Yesterday we visited the Purple Martins again.  We had such a wonderful experience last year that I had to bring others to learn and enjoy.  We had such a gracious hostess.  She has a real love of these birds and is very knowlegable and very informative.  She also let all the kids hold a baby bird.

This bird is a very people friendly bird.  The parents didn't come near while we were investigating the young ones but they weren't upset at all.

The darker, "purple" ones are the males and the lighter colored ones are the females and the immature males.

Once we put the house back up, the moms and dads were back to business with keeping their family fed.

Purple Martins eat and drink "on the fly."  That means that they are not ground feeders.  You will very rarely find this bird on the ground.  Among all the many insects they eat the dragon fly is their favorite.

The kids found a dragonfly that the birds must have dropped.  I've never seen one that big!  That was pretty interesting too.

For more on this field trip, check out my friend Linda's blog.  

Saturday, June 14, was the day we packed up and headed home. 

Dad decided to head home a different way because he wanted to make a stop near Atlanta, GA.  We stopped at Stone Moutain.

The last time we had been there, there wasn't anything there.  Just a few nature trails, and the mountain.  Now there is a bunch of little shops and basically a little town and other attractions.  We were slightly surprised.

While there we were able to see a glass blowing demonstration.  The boys were fascinated.  It was amazing to watch the transformation of the changing glass.

We also watched the smithy for a while.  It was very interesting!

We were on the road for 11 hour Saturday.  We found a motel for the night and hit the road again early in the morning.

Then the *fun* began.  We had different opinions on the correct road home, and of course Dad's was the one that counted. ::wink:: That took us a little off course, then we missed a major highway and that put us WAY off track.  According to the *trusty* map we could take XYZ road and it looked like a fairly straight shot back to where we wanted to be....WRONG.  We were TN, up on a mountain, lost. LOL  Our 10 hour drive home turned into 15!  It was a VERY long day.

I took one of Cameron's free read books for second grade and we read part of it on the way down, a chapter a night there, and finished it off on the way home.  Good thing I don't get car sick (I was reading as we were going up the switch back turns of the mountain in TN.  ROFL)

This vacation was full of firsts for Cameron.   On Friday of our vacation, we travelled out to the coast and the boys got to see the Atlantic Ocean!

The beach was not crowded at all!  There were only a handful of people there.  And the boys had a BLAST.

There was a slight mix up on the plans or we would have dressed differently for the beach, brought towels and a change of clothes.  But the boys really enjoyed seeing the ocean for the first time.  We also found a large group of sea shells to chose from.

And this was the only day on our vacation that I got a sun burn! (I burn very, very easily)  I forgot about my feet because when I was putting on sunscreen, I had my shoes on. LOL

When we got back to the house my sister headed out to meet with some friends of hers.  We ordered pizza and swam and watch videos while she was away.  It was a good last day in Florida.

A third day at Disney was not in our original plan but because of getting a raincheck, we just had to go back.   When my sister and I were planning the things we wanted to hit at Disney it is funny that Hollywood Studios was the one that had the least.  But we ended up spending the most time there.

All three boys are crazy about Star Wars and Star Wars was all over the place at HS.

Cameron, the Storm Trooper:

Racing through the forests of Endor on a speeder bike:

Enjoying the scenery at Coresant:

And getting ready to defend their Rebel ship from Darth Vadar

And speaking of Darth Vadar, Jesse, the nephew in green, was chosen to go to "Jedi Training School"

But during their training, who should show up but Vadar himself

 Then Jesse, Jedi-in-training, got to fight Darth Vadar.

 After the battle with Vardar, Jesse became an official Padawan.

We also rode Star Tours twice.

We did do other things besides Star Wars, like the new Toy Story ride (a 3D shooting gallery), playing in the "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" playground, eating at Pizza Planet, and learning about animation.

We even attended an animation class where our instructor walked us through drawing Goofy.

I was surprised at how mine turned out.

Cameron doesn't like his at all but it made me proud.  This was maybe a little too old for him but he really did his best to follow directions.  I thought he did very well for his age.  (He hates it)

He gave up towards the end, but I can see how he followed directions to the best of his ability.

After we got something to eat back at the house, we took the boys miniture golfing and then back to the house and the pool.

I only put on 11,000 steps this day.  ROFL, but somehow, my feet were still very tired.

Disney day two:

First we hit Epcot

The boys loved the "big golf ball."  There was a lot of neat stuff to do at Epcot.  We took a space ship to Mars.  We hang glided over California.  We preformed tests on products.  We visited the house of the future.

And played a pre-programed song on the electronic drum

We also took a clam ride under the sea, looking for Nemo and then got to see many of Nemo's friends.  Like the Manatee

And seahorse...just to name a few.

But the highlight of the day was the Monorail.

We took the Monorail from Epcot to Magic Kingdom.  The boys thought riding that was a ride in itself.

We were tired by the time we got to Magic Kingdom but still got a few things in.

We decided to leave the park around 7 and went and got dinner at Perkins. 

It had been a very long two days.  I was wearing my pedometer this day and we, or at least I walked over 16,000 steps!!! My feet were TIRED!

(PS. the 3rd, 4th, and 5th pictures were taken from video on my video camera.  How cool!)

Tuesday we hit Disney.  We got a two day park hopper pass.  That means that we could go to any park or any combination of parks in those two days.  Our plan was to do Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios on the first day.

Animal Kingdom was great.   The longest line we had to wait in was for our food.  Whoever thought up the Fast Pass idea was a pure genius, plain and simple.  If you ever go to Disney, take advantage of the Fast Pass.

The Tree of Life has around 300 animals carved into it.

There were animal viewing spots all over this park.  And there were Cast members (Disney worker) everywhere with interesting skulls, answers to questions about differnet animals, and some even had a display box with different animals.  The man with the tarantula offered to be my personal guide for the day.  (Said as he waved his hairy, :shudder:, aracnid in front of me. Oh, and don't forget the "evil" glint in his eye LOL) Thanks but, NO.

AK has an Asia section and an Africa section.  In Asia we saw giant bats

These are the biggest bats in the world.  They do NOT use echolocation.  (After our whale study, this interested Cameron very much as whales and bats are both known to use echolocation.) They have very good eye sight. 

We also walked through "ruins".

And saw tigers

There was also a great bird section.  It had a bird identification card that you could take with you through your Jungle trek.

We took the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch

While there we visited Conservation Station.  The boys identified some animals by their droppings. (replicas) Observed turtles, baby alligators, snakes, spiders, toads and frogs

In Africa, we took another walk on an exploration trail and saw many more animals.  The gorillas are my favorite.

Then we took an African Safari. 

See the baby elephant in the water? 

The last thing we did before leaving AK was It's Tough to be a Bug.  This was my second time seeing it and it was just as funny the second time.  Maybe even more so because I got to see my son experience 3D.

We drove over to Hollywood Studios to finish out the day.  Except about 10 minutes after our arrival it started storming and down pouring.  And it didn't let up.  After an hour of waiting in a line that wasn't going anywhere  because the rain was causing people to not exit the ride, we decided to head home.  We were all drenched and tired and starting to be miserable. 

On our way out, I said we should check in at guest relations to see if they were offering a rain check.  Since we had only been at the park for an hour and it rained the entire time, they did give us a rain check!  How nice was that?

We went back to the house and chilled for the rest of the evening.  It did stop raining and so, you guessed it, got in the pool. ;o)

Monday was our second full day in Florida.  Our first stop was Harry P. Leu Gardens.  They offer free admission on Mondays from 9-noon and of course we took advantage of that.  This was something I wanted to do with our recent interest in flowers and our ongoing love of nature.

Dad and the three boys viewing the flower clock.

There was one flower, well, bush really, that I was seeing all over the place and it was bothering me that I didn't know what it was. 

It is myrtle.  And I didn't notice its fruit until I was preparing this picture. 

One of the highlights of the entire trip, for the boys, was all the lizzards!

They also enjoyed the observation deck on the lake.  There was a sign that said not to feed the alligator and just the thought of getting to see one was exciting.  We couldn't find it but we did see a bunch of fish, more lizzards and this guy.

There was so much to see at the gardens.  We didn't get to everything but one things that we all wanted to see was the butterfly garden

And we were all entrigued with this one flower.  We have no idea what it is either.

We also took the tour of the house that was turned into a museum.  It was interesting and the temperature was COOL. 

After lunch, we headed to WonderWorks.

Yes, it is upsidedown. Wonder Works was a science center where there were over 100 hands-on activities.  We experienced 65 mph hurricane winds, an earthquake, played games on our eyes, "air" hockey with lights, a bed of nails, and many, many other things.

Here Dad is helping Cameron operate a robotic arm to stack bricks:

You could use a similator to try and land the NASA space shuttle, or try your hand as a fighter pilot.  Cameron got to become an astronaut.

After Wonder Works, we headed to Lego Land in Down Town Disney.

Another "free" attraction.  Although we all spent some money at the store. ;o)  Everything was made of Legos.  They had tons of hands on places for kids to create their own masterpieces and there were many things to see made from Legos.

Dinosaur (it actually moves)

Nessie?

Transformer

Sea life

Even the tourists are made of Lego. 

Millenium Falcon and General Grevious (big hits with the three young Padawans)

We even briefly visited Paris

After all this, we went back to the house and of course got in the pool again!  Loved the pool

We just got back from enjoying our Christmas present from my Dad.  He took us to Florida along with my sister and her two boys. He rented a house for the week in Orlando.

(Click on the picture to take you All Star Vacation Homes.  You can view the house we stayed at)

The house was fantastic.  It had 4 bedroom, 3 bathrooms, private pool and hot tub, fully loaded kitchen, two living rooms, all the comforts of home and then some!

We left around 5:30 pm Friday (6-6) and drove all through the night.  We were so excited to finally get there.  Of course the boys (Cameron and his two cousins, Jesse and Bryan) couldn't wait to get into our private pool.  To tell you the truth, neither could I. 

If you were to ask Cameron what was a highlight of his trip, he will say almost without reservation that it was the pool.

So of course I volunteered to watch the boys in the pool while Dad and my sister went shopping for some food.  LOL  It really wasn't any sacrifice at all.

Sunday was our first full day in Florida.  We were able to meet up with my life long friend Kelly and her family.  Kelly and I have been friends since we were in first grade!  I can't believe that was 27 years ago! 

She just had a baby in January and we were there on the Sunday that they dedicated her at church.  What a blessing that was to be there for that wonderful occasion, and to meet her newest member of the family!

There was a luncheon at her home following the dedication.  It was such a lovely party and very nicely done, but a little exhausting.

Michelle, my sister, and Savannah.

Cameron and some of the other kids inspecting the neighbor's bannana tree.

Last Friday Cameron and I went to the observatory with my sister and two nephews.

The round dome is an observatory room.  It isn't used anymore and I didn't get a picture of the big one.

The grounds were very beautiful!  There were georgeous dog woods.

The picture doesn't do it justice.  It was an almost unnatural shade of pink. But they look very different up close.

Cameron loves to spend time with his cousins.

Jesse (the eldest and on the right) is going through a non-smiling phase. (Please don't rub off on Cameron!)

The main telescope is enormous.  I think they said it was 45 feet long.  It is an entity unto itself and the dome is built around it.

The wood floor moves up and down the equivelant of two full stories.  The dome roof only has one slit that opens but it also rotates.  They can look at just about any angle in the sky.

Cameron got to move the telescope.

We weren't able to observe the night sky as it was not only cloudy but also raining.  I think I was more dissappointed than the boys.

We also viewed the smaller telescope and we were able to view inside it.  They had postage stamps in between the two lenses.  That is the width apart that the lenses must be.  Cameron is checking it out.

Last Monday we went on a field trip.  We were so excited that the Carnegie Science Center was having a free day.  I borrowed my Dad's Chevy Tahoe which seats nine and we headed to the Science Center.  I took my good friend and her three daughters, my two nephews and BIL.  All three of the boys were off school for Martin Luther King, Jr.

The bad thing...everyone else in the tri-state area ALSO had off from school and thought going to the science center was a fabulous idea.

There were so many people there it wasn't funny.  When we got there you couldn't see the end of line just to get in the building.  AND the temperature was in the very low teens.

We had what fun we could but it was rather overwhelming to be there with all those people.  You could barely move at some points. 

There are two different buildings, the Science Center adn also the sports center.  A friend called us and let us know that the Sports Center line was practically non-existent and that we would be able to get right in.  We did and did that while we were there.

Here is my BIL, Adrian and my 10-yo nephew, Jesse playing virtual basket ball.

To add to the mayhem of the day, my younger nephew, Bryan (5-yo) threw up while we were at the Sports Center.  He said he felt better and he was a real trouper sticking it out for the rest of the day but he really didn't want to do anything.

We stood in line for 45 minutes just to control a robot that shoots hoops.  Thankfully there was a bench right there and I was able to rest with Bryan.

Our Assistant Pastor told Cameron to tell the dinosaur that he said.  So we just had to stop and take a picture of Cameron with the dinosaur bones.  LOL  And he did tell him that Pastor Jacob said "Hi." 

What we learned from the Science Center:  We will never, EVER go to a free day at the Science Center on a day when the public school also has off.  It was NUTS.  But I feel we made the most of it and had a okay time.

LOL, I didn't even mention our "near death" experience...not really, because of my driving, which is just fine thank you very much.  Just because my 12yo junior navigator was yelling that I couldn't turn that way and I chose to ignore her.  City driving.  It drives me crazy.  ROFL

Pittsburgh has an annual Ohio Watershed boat trip.  This is our second year to go.  We love this trip. 

• It's free.
• It is great getting together with other homeschool families.
• There are fun activities for the children to do.
• It's free
• It's three hours on a boat.
• There are a lot of educational give aways, such as posters, info sheets, stickers, pencils, activity sheets...
• It's free.
• For the last two years, we were able to go through a lock and see a dam. (Highlight of the trip for me)
• Did I mention that it was FREE?

I didn't take very many pictures this year.  I don't remember if I just forgot or if my goofy batteries were giving me trouble.

One of the activities on the dock before we pulled out was a paint print.  They had rubber molds of several fish that live in our river system and a frog.  You painted it however you like and then pressed a piece of paper on it.  Very simple, but the kids loved it.  They were hanging up on the dock when we got back, dry.

Another favorite activity was the making of a caterpillar.  Cameron is filling this knee high nylon with dirt and grass seed.  She tied knots in it to make the different sections of its body.  You could add antenna and eyes if you liked.  Take your caterpillar home, put it on a plate in a sunny place and add a little water.  Soon you will have a fuzzy, green caterpillar.

One of the local nature reserves had a booth on the boat.  They also were making a presentation about bugs just for the children.

The highlight of the trip, at least for me, is getting to go through the lock, twice!  It just fascinates me. 

Pittsburgh has three main rivers that all come together.  The Allegheny and the Monogahela meet the Ohio at big "Y."  Last year we went up the Allegheny.  This year we went up the Monogahela.  Next year I hope that we go down the Ohio.

Just a short walk up the road, the family with the Purple martins also run a dairy farm.

(See the flying purple martin?)

(Adrian was having fun taking pictures.  My Mom and I headed up to the barn.)

This farm is a century farm.  It has been in this family for many generations.

Dairy farming is very interesting to me.  I have always like Holstein cows (the black and white ones).  And in 10th grade speech class, because what I've always wanted to be was a wife and Mom, and have always liked cows, I decided to do my occupation speech on becoming a dairy farmer.  LOL

The baby calves were the cutest!  The oldest, and biggest one, was born in early may.  She was also the most curious.  She came right up to us, and licked us with her very long, very wet, and very rough tongue.

The cow milk gets stored in this tank and every few days it gets picked up.

Here you can see it being stirred to help keep it cool.

You had to stand on a stool to see down into the tank. 

There are three generations working on the farm right now.  The youngest of the family showed us around the barn.  He was a very kind and knowledgable guide.

(Adrian is up on the stool, looking down into the tank)

We also saw a few more trees that we have not seen before and were able to collect leaf samples for our tree project. 

We had a great time at this little impromtu field trip.

I've said it before but I will say it again, I believe that my mother is a homeschooler at heart!  She sure does enjoy a good field trip!

We went to visit my mother on Friday because my grandmother was up visiting from Tennessee.  A few days before Friday, Mom called to tell me to make sure to bring my camera because she was taking us to see Purple Martins. 

Purple martins are the largest of the swallow family and will nest in communal birdhouses with different apartments.  It is a great honor to be a Purple martin "landlord" and my mom has the privilage of knowing a landlord first hand.  They were happy to provide us with a hands-on field trip!

This is a Purple martin housing development.  The males chose a cavity and the females chose their mate, not according to the male but according to the cavity that he has chosen.  She then moves in and sets up house.

This interesting birdhouse can be lowered so that the landlord can help to care for the birds.  They are very people friendly.

Each nest pulls out from the house like a drawer.  We were able to see various stages of baby birds.

They parents gather grass, straw and corn fodder to lay their eggs in.  Then, these martins covered their eggs with crab apple leaves.  There were three eggs in this nest.

This picture is a little blurry but you can see the brand new baby birds that haven't been hatched very long.  The mama bird was actually still in the house sitting on them and allowed the landlord to pick her up.  We quickly put these little ones back in their box because they looked cold.

These blind little ones thought we were mama bird returned to feed.  It was almost instantaneous the opening of their mouths...and quite comical!

Cameron is counting beaks on these older babies.  It is hard to tell whose who in the tangle of wings, bodies, legs and heads.  I think there are 5 babies here.

They are very people friendly birds and are handled a lot.  The landlord must check for blow fly larvae and other pests, as well as clean out the nest boxes occasionally.  Purple martins are very clean birds and will carry their young and own waste products out of the nest and away from the nest.

Both boys got to handle the birds several times.  They have FAT bellies. (The birds...not the boys)

They grow very quickly. 

Isn't he cute?

Purple martins eat and drink on the fly.  This means that they do not feed from bird feeders or drink from birdbaths.  They catch all their food as they fly through the air and will swoop low over a pond or body of water to get a drink.  Their favorite delicacy is dragon fly. 

This daddy bird has caught a butterfly to feed the youngen's.

Male Purple martins are a dark purple that looks black.  The females and immature male are a dark gray with some purple.

These birds are neo-tropic, which means they migrate each year.  They come to North America, even into parts of Canada, around April and will start heading south to Brazil in August.

This family also had a dairy farm!  But I'll save that for tomorrow.

On Monday, we took a field trip to the nature reserve Wolf Creek Narrows.  It is very close to where my mother lives and she came with us.  She had such a wonderful time planned for us.  Armed with wildflower books, clipboard, and a two page spread of pictures Mom had taken before, we headed off to explore and find the flowers on our checklist. 

Down a country road...

...across a metal grate bride (yes, we played a quick game of Pooh Sticks)...

...we headed down by the creek and into the woods for our wildflower scavenger hunt.

I had a lot of fun looking at and finding flowers.  Cameron was fascinated by the trees and was on the lookout for "double trees"...

...or just plain interesting trees.

We found quite a few double trees, two triple trees and one quadruple tree!

The most interesting double tree we found seemed to be upside down

And we found one tree that the woodpeckers really liked.

We found almost all of the 18 flowers on my Mom's picture list.  This is a trillium

We also found a few that were not on her list.  Cameron found this one and we identified it later as squawroot.

And we just enjoyed nature in general.

We are already making plans to come again later in the year to see what is blooming in the summer and plans for next year at this time.

After lunch we went out to the barn to see the animals.

Barn cats.

Horses:

(That is my mother supervising Cameron giving hay to the horses)

Cameron got to drive around a big tractor.

The family that we were visiting also run a butcher shop and she gave a great tour of their work area.

In the cooler with the sides of beef. 

Tongue, heart and liver.  You would think they were slimy or even wet, but they weren't.  The tongue was very long and rough.  The heart was neat because you could see the blood vessels on the outside.  The liver was enormous and very smooth in texture.

We learned how they prepare the cow for butchering.  Here is the hid room where they place the hides of the cows.  A company comes and takes them away every so often.  They put salt on them to help preserve it.

She showed us all the machinery that they use to process the meat into different cuts.  All of their equipment  is well taken care of.  This bacon slicer is over 50 years old.

The very interesting part is that she homeschooled her children and she was very good at showing things and explaining the process.

What a wonderful afternoon we had.  And it turned out to be educational as well.  I'm so thankful that I get to homeschool my son and that we can experience life and learning together.  I wouldn't trade it for anything.