DNA DAY

I am blessed to work part time for a local biotechnology institute.  While I don't work in a scientific capacity I am always intrigued by the scientific geniuses that are working right here in our own little town.

We were invited to tag along on a field trip organized by a friend I work with today and we had such a GREAT experience. 

The kids got to extract DNA from a strawberry, first mechanically and then chemically....science for the win!

We won't talk about the tears that ensued over math once we got home!

SUMMER 2015 - Lakes-Berries-Caves-Snakes-Baseball-Dyslexia-Robot Zoo-Bugs

What a BUSY summer!

We made a bucket list for summer and did ALMOST all of it.

Our annual Honeycomb Beach excursion was quite fun.....and infinitely easier than last year.

Our trip to Jack's lake was awesome, and the fact that I finally (after 3 years) made it through a Jack's Lake day without letting the boys get sunburnt was just the icing on top!

We hit 24.75 hours of reading over our 6 week break and the boys were thrilled to turn in their reading logs to our beloved Miss Maggie at the library at the final summer reading party....which just happened to include snakes, lizards and frogs.

Creek trips always top the summer (and who am I kidding...spring and fall) to do lists for the boys.

We made a trip to Cathedral Caverns with Nana and Gramps.  No trip to the caverns is complete without a berry picking excursion.  Thankfully Nana is an adept berry picker, even when the little boys lose focus in the adjacent peach orchard.

I participated in an INTENSIVE dyslexia training at our local Dyslexia school to beef up my skills in teaching Matthew.  Nana & Gramps came and kept the boys....as a result these boys got a little spoiled and Kimber thinks all toast now "needs" CHEESE on it.

The baseball bug has hit Matthew HARD.  He has always loved baseball but I would bet we have played catch 5 out of 7 days for the past 3 months, since baseball season ended.  He also attended a 3-day baseball camp at the local high school that he thoroughly enjoyed.

The local Space and Rocket Museum has a Robot Zoo exhibit that is phenomenal.  We spent a fun day exploring it and enjoying the lack of crowds as the local schools have started.

Our new school year starts next Monday!  We are shifting from American History and Geography to a study of the ancients this year.  Add this to math, reading, cursive, biology, geology and Latin.  We will be dissecting owl pellets (poop) and crayfish in a few weeks and the boys cannot wait. 

Skins and Skulls

This homeschooling life, while crazy some days, affords us many opportunities for learning outside the box.  We went on a field trip to the Madison County Extension Office yesterday and got to learn all about local animals and explore their SKINS and their SKULLS.  We all learned something, did you know when opossums are well, playing possum it is called SULLING?  Us neither.  We also learned that the eye placement is different for carnivores and herbivores.  Super interesting stuff and these boys of mine had an ABSOLUTE blast.  Did I mention it was free??

Matthew channeling his inner Davy Crockett

Kimber was super intrigued by the beaver skin

A bobcat skull

Annual Strawberry Picking

We finally made it out for our annual excursion to the strawberry patch.  This just might be one of my favorite traditions, and I have visions of teenage boys rolling their eyes at me in ten years as I make them fill their own buckets.  For now, they mostly love it and certainly eat as much, if not more, than they pick.

The patch was especially muddy this year, miraculously my two stayed pretty clean.

The second best part to picking them, the JAMAPALOOZA that follows.  We had a new team member this year, between the three of us we canned (53) half-pint jars of strawberry deliciousness.

Oh Kimber

This evening, while driving home from an adventure in Birmingham Kimber told us he needed to tee-tee BAD.  The next exit just happened to be a rest stop so off I pulled.  I unstrapped Kimber and let him out, as I climb out of the back seat from unlatching Matt I see Kimber's little buns.  Apparently he could not wait until we walked the 10 whole feet to the bathroom to relieve himself, so in front of innocent bystanders..at the ENTRANCE TO THE visitor building he let it flow.  The walk of shame commenced and I confess....I was completely cracked up and totally humiliated...all in the same breath.

Pumpkin Patch 2012

One of our must do activities each fall is visiting the pumpkin patch.  True to form, we made it out twice and had loads of fun picking out pumpkins, swimming in corn cribs, petting animals, picking cotton, swinging, riding tractors, jumping and sliding.

His scarecrow impression

Ready to cannonball into the corn crib

Corn Angel

Awesome swing

Captured random brother kisses on the tire swing

Best slide ever!

Maze masters

I "need" two!

Pumpkin love

Very much loving the corn

Boy have these guys grown fast, 3 short years ago they were so tiny, in fact we all fit into one corn train car here....http://teamriggle.blogspot.com/2009/10/pumpkin-patch-2009.html

Jack's Lake

So we have a little friend named Jack.

He has a lake.

And a boat.

And an awesome lake house.

And quite possibly more toy tractors than we do.

(Unbeknownst to my little boy, Jack's parents are some of the hardest working people I know that sacrifice every single day so that Jack can have all of these awesome boats, houses and lakes)


I think Matthew has a little man crush on Jack..and his lake..and the boat is just fuel to the proverbial fire.

Some snaps of our trips to Jack's lake...and please, I know Kimber is terribly sunburnt, we learned our lesson about reapplying under the eyes.

Early Spring

Spring sprung pretty early this year, we have thoroughly enjoyed all of our outdoor adventures these last few months.  Before we know it the mosquitoes will arrive followed by the blinding heat.