Morning in the Mountains

Friday night Brent declared that if he stayed in the house all day Saturday he would go stir crazy. So we made plans to avoid that. We decided to take the boys to the mountains for a picnic. God gave us a perfectly beautiful fall day for our outing.




Here we are at the entrance to the park. The last time Brent and I were here, I was pregnant with Andrew. We came from Birmingham to Dahlonega for our babymoon. We stayed at a little cottage and on Saturday morning we drove over to Amicalola Falls for a picnic. Needless to say, we didn't hike up the 400+ stairs that day. We didn't hike them this trip either, but we had fun remembering our last visit to the Falls and thinking about how much has changed since then.


Heading over to the top of the falls to take in the view.



Jonathan was fascinated by the water going over the edge. He kept saying, "Oh no! Oh no!"



We walked down a few of the stairs as a family, then Brent took Andrew and Coleman a little farther on while Jonathan and I went back up.


Brent also took the boys over to the head of the Appalachian Trail. Andrew enjoyed telling me that they hiked on the AT.

There were too many leaves to pass up.




We unpacked our picnic in a nice sunny spot. I had planned for Jon Jon to sit in his stroller, but he wanted to eat on the quilt with everyone else.


After lunch, we were treated to a little kung fu demonstration.

We were home in time for naps. Have I mentioned how much we love where we live? It was a super Saturday.

October Science Club

For Science Club this month, we drove out to an arboretum in Jackson County. Our topic was trees, and it was the most beautiful fall day! Once we divided up into our groups, Andrew and his friends started out doing some leaf rubbings.


And this picture is mainly for family members who have seen pics of my daddy as a little boy. If I changed it to black and white (and blocked out the GT cap), I think we might be hard pressed to tell if it was Andrew or Papack!

Then Ms. Angela did a little talk on photosynthesis.



Next we moved over to a patch of grass and they did a dramatic interpretation of how a tree works. It was awesome! And hilarious!



The little boy in the middle was the heartwood of the tree. He was supposed to say, "I am strong and straight!" Andrew and Calvin were pretending to be like the roots sucking water up through the trunk. They had to take the blue crepe paper and make slurping noises as they waved the paper up from the ground to their heads, acting like the water moving up the tree.



Eventually, every child was involved. Someone was walking around saying, "One cell thick!" pretending to be the growing layer of the tree. Others had green crepe paper and were moving the food down the tree from the leaves. The funniest though were the kids who were the bark. They had brown construction paper and had to stand on the outside of the group and bark. Like dogs. I wish I had videoed the performance. It was too funny!

Then Ms. Angela passed out our leaf identification charts and we headed off on our hike.




We hiked through the woods and they used their charts to identifiy leaves we found. Here is Ms. Angela talking about a tree cookie. The kids got to count the rings in a cookie and determine how old the tree was.


I think I was trying to get a picture of him with his tree cookie.

Identifying a leaf.


This was neat to see. A huge tree had fallen and we could look closely at the root system.


It was another great adventure!

Overheard: Edition Passing the Buck

This morning as I was getting dressed, I noticed that the house was very quiet. The kind of quiet that lets me know I should investigate immediately. So I walked across the house to find the boys. All three were sitting on Coleman's bed. Andrew was holding my Kindle and Jonathan and Coleman were watching him closely. The boys know they are not supposed to play with the Kindle without permission and adult supervision, so this was a big no-no.

I walked into the room and took the Kindle from Andrew. Then I asked him, "Andrew, who's is this?" He said, "Yours." I asked, "Are you supposed to be using it without my permission?" He said, "No ma'am. Jonathan had it and I just took it away from him."

I looked at Jonathan and he looked at me with his little face and quietly said, "Beeshoo beeshoo wookawooka is a Cu-man."

Translation: "I-don't-know-but-it-wasn't-me-it-was-Coleman."

September Recap

In retrospect, I did not do a good job of capturing The Academy's at home activities in pictures last month. I did get pics of our field trips and science club, but they received their own post. Here's a recap with the pictures I did take.

Our read alouds last month were James and The Giant Peach, and The Hundred Dresses. Andrew and Coleman both loved each book, and we will definitely be revisiting The Hundred Dresses as we get older. It has a great lesson that everyone needs to hear more than once while growing up. We studied antonyms, short vowels, sight words,number and color words, and finished the first set of BOB books.

Johnny Appleseed was born on September 26, 1774, so we celebrated him and learned about his life all week. We mapped his travels, read several biographies, played a Fact/Fiction game about him, and made apple crisp and these yummy apple dumplings.



In math, Andrew kept track of the number of seeds we found in apples over the course of a week. Then we made a graph of the results.


We also worked on story problems, addition fact families (the doubles and the +1s), and practiced measuring and weighing. Coleman was home sick the day we used the balance for the first time. He had a great time doing school with us that morning!






We also made some fallish art projects. Here they are painting a fall tree.

In history we studied the Middle Ages. There was much playing of knights and building of castles. Science brought us a study of various landforms and geographic areas. Our Tuesday afternoons saw the addition of our coop group, which we both love. I'll have a separate post about coop in a few weeks. It was a great month!

Sweet Repeats: Edition Thomas PJs

One of the many benefits of having three boys is that we have plenty of clothes to go around, provided they don't get worn out first. Andrew and Coleman could share some things, but with them having opposite season birthdays, not everything was handed down. I sold a lot of Andrew's little things due to lack of storage, but I did keep quite a bit and have been able to enjoy them again with Jonathan. Jon Jon has also been able to wear a lot of Coleman's things, so his closet has never been lacking.

I love seeing these precious items come out of the storage boxes for Jonathan to wear. It's almost like I get to have Andrew and Coleman back to that littler size again for a while. My memories are so sweet and clear of them in so many of these outfits, and it pulls at my heartstrings to realize that this season of sweet little boy clothes is coming to a close.

So, I have decided some documentation is in order. Since I can't keep them little enough to wear these things forever, I will be featuring Sweet Repeats here on the Quiver. When I have pictures of two or all three of them wearing the same item, I'll post them together. I think it will be fun to see them in the same things at close to the same ages, but with their own style and personality.

So here's our first of the Sweet Repeats. All of the yahoos have loved Thomas at this stage of life Jonathan is in now. Gigi and Papack found these pajamas for Andrew just after his two year old train birthday party. Here he is wearing them playing with his brand new train set.


Coleman loved them too. Here are two shots of him with them on. You can see he was a wee bit bigger than Andrew at this age!


And last night Jonathan got to wear them for the first time. He was just tickled about them, and posed so nicely for his picture.

Coleman Joe, Age 4

Here is a brief account of our Coleman at age 4.

*Coleman loves pretending. Favorites are any superhero (Spiderman especially), Buzz Lightyear, firemen, knights, and of course pirates. He and Andrew have been on a "secret spy" kick lately which has them sneaking around the house looking for bad guys.

*Favorite foods include macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, baked beans (hot dog beans), noodles or pasta of almost any sort, apples, and grapes. He loves a cheeseburger from McDonald's and a Sprite is a huge treat!

*Coleman is still a big helper in the kitchen. Whenever I am cooking, especially with the mixer, he is right there to help out. He loves to watch our creations as they bake in the oven, and then proudly tells the family that he helped make our dinner.

*Outside is his most favorite place to be. He loves riding his bike, playing on the playground, or helping Brent with the yardwork. He still follows along with our toy lawnmower and his little blower matching his daddy step for step. The Gatorade breaks they take together are so sweet, and you can tell that Coleman is eating up this "guy time" with his dad.

*Coleman's best friends are his brothers. He is such a great "magic link" between our oldest and youngest. He plays equally well with them both, and they both love his company. Every morning, as soon as Jonathan is out of bed, Coleman comes over to love on him and say good morning. He and Andrew have an occasional blowup over something, but two minutes later they are right back to buddies. The middle is not an easy place to be, but Coleman is figuring it out pretty well.

*At preschool each day, when we pick Jonathan up from his class, Coleman holds his hand as we walk out. I hear him ask without fail, "JonJon, did you have a good day today?"

*Another thing that cracks us up is Coleman's use of the phrase, "Awww, Nuts!" As in, "Awww, Nuts! I swallowed my gum!" It is such a frequently used expression, that now we often hear Jonathan saying, "Aww, Nuss!"

*Adrenaline could well have been his middle name. Fast, faster and fastest are his favorite speeds. He loves tubing behind the boat, or zooming down the hill on his trike. Bravery seems to come naturally to Coleman as he will try anything once. Not even a flu shot scares this boy!

*This year brought the addition of Coleman's glasses. We are so thankful to have them, and so is he. At first we were unsure of how well he would wear them, but he keeps them on almost all the time without prompting. Before January, we would never have thought of Coleman as missing something, but these little fames just finish him off perfectly. Everyone who meets him tells us how much they love his glasses.

*He seems to be very artistically and musically inclined. Painting is still one of his favorite activities. He sings very well, and loves to try to do Andrew's practice exercises for music class.

*Blue is most definitely his favorite color.

*Coleman has a passion for life like almost no one I have ever known. Whatever he is doing, he is doing it one hundred percent. If he is happy, he is the happiest person you can find. If he is not, he is the most unhappy person you can find. He is one of the most loving children God ever created. When he is in a snuggly, cuddly mood, there is nothing better. His compassion is precious. If someone is hurt or crying, he expresses concern and lovingly pats them on the arm or back until everything is okay.


Coleman, your middle name Joseph, means "God will increase." We are already watching Him do just that as you grow into a bigger boy. Our prayer is that you will continue to increase in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man, just like Jesus did. Your favorite song is "Great and Mighty is the LORD our God, Great and Mighty is He." We love that these words are being carved into your heart each time you sing them. We pray you never forget the truth of this preschool song. We cannot wait to see the mighty man of God you will grow to be, and the great things you will do for Jesus. As precious as you are to us, you are more so to Him. We love you so much Coleman!

"This is the LORD's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes."
Psalm 118:23

September Science Club

For our Science Club in September, we learned about orienteering. It was a great afternoon with tons of hands on navigating for the boys and girls. They started off with Ms. Angela explaining about the magnetic force of the poles and how to magnetize a needle. Here they are doing just that.



Then we went outside to a course that was set up using colored strings all around the downstairs area. The students were each given a map and used it to find their way around the area. They learned how to read the symbols on a map that stand for things in real life, and then navigated their way around the space, collecting stickers at each checkpoint.





After that activity, we went upstairs to practice finding North using a compass.


Our last activity was to navigate our way through the woods and find the stickers at those checkpoints. We had a great time!