The Olympics are not just in Vancover

Ryan has been inspired by the Olympics as only Ryan can be. Homemade snowboard and skis, his brother's snowboard helmet and a carpet.!

Why do I love homeschooling

Because of mornings like this one! The other day we read the book Around The World in 80 Days for children and it inspired us to start our own journey. Ryan had a great time looking at our map of the world and pointing out where we were to go! Whew we will be busy.

We headed to the library and checked out books on Egypt,Spain,Great Britian and Ireland.

This morning we watched a PBS video called Pyramids hosted by David Macualay. It is very informative and easy to understand for kids. Some of it we learned from our Story of the World cd we have been listening to.

This inspired us to create our own pyramid. The Pharos and his queen

The tomb inside

complete with mummy
and hieroglyphics on the wall
and a sphinx guarding the tomb

We spent the entire morning learning and creating! THat is why I love homeschooling. We can complete a project from start to finish. This also inspired Ryan to head to the computer and create pyramids in photoshop and has a very cool pic started!

Just a side note - we have been working very hard this month on reading and math so this was a great break for us!

A Trip to the Dairy Farm

Yesterday Ryan, Adeline and I went on our first field trip with a group of homeschoolers here in GA. We headed out to a family owned dairy farm in Edgefield, South Carolina. It was great fun to see cows again up close again. I know that may seem like a strange statement - but those who know me understand my craziness : )

The cows seem to have plenty of room to graze.

There were quite a few calves there that day and each one was so cute.
Ryan had fun - can you tell?
This little guy is only 2 days old. He has a red mark on his head because he is boy and will be sold. It is so hard to look at this sweet little guy knowing that when he is older he will be on someone's dinner plate! The animal lover/ mom in me had a hard time with the idea that all these calves are taken away from their mother soon after they are born and are brought to these stalls where they can only see each other by sticking their heads out if tiny openings.

This little boy , only 2 days old, looked so scared - he needed his mommy. I know these animals are treated well and taken care of , and it is the business. I am sure that larger dairy operations are worse. So overall I know seeing a smaller dairy locally owned by a family is better than a mass produced one. But still...

Here is where they milk the cows. It is all computer operated (well except for the guys who put the machines on the utters). It is actually rather neat. They are able to detect any problems with the cows and correct them before the cow becomes sick or is uncomfortable.

Ryan with the other boys in the group.
a tractor ride
check out all the food to feed 200 cows.

Here is where the pasturize the milk. They only produce whole milk and it is non-homogenized. We bought a gallon and are waiting for the cream to separate to the top to make some butter. yumm.
After the tour we ate lunch in their hunting cabin. I love the wood bed. I want one in king size please.
All the kids playing tag after eating - thats Ryan in the orange
My sweet, sweet girl ! Right now she loves her mama milk, but one day she will have a taste..
of the yummy chocolate milk her brother is drinking!!

I tried turning the pic the right way, but it kept turning back. - sorry about that!

A very sick Christmas and New Years

Well our Christmas started off with Adeline having a fever 0f 102 on Christmas Eve and Christmas day! The fever finally broke but she has had a cough runny nose since and has not been feeling well. Then My mom got sick - Ryan got sick - Tony - Sage -Me and my Dad!! The entire 10 days that we have been in Florida for the holidays someone has been sick!!It was a crazy epedemic that I believe is passing except that we leave tomorrow for home. Oh well - if you have to be sick, at least it is with family!

Becasue of our sickness, I did not get any pictures of our Christmas this year. I do have a few to share though.


RYan and his cousin going for a wagon ride.

Ryan and his Grandmom working on his model car.

Tyring out a celery.

playing with cousins

Then there was New Years Eve. It is a tradition that Sage and Grandpa get lots of fireworks to light off . This year we enjoyed them early enough in the evening that the younger kids could enjoy them . Adeline liked to watch the lights.

Sage was designated fireworks lighter.

Happy New Year. I promise in 2010 to get back on track with my picture taking and blog posting!

Getting our tree

After the creek clean up (see previous post) we headed out to what appeared to be the middle of nowhere, South Carolina to find a tree farm.

We drove for quite a while down a dirt road -

Then we turned the corner and saw this beautiful, amazing site ! so many trees. We hit the jackpot. I cannot begin to tell you how happy I was to see this site. At Halloween I was so disappointed not to be able to find a farm to pick pumpkins that we never did get any - I refused to buy them at the grocery store or a parking lot.

This site more than made up for it.
And a tractor ride! This turned out to be the ferry that takes you out to the trees. Once you find your tree, you stand by it and the tractor guys comes by and cuts it down and throws it onto the back, then you hop in and it takes you back to the stand. Too cool!
So we found our tree - do you think it will fit on the tractor??
I guess we better go with this one instead.. It will fit in our house better I think. Cute !
Sorry Sage for making you climb into the sleigh - but that's what moms do : )
Adeline seemed to enjoy her first tractor ride! Don't worry baby in this family there will be many more of those!
We came home set up our tree and had a great time decorating it. I will post pics of the tree next. The ones I took came out blurry .. but here is a pic of our Fireplace mantle all decorated - too cool that we have our own fireplace mantle to decorate this year!

Adopt a Stream Reed Creek Clean Up

We heard about the Adopt a Stream clean up at Ryan's homeschool nature club. His Nature club meets at the Reed Creek Nature Center and they had their first clean up day this weekend and we headed out to help !! Boy was there a lot of trash! Some of it washed in from the creek and some of it the neighboring houses dumped things back there. Shame,shame.

We did not have any hipwaders to hop into the creek (don't worry mom the snakes are hibernating right now) so Tony improvised and used a long stick to push trash to the edge of the boardwalk

So that the boys could fish it out. Great team work boys - oh and I held the trash bag.
There were plenty of non-watery parts to clean.
We were all amazed at what was out there. Those trash cans had been thrown out there too, but they came in handy to pick up the smaller pieces of trash.
Adeline and I did our best to help out. Most of the time I was the trash spotter and bag holder - and I did a darn good job doing that!!
Adeline watched
As the boys helped to bring the trash up to the center. They did an awesome job helping out! They even had a lot of fun doing it. We found out that the Adopt a Stream program heads out to the creeks regularly and we can join them! Hurray, many naturey (is that a word) adventures to come. This Friday we will learn about amphibians and listen to frogs in the swamp. We are also going on a night walk to listen for owls. We will even be able to look for microorganisms and check the chemical levels in the creeks - good stuff!

That was not even all the trash everyone found. There were about 18 volunteers. Afterwards they had a yummy lunch for us and t-shirts!!
Ironically this sign is posted as soon as you walk to the boardwalk. I know of at least 18 people who will be abiding by that sign.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

For the first time in many, many years, we spent Thanksgiving with family. Living here in Ga, we are only 2 1/2 hours away from my Aunt and cousins and their children. It was so nice for my boys to be surrounded by so many cousins!

There were 5 boys, 4 of them all 8 and under.

Sage being the oldest "kid " there , hung out with the men watching football.

And then there were the 2 cute little girls. They had a lot of fun getting to know each other.

It was a wonderful day with family and I am thankful that they are near by.

we also were visited by my parents ... coming up next post