A HAPPY FIND

Sam found this little tin suit of armor in the creek behind our house.

A HAPPY FIND

Sam found this little tin suit of armor in the creek behind our house.

PLAY DAY

We were invited to join some other homeschooling mothers and kids at Chestnut Ridge park for a play day. It turned out to be great fun. We had a picnic lunch and then enjoyed the sunshine and meeting new friends for the rest of the afternoon.

A SALAMANDER

Can you see him? You can click on the picture to enlarge it.

SAND PLAY

The park where we met had a nice little sandy beach and swimming area. There was a group of about ten boys who worked away at digging a trench, filling it with water and then putting in the salamanders that they caught. They did swim, but the boys had the most fun on this project.

This is Will, who spent nearly all of his time here with a couple other boys digging and digging....

Calvin spent the whole time pushing this tractor around and filling it with sand.

BATHING BEAUTY

First discovery of sand

14 MONTHS OLD

ENJOYING THE POOL

ROCKET SCIENCE PROJECT

Turbo Rocket I; The first rocket that we tried to launch 4 times before it fell apart. Arghh. Experiments often go awry. We tried again a few days later.

Launching Turbo Rocket II

NAPPING 3 YEAR OLD

Calvin with sheets from Grammy and blanket made by Great-Grandma Bethel, he's cozy and very loved!

Sam showing Amelia a frog that he caught

BLOOMS

Azalea

Some kind of mini iris that came up in the front flower bed

THIS ONE IS FOR YOU, MOM

More Pictures from the State Park trip....

Hot Dog Roast
It was so muddy and there was a big puddle in the bottom of our campfire pit, but we just had to try to have a fire before we left. Sam dug a trench to drain out the pit and the boys collected what wood they could from the forest. We ended up with a pretty decent roasting fire. It was a very muddy dinner, but you can't even tell in the picture, can you?

This is Calvin's first time to roast a hot dog himself.

Smores!

I think Benny likes marshmallows.

Rescuing Amelia from the mud.

The Ship

Rearranging furniture to become a sea-faring vessel. Another great way to spend some time inside during the rain.

The crew, on board.

The Pine Trail

I took the three oldest boys on a hike during naptime one afternoon. We went through a marsh and wetland area and got very muddy even though we were on a trail. On the way back we took a short trail called the Pine Trail and REALLY enjoyed it. There were wonderful tall pines as pictured above swaying in the breeze and it was flat and dry and just very lovely.

The boys love to collect interesting and lovely things along the way.
Sam picked the biggest leaf that he could find.

The really big leaf makes a great hat.