The Orphan Train

While driving home from visiting my sister, I saw a sign for the Orphan Train Museum. It caught my attention since we are currently studying the 18th century and decided to stop and take a break.

 
The museum ended up being closed for lunch when we stopped, but it was nice to take a quick break and look around outside.

Here's a link if you want to read a little on the history of the orphan train.  http://orphantraindepot.com/OrphanTrainHistory.html

Spring break

The kids and I came up to visit my sister and family during spring break.  It has been pretty rainy, but we finally had a nice day to play outside.

Here's cousin Katie with the daffodils.

Joanna, Caleb, Eliana, Karis and cousin Mark

Asked Eliana if she wanted to go to Sonic for a slushy...

Guess she wants to go!

Finally

The kids have been waiting for snow!  We were beginning to wonder if it was going to be a winter with no snow!  As Karis was looking out at the snow, she said "Yay, now it's Christmas!"

  We didn't get much, but they are loving it.  Karis could not wait to go out and did not think she needed a coat or gloves. 

Happy 2012!

Happy New Year! 

I printed off this printable for the kids to fill out.  It will be fun for them to read again in future years. 

 

This is Karis'.  She said her favorite Christmas gift was lip gloss and I'd definitely agree.

Below are just a few shots of the other kids questions.

Joanna is almost taller than me.  She can't wait to pass me up.

 

I'll go to Hawaii!

The Bean Skit

Eliana, Joanna, Cousin Sam, Aunt Sharon, & Caleb put on a skit for the whole family.  It was pretty funny!

For a very professional video with excellent lighting, great sound, no children talking in the background and absolutely no children kicking the videographer, watch the video below!  Enjoy.

Decorating the tree

Many hands make light work.

Pile on

Pile of kids with cousin Sam too!

Grandma & Grandpa Christmas dolls

Great Grandma H just sent the girls these dolls all dressed up for Christmas.

Pumpkin Patch Fun

We enjoyed a beautiful day at the pumpkin patch!

Going on a ride to pick out a pumpkin is always great fun!

The kids enjoyed all the activities at the pumpkin patch.  Too many to mention them all, but I think the "Boo Mountain" slide was definitely a favorite.  Karis & I even took a couple fast trips down.

Tractor girl

My kids can't resist trying out all the tractors on display at the

home improvement store.

Karis is no exception.

Walk, ride or ripstick

 

1st Night

of Awana and the only year they will all be clubbers together.

Finishing the salt maps

The kids donned their paint shirts and painted their salt maps.

They look pretty good don't they!

Quill pens

The kids made their own quill pens with their homeschool group. 

Joanna getting her quill ready by stripping away some of the plume.
The kids then shaped the nib which was harder than it looked. It probably would have helped to have better knives!

They got to practice writing with their pens.

This was a project the girls especially liked!

Imaginary Places

The kids made salt maps of an imaginary place.  They created their maps while using various geographic terms.

Caleb's map includes, among other features, a mountain range, a precipice, a fjord, a delta, an estuary, and a canal. 

Eliana's map includes an island, a bay, a port, a river, a fall line, a tributary, an arroyo, and an isthmus.

Joanna's has a peninsula, a plateau, a summit, a cataract, a glacier, a mesa, and an archipelago. 

We'll let them dry and they'll be able to paint them next week.

Chocolate

We went on a little tour of where they make chocolate for a local artisan chocolate shop.  Can you imagine the smell that greeted us as we walked in?  First thing Karis said to me was, "I'm hungry!"  and she didn't let us forget it until we got a yummy sample.

 Look at the yummy chocolate!

 We had to walk by this tray of pretty chocolates and say mmm.

 They use these big bars of chocolate from Belgium.

Fresh-made marshmallows with chocolate drizzled on top just for us.

 Karis finally got her chocolate.

 Yep, it's very, very good.

 Lots of chocolate being tempered and ready to use!

Smooth and creamy. I think this one held 60 lbs of chocolate!

Outdoor fun

We headed to a park with some friends and enjoyed the playground and sprinklers today!

Eliana is getting ready to join the other kids!

Karis loves the face stick.  She gets the sunscreen on nice and thick.

 
Karis really liked this huge dog that walked by.

Post camp catch-up

Joanna and Caleb had a great time at camp. The kids were all excited

to catch up when we picked them up today.

What makes everyone happy...

...when you've been in the car for over 60 hours in the past 2 weeks?

You stop for an ice cream cone at McDonalds!
***Happy cheers all around ***

What makes everyone unhappy?
 You tell everyone that we're going to stop for an ice cream cone at McDonalds and they tell you that the machine isn't working! 
Yeah, not good.

Creation Museum

A lot of us took a trip down to visit the Creation Museum.

It was fun until
we all turned and saw a dinosaur coming after us!!

We survived and no one was harmed in the taking of these pictures.

 Aunt Sharon & Joanna in front of the Burning Tree Mastodon display.
We saw a planetarium show which was narrated by the voice of Mr. Whitaker from Adventures in Odyssey which my kids thought was pretty cool.  We got a glimpse of how big our universe is, how small we are, and all of it was planned.

 Joel & Karis checking out the dinosaur.  The little kids loved the animatronic displays of dinosaurs and scenes from the Bible.

 Caleb & Eliana

 Caleb

 Caleb by the Noah's Ark display.

  Working on the ark

 Joanna & Caleb

 Noah answering Joanna & Aunt Sharon's questions.

 A model of what the inside of the ark might have looked like.

 Grandfather & Karis checking out a display.

The museum has beautiful grounds to walk around.

 Lily, my cousin's daughter.

 Eliana on the shaky, bouncy bridge.  All the kids enjoyed the bridge.

 They had a little petting zoo and Karis went to pet the turtle.

 Karis found a big rock in a pretty area and asked me to take her picture.

After a walk on the grounds and picnic lunch, we went back inside to see more dinosaurs.

Joanna and Eliana had a run in...

...and Grandfather saved the day.

 The little girls really enjoyed the dinosaurs!