Grandfather Mountain!

Saturday we got the opportunity to go to Grandfather Mountain! I haven't been since I was a young child and Josh had never been so it was a treat and a blessing to us. It was great family time and an awesome experience for Ryan and Scott as well!

             Ryan kept asking if there was a "Grandmother Mountain". I'm sure there is somewhere??

The kids learned about what a habitat is.

They also learned about how animals in habitats all need water, food, and shelter.

After the lesson they got to play a game where half the group pretended to be deer, and the other half pretended to be food, water, or shelter. It was sort of like a tag game to show how animals are dependent on natural resources.

We saw three bears. (It was nice to see them behind a fence instead of our back yard)!

Josh showing off his "Otter" personality. =)

Watching the Otters swim and play!

Mildred the grandfather Mtn. mascot 

Holding Mildred's paws

On the bridge! It was so windy!

It was a little scary, but really cool!

Funny pose with Mere!

Family pic after we crossed the bridge.

Josh and Ryan went out to the farthest point together.

Scott didn't like the wind.

Awesome weather the whole day.

"Let them praise the name of the Lord,

for his name alone is exalted; 

his majesty is above earth and heaven."

Psalm 148:13

Back across

Amazing!

1 Mile above sea level at this point.

Ready to hit the road.

Rock candy in hand!

Showing some tired eyes here. Ryan got up at 5:45 a.m.

And some cousin fun in Boone to top the day off.

We were pretty loud! =)

What a fun day and what a gift! Praise the Lord for all he has created and the beauty we get to enjoy in his creation daily. 

Dinosaurs!

Last week was dinosaur week here. For 3 days we read about dinosaurs, traced dinosaurs, made dinosaur prints, eat dinosaur eggs, and watched dinosaur shows. I quickly found out that I know very little about dinosaurs! lol - Maybe thats why I don't think this will be my favorite theme of the summer. I think the boys had fun though and it certainly kept them active, engaged, and learning! Here are a few photos from our week!

Sensory table - I totally thought this would be a hit and after the first day, they really did not care for it anymore. 

I worked so hard! =)

Dinosaur foot prints in playdoh.

This is Ryan's phonics workbook - not related to dinosaurs.

Scott was pouring rice into different containers and Ryan was working on a puzzle here. The rice was everywhere at the end of the day and I vowed that rice will not be used anymore. lol =)

Puzzle work

Tracing 

Dinosaur color match up - All the dinosaurs are cut in half and he had to match them up. This is really more for Scott, but I couldn't ever get Scott interested. 

Dinosaur egg sort.

Dinosaur egg graphing

And of course Dinosaur egg eating!

Q-tip painting - They are suppose to make dots in the circles to complete. I demonstrated that at the top of his page, but he seemed to have his own plan for the dinosaur. =) 

This is before Ryan decided to break out of the mold and just paint the whole thing brown. lol =)

Had to share this - Scott outside saying, "Go away..Leave me alone" (which means he's pooping) lol Working on that.

One of Ryan's trays - Circle all letter D's.

Tracing practice 

Cutting practice

Scott building by himself.

This seemed a little cumbersome so I changed it and only gave him 3 dinosaurs to put the correct number and color paper clip on. 

Hard worker!

Fine motor skills!

My mom is the paper mache queen. She can make almost anything so she made us these dinosaurs to paint and add eyes and spikes to.

Paint was everywhere!

Perfecting our Apatosaurus.

And painting ourselves! We are still working on finishing these and adding the eyes and spikes.

It was a busy, but fun 3 days of learning. Excited about the memories made. This week's theme is plants! Should be fun. I'm excited!