Preakness Balloon Festival!

Last weekend Brian & Hayden were on a road trip, so I took the rest of the kids to the Balloon Festival at Turf Valley. I was a little nervous, because the weather was threatening, and I was worried that the balloons wouldn't go up-but the weather cooperated, and they did! Yay!

 Ashlyn & Madelyn were simply thrilled with the windy bus ride to the festival!

First stop for the girls was face painting....

 Duncan and Ronan hit up the food booths. They were resourceful and pulled their money together and shared, which helped them enjoy a lot more goodies-good thinking boys.

 As soon as the girls faces were painted the first balloons started going up!

 We found a nice spot on a grassy hill and watched them launch. 

And ate our yummy food (Ashlyn's is still eating here).

The kids had a blast running around in the ballon that was set up to play in!

 Everything's funner when your in a huge balloon!

We saw a few friends there. Played in the sand, and enjoyed the evening.

About 20 minutes before the 'glow' was to start Madelyn just started melting down. She was going to pieces.  I decided that we wouldn't make it to the glow. Morgan was sad, but I explained that I would rather leave now, on a good note, after all the fun we've had then wait for the glow and have a tantrum-ing child while we wait in the line for the bus (that was sure to be LONG after the glow).

I'm glad we did.

We made it to the buses-no wait. Got on, and saw the Balloons glowing as we drove away. 

Perfect.

I heard later that the line for the buses AFTER the glow was insane.

We made the right choice.

Perfect evening. I love this event!

The Zoo!

So, after coming home late from Philadelphia the night before, I loaded another bus the next day with Ashlyn and the Kindergarteners for their Zoo trip!

(I have to admit-I was tired, and didn't really care much about the animals. But I did enjoy being with Ashlyn for the day. And the 2 other kids in my group were great-I was so thankful!)

 I thought to take this photo of them in front of the giraffe's. 

And then didn't think to take another photo the rest of the day!

 The kids thought of it for me when we came to these photo spots.

I was happy that we did get to see a lot of animals. 

I've been some years when there just wasn't many out to see.

The highlight of the day for the kids was by far the Chimpanzee's. Watching them pee and poo from the tree to be exact. 5 year olds are so easy to entertain!

Philadelphia!

At our Elementary School, the 5th graders get to take a trip up to Philadelphia at the end of the year!

They've been studying the Revolutionary War, the Declaration of Independence,  and the formation of our Government in the 1770's. So, going up to the very place that the Declaration of Independence was signed is the highlight of the year.

I had the opportunity to go with Morgan, and we had a blast.

 Of course for the kids the 2-hour chartered bus ride up there was just as much fun as anything they would see in Philadelphia.

(I brought ear plugs for this part of the trip)

 We had a great bunch of kids with us.

 Our 'group' in front of Independence Hall!

 Beautiful day, beautiful weather!

 Here we are in Congress Hall. Sitting where the very first Congress sat!

 The very first Senate Room.

(Inside Congress Hall)

 Kind of amazing when you think of all that happened here.

This is Washington's copy of the Declaration of Independence.

And this is the Assembly room inside Independence Hall.

The very place that the Declaration of Independence was signed!

We also got a look at the Liberty Bell (although somehow I took no photos of that).

And had a great time at the National Constitution Center. 

So much to see and do in a day!

We at lunch on the grass in front of Independence Hall.

I kept telling the girls how amazing it was that our founding fathers walked right where we were! That we just stood inside the very room that the Declaration of Independence was signed! "Isn't this AMAZING??!!"

"Yep"

I think I was a bit more into it than they were.

But we did have a blast! And I know they enjoyed all we saw!

Super fun field trip!

Nature science fun

Don't know if I've mentioned it, but I'm really having fun homeschooling this boy here....

We've been doing a lot of animal/nature science this past quarter.

We have been incorporating some merit badge completion into it as well (Nature merit badge, and Environmental Science badge).  For the Nature Merit badge he needed to make a plaster cast of a wild animal track.  A few weeks ago we drove to the state park in hopes of finding one. All we found were dog tracks.  Then on the way to walking the younger kids to school one day, Duncan points out the raccoon tracks under the bridge! Raccoon! That's a wild animal! Yay!

 I ran home and got Ronan, Madelyn and the paster mix!

 We made three just in case one didn't turn out too well.

 Success! They turned out great!

 And we had a fun time hanging out by the creek for 30 min. waiting for them to harden.

Isn't science fun?!

 I had to throw these in here, because I'm just so in love with this girl and her hair!

Next project...Environmental Science.

"Conduct an experiment to see the effects of an oil spill on land."

I bought a piece of sod (because I wasn't about to do this experiment on my own lawn). We planted a small tree in it, and watered them.

Then we poured oil over half of the area.

Things we noted: 1- How quickly the oil soaked right through the grass and dirt-glad we had the plastic bag underneath!

2-Worms trying to get to the 'other' side.

The first day or two Ronan kept commenting on how it wasn't so bad-the grass actually looked greener and shinier where the oil was.

Then by day 3 it was pretty apparent that the 'oil side' was in bad shape.

One more nature science experiment to go before we wrap up the school year!