins, then count the seeds in them. He got tired of counting, so I ended up forcing him to help me count amost 300 seeds in each of the 4 pumpkins. Next year, I guess we will get a group of kids together, so we each only have to count for one pumpkin.

Halloween night, the kids dressed up and we went to a Trunk or Treat at a local church. It was raining pretty badly, so we just let the kids play inside. Harbin was excited that they had a treasure map and he could go around and play games to get his map stamped. After 8 stamps he was able to get a prize. He chose a beany baby frog named Prince. He told us it was a Red-eyed Tree frog.

When we got home, we carved pumpkins. Derek and Jamie joined us, athough it was mostly me, Jamie and the kids carving- the boys were watching football. Catherine got attitude, so she had to go to bed, but the next morning she was able to carve her princess. Harbin carved a "smirk". Jamie carved a cat on Lydia's pumpkin but it came out with only a small piece connecting it to the pumpkin and as soon as Lydia awoke the next morning, she pulled it off.

I have attached a link to the pictures on the right.
Enjoy!
The mom.

Imagine It

As part of homeschooling this year, we have started attending some field trips with other homeschoolers. This last week we went to the Homeschool Day at Imagine It, which is the Children's Museum here in Atlanta. We decided on this day because it was the Curious George exhibit and the theme was "Let's Get Curious."

We met up with our good friends, Joanie, Sam and Sarah, as well as Lolly, Aunt Crickett, and Uncle Alex. The program started with a cute musical that incorporated songs, dancing, and even some children volunteers. After the musical, we headed to the classrooms, where Harbin participated in a Math class and a Science class. They did hands-on activities that were for preK to 2nd graders. In math, he learned about probablility by using colored M&M's. In science, they talked about vibrations and even got to make string telephones.

After the classes, the kids got free reign of all the activities the museum had to offer. They loved getting to explore. Lydia especially liked the water table where she got to "fish" for different animals. Catherine liked to play "Grocery store" and you can see in the pics, she found some new friends who wanted to play with her. Harbin ran from one thing to another and enjoyed all the activities.

The whole day was wonderful (well except for the very wet walk back to the car). I recommend the museum to all my friend with small children. They had plenty for all three of my kids to do and the actual museum isn't so large, so I was able to let them wander a bit and didn't worry about it.

Check back soon for more field trip recaps. We are headed to the zoo this week which should also prove to be super fun!

The mom.
PS- Take note of the REALLY GOOD pic I got of ALL 3 of my kiddos!