Summertime Splash

When Sapphire asked if we could go see the people who fight in the mud, I knew I needed to plan a field trip to the PA Renaissance Faire.  One hundred of our homeschool group joined us for a day in the 1500s.  King Henry the VIII was still fit and trim when we saw him. The girls thoroughly enjoyed the reactions they received from the actors. 

They now know how to curtsy.

The latter half of the summer also took us to a cabin at Raystown Lake, a week of swimming lessons, and VBS.  This year Sapphire impressed herself by passing the swim test and claiming her right to the diving board, apparently a huge rite of passage for a nearly six year old. 

VBS buddies

Kayaking on Raystown Lake

The cabin

Beach Trip!

The girls have very specific birthday plans, and Pearl's included an all-family Cherry Picking Party.  They love to climb the orchard ladders.

We also took a few days and went to the beach.  We noted, with some pleasure, that it is suddenly much easier to move three children aged four and up compared to the old days. 

All the girls braved the ocean water for the first time, and I had the joy of seeing them bobbing all around me in the waves.  You can guess which child loved the thrill of the unexpected waves the most. 

On the way home we popped in at a Delaware plantation outside Dover.  We don't test much in our homeschooling philosophy, but this tour was the best type of test, as the docent asked them if they knew what the old fashioned things were.  They did.



 Here they are mixing up some syllabub in the kitchen. It would have been served room temperature. Ugh!

Discovering the wonders in our own backyard.

Birthday Cake

We have two big birthdays in June.  The girls brainstormed about gifts for their daddy, and Ruby and I shopped.  Then they created a scavenger hunt for him to find his presents.  We also were able to celebrate the good report after the brain surgeon checked her work on his brain last week.  Everything looked just like it was supposed to. 

Pearl is away at church camp this week, her first camp experience.  There are just 17 kids at the Nature Camp she's in, and she's sharing a bunk bed with a friend from church.  There were nerves before she left, but by the time we entered the cabin she was all smiles. 

Sapphire graduated from Kindergarten last week.  We had a little five minute ceremony for her, where she insisted on entertaining us by counting to 100.  She received a mommy-made certificate and a Frozen balloon.  She is now telling everyone she meets that she has graduated and that she is 5 1/2.  This is apparently part of some kid greeting ritual

Finally, our one big, free-ranging duck has taken to living in our carport, especially when it rains. We're not sure why, since he has the whole yard and pond to himself, but maybe he likes to see his reflection in my shiny car.

At Family Fun Day last week

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She fell asleep praying

Bring on June

A girl and her duck.  The ducklings are still too small to free-range, at least with a snapping turtle in the pond, so they are safe in their pen, happy to eat the peas and bugs we toss their way.  The girls seem to spend more time with them now that they are bigger. They grab a book and settle in to read beside the merry little outdoor pen. 

Ruby and I had a special day this weekend. Tea with Belle can be pretty overwhelming for a four year old. Why are the big kids wearing the crazy outfits?  And, ironically, this little girl is typically un-phased by her own crazy outfit ensembles.  Her first taste of musical theater went well, even though she couldn't weigh down her chair enough to sit on her own. 

Memorial Day saw Pearl sadly stuck at home with a fever, but the little girls and I enjoyed the Muddy Creek with friends.  Those little girls also had a chance to see their beloved Sunday School helper, home from his stationing in Alaska, for two Sundays. 

One Little Fish

Last weekend we pulled out our princess fishing rod and headed to the church's fishing derby.  Sapphire fished her heart out, but caught nothing.  She did learn to cast like a champ though! Ruby caught a little blue gill, and we were grateful for the help of a volunteering grandpa who managed its release for us.  Ruby was less interested in the catch than Sapphire, but she did enjoy the snack table.

This has been "Mulch Weekend" here.  Since the two little girls received work gloves for Christmas, they are eager to use them and ride the tractor wagon.  They seem more interested in finding worms than actually mulching, though.



Last Sunday Daniel participated in a dedication of the new church plant our church is supporting in York city.  We also had a chance to celebrate the baptism of the girls' little cousin and enjoy the amazing music at her church.  Then, this week we heard the pleasant news that the girls have a new tiny second cousin.  

When there's a rainbow, Daniel likes to capture it.

Duck Watching

The ducklings have moved to their teenager pad in the duck house. They are growing their real feathers and drinking water like crazy. The little girls especially find them entertaining. Today we completed construction on their outdoor run. 











Our homeschooling events reached a head this week with the Envirathon Competition and Field Day.  Pearl has been studying her Aquatics, Forestry, and Wildlife subjects with her team since January.  They took quizzes on their subjects, having to answer as a team. Her specialty is Forestry, and she did great. Her team, the Marvelous Maples, came in second overall in a competition of 67 teams, one point behind the leader.  We're pleased at this confirmation of all their memorization and learning this spring.

Here's a proud little reader. Sapphire has been diligent with her reading now that we have struck upon the rewards plan. After earning a trip to the Hands on House, she wanted to work toward a double scoop ice cream cone from Perrydell. I guess double scoops seem like a fantasy to a five year old!  She earned her scoops, and now we are working toward the next goal.  She's got a great attitude.

Pearl is proud of her Field Day ribbons

Pinewood Passion

This is Awana Grand Prix season, and that means that our family spends time discussing what each little girl wants to create, and their daddy researches plans, and, finally, they turn our house into pinewood derby workshop.


I'm including these pictures so that you cans see that the girls actually did collaborate with the construction.  Sapphire requested a chocolate theme, and Ruby wanted something from "Frozen" (big surprise). 


Tonight was the Grand Prix, and the girls were excited to compete and cheer on their friends.  My daughters' cars were probably the slowest ones there; they stood no chance at speed. The kids in our Awana program are all better engineers than anyone in this humanities household. Sapphire and Ruby were pretty excited to show their daddy the design trophies their cars won.






Daniel was on a trip for a church conference in Denver this last week. He so enjoyed the chance to see the scenic hugeness of Colorado. He spend a day out in the mountains, shod in borrowed snowshoes thanks to some gracious friends in Denver.  He said snowshoeing was neither as hard nor as cold as he imagined it would be. 

Our eight ducklings are starting to grow some very un-cute pin feathers. We've also acquired a cat for the summer while her owner visits family in China.  Our house menagerie is at its peak, I think. 

Our Little Flock

Hello, this is Pearl. We went to a duck hatchery in Lancaster County. We got four Khaki Campbell female ducklings. We asked if we could see the parents, and this is what we saw.  There were 1,000 ducks, the boy said. They have little boxes to lay the eggs in. All the parent ducks were chasing each other and running around the big room.

Then the boy handed us a box. It had our four duckies. We looked in and they were all so cute. We had these for two days before we got four Mallard ducklings, straight run, so we don't know if they are girls or boys.

We put the ducklings in the swimming pool. The purple things is where they get their water, and the green one is where they get their food. The ducklings did not know how to eat when we first got them, so we had to dip their beaks into the water and into the food. We have to do chores to keep their swimming pool clean. We have to change the bedding every day. And we have to change and clean out the water each day. That's my job.

Ducks are a little harder to take care of than I thought.

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Pearl has signed off.  I can share that we picked up the extra Mallards because three of our adult male ducks chose to stroll in the blind curve above our house (all for love), and they didn't make it back to the pond. We now have a quiet pair of last survivors outside, and we hope they will stick around to train the ducklings when they are ready to free-range.

Sapphire reached her goal of reading 20 books, so she earned a trip to the Hands on House which they all thoroughly enjoyed.  They especially like the face-painting station, as always. We played there for about five hours. After her next 20 books, we're heading to Perrydell for a double-scoop cone. 

Our co-op wrapped up this week, and all the girls brought home the projects they had worked on with their friends this semester. I'm in my last week of classes, so soon we will be rolling into the luxury of our early summertime.

Sapphire with "Rose"

Easter Traditions

We have made Easter eggs at this table in Rockwood, using these melamine teacups, for about 25 years, I think.  We have it down to a science, and we enjoy it thoroughly.  This year we had only one spill, and many, many lovely eggs.









This week our co-op took a field trip to a county park and learned about raptors. I had planned this as an extension of my Bird Science class. We also enjoyed a hike guided by an enthusiastic park educator. 


Pearl went to her second tournament and brought home a silver medal, obeying my firm instructions not to bring home any huge, gaudy trophy which is impossible to display, or store. Her daddy totally ignored this advice.  Here's a picture from Pearl's first tournament.  We encourage her to do these not for the medals, though they are nice, but for the chance to get out in front of people and do her best. 

Recent Crafting

My classes at our last co-op focused on nest building. The kids cheered with joy when the learned they would be making nests.  I don't exactly understand kid enthusiasm, but I'm glad they liked it. After carefully watching a robin build her nest, my little bird scholars totally failed to build anything like it.  We learned a lot in the process, though!



Peal has also been sewing some burp cloths for a special baby cousin and a crisis pregnancy center nearby.  At first she could only cut out the pattern, but now she can cut, pin, and sew it from start to finish.  If only I could control the tension on our wayward sewing machine!

Since we've hit our 180 days and have relaxed on the school work just a bit, she has been sewing and knitting up a storm while listening to her audio books.  She designed and knitted a pair of footies that fit her. The little girls are more dependent on me to craft, which seriously limits them.  We are working on making a Fruits of the Spirit Tree. 

Peal has gone to Boston with her daddy for her first tournament. We thought she might be timid sparring, but the little thing earned a bronze medal in two events. 

Washington DC Spring Break Trip

I took the three girls to Washington DC for three days.  We discovered many things about the big city, and none of us got lost.  They seemed to especially enjoy the metro and the escalators connected to it---the taller the better.

The first two days we spent on the Mall.  Pearl was most interested in seeing the National Art Gallery first, so we popped in there. I had hoped to see a few rooms just as exposure to this type of museum, but they kept catching glimpses of beautiful paintings in adjacent galleries, so we really enjoyed the visit.


I did not realize how many famous painters were on display there. We saw a whole wall of van Gophs, Whistlers, Degas, Monets, Gauguins, and one portrait by our ancestor Benjamin West. Yes we made the docents nervous, but with two little hands clutched in mine, we made it out without damaging any national treasures.

We saw dinosaurs and mummies in the Natural History Museum, then rode the carousel on the Mall.  This pleased their little hearts so much, I was glad we paused to do it.  The next day we visited the Native American History Museum, the National Botanic Gardens, the American History Museum, and the Zoo (and carousel #2).

We did pop into the Air and Space Museum, which rated high on all of the "kids and DC" web sites, but the girls all detested it and couldn't wait to leave, no matter how many fascinating moon crafts I pointed out.  It is as I feared, but could not avoid; we are a wholly humanities household. We made our way to Chinatown both nights for fresh sesame balls and dinner, upon the girls' request . 


On our final day, we visited Mount Vernon.  It is sort of cute to hear four-year-old Ruby talk about George Washington.  No carousels here, but we learned to curtsy from Mrs. Washington and toured the mansion.  They all liked the blacksmith's nail-making demonstration best. Once the noisy school groups left, I sighed with relief as we peeked into the outbuildings and figured out what it took to run a plantation. 

The igloo won (Native American History Museum)

The carousel on the Mall