Practically our backyard....

After spending our Friday morning raking leaves, we decided to head to the community college's hiking trails. Philip would be away for the weekend with the youth so we only had a little while to explore the trails. It had been over a year since we have been there. It wasn't long before the kids found their way to this creek.

It's times like this when I enjoy sitting on the side lines and just watching the kids. I enjoy watching them enjoy nature and explore their environment.

I enjoy watching how they somehow end up doing the same thing without ever talking it out.  This day they were trying to clear the leaves and sticks so the water could run freely.  Except for Nathan, he was throwing leaves and sticks into the water. 

I enjoy how being in the wide open often decreases the amount of disagreements and arguments.  I enjoy watching them work together and help each other without being prompted to.

I enjoy taking pictures that will hopefully help capture memories so that when they are older they will remember the fun things we did together.  I hope they will remember that we worked together as a family and we played together.

Yates Mill Park

We hit the road Thursday to Raleigh's Historic Yates Mill Park.  The park was planning a program titled "Pilgrims at Play".   A group of us from Roxboro decided to try out the park and the program.  It was fun to take this trip with friends.  The program itself was nothing to write home about.  The leader did an excellent job; it was just nothing that we couldn't have done ourselves.  However, the park was beautiful.  Unfortunately it was rainy and cold  so we were unable to explore the trails and the historic Mill.  The indoor exhibit was well done and the children enjoyed themselves.

Everybody's working on the scavenger hunt.

There were lots of things to touch, turn and explore.

The kids were stamping with rubber fish. 

The leaves were beautiful even with the gray skies.

Just a few of the friends we spent the morning with.

Boy and their silly faces!

more on the Turkey Trot

Turkey Trot

Peter and Mr. Garner!  Both first places finishers.
Peter's Cub Scout master invited him to join him in the 5K Turkey trot being held at Mayo Lake. He usually runs with one of his grandchildren but none of them were able to join him so he invited Peter. Although Peter runs in soccer and he runs for play, he has never intentionally ran 3 miles. Philip was quite sure that he could handle the race and so we thought the Turkey Trot would be perfect for him. We spent about 3 hours hiking and "mountain" climbing Friday morning and then Peter played in a soccer game late that evening. The team only had enough players for them to play with no substitutes. Even with all that exercise the day before, Peter pulled out a first place finish in the 14 and under division.

Starting line!

This is about 2 miles into the race.

finish line

I'm finished....33 minutes

 

Nathan was pretty impressed by his big brother.  I had forgotten Peter's race # and Philip brought when he arrived.

Science Fair

For the first time, we participated in our home school association's Science fair. Peter and Emma decided that they wanted to do separate projects but we stuck to a similar theme. It turned out to be fairly easy to undertake and I can see the volumes of skills they learned.

We opted to pass on the voting for our rookie year; we did participate in the evening's affair.

Peter's project tested to see which environment would bread mold the fastest and the most.

Emma tested to see which type of food would produce mold the first: cheese, bread, apple, milk or a raisin.

Peter's project won the "Grossest Project" Award. His prize was a whoppie cushion. I'm not quite sure how long that will stick around before it finds a new home!

Halloween

Halloween is not my favorite holiday.  Our candy bucket was already full; I had a full gallon size zip lock bag full of candy stored away in the pantry.  It was a chilly evening.  I could have skipped the whole evening of trick-or- treating if it was not for the invitation to join friends in their neighborhood.  So it was for the camaraderie of friendship and the fun of it for the kids that we donned costumes and heading out with the throngs of Roxboro.

I am truly thankful the the kids don't seem to mind our mediocre attempts at costumes.  I'm pretty sure that Emma has been a fairy for about 3 years now.  Ryan is a fierce pirate - ready to take on the world. 

Nathan is a farmer with an axe.  This axe is something Philip made and somehow it became part of Nathan's costume.  I was just very glad that he agreed to wear pants and a jacket.

I suppose somewhere in their imaginations they see themselves as who they are trying to be personify since their costumes are a bit simple!  I'm truly thankful that they really don't ask for anything more.

Peter did join us and he was wearing a costume as well. Somehow he had vanished when we were taking pictures.