Discovery Place Kids

So my friend Rebecca and I packed up all our kids and headed to Discovery Place Kids for the morning last Wednesday. We had planned to do this the Friday before, but things didn't work out then & I for one was tired of the kids asking "When are we going to Discovery Place with Garrett & Olivia???"
The kids had a great time playing in every station. The submarine is always a hit with Nathan, and Caroline loves the vets office. Rebecca graciously watched all four of the big kids so that I could take Ava to the little kids area. Then, who should walk in but Daddy! Dan stopped by to surprise us during his lunch hour. He played with all the kids, took & posed for some pictures, and then was back off to work. What a great daddy!
But the big question of the morning was "Can we play in the water yet?" We told the kids that was the last thing we would do. Finally they couldn't wait any longer. They had a great time!

Bugs!

So, I'm trying to stay faithful with Caroline's home schooling. These past couple of weeks have been much easier because of the bugs! We are working on insects this week & butterflies next week. The curriculum I'm using (My Father's World) recommends getting an ant farm for the insect unit, and a butterfly habitat for the butterfly unit. We now have both. The ants arrived about a week ago & they have really been busy! No surprise there! ;) The caterpillars arrived last Saturday, and they have already grown as well.

I was actually kind of worried about the ants for a few reasons. I naturally was worried about having ants in my home, they live in the kitchen, no less. And they can sting. So the rule is you don't touch the ant farm! I was also worried about getting them from their packaging into the farm. But that turned out to be very easy. You put them in the fridge for ten minutes & they "go to sleep." Then you just dump them in the farm. The instructions said they might take up to 24 hours to get really going, but ours started moving their sand within about half an hour. However, the next morning when I came down to the kitchen, more than half of them were huddled in a big group not doing anything. It didn't occur to me that ants might sleep, or work in shifts, but I guess God is the only being really on the clock 24/7! In spite of their napping or shifts or whatever it is, they really have made lots of progress with their tunnels. The kids are really learning what it means to "Look at the ant you sluggard..." and I am helping them translate that into picking up their toys!




















Tunneling...























Napping...

My Sweet Baby Ava

It dawned on me that Ava isn't in any posts yet. I was very newly pregnant with her at the beach, and she was sleeping when we made the s'mores. She is such a sweet addition to our family - I thought she deserved a post of her own.

S'mores!

So, I guess I have been craving s'mores since my friend Melanie's baby shower two weeks ago. I brought chocolate fondue, which included marshmallows. I knew we had graham crackers at home, so s'mores naturally popped into my mind. I have been thinking about them ever since. I went online to try to find an indoor s'mores recipe, but didn't find anything that suited me. So, I just layered the essentials & baked at 350 for a total of 7 minutes, with lots of checking. They hit the spot! The kids had fun getting gooey, too!

More Beach Pics

The Beach

Caroline and Nathan enjoyed their first trip to
the beach a few weeks ago. We stayed at Litchfield Beach & Golf Resort, and had a great time.

The first night there we enjoyed the Southern belles and horses at Dixie Stampede. Dan wasn't crazy about this idea, but at the end he was thanking me for buying the tickets. Our eyes were all about as big as saucers for the entire show. At one point I looked over at Nathan who was still chewing on his finished corn on the cob. He was so mesmerized that he didn't realize there was no corn left!

We loved Brookgreen Gardens, which was only about five minutes from where we stayed. They have beautiful gardens and sculptures. I loved the live oaks with Spanish moss hanging from the limbs. We also saw lots and lots of butterflies and huge grasshoppers. They also have a small zoo that the kids loved. We got up close and personal with the river otters and an alligator.

I think the kids liked the beach the best. We thought that Caroline would stay in the sand and out of the ocean. She doesn't like to have her hair washed in the bathtub. But once we got there, we couldn't get thatgirl out of the ocean! She kept saying to Dan, "Daddy, let's go ride the big kahuna waves!" We thought Nathan would love everything about the beach, but we couldn't get that child in the ocean. He would play and play in the sand, but he cried when we all went in the water. Finally, on the last day, he tried it and liked it. It was too bad we had to leave!