Beginning of the week

It's a rainy Monday morning as I type out the first blog of the school week. Coffee is ready, boys are still sleeping (although Thing One may be up before I am finished), chores are started (Kevin started the dishwasher ~ Thank You!!!!), and I'm just getting to introducing our school week. Madlib Monday will still be here, just later today.

We are reading and rowing "Owl Moon" by Jane Yolen, illustrated John Schoenherr this week. It's another winter favorite of ours. To begin our study of owls, we went to a local county park Friday night for an "Owl Pondering". We got a quick introduction to Owls, dissected an Owl pellet (good starter for me as we have two for each boy here), went on a hike "to see" nocternal animals. Unsuccessfully I might add.

At Hidden Pond Nature Center, there is a barn and garage for office space and garage type stuff. There, an Owl usually likes to hang out. The staff a few live mice, that they would throw onto the garage roof, so the owl would come and get it. Very cool to see it swoop in and hear the talons scrap the roof. The birds are very quiet. Neat opportunity for the boys.

Well, we've had a number of rainy, above freezing days lately. It got me thinking that prior to when we left, that boots would definitely be in order for the hike. My thought proved wise. The boys and my boots after hiking:

There is a lot more fun stuff to come, this go around of Owl Moon. I'm not sure who will enjoy the book more, the boys or me. Guess we'll find out on Friday!!


P.S. Our oldest is still asleep, at 7 AM, as I get ready to post.

Cox Farms

The boys and I joined our co-op at Cox Farms today. We had never
been before, so this was a treat. I hadn't realized how much
there was to do there. There were loads of slides, animals to see and feed,
shows to see, a hay ride, food to eat (not included in the entrance fee!!!). Here are
some of the highlights from our trip.

Boys at the top of the castle slide.

Hopefully the above and below pictures are obvious ~
Thing Two (above) and Thing One (below) enjoying
the slides.

Time for a hay ride (it was mighty itchy)!

Scenes from the hay ride.

Peter Pan

Beauty and the Beast

Thought this tomb stone was to funny. I was happy to see it turned out.
I'd been taking photo's hoping they'd turn out.

We came to the fork in the road.

Wooden horses

Lost and found chairs for teachers. There is a
bench you need to step on in order to get in those.
Guess I should have been in it instead of the boys!!

On the way out, you get to take a
small pumpkin. Here are ours at home.

Field Trip Excursion

Today was a monumental day for me.  We (the boys and I) went into D.C. to look at a couple museums.  I'm not normally the one to go into the District on my own, so this was hugh for me.

Anyway, we have been reading "The Hickory Chair", from Five in a Row and the illustrator, Benny Andrews, has some of his works on display in various museums in New York, Georgia, Japan, and D.C.  I thought it would be a good opportunity to take the boys in and go to a couple.  I was quite happy when I found out that the Jim Henson display was still going on.  It was very easy to get to, via the Blue Line Metro.  The unfortunate part, there were signs everywhere stating no pictures.  However,

I took this one before I realized I wasn't suppose to!!

This was in the area where kids could create story boards.

The boys had a great time watching the video's of the various things Jim Henson has contributed to:  Sesame Street, Muppet Show, and Fraggle Rock.  There was an area that you could put on a puppet show and it was "televised" to another TV in the hall.  There where muppets on the wall that you could attach eyes, noses, eyebrows, or mouths.  And of course the usual, overpriced gift store.

All in all, it was a good experience riding the metro in, finding the museums, and getting home (until I couldn't find the exit, in the parking deck, that accepted credit cards.  Obviously I did as I am blogging about it now)!!

ETA:  actually changed a word so the sentence was correct.  Fortunately for me, my hubby was an English Major in College, so my lacking in Language Art skills is balanced with his need for a red pen.  :)

Field Trip Excursion part II

Our Very First Field Trip

These photo's were the ones the boys asked me to take at the Smithsonian Castle. Airplanes and rockets are always a hit in our house.

They thought the Penny Farthing was cool. We read about them last year. Will have to pull that book out again. :)

Live cam of the Panda's at the National Zoo. Thing Two really wanted this one.

Had to take a photo of the Gibson Electric Guitar. My husband would have if he were with us.