Sunday, October 12, 2014

Julia's Gallery: A Flock of Flamingos

flamingo with eggs

flamingo with egg standing in the water

Mama flamingo, baby flamingo, and egg (the text says "my picture is mine")

In case you couldn't tell Julia's latest animal obsession is flamingos. She has been studying them pretty closely both on shows and in person at the zoo. These are a few of her latest creations done in crayon.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Summer's Last Hurrah

The last weekend of September was incredible - 80 degrees and sunny, cloudless skies! Of course, we had to make one last trip to the beach. It was worth it even with our sniffly noses!



Thursday, October 9, 2014

Sunday Morning Puzzles

He'll be moving onto the crossword soon!




Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Mud Pie

I think the photos speak for themselves!



Saturday, October 4, 2014

Fall Fun

It's apple picking time! This year we went to Steere Orchards. We hadn't really planned on picking apples on this particular weekend as we had another goal in mind - finishing our RI Farm Scavenger hunt. 

Since the beginning of the summer we have been visiting farms, orchards, and wineries all over the state to complete a scavenger hunt that is organized by the RI Fruit Growers Association. There are 28 farms participating and our goal was to go to every one! It took all summer and lots of help from Grandma Laurie but we did it!!! 

Anyway, Steere Orchards was one of the last three stops on our list and it turns out that it's a great orchard. The apples were delicious and we had a fun hay ride! 




Are you looking for us?


Friday, October 3, 2014

A Boy and His...

...goat!?!?!

Benj's new friend at the Zoo

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

School Days!

As I think everyone knows by now we have decided to homeschool Julia. We kicked off our school year back in June right after she had finished at the Little Red Hen. We started then because Julia was excited about it and wanted to "do school." We also know that our kids do better with routine and structure and were sure that just starting off the way we meant to go on would be the best path. And it's been great!!

We had a wonderful summer. We did school work but really, Kindergarten is mostly fun stuff! So while we had our challenges with reading we also just eased our way into homeschooling. And it turns out that it was a good plan. In September we had a bunch of activities and groups start up and  while we had been doing school all along, we still had a bit of the "back-to-school" transition as we adjusted to a new schedule.

We have found a fantastic homeschool group in Rhode Island. We are making lots of new friends and have found them to be a valuable source of moral support and advice, ideas, etc. The group also organizes lots of activities, field trips, and classes. We've found lots of fun ways to break up our weeks!

We kicked off September with a "Not Back to School Beach Day!" on the day after Labor Day. And yes, I was very grateful that day to be packing my kids in the car and heading to the beach rather than waiting for a school bus!

Beach Bum

mastering the boogie board
We also are attending a six-week co-op where I am teaching a Nature class for 4-6 year olds (including Julia and Benjamin) and Julia is also taking a Spanish class. Both kids look forward to it every week. Julia loves her classes and Benjamin likes playing in the huge gym! A couple of weeks ago we had a crazy hat day where Julia's crazy hat made its reappearance.

crazy face to go with the crazy hat 
Benj preferred dapper to crazy!
I'll be sharing lots more of our adventures in the months to come!