Monthly Archives: September 2012

Mill Mountain Zoo

Today we went to Mill Mountain Zoo up at the star. The kids played at the playground first and then we went to check out the overlook again. It really is pretty up there.

The zoo itself is tree covered and the perfect size for young kids. It even has a small playground for them which was a great thing yo see at the end. It had a lot of Exotic animals such as a red panda, a snow leopard, an asian cow, and some funny little monkey that I can’t remember the name.

The down side of the zoo was that it wasn’t very humane for most of the animals. The muskrats hardly had any water to play in and the porcupines were in a dirt room. I felt bad for most of them. Tom asked what my rating was for the zoo on a scale of 1-5 and I gave it a 2.5, strictly due to the habitats for the animals. If I didn’t care, it would be a 4.

Overall, we had a good time and saw some exciting animals.

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Miller is 10 months old

I can’t believe that my baby is ten months old already. He is growing up so fast. In my mind he is still five months old. This is probably due to a combination of denial and the fact that he only weighs 18 pounds. He had his nine month check up this past week and he is in the fifth percentile for height and weight. My friend’s four month old twins weigh as much as he does. I like it though, keep him small for as long as I can.

I don’t think he will ever walk, I carry him all the time. He never gets the chance to try! He did walk all the way around the coffee table today while holding on to it. That was a first! Tom said he was so proud of himself he grinned and got very excited. Too cute! As I just put him down for his nap I realized how old he really is.

He is still so sweet and easy. I almost feel bad sometimes because he doesn’t always get the attention when the other kids are around. Today we was in his highchair eating and I forgot that he was there. Faith and Wilson were asking their usual assortment of endless requests. Miller quietly sat in his chair and watched the chaos.

I find it getting harder and harder to give each of them attention. I end up doing nothing well. For instance, while I was sitting here typing my thoughts I took a break to put Faith’s hair into ponytails. I am also still wearing a shirt wet with pee because Miller’s diaper leaked on me. By the third child I don’t even care that I have pee touching me. I am used to it.

I did manage to get some school done today. I tricked Faith into doing math by telling her I was running a store and she had to come and buy things. I gave her some quarters and pennies. She bought at least ten items and had to pay me what coin I told her I was charging. Brilliant, right?!?!

We practiced out Bible verses and did three time line cards. The kids are learning a good bit of sign language through both of these. It is a great way to get them to remember things. I am excited to be learning it too.

Tomorrow we are going to go to the small zoo up at the star…that is, if I don’t have to take Miller to the doctor. I am pretty sure that he has a double case of pink eye. Unfortunately, this means that all of us will need to put in drops. We will see what tomorrow brings…

Kind of random, but here are two cool pictures of a storm that came in today while we were leaving the store. The clouds looked like ocean waves.

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We almost quit

I almost quit going to the Classical Conversations home school class here in Virginia. Faith hasn’t been wanting to do the work and I dont blame her. It is way above her head and boring. She wants to play and have fun in school.

We all woke up late this morning and I decided that we weren’t going to bother going if she complained about it. I told her that we weren’t going and she got upset and said that she wanted to go. I knew the real reason that she wanted to go was because there is a great dollhouse in her classroom that she wants to play with. Whatever gets her there!

We went. We were thirty minutes late but missed only a few of actual class time. I told faith that she could play with the should during science since we do the same experiments in Charlotte. She was thrilled. It is a great dollhouse.

I was glad that we went. Turns out that a mom in our class lived in Summit County, Colorado the same exact years that I did. We never met out there but it was fun to talk about old times. I miss living out there so much. It was beautiful beyond belief and so much fun. It was all about the enjoyment of life and there was very little to worry about back then. I miss it.

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Random…

It has been an active but uneventful week. We went out to Cane Creek Park on Saturday to play. Tom went on a bike ride while the kids and I played on the playground and in the water. We plan to camp there next week. On Monday and Wednesday the kids were at my mom’s house. Yesterday we went to Monkey Joe’s yesterday for a long time with Rachel and her two kids. Here are some pictures of what we have done….

Faith and Wilson at Monkey Joe’s. It has six large inflatables for the kids to play and jump. We plan to have their birthday party there on October 19th. Because they have the same friends and their birthdays are two weeks apart, they will have a combo party this year.

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Here is a picture of them at Cane Creek Park playing in the water.

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Miller loves to inhale and exhale out of his mouth when he is excited. Here we are together doing his funny excited face…..and of course his perpetual smile!

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We received in the mail Miller’s new stocking for Christmas. Tom’s mom, MaMaw/Rebecca, made it for him. We each have a handmade stocking from her and they are all fabulous. So blessed…

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I finally finished Wilson’s footprint.  He wanted it to be a tractor.  So cute!  I love doing these.  I frame them and put them in their rooms as art.

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Classical Conversations in Charlotte – First Day

We had our first day at school with our Charlotte home school group at CC.  It was fun.  It is a much smaller group than the one in Roanoke, but Faith’s class still has about 6 kids in it.  I really like her teacher here in Charlotte.  Her name is Amber and she is very knowledgeable and resourceful.  She wears many, many hats in life.  Faith seems to like her a lot too.  Faith fell in the parking lot during break and she cried, “I want to see my teacher!”  That is something completely new.  I was surprised, yet comforted, to know that Faith thought of her teacher as someone that could make her feel better.

I think that we are finally getting the hang of this curriculum.  Faith has learned fourteen of the many, many timeline cards that she is required to put in order.  She knows the cards, the hand motions that go with it, and the song.  She can seriously put in order:  the creation, the flood, Mesopotamia and Sumer, Egyptians, Indus River Valley Civilization, Minoan and Mycineans, Hittites, Kush, etc.  I don’t even know what some of those are!!  I am learning history and geography right along with her.  This is what is so attractive about the curriculum.  I never learned any of these things – or at least wasn’t held responsible for remembering them.  I have decided that even if we send her to a traditional school next year, she will continue to learn and memorize the history/timeline facts on the side. Wilson is learning the song too just because he hears it so much.  I think even Tom was impressed when he heard her singing the song the other day in the car.

I have only made her learn the timeline cards up to this point.  After this week will be begin to look at geography and grammar.  Now that she is warming up to home schooling and sees how it is taught in class, I think that she will be open to learning additional information.  We are going slow, but I can see already what a sponge she is. So far, so good!

The Roanoke Star

Roanoke is known for the star that sits on top of Mill Mountain in the southern part of town. It is a large star that lights up at night. I found out that the star was put up there the day after Thanksgiving in 1949. It was supposed to attract visitors to come and Christmas shop. Everyone liked it so much that it stayed. Now people visit the star, get engaged up there, and the town has made itself the “Star City of the South”. Up at the top there is a nature center, a small zoo, and a playground.

I thought it would be fun to go so I packed up the kids and off we went. We drove up the mountain and parked near the playground. I wanted to actually see the star but the kids weren’t interested. We went up to the overlook which was beautiful. You could see all of the city below and the mountains surrounding the town.

There was also a small nature center there. There was a bee hive, snakes and a few insects to look ate. Oddly enough, there was a game called “The Scat Match”. They gave you different four animals and you were to match the animals with their poop (which is also called scat). Hilarious!! I took a picture of the kids playing it. Wilson and I also dressed up like bees.

After the nature center we went to the playground. It was a small playground but the kids had fun.

I can now say that I have been up to the star!

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The is the scenery from the overlook.  Beautiful.

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This game they could move the magnetic insects around to where they would be camouflaged the best.

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