Field Trip #9 ~ Evergreen Aviation, Take 2

Now this was more like it.
Leif spent the day with my mom
while I took Levi and Luke to the Evergreen Aviation Homeschool Day
Ilex increased the 'adult' child ratio to 1:1. Ahhhhh.

(Drake was with us as well, but participated in the activities for grades 5-12.)
Thank you, thank you, Ilex. You're a gem!!

The theme for the day?
The Wright brothers and Louis Bleriot, the invention process, and simple machines.

(Aha! So that's why we were reading those books....)

Our day started off with the IMAX show: The Magic of Flight.
Incredible!!!! We got to fly with the Blue Angels!! Yeah, Baby!!

Then off to tour the aviation museum.
Da Vinci's flying maching, the Wright Bros., Bleriot, and Howard Hughes and the Spruce Goose.

After lunch, we had a class on the invention process and simple machines.
Various stations were set up for experimenting with gears, pulleys, and more.

Then the kids got to invent their own games.

Much, much easier than the engineering projects last time. (Sigh of relief.)
We even had a little extra time to see more of the museum. What a gorgeous place!

If you have never seen the Spruce Goose in person, it is hard to fathom it's colossal size.
It has the largest wingspan and height of any aircraft in history. Whew!!
And it is made out of wood.

On the Book Stack

The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot

(Gorgeous illustrations by Alice and Martin Provensen... two of my favorites!!)

First Flight

To Fly: The Story of the Wright Brothers

Why? You ask.
Tune in tomorrow...

Living. Lovely. ~ Be Silly

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.

~e.e. cummings

So, did you take time to

Be Silly

This week?

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I'll be honest and admit that this was a tough challenge for me this week. I'm tired, and the boys are going crazy. We have some routine/discipline/training revamping to do in the next few weeks. Something's gotta change.

I've been trying to get in bed earlier at night to get in a decent amount of sleep before waking up at the crack of dawn to go walking/running, but it is really cutting into my down-time in the evening. Last night I desperately needed some silly, mindless entertainment. The dirty dinner dishes stayed in the sink, and I watched a movie instead. (GASP!)

The Man Who Knew Too Little is pure silliness.
Bill Murray was cathartic for me. And worth the sink of dirty dishes that faced me this morning.

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Next week's Living. Lovely. challenge:

Have a Heart of Gratitude

The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies;

but let the thankful heart sweep through the day

and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find,

in every hour, some heavenly blessings!

~Henry Ward Beecher

Living. Lovely. Late.

My weekly Living. Lovely. challenge post will be going up a day or two late this week.

But I promise it will be here by Friday afternoon....

Field Trip #8 ~ Bob's Red Mill

Did I mention we have been all about grains/mills/bread lately?
I've been meaning to get up to Bob's Red Mill (we use several of Bob's grain products),
and I thought their mill tour would be perfect for the boys.

I would just love to tell you all about my well-behaved, intelligent, quiet/still, curious boys and how much they loved this field trip.
I would love to tell you that I am a super-homeschooling-mother and was cheerful and gracious to my well-behaved boys.
Sigh. It was an off-day for all of us. We left the tour part-way through.
The boys were on over-load, needed to go to the bathroom, hungry.... I don't know, but it wasn't pretty.

The visitor's center/store/cafe is just down the road, and I decided a bite to eat might be what we all needed.
Sigh. We survived lunch, and then my mom and I took turns watching the boys in the truck while the other shopped for a few minutes.
(I think my mom was entertained by my meltdown.)
The long drive was by far the best part of our day. I'm so glad my boys are good on the road.

What I can say, is that it was certainly an awesome place to visit without young boys
with ants in their pants and an inability to keep noises from emanating from their bodies.
You can watch the mill tour video here.
The store/cafe/visitor's center is fabulous, and I would love to have a few hours there by myself!
They also sell their products online.

The Fire Cat

Meet The Fire Cat.

I often call Luke Curious George, but he is also very much like Pickles, the Fire Cat.
Pickles has big paws and wants to do big things, but he gets into trouble when he is bored.
He isn't a good cat, he isn't a bad cat, he is a good and bad, bad and good cat. He is a mixed-up cat.
Until he becomes the fire cat and gets to do big things.
The Fire Cat is Luke's favorite book to read.

It is a fun surprise for kids to get a peek at Jenny Linsky in the pages of The Fire Cat.
Jenny, the black cat with the red scarf.

Kids can meet Jenny in the pages of Jenny and the Cat Club (also by Ether Averill) in which they get to revisit their old friend, Pickles the Fire Cat.
I find this is a handy way to get kids interested in reading a book at a higher level:
give them something (or someone) familiar to get them instantly hooked.
Both Levi and Luke love Jenny and the Cat Club.

And if kids love Jenny, the rest of the series is now back in print, as well!
Guess what is on our Christmas list?

As a Shepherd

Today I'm Thankful For...

Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Pure Maple Syrup

The Science of Bread

Bread, bread, bread. I'm up to my ears in it! We had a fabulous visit to Thompson's Mill, made a few batches of Cranberry Orange Bread, visited Bob's Red Mill (more about that later)....

We found The Science of a Loaf of Bread at the library. It fit in perfectly with life and studies the last couple weeks. I was surprised by the amount of information in this book, and at a level just right for Levi and Luke. It covers various grains, why we eat bread, the different parts of wheat, how flour is made, how yeast works, making dough, how bread rises, what happens to bread as it is baked, how your body digests bread, physical and chemical changes, pictures, diagrams, experiments, and recipe and instructions for making bread.

Luke begged to make the bread. He had already read all the ingredients and instructions in the book, so there was no deviation from his plan. I think he had most of the ingredients out and on the counter before I finally caved. The kitchen was a disaster, we had other things to do, but there was no putting him off. We made bread. And, boy howdy, was he proud of his loaf!

I'm looking forward to reading the other books in the series. We have The Science of a Glass of Water on our stack for this next week. Water.... I think I can handle that.