Camping

We just returned from our second annual Labor Day weekend camping trip with the Timms Family. We had BEAUTIFUL weather....sunny and warm enough during the day to spend some time at the lake,

but just chilly enough in the mornings to allow us to pull out our long lost sweatshirts and enjoy some hot chocolate!

The girls all brought their Nature Notebooks and sat down together to work on those.

Michael had a close up encounter with nature while we were there.

These signs were posted everywhere, so I was careful not to let my kids wander around off the paths.....no one told me the snakes would come into my campsite!!! We were all over at the Timms' campsite (it was late and DARK!), and Michael ran over to get our extension cord. After unplugging our lights from the cord he felt something hit his foot (did I mention he was wearing flip-flops?!?). He put the light from his very little flashlight down by his foot and sure enough.....copperhead snake! It wasn't super big.....12-18" but hello, it was by our table!! I had just sent 2 of the girls over there alone to get water bottles from the cooler that was on the table! He threw his hammer at it and injured it enough to keep it still. Then he and Michael Timms went back with a bigger, brighter light to look for any snake friends and to finish it off. Needless to say, we didn't sleep super well that night! :)

Caleb had a much happier nature encounter....he caught his first fish!! Of course, I wasn't there and so neither was the camera, but here is a pretty cute picture of him fishing with his daddy.

On Saturday, we hiked ALL the way to the top of Fort Mountain. There was a beautiful view from up there. We would have been able to see forever if it had been a little clearer.

Near the top of the mountain is a stone tower and rock wall.

The where, why, who, and how of the structures is a mystery (did I mention that I hate mysteries?? I'm very much a "need to know the facts" kind of girl!). There are several different legends.....one of which has a Prince Madoc from Wales building the structures in the late 1100's.....some 300 years before Columbus! The big question is if Prince Madoc was even a real person.....or just a made up legend. It's very interesting to me that even with all of the research, there is still so much that we will probably never know for sure.

And now, back to school and every day life...... :)

Sheep Shearing

We recently had the opportunity to attend the annual "From Sheep to Shawl" event at the Atlanta History Center. We watched a ram being sheared, and then we were able to see demonstrations of carding, spinning, dying, and weaving. It came at a great time as we had just finished reading "Mountain Born". Ok, I have to say, out of all the read-alouds we've done this year, this was by FAR my least favorite and the hardest to get through. However, that being said, I am really glad we did it. While we were reading it, we were learning about Jesus being our shepherd, and the book did a wonderful job of painting the picture of what a shepherd actually is and does. It's amazing to think of Jesus taking care of us like that. So, once again, in what was supposed to be a lesson for my kids....mom learned a lot as well! It was a good reminder that even during this time of waiting....He is still leading us and keeping us from the wrong path. SO....back to the shearing. That was very interesting to watch. They sit the sheep up on their backsides, so all their legs are sticking straight out (unfortunately this angle also provided a fabulous chance for an anatomy lesson for my son..."Mom, what is THAT???"). Anyway.....they begin shearing at the shoulder, and if they know what they're doing, the wool comes off in one big piece.



The sheep are amazingly calm and still through the whole process. The blacksmith told us that sitting them back like that, kind of paralyzes them a little bit so they don't try to move. The ram that we saw sheared produces enough wool each year to make 5 sweaters! It was a ton of wool! We finished our time there with a walk through the garden at the history center. We had been through it in the winter, but it was gorgeous this time of year. It was a beautiful day (I'm pretty sure that was the weekend our family in the NW had several inches of snow!!) and we had a great time together!

Disney's The Lion King

As if we haven't had enough Disney this week!! Michael called yesterday to say that he had been given four tickets to see The Lion King at the Atlanta Civic Center. Seeing as how it is taking me a little longer to recover from our recent vacation, we decided that this would be a good opportunity for a daddy/kids date night (and some quiet, down time for me!). The kids and I have the opportunity to see several musicals and productions on stage throughout the school year, but Michael is rarely able to go with us. I think this was a good chance for him to do something like that with them. They had a BLAST! They all loved it...even the boy!