Sunday, March 27, 2016

Easter Fun!!!

We had lots of fun this weekend. We started the Easter fun by dying eggs on Friday night. Maddie tried "tie dying" one of them too!

Getting ready to tie dye by putting the dye onto a paper towel

We wrapped the egg in the paper towel.

Unwrapping.....

Ta-Da! The tie dye one is in the center row at the back. It came out with a bit of a pattern on it too from the paper towel.

Saturday night Brian and I hid the eggs and I think we had more fun hiding them than Maddie did finding them!



The Stowawayasaurus got in on the act!!









Maddie's basket had an art theme this year! She has been doing a lot of pencil drawing so we got charcoal pencils. Maddie also asked to try guache paint and we were able to find an inexpensive set for her to try. I knitted up the little chickens to hold a Cadbury egg. 

Sunday morning we went to church as usual. The kids stayed in the service today instead of going to Sunday school which was nice. 
Maddie and Momma take one! 

Ahh..thats better!

In the afternoon we headed up to Saratoga Spa State Park. Its close by but we had never visited it! We walked some of the spring  trail and really enjoyed it. We also tried out our new loupes which was a ton of fun! We pulled out our new binoculars and used them a bit too. We heard a lot of birds but didn't see many. We will be going back there though! Its an easy drive and a nice walk when we don't have a lot of time.



Checking out moss with the loupe
 Maddie spied this snake. She was so excited because it was the first time seeing a snake in the wild. I was impressed that she was able to spy him at all in the middle of all those leaves!

 mineral spring
 camera consultations!
 the mineral spring is on the right
 the bottom of another mineral spring...we also got right into this with the loupes! Very cool....


 More loupe inspection!  The Easter Bunny was smart and brought 3...one for each of us! 

So much fun was had by all. Now we have ham in the oven, scallop potatoes warming and asparagus sauteing away! We hope you had a Happy Easter!


Friday, March 18, 2016

Old Sturbridge Village Homeschool Day

This morning we packed up and headed to Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts. Brian was able to take the day off too and come along for the fun. The weather was, well not quite perfect, but good for March! The clouds and sky were so beautiful all day long. At one point we had hail! It was tiny and we headed into the Asa Knight Village Store to talk to the interpreters so it didn't disrupt us.


My 2 favorite people!


Isn't the sky wonderful?? The clouds! 

This sheep wants Maddie to come back!


Can you find the robin?


This is maple sugaring time so we got to learn about the process as it was done in the early 1800s. Almost all the sap was boiled down into hard sugar which could be stored for the year rather than syrup that needs refrigeration. 

Maple sugar cones. The ladies in the house said they would've preferred the lighter colored sugar since they used it for everything. It has a very light maple taste compared to the darker colored cone.

Making the syrup. Once it was syrup it would be taken into the house to finish off by boiling further to hard maple sugar.

spile and trough to catch the sap...more on spiles in a minute!

Baking at the farmhouse. Using the maple sugar to make an apple pie.



Maddie took 2 classes today. One was on making a penny rug which actually turned out to be a maple leaf not a true penny rug. She still enjoyed it quite a bit!





Then she took a class on carving a wooden spile which she loved! She asked on the way home if she could make one of those benches with Daddy so she could carve some more. Ummm...I don't think so. The man teaching this class was a retired shop teacher and he kept sprinkling in other things while talking. He told the girls that he knew they wanted Prince Charming to come along but it would be really good to find something they loved to do, a passion, a career goal and see if they could learn more about it. The other girls had a bit of deer in the headlights look but Maddie was nodding her head and grinning away at him. That advice is probably easier to understand when you have your goal already all set! Maddie did like the kids in her group. At the end after they had cleaned up the teacher asked them to assemble back on the benches which got one of the boys to yell "Homeschoolers Assemble!". 

First they had to poke a hole through the center of their wood. It was sumac which is very soft so it was not too hard but....

still required a little Daddy assistance.

Then on to the carving. This is the bench she wants to have! I do not know where we would put such a thing even if we managed to produce one! 


Checking in with the teacher.

Ta da! 1 Wooden Spile






Here are some more photos of our fun day!

The shoemaker...who turned into the printer in the afternoon! 

I love the squashes scattered about with the toys like a child had been playing with them.


Aren't these horses just beautiful?

Maddie carding wool.

A traditional spot for a photo! To see how much Maddie has grown check out this post...the video at the bottom of the page



Despite hail spring is coming! 

I had to take a photo of this because my own knitting was in our backpack with needles in a similar holder! 

Maddie wants to go back again...so we haven't outgrown this yet!