I DID NOT BRING MY CAMERA!!!!!!!

Let me just say I am kicking myself right now. We have a wonderful friend who works at the college here in our town. She also homeschools and was at Churchhill Downs with us for a Midsummers Nights Dream. Well she arranged for a few of us to go to a dress rehearsal of the colleges performance tonight. I thought, there won't be any need to a camera. Boy was I wrong!!! We were all standing outside the theater waiting the kids found a grassy area with trees and sticks. And well what happens with kids and sticks...they play. The director of the play sees them out there and sends the actors, in costume, outside to play with them!!!!! See why I wish I had my camera?!?!?
The play was great. They kept the kids attention and we all laughed a lot. The guy who played Bottom was wonderful....very funny. Anthony asked, "how many times did that guy die?" The actors who played Helena and Flute were pretty funny too. Towards the end Jacob came and sat in my lap for a while. He started laughing then I started laughing. His laugh always makes me laugh even harder. Anthony sat on the other side of the room and I could hear him laughing from where we were.
So thanks Jeannie for getting us in to see this play. We had a really good time. Please tell Mr. Magee again how much we enjoyed it :) Oh and Jacob said...."we got to play with the actors, when does THAT ever happen!"

Homeschoolers rocked the zoo!!!!!!!!

I took Jacob and Michael on a field trip to the Cincinnai Zoo today with our co-op. We had an eduational tour and talked about adaptation. They broke our group into 4 small groups each with two tour guides. Our group had Michael, Jacob and Olivia. Our guides were Mark and Doug. They were very engaging with the kids. The kids really impressed our guides, they knew the answers to almost all the questions they asked. At one point Mark said, "maybe everyone shoul be homeschooled." And when he was finished with our tour he said he that our kids were the smartest that he had ever given a tour too. Then he said "I REALLY mean it!" He even introduced us to the head reptile keeper!!

When our group got back with the rest of the co-op all the other guides were saying that our group was one of the best they had ever had!

It had been a long time since I had been to this zoo, I was really impressed. They had lots of animals that the zoo we normally go to doesn't have. The Red Panda was so cute!

While trying to see the sea lions Jacob fell and busted his mouth. Its a little swollen still and he has a few scrapes on his chin. But we really had a good time. We saw the rest of the zoo after our tour with Matt and Olivia and their mom. It was a wonderful day!

Very late birthday party....

Today we finally had Jacob's 10th birthday party. We had it a Salato Wildlife Center. One of the staff members even came down and gave a presentation about eagles. Jacob always loves the more educational parties. He wore is vest that has his Junior Ranger badges on it. He got lots of attention from all the staff with that vest!

We roasted hot dogs and marshmellows. Had birthday cake and went and looked at the animals. After the animals the kids played football with a couple of parents. All three boys were worn out tonight!! It was a good day :)

Big Bone Lick State Park.....

We took a field trip with a lot of our homschooling friends today. http://parks.ky.gov/findparks/recparks/bb/history/ This is another awesome Kentucky park. It was a little chilly but Miss Rachel started a fire while we had lunch and the kids roasted marshmellos.

The guy that lead our programs was great. He was so patient with the kids. There were around 20 kids and he didn't get overwhelmed at all. He told them about the Mammoths and the Mastodons and the giant ground sloth that use to roam the area. Then he taught them all to use the AtlAtl. Its an American Indian tool used to throw a spear. The kids all loved throwing it.

All the kids had sucha good time. They ran and played and just enjoyed being outside.

Traveling Kentucky.....

Today was a beautiful spring day!! Way to nice to spend the day inside so David and I took the boys to Red River Gorge. My parents use to take me and my brothers on picnics there when I was very small. David can't ever remember going. We got a late start so we only hiked two trails, the Angel Windows trail and the Whistling Arch trail. But both were virtual geocaches so we made sure to take our GPS. We also found a regular cache at the Silvermine Campground where the boys also practiced skipping rocks in the Red River.

It was so nice to be outside, at times it was even hot! Such a change from the sleet and cold of last weekend! The boys wore themselves out climbing on rocks. We will definatly be going back soon to visit the education center. It wasn't open today.

Shakespeare and horse races....

We spent a wonderful day with some friends at Churchill Downs in Louisville. The Kentucky Shakespeare Festival was there putting on "A Midsummers Night Dream." They did a wonderful job, the kids were howling with laughter!

After the play we got a short tour of Churchill Downs. We got to see a retired horse that was the grandchild of Secretariat. We toured the Derby Museum and had lunch at the Derby Cafe.

Days like today are days that make me glad we are homeschooling. I love being able to do these kinds of things with my boys :)

Play auditions and a birthday.......

Yesterday Jacob turned 10!!!!!! It just doesn't seem possible. We took the boys to Franks Donuts for a birthday breakfast. After breakfast I took the boys over to Georgetown College to audition for Alice in Wonderland. Anthony wasn't sure he wanted to audition but after he heard the others practicing the poems they were going to read he decided he wanted to try out too.

Jacob picked Outback Steakhouse for his birthday dinner. I think he had a good birthday, still have to plan a party. I haven't even started!!!