Yes, both girls are asleep and I finally have some time to do some journaling.  I have so wanted to get on here but it has been very busy or something else comes up or.....  You get the picture.  Anyway, I have lots to write about now. 

Let's write first about 9/9/05.  We all went to our first co-op meeting of Kids Discovery Day-Geography.  It was on Africa.  The girls had a blast and I was beat by the end of 4 hours as I was doing one of the activity tables.  It was well worth it though.  The entire family got to enjoy various foods from Africa.  There were a total of 26 children present.  After eating one of the parents read "The Egyptian Cinderella."  Both girls liked the book.  I will have to go hunting for it.  They then started at Mommy's table and made one puppet each.  My table was African animals so each child made a puppet of either a chimp, lion or elephant.  They also got handouts of many animals to color and various pencil activities.  Next the girls went to a table and made a lapbook on Egypt.  Both girls treasure their lapbooks.  We have most of them saved from the past.  They like looking back at them.  Finally they went and made Egyptian clothing.  Both girls made a collar and bracelets.  Jessica also made an Egyptian dress.  It looks like this co-op group might work for us.  On the 4th Friday of each month is going to Science.  This month they will be learning about bats.

On the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th we went camping at Hobo campgrounds in Kern Canyon.  We had such a fantastic time!!!! 

We got there about 5PM Saturday night as Mark had to work till 2PM.  We sent up the tent and all the needed items for camping.  The campground hosts were a very nice and helpful couple named Dean and Betty.  We camped right next to the Kern River.  After eating dinner, we roasted marshmallows over the campfire (we learned that the girls must wear shoes as Angelina almost burned her heel-the child gets tired and gets accident prone).  As we laid in the tent listening to all the night sounds, Jessica was having trouble going to sleep with her numerous questions of "What's that, what's that?" to every little noise.  I finally told her listen to the crickets and tell me what song they are singing.  So for those of you who don't know, this is the song that crickets sing at night........"Jingle Bells!"    We all fell asleep laughing. 

We did lots of fishing and playing in the sun on the 11th.  Threw several carp back as not that great a fish for eating.  Sunday late afternoon, the boys and father next to us were leaving.  They gave us a catfish to eat for dinner.  Mark put it on a stringer.  The girls were absolutely interested in this catfish.  All of the sudden, Angelina comes running.  "Daddy, Daddy, the fish is swimming away."  Mark went running to the river and sure, enough one gone fish.  Stringer and all. 

On the 12th we did some walking around the area, more fish, more throwing back carp, and more playing in the sun.  Jessica was cute.  Whenever anybody came down the river in a canoe, raft, or whatever she had a conversation with them as they floated by our campsite.  Our social butterfly!!

On the 13th we finally caught a catfish.  However, by now the girls were confused.  We had thrown all the other fish back so why not this one.  What we were going to do with it-eat it.  "No, no, don't eat the cute fish.  Can't we keep it as a pet?"  End result was the girls didn't eat the fish and Jessica spent many minutes crying over the poor fishy.   The girls and I went for a hike along the river as Daddy took the tent down and cleaned the fish (which Mark and I did eat the next day).  After all was packed up, we went to the other side of the campgrounds to the day use area.  We found out from the campground hosts that there was a hot water springs there.  It was indeed hot!  Mark hung out in the hot area, the girls hung out in the warm area and I found an area that was hot on one side of my body and the other side was cold from the Kern River.  It was a great end to our camping trip. 

What a fun, fun trip!!!  It was a challenge with a 3 and 5 yr old but it was well worth it.  We are looking to go camping about 15 minutes away from the house towards the end of October.  We are hoping it will be warmer closer to home.  We were all cold one night or the other but during the day we got lots of warm memories for now and in the future.

What was the best about the camping trip was that Mark and I got to relax.  Both of us realized that the start of the school year was a little hectic.  Too much on our plate.  We got to talk and there is a little more balance.  Still working on it but not as stressful now.

Well that's it for tonight.  Hope all had some laughs and enjoyed our adventure as much as we did!  Till next time.

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Posted by 4SeasonsLearningAcademy