Last 3 Weeks in Review

We've been chugging right along with school. Colin has been doing much better doing his work independently this year, which really helps since I have to spend a lot of my time taking care of our little one. She doesn't sleep much at all, but she is usually pretty happy so I can get some school done with the girls while she plays or I'm nursing her. She likes to doze off on me so I try to use that time for reading history or our current Little House on the Prairie book.

Colin has finished two modules of Exploring Creation with Physical Science. He's doing well with the VideoText Algebra. He's never done anything where he watches the lesson so I wasn't sure how it would go.
We've finished four chapters of Story of the World 4 and are studying the Civil War now.

We need one more day to finish reading These Happy Golden Years. I'm kind of sad that we only have two more books in the series. It feels like I waited forever for the right time to read it and I'm so happy that the kids liked it so much. It's been so fun to do activities, dress them up, and visit the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites. I guess I can start looking forward to doing it again when Sophie is older.



We've done lots of fun things in the last three weeks. We've been trying to soak in the nice weather for as long as it lasts because I'm sure it won't be too much longer. We had a great time visiting an apple orchard and a pumpkin patch. I have lots of pictures from those so they will need their own posts.

Another fun thing we did is an archery class with our homeschool group.

 

 

There was a cool park near there where the kids enjoyed playing for a while.

 

 

 

 

We also went to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Unfortunately, it started raining pretty hard after a couple hours so we didn't get to do as much as planned. The kids had a good time while we were there though.

 

Last week, we walked to the park a couple of times because it was so nice. It's 1 1/2 miles on trails from our house.

 

Sophie got to try a swing for the first time and loved it.

 

Our baby girl got her first 2 teeth, which you can see here.

 

Laura Ingalls Wilder Days- Pepin, Wisconsin

We've been reading the Little House on the Prairie books for the last few months. One of the things I was most excited about when we found out we were moving to Minnesota was being close enough to visit some of the sites from the books. We've visited three of the sites this summer. Although Pepin, Wisconsin was the third site we visited, I'm going to start with it since it's the one from her first book.

This weekend was Laura Days so we decided to plan our visit to go to that too. Pepin is the setting for Little House in the Big Woods. Laura was born 7 miles north of Pepin. They have a log cabin that may have looked like hers built on land that was owned by Charles and Caroline Ingalls. The big woods are gone and have been mostly replaced with farmland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a museum there with items that would have been from the time Laura lived. It was just a quick walk through for us. The other museums we've visited have a lot more Laura memorabilia. They are renovating this museum and it looks like the size will increase a lot so hopefully it will have more to it after that. The museum has a gift shop with some cute things.

 

You can also see the lake that Laura talks about in the book on her visit to town.

 

The Laura Days festival was in the park. There were traditional craft demonstrations, a quilt show, and art and craft vendors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We weren't able to attend on Sunday, but it looked like there would be some fun activities that day. The schedule showed a parade, pie eating contest, tomahawk throw contest, and the Medicine Show in addition to many of the Saturday activities.


There is an 1899 school house, but we didn't visit it since Laura was never there and we've seen a few school houses at the other sites.

 

Our Week: 4/6-4/10

We had a good week. We had a couple cool days, but also some nice spring days. The kids were happy to get lots of time outside. Sophie seems to like going for walks in her stroller.

Everyone did their own regular school work. We continued reading The Little House on the Prairie. We also read some books about people moving west.



We visited Sea Life Aquarium at the Mall of America.

 

Sophie was very interested in what was going on above her head as we walked through the tunnels.

 

The kids have been seeing lots of animals in our yard. So far we've seen a rabbit, two deer, a raccoon, ducks, squirrels, and lots of birds. This week the kids saw these birds on our deck and these ducks in our yard. The girls are hoping to see some babies soon.

 

 

We went to a fun class with a homeschool group we recently joined. They learned about habitats, ecosystems, and made their own terrariums. I'm so happy they liked the class. As soon as Molly came out she asked me when there was another class they could go to. I've already signed them up for the next 3 months.

 

The National Zoo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arlington National Cemetery

On our trip to Washington, D.C., last month, we visited Arlington National Cemetery for the first time. I could have never imagined how many graves there were without seeing it. They seem to go on forever.

The Eternal Flame at the gravesite of President John F. Kennedy

Changing of the guard

The cemetery is really beautiful with gorgeous trees and great views of the city.