Posted in Field Trip Fun

With Nana being off work this week for spring break, we have done lots of fun things together! One day we took a little road trip and went to the Hands On Children's Museum in Johnson City! The kids had a lot of fun!

Posted in Field Trip Fun

We went to the circus last night! What a fun night!

What was your favorite part of the circus?

Daddy: Juggling, defnitely the juggling.

Mommy: the puppies and elephants

Hannah:the doggies

Emily: the acrobat in the pink leotard swinging on the rope, and the puppies

Caleb: the fireworks

Posted in Field Trip Fun

For part of our pioneer unit, Melissa and I took the kids to see some SHEEP. We have learned a little about sheep and their importance to pioneers. We read books and saw pictures of the shearing, carding, spinning, dying, weaving, etc. And we looked at all the different things that the pioneer women could make from this wool!

Seeing these sheep (and other farm animals) was such a great treat for us! We got to feel the wool (and even bring a little bit home!) and see how dirty it is! What a difficult process those pioneers had in shearing and cleaning the wool to get it ready to be used!

Here are some pictures from our field trip!

Posted in Field Trip Fun

Today we got to go see the Nutcracker ballet at the Civic Auditorium in Knoxville. It was SO good! This was an extra special day because both Grandmama and Nana were able to go with the girls and me. Nana and mommy had never been to see a *real* ballet before, so this was pretty wonderful! The Appalachian Ballet school did a fabulous job! I was so impressed with the sets, the costumes, the beautiful ballerinas, Clara, of course the Sugar Plum Fairy...it was all just *magical!*

And we also got another extra special treat today! Our ballet teacher worked it out for us to go BACK STAGE and meet Clara - the main character! We also got to see several of the other performers back there as they were finishing up after the show. We had one of the directors take us actually onto the stage and show us how everything works.

Here are some pictures from our extra special day!

~~Here is Clara~~

~~ They showed us how the *magical* Christmas tree got bigger and bigger in the dream scene ~~

~~ The huge clock that Drosselmeier hid behind! ~~

~~ Our group listening as one of the directors tells us about the stage area ~~

~~ Clara showing us how she blows out her *magical* candle ~~

~~ Most of our group on the Nutcracker stage! ~~

Posted in Field Trip Fun

Today David and I took the kids to the Gray Fossil Site/Museum in Johnson City, which is a part of the Natural History Museum there, actually I guess it is Gray, TN.

HERE is the main site for the fossil site, which is in part funded by ETSU. Some of the story behind this place is pretty interesting!

HERE is the specific site for the Gray Fossil Museum.

HERE is a neat interactive part of their site for children! Kids can use an online magnifying glass and move it over animals to see their bones. There is also online coloring and word puzzles to do.

Ok, so on to my review...we had hoped to take a small-ish group of us to this museum as we are learning about dinosaurs this week. However, I didn't realize they are backed up until SPRING with school groups! UG! So, we opted to just go on our own whenever the opportunity arose. Today seemed like a good day...so we went!

Several points about our trip, for anyone else interested in possibly going.

*The museum is very nice and new! The exhibits are kid friendly, however, I think my children are a little young to get the most out of it. I would think in a few years I could take Hannah back and she would probably have a little more interest. The animals they had put back together, the bones, were neat to look at.

*The only "hands-on" thing that my kids got into was a small-ish dig site. We had heard there was a lot for smaller kids at this place, but a lot of it just did not grab my kids attention, so that was a little disappointing! They did dig for a few minutes and find some rhino bones in the pit!

*There were a few places where they had bones laying in a box kind of like a puzzle, they showed you a picture of what it should look like and then you could move the bones around yourself to see how scientists do their work! I, myself, thought this was pretty neat! But, I think I was the only one.

*There are many, MANY references to "millions of years ago" and "4.3 million years ago" and lots of phrases like that. I had been prepared for maybe 1-2 as you walk in or on a sign here or there...but you saw it, read it and heard it spoken on these little monitor things. I have already discussed this with the girls - how many people do believe that dinosaurs come from millions of years ago, but we believe the Bible to be accurate! So, I'm thankful we had been over that.

*It was a pretty quick "run through" and even that was slowing down the kids to get them to see certain things. We did NOT take the guided tour, so it was FREE! That was a big bonus! For the guided tour, I had wanted to originally take that to see the actual diggers up on the site digging for fossils and bones, but she said their digging season is over for the year. So, we opted to go for free through the museum part alone.

*I am glad we went...I think it gave the girls a real picture of what the bones of animals look like, how the paleontologists do their job! However, I would not give it a huge thumbs up for fun and preschooler friendly, as far as lots of things for them to do.  Overall, I am glad we went as a family. I am also glad we didn't go as a homeschooling group together! I think we would have been done in about 5 minutes and then I would have felt bad for taking everyone out there! I'm glad we got the chance to see it...and I hope to go back maybe in a few years when the girls will be old enough to appreciate it a little more!

*One more bummer - I forgot my camera! It ended up being ok, cause there really weren't a lot of photo op's, but I couldn't believe I forgot my camera on a field trip!

(surprisingly, the alligator teeth we saw were much smaller than I would have imagined!)

Posted in Field Trip Fun

Today we went to a wonderful and new pumpkin patch!

My 3 little pumpkins!

There were lots of fun things for the smaller children to do, which was very nice! We had a wonderful time with all the activities and then eating our picnic lunches there. We ended up with a larger group than I had expected and it was a lot of fun to see all the kids playing together! Here are some of the fun things we got to do today!

*Hay trampoline (a big mattress underneath lots of hay) - the kids thought this was great!

*a smaller maze made out of hay bales for the  young children

*a cow to milk (pretend cow)

*corn to shuck/grind (?) to feed to the animals

*baby goats, sheep, cows, pigs and rabbits to feed!  Emily especially loved feeding and petting the animals. No matter where we went at the farm, she kept returning back to the animals to feed them.

*Tractor to climb and sit on

*water pump duck races

*corn maze

*hay ride (a HOT hay ride...did somebody say it is October??)

*picking pumpkins

*meet new friends, play with "old" friends, visit with family - aunts, uncles, cousins and grandmama came too!

On the hay ride! (yep, Caleb wore that hat - had to wear it! Next time I want to get any good pictures of his cute little face I'm going to have to try and bribe him to leave the hat at home!)

Posted in Field Trip Fun

We got to take an awesome trip to our friend Ms. Susan and Ms. Amy's farm  yesterday! I wanted to take the kids out there this week because they have a horse and a pony! We had such a good time! Ms. Susan went above and beyond the duty of hostess and had a hot dog roast complete with chili and then smores for dessert! Mmmmmm! The girls had fun playing in the creek that is behind their house as well!

Then Ms. Amy and Ms. Laura showed us all the pony and took us on rides! We watched Scout get his feet cleaned out, saw the saddle being put on, learned that horses can communicate anger or contentment with their ears, got to feed him carrots and of course take a RIDE! Emily really loved riding the pony!

Thank you to Susan, Holly, Amy and Laura! This was the perfect addition to our week learning about horses, especially with our book being about a pony named Fritz!

Posted in Field Trip Fun

Today, Melissa, Valerie and I were supposed to drive up to Cumberland Falls to meet a few FIAR moms from the message boards. Unfortunately, Marcy got sick...and so we had to cancel. We were already in the car at this point, so we decided to try and think of something to do with all these kids in the car at 8am!! So, we ended up at the Oak Ridge Children's Museum and had a GREAT time! It is mostly hands on, which is wonderful for all our little ones. And the museum and staff are very child-friendly too, which helps when you have a loud bunch of kids running around!

In the new slideshow I'm about to add you will see lots of pictures from our day! They are adding a dinosaur exhibit, so we might have to go back for that!

Posted in Field Trip Fun

Here are some pictures from our morning at the aquarium! (I just noticed Nancy posted a comment thinking we were at the Chatanooga Aquarium...thought I'd post on here that we are at the aquarium that is in Gatlinburg...it's relatively new, been here a few years now I guess! We all live within an hour's drive from here!)

The mommies - ValerieC, Melissa C, Candace C, Kelly TN

All the kiddos! 

Aunt Melissa and some of the kids on the trolley

The trolley we rode up to the aquarium -- Mattie and me