Davy Crockett's Cornbread

Last week we went on a field trip with some friends of ours from Church who are also homeschoolers. We visited David Crockett State Park near Lawrenceburg, TN. Our friends were a little bit late so we got to spend some time with Ranger Hannah getting to know the resident corn snake at the park. Her name is Cornbread. Cute huh?

Ranger Hannah taught us a lot about snakes. Here's what we learned about snakes. (Going from left to right and top to bottom in the picture.)

Gameboy: Only three of the 32 species of snakes living in Tennessee are poisonous.

Princess: Cornbread is not a poisonous snake.

Spaceman: A snake is poisonous if; it has eyes like a cat, it's head is shaped like a triangle (and has puffy cheeks), and it's tail has only one row of scales. (By the way, doesn't he looked spaced in this picture?)

Cowboy: You can tickle a snake by rubbing your finger gently down their belly.

We really liked Ranger Hannah. She took us out to the little stream behind the Visitor Center and taught us how to catch salamanders. The kids had lots of fun splashing around in the stream.

Spaceman even caught a salamander. Mommy is still learning to use the camera and forgot to use macro mode. Too bad the salamander came out all blurry.

Once our friends showed up Ranger Hannah gave us a tour of the Visitor's Center and showed us what life would have been like in the early 1800s. The boy's especially liked the knife that Davy Crockett would have used. No matter how much they asked Ranger Hannah would not let them touch it. Sorry boys.

Living with a Gourmet Chef

Okay, maybe that's streching it a bit, but Gameboy really enjoys all parts of cooking, including making a good presentation. When I was unpacking this time instead of putting all the pretty fancy bowls away I decided to keep them out and use them.

There is a song by Zoe Mulford, Elegy (Crystal Glass), that talks about not saving things for just special days.

Glasses may break if you use them every day
You can keep them safe - but what good are they
if they just stay shut up in some chest?
Why wait to use the very best?

So in that spirit we have been using the fancy glass bowls. For lunch last Thursday Gameboy came up with a very creative use for the hobnail milkglass candy dish my Mom had passed on to me.

Yes, those are corndogs.

Don't you think they complement the dish beautifully?

Gameboy and the Princess think so.

Little Miss on the move!

Little Miss is very much on the move now. She loves running away from her brothers when they are trying to catch her and keep her out of trouble. It's really cute to watch.

For her first birthday I had wanted to get her the Brilliant Basics™ Stroll-Along Walker™ and Baby’s 1st Doll. Grandma VH bought her the stroller and Grandma VO bought her the doll. She really loves both. Grandma's are so wonderful!

Here she is pushing her stroller.

We named her doll Rosie.

Can you tell that Little Miss put Rosie in the stroller?

It's so fun watching Little Miss and her sister playing dolls together. They are both such sweet little mommies. I love to see Little Miss patting her doll on the back. She is such a sweetie.

Chocolatechic Cookies

This past Saturday Mark and I were in Ohio for a get away to celebrate our 12th Wedding anniversary. We stayed at one of our favorite Bed and Breakfasts, Donna’s of Berlin. They are located in Holmes Co., Ohio, in the heart of Amish country. The kidlets stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Van Hoose.

We also got to visit one of my favorite bloggers, Chocolatechic. We had a wonderful time visiting and of course got to try some of her homemade goodies. I’m highly recommending that you check out her blog and get the recipe for these uberyummy cookies.

Our taste testers were up to the challenge.

And the verdict is...

YUM!

Hali thought so too!

Lost in Space

The best part of our trip to Adventure Science Center was the SpaceChase exhibit. All of the big kids had to try the Moonwalker to see what it would be like to walk on the Moon in 1/6 gravity.

Here are our intrepid Moonwalkers!

What? This isn't the Tinkerbell ride? -Princess

I am Ninja Spaceman! -Gameboy

Hey, that was a pretty good rodeo! -Cowboy

Wow, this Nasa training is fun! -Spaceman

There were lots of other fun things. One that the kidlets really liked was an interactive globe. It's called a Tilt a World. "Using a specially designed navigation table, visitors can tilt and twist the surface to explore the Earth. A robust database of satellite imagery allows the visitor to zoom in to find their favorite location or zoom out to get the big picture".

Little Miss liked trying to catch the swirling stars on the floor.

Adventures in Science

It's been a busy couple of weeks for us. We had a trip to Ohio and a busy week here in Music City. So we decided to take some time out in order to have some fun this weekend. We went to visit the Adventure Science Center. The kidlets had earned free admissions for themselves through the library summer reading program, pretty cool huh?

Here are some of our favorite highlights!

This won't hurt a bit! Isn't she a cute doctor?

Gameboy's got his work cut out for him with
this giant pinball trip through the intestines.

Cowboy helps a buddy pull himself together.

Watch out Spaceman! He's right behind you!

We had a great time!

I'll have Mom post more tomarrow!

Let's just say, it was a "ball"!