George Washington's Birthday at Mount Vernon!

Every year on George Washington's Birthday you can visit his home, Mount Vernon for free.

We went and celebrated the birth of our first president!

Duncan watching the blacksmith at work.

Mount Vernon was a fully functioning farm with a blacksmith, a smokehouse, greenhouse, etc.

Duncan was my only child that joined me (Ronan & Morgan both said they'd been too many times), but we were joined with some other friends as well which made for a great time!

Nathan, Duncan, Charlie, & Ted at the backside of the house (where it overlooks the river).

Of course rolling down this great hill was a must for these boys!

George Washington's tomb.

We went through the house, as well as the exhibits, and enjoyed ourselves. 

And to top it off, they served us birthday cake to celebrate his birthday!

Happy Birthday George!

National Aquarium in Baltimore

Our annual Homeschool Field Trip to the National Aquarium!

The girls lucked out and public school was closed today, and so they joined us on our field trip too!

(Although, really I would of taken them out of school anyway.)

Madelyn touching jellyfish.

We got to see the fish being fed. 

And the Jellyfish exhibit!

Always one of my favorites! So beautiful!

Madelyn watching the dolphins play.

Touching a sting ray.

It's always a great day of exploring and fun.

We love to see the animals, as well as visit with our homeschool friends!

Farm trip!

Our Homeschool Group took a Field Trip to the farm!

Its always fun to go on a hay ride with a bunch of friends!

Grandpa & Grandma were in town for Ashlyn's baptism, and so they got to join us too!

Sweetness.

The wagons stopped at the pumpkin patch, and everybody got to pick out their own pumpkin, as well as an ear of 'popping' corn!

 

The girls playing checkers with little pumpkins...

There was lots of fun activities.

Like the Rubber Ducky Race.

Ashlyn was pumping away!

Madelyn enjoyed riding the little tractors.

 

The boys enjoyed the 'Corn Pit'.

And of course, Morgan hung out with the ponies.

Happy Fall!

Back to School!

School year 2015-2016 started back up!

 Hayden began his Senior year, and started classes at Howard Community College.

He's loving it there. 

After debating/praying about it  all spring and summer...

 Ashlyn and Madelyn went back to public school this year.

They were both very excited about it (especially Madelyn-as this was her first time!).

Ashlyn started 3rd grade, and Madelyn 1st.

This left Ronan (10th grade), Morgan (9th grade), & Duncan (7th grade) homeschooling with me!

Homeschooling three is a much more manageable number for me.

The 4 older ones also started up classes at our co-op SHARP in the fall.

 Ronan is in LOVE with his WWI/WWII history class! He's also taking an Early Modern History class, & Brain Games.

Morgan is enjoying a drawing class most of all. Taking Brian Games & Tole Painting as well.
Hayden shared the exact same schedule as Ronan- WWI/WWII, Early Mod. Hist., & Brain Games.
Duncan is taking Candy Chemistry, Engineering for Fun, & Aviation!

A great start back to school this fall!

Arrows and Animals

Ashlyn started an archery class...

It ended up being a very cold evening in June!

And she was the only girl there, and she did great!

Love her!

     

I took the kids to the zoo, and found that a 65 degree day in June is the BEST for walking through the zoo! Our great friend, Charlie joined us, and we had a blast.

Sitting on turtle statues.

And in bird nests.

Sliding down slides!

And pretending to be turtles ourselves!

We did see animals too...I just don't take photos of them anymore.

I mean, do we really need a photo of the zebra EVERY year?

I'm over it. I just stick to photos of my kids these days. :)

Busch Gardens & LDSHE Conference!

A Highlight of our Homeschool year is the LDSHE Conference at the end of May!

This is my 3rd year going, and I LOVE every minute of it! The classes, the dances/activities, the fun time spent with other homeschool families. Its all a blast. They pick a new location each year, and this year was in Williamsburg, VA!

We went down a few days early to enjoy some fun at Busch Gardens & Water Country USA before the Conference started!

We turned the corner when entering Busch Gardens, and Ronan's face just lit up when he saw all those Union Jack's across the sky!

(If you know Ronan, you can imagine his excitement!)

Some Red Phone Booth fun.

The bigger kids getting their thrills!

Ashlyn & I watched from the ground...

The kids were in heaven seeing the horses in 'Scotland'...

(No photos of the water park fun-due to not wanting to ruin my phone.)

Once the conference started, it was 2 days of great classes!

Learning, uplifting, encouraging...so much to take in!

There is also a 'youth conference' that goes on at the same time for the homeschooled youth 12 yrs. & up.  My 3 older kids loved it all! They had their own classes, activities, and games going on. 

We would meet back up together for lunch, then head off again to our various places.

During all this, Brian took the younger 3 off to play some more. They went back to the water park the first day of the conference, and coin shopping the second day (they tried to stay out of the sun due to burns-ouch).

 

There's also a 'Family Dance' that they put on one of the nights. The kids had fun dancing together.

And Madelyn participated in the hula hoop contest.

(She didn't win-but was dang cute!)

(See Ronan on the stage helping with the music. He made friends with the guys running it, and had fun being up there with him.)

Hayden, Morgan, & Sarah at the end of the conference.

 During the Key Note Speaker - Abe Mills from Jericho Road.

We had such a great time!

Can't wait until May 2016!!

More schooling fun...

Here's some fun homeschooling moments we had in April...

I taught a "Mad Scientist" class at our Co-op this spring, and the class couldn't be complete without the Mentos/Diet Coke fountain!

It was definitely a hit!

We also did an 'exploding bag' (the bags the kids are holding) with baking soda & vinegar.

You can never go wrong with exploding things, right?

Here's Ashlyn in the Mad Scientist class making silly putty!

(And it was Crazy Hat day too!)

Madelyn found that she enjoyed doing her reading/writing work so much more when she pretended to be a pilot-Over and out!

I took Hayden and our friend Ted down to the Library of Congress to apply for reading cards.

The three of us are now members of the largest library in the World!!

For science, Ashlyn & Duncan learned about insulation.

And as a 'hands-on' (he he) experiment, we 'insulated' one hand in lard, then felt the difference in ice water.

We went also held our hand under hot water too (I just didn't take a picture).

They loved this, and didn't want to take the lard off their hands!

Happy Learning!