Pickin' Pumpkins

We headed out for our 11th annual trip to a pumpkin patch last month. We have visited patches in three different states, and our trips have changed quite a bit over the years. I remember my very first trip, where I followed Isaac as he toddled around in his little denim overalls. I have snapped pictures of my babies propped up on pumpkins and my toddlers trying to pick up pumpkins as big as them. I have quite a collection of pumpkin pictures that show the growth of our family.

In 2008, we went to pick pumpkins just a couple of weeks before Eli was born. I looked like I was trying to sneak a big ol' pumpkin out under my shirt! The farmer driving the tractor was a bit worried when I got on the hayride. I think he was afraid each bump was going to send me into labor!

We enjoyed our 2011 trip. We picked cotten, explored the corn maze, took a hayride (pulled by a John Deere tractor, which thrilled Eli's heart!), petted animals, played on the playground and spent time picking out the perfect pumpkins. Our front porch now has more pumpkins than I know what to do with, but I love our pumpkin pickin' trips!

Those Johnson Boys!

Our boys have been keeping us on our toes the past few weeks. The day after Halloween, I left Eli unattended with his bag of candy (not my best mothering moment, but we were having great school time!). Not only did he eat almost all of it, but he also managed to put a candy nerd in his ear! I pulled out the tweezers, but I was scared to death of poking a hole in his ear drum, so we headed out to the E.N.T. It took the doctor a few minutes to get it out, and he discovered in the process that Eli had quite an ear infection. So, it was a blessing to discover the infection, but it would have been easier for him to just tell me!

Last week was Isaac's birthday, and one of our sweet friends gave him two tickets to the Tennessee/Arkansas football game. His friends' dad also planned an exciting day of tailgating. So, it was to be a fun "man's trip" up to Fayetteville, which is about four hours away. Mark, Isaac, his two friends and their dad made the drive up last Saturday. During the tailgating, the boys decided to play football. Isaac was running (wearing Crocs) and tripped and ended up at a walk in clinic with seven stitches! They had a good experience, and were back by the second quarter (the game was pretty much done for Tennessee fans at that point!). Isaac said it was a birthday to remember! He said he learned three things-- doctors were wonderful, you should not run in crocs, and you should respect rocks!

First Day of School!

We started "tiptoeing" back into school during the third week of July. We just did math the first week, and then added another subject or two the next week. I needed a transition to get back into the groove. We "officially" started full school on August 1. We celebrated with our second annual trip to Daylight Donuts for breakfast!

It is amazing to me that this is our sixth year of homeschooling. It is also my first year to have four official students! We are studying the second half of American History this year, which I am really looking forward to! We continue to use Sonlight as our core for history and literature. We are studying animals in science. This is my first year to use Apologia, so we will see how it goes. Isaac and Bailey are using Winston Grammar and Writing with Ease, and the oldest three are using All About Spelling, which I really like. Everyone but Bailey is sticking with Math U See. I am experimenting with Teaching Textbooks for her this year. It is done completely on the computer, with very little help from me. I am secretly hoping it goes well, so that I can move more of them to it next year. We started the year using the Explorer's Bible study for Bible for Isaac and Bailey. I tried really hard to like it, but we ditched it last week. I really liked the lower level that we used last year, but they did not seem to be getting much out of this level. For now, they are reading through the book of Mark, and I am writing out some simple questions for them to answer. We will see how that goes!

Anna Grace is in Kindergarten this year. We are working through the book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and she loves it! We are half way through it now, and she is excited about reading. She does math and handwriting (when her arm is not broken), and listens in on science and history.

I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to teach the children at home. It is not something that I would have envisioned myself doing fifteen years ago, but I love it! There are benefits that I could never have imagined when I started. That does not mean that everyday is perfect. My house is never completely clean, my laundry is rarely finished, and I am not always as patient as I would like to be, but it is a great lifestyle for us!

Civil War Reenactment

We headed to Piggott, Arkansas to attend a Civil War Reenactment last weekend. We are studying the Civil War this semester, which works out well because it is the 150 anniversary of the beginning of the war.

Bailey wore her prairie dress, Isaac dressed as a Union soldier, and the rest of us went at ourselves! It took us almost three hours to get there, but we ended up having a really good time.

The girls got to attend a Civil War era tea. The two ladies who served the tea were excellent! They taught them all about the tea etiquette of that time period and about different kinds of tea. I was really proud that they behaved like ladies!

The boys had a great time pretending to have battles and then watching the real pretend battle. This was a very small reenactment, but we really enjoyed it. We would like to attend more in the future!

Colorado Adventure-- Fun with Aunt Nancy and Uncle Bill

I love those precious Kindergarten numbers!

Mark with Aunt Nancy


Isaac the cowboy!

Green and yellow are Eli's favorite colors!

Bailey caught a fish! Uncle Bill helped bait the hook.

Mining for treasures!

We had a chance to spend some time with Mark's cousin Nancy and her husband Bill (a.k.a. Aunt Nancy and Uncle Bill) while we were in Kansas City. They work part time at the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead, which is a really cool place. The children were able to do a lot of hands-on activities, which they loved!

They started with mining for precious jewels. The each got a bag of dirt-like stuff, and they rinsed it with water to uncover some treasures. I think this was a favorite for a couple of the girls. I liked it because we read about the gold rush in history, so it kind of felt like school!

The highlight of Eli's day was getting to peddle a little tractor around a track. He chose one of the green and yellow ones of course. While he was busy riding a "Deere", the four older children rode a horse!

Next up was fishing! Each of the children got a fishing rod and a bucket of fat worms. I was a wimp when it came to baiting the hooks, so I stuck to taking pictures. I almost swooned when Aunt Nancy told me that if I pulled the worms into pieces they could fish longer. She is quite a woman! Bailey, Anna Grace and Eli each caught a fish. It was quite exciting.

When the worms were all gone, we headed off to feed the baby goats. Each child got a bottle of goat formula and went into the pen to feed a baby. Isaac loved this part. Anna Grace was a bit intimidated when all of the baby goats charged her, trying to get to her bottle of milk. They were quite the greedy little things!

We ate some yummy ice cream, went on a hayride, played on the playgrounds, saw a one room schoolhouse and saw lots of neat stuff. It was a wonderful day! Aunt Nancy and Uncle Bill are truly a blessing!

Colorado Adventure-- Great Wolf Lodge

We spent a couple of nights at Great Wolf Lodge on our way home from Colorado. The children had a great time playing in the water! Olivia and Anna Grace both rode new slides that they had been afraid of the last time we were there. We were once again impressed by how well the place is run. It is one of our children's favorite places!

Colorado Adventure-- Pike's Peak

We were able to see Pike's Peak on our way out of town. It was truly beautiful!

Colorado Adventure-- Manitou Springs

After we had finished visiting the Garden of the Gods, we headed to Manitou Springs to check out the cliff dwellings. We studied the early Americans in history last year, so I thought it would be good for them to see how it might have really looked. It was amazing to see how many people lived in a really small space!

Colorado Adventure-- Garden of the gods

Sometimes you feel the weight of the world on your shoulders...

Monkey see...

Me and my little angels...

Balanced Rock

We said, "Good-bye," to Wes and Rebecca on Wednesday morning and headed to Colorado Springs. We had planned to take the cog railroad to Pikes Peak, but it was so cloudy, that we decided against that outing. We headed to the Garden of the Gods, and it was a hit with the children. They loved climbing around on the rocks, so we spent quite a bit of time playing there.

Colorado Adventure-- The Denver Museum of Science and Nature

We headed to the Denver Museum of Science and Nature on Tuesday of our trip. We were all a bit tired, but we pressed on.

We spent quite a bit of time in the space exhibit. The children got to practice docking the space shuttle, see how scientist think that water help to shape the planets, and explore a lot of other cool stuff. Eli's favorite part of the exhibit was the cool hand dryer. He kept playing in the wet sand just so he could go back and wash and dry his hands!

Mark took the four older children to an IMAX movie, and Eli, Wes and I explored the museum a bit. Eli and I eventually found a children's discover room to play in while everyone else explored. I was really impressed by the museum, and all it had to offer children.

Tiredness finally overtook Eli (or at least we will blame it on tiredness...) and he threw a fit for the record books. Mark finally had to carry him kicking and screaming out of the building (there was quite an impressive echo), while the rest of us tried to pretend that we did not know that wild toddler. A museum guard followed us to the car to make sure that Eli was OK. Mark told her Eli was OK, but he was not sure about the rest of us! Eli ended up taking a three hour nap and Wes and Rebecca took the rest of us out for yummy frozen yogurt. It was quite a day!

Colorado Adventure-- The Denver Zoo

We headed to the Denver Zoo on our third day in Colorado. We are studying animals for our homeschool science this year, so it is a great time to visit a zoo. The children had just learned about bears the week before, so they were especially interested in the bear exhibits. The highlight of the day for Eli was the five minute train ride. It was a great day at the zoo!

Colorado Adventure-- Rocky Mountain National Park

Olivia and Anna Grace checking out the elk!
Estes Park will never be the same!

The Johnson Girls

A new friend

We headed to Rocky Mountain National Park on our second day in Colorado. Wes and Rebecca have been there quite a bit, so they were excellent tour guides! They day we went happened to be Labor Day, so there were lots of other people visiting with us. Thankfully, the park is huge, so the only time the crowds really mattered was in the parking lots.

We started our time there with a visit to the gift shop (otherwise known as the visitor's center) and a picnic lunch. We then took a "hike" around a small lake. The view was absolutely beautiful. I can not believe that you visit a place like that and not know that it was created! I think this hike was my favorite park of the day.

We continued on our drive, and were able to see elk for the first time. There was quite a little herd of them, and we got to watch a couple of males scuffling a bit. We drove on and climbed into higher elevations. Mark was thrilled to find out that our GPS tracks elevation, so he kept us up to date with how high we were climbing. It was really neat to get above the tree line.

The children (and their Mom) were thrilled to get to see moose! We spotted a couple at a distance, and we took a few pictures. Then we drove a little farther, and we got to see one up close. We were all really excited! Wes and Rebecca added to the excitement when they almost hit a deer a few minutes later. That was probably the most exciting moment of the day for them!

I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to see this part of God's creation. He is truly amazing!

Colorado Adventure, Part 2

Bailey and her New Orleans friend

Uncle Wes with his adoring nieces and nephews.

Wes and Rebecca gave us a tour of Denver on our first day there. Our first stop (not counting Starbucks, of course) was the mall that has both the Lego Store and the American Girl store. Isaac and Bailey had both been saving for a long time to make a big purchase, so we made that stop first.

We then headed downtown to check out a beautiful park. Denver has an amazing system of parks and bike trails. It is quite the healthy city. We spent time checking out the scenery before heading into the REI sporting goods store. REI was a really neat place. However, our pleasant visit was interrupted by "The Incident." We will forever remember REI as the place where Daddy got into a fight on the playground. Ask him about it! All in all, it was a good first day in Denver!

Colorado Vacation-- The Drive

Rest Stop Lunch!

We were all fascinated by the windmill farms!

We embarked on our Colorado Adventure on September 1. Mark worked until lunch and then we loaded up and headed out. We drove 100 hours (or maybe it was only 8 hours that seemed like 100) to Kansas City to spend our first night. By the time we got there, Olivia said, "My bottom is dancing to get out of the car!"

We headed out early the next morning for the biggest part of our trip. I taught the kids the alphabet/sign game and the licence plate game, which I consider an important part of their education. Eli pointed out every tractor and piece of construction equipment in Kansas (there are quite a few, by the way). We had decided that it would be frugal to pack a lunch for some of our meals, so we headed to a "fancy" rest stop for lunch. I felt like I was getting back to my roots (minus the potted meat).

We crossed over into Colorado a little before dinner time, and we all gave a cheer and started looking for a place to eat. We passed up the first exit or two because there was not much restaurant selection. We later realized that was a big mistake! There is very little between the border and Denver! We ended up eating at Burger King in Denver a few miles away from my brother's house. We were all thrilled to finally arrive and see Uncle Wes and Aunt Rebecca.