Today was “Apple Day” at our friend Amy’s house. We missed it last year so we were glad we got to go this year.. an added perk is the weather was just amazing for mid October!

Amy has a great backyard complete with a hiking trail and mountain stream.. the kids love it there!

Amy has a cider press so we got to bring apples and make cider..of course only Taejan had any interest..the other 2 were too busy playing with their friends ( they are so anti-social and shy..lol)

There were lots of Apple activities and snacks too..the kids loved it!

The kids also got an upclose and personal look at a duck( can’t remember what kind it is)..Cal(Amy’s oldest) and his Dad went hunting ( Cal tagged along I should say) and they came home with this!

Thanks again Amy for the great morning! Oh I also found out that the dad of 2 of the kids ( mom is Megan) is Noah’s History Teacher..how cool is that?

Well our Homeschooling group took a wonderful field trip today to High Lawn Farm. I am so grateful to Amy for setting this up! We had a HUGE turnout.. in fact the gentlemen showing us around said it was the biggest group he’s had! I wish we had been able to snag a pictures of everyone in one spot..LOL

We got to see baby calves..some only days old!

We got to see where they milk the cows:

and of course COWS! Taejan’s fave part of course was “Lots and lots of cows pooped mommy”..rofl

There’s Declan and his best buddy Brock(Ziah is there too with the Pony O’s on):

Some of the moms that were there..I am so glad we had such a HUGE turnout..It was great!

We got to see the storage containers for the milk and ask questions and such:

My “Bookends”:

cheesy smiles!

After the tour they gave everyone Chocolate milk..it was YUMMY!

of course Taejan found a  puddle right before we left… He was SOAKED>.LOL..

this was such a nice way to spend the morning! It’s probably the last big get together for the year, I hope we can do more real field trips “next year”!!!

Today was the last travel day of the year with our Homeschool group..it was my turn to “teach” it and I tell ya I had a blast setting all this up! I warned the parents it’d be messy and have some sugar involved..LOL

Here’s all the experiments before the kids got there!

Out in Nancy’s barn we had:

Chip Mining: The object was to use 2 toothpicks and “mine” out the chocolate chips..trying to get them out perfect.

Sugar Caves: Object was to build a structure out of sugar cubes, cover with clay ,poke holes in the clay and use the water to watch the way water erodes rock to form caves.

Our Volcano..I made this with playdoh..that was a trip..LOL.. object is pretty self explanitory!

Erosion: object is to fill the pan with sand, add some “sticks” and water with the watering can to watch erosion first hand:

The Sky is Falling!~ object..fill pan with flour, add houses and cars. Now drop salt, then a rock then a golf ball into the pan.. see what damage is done by small meteorites,larger ones and really big ones!

Inside we had:

various coloring and activity sheets:

Plate Tectonics..object..move the graham crackers around on top of the frosting to simulate magma and plate movement.

Earthquake zone:Shows how a seismograph works.

And lastly..Make a Mini Model of the Earth. Object..use either a blow pop or a Tootsie pop ,a marshmallow and chocolate to recreate the inner core, outer core ,mantle and crust of the earth.

I lost track of how many kids we had there..but it was a LOT.. it was so fun to watch them!!

Let the fun begin! Here’s Declan and the Tectonic Plates:

Volcano fun

Chip mining anyone?

Sugar caves!

Declan making the sky fall!

The group!

Missy doing the Erosion activity!

More of the group:

Mini Earth anyone? Yummy!

More fun!

This was such a fun day for the kids.and me..LOL.. I had a blast setting all this up and I hope the kids truly enjoyed it!

Today was Noah’s last American Culture class and since Ziah still has the cold I opted to bring all the kids rather than do the drive back n forth twice thing. So while Noah was in his class we took advantage of a chilly yet beautiful day in the country!

Right across from the house Noah’s class is at is this amazing home with cows in the front lawn..LOL… we loved it!

we walked up the road a bit to see the horses at another farm:

we got back just in time for Noah’s presentation on Food of the 1900’s:

setting up:

talking away…

he did a really good job and I am VERY proud of him!!

Here’s most of the kids from the class all working on a game they play about US Culture in the 1900’s:

Noah will miss all the rest of the kids presentations as he’ll be in Michigan..but as soon as he gets back he starts volunteering with the couple that hosted the class at the local college’s Theater building sets and being a stage hand for their production of OLIVER!. He’s excited!

Today was our HSing groups monthly Let’s Travel day.. we went to Japan and the kids had a blast. They made fish, ate seaweed, spoke Japanese..and of course played.. there was like 28 kids and 7 moms? It was unreal fun though!

The Littles playing!

Some of the moms!

Let’s learn!

More Littles playing:

Chopsticks and rice! Personally I think we need to have Chopsticks at EVERY one of our get together’s!

the 3 musketeers  .. can you guess which one got a window open??Mine of course! He may be the smallest but don’t under estimate him!

Declan and Olivia.. I think they still had some Tournament spunk in them!

oh and somehow I went to Nancy’s with 4 kids and left with 3!! Hum…. Thanks to Melissa my daughter got so have a great afternoon and a much needed break from her brother’s!

Declan and I took advantage though and did a done of schooling!!!