Trip to Kid Senses Science Museum

After a rough week, having lost two of our dogs within days of each other, the kids and I decided to celebrate Epiphany (or Three Kings Day) with a getaway to Kids Senses Science Museum in Rutherfordton, NC. It is about a thirty minute drive from our place, not as far as the wise men traveled to Bethlehem, of course. And we rode in the station wagon, since camels are rather rare in these parts.


The first spectacle after paying admission is the fire truck room. There are buttons to make a siren sound and a spinning light.
















































Jude enjoys a cloth book in the Alphabet Trail playroom.



















The silo beside the kid sized barn makes a great reading hideaway.

















Jude can hold himself pretty high, and can roll over now, both ways.















Seth is holding a toy onion, which can be planted or harvested from the "garden". But of course, it's not an onion, it's a sword. And not just any sword, but the "He-man-Power-of-Grayskull!" Lately, many random objects have undergone this incredible transformation.

















More of the Alphabet Trail playroom.



































































Metal objects defy gravity as they leap upwards from Virginia's hands while Seth turns up the magnet's power.

















Three mirrors form the Kaleidoscope!

















The lower level of the museum can be reached by climbing through this platform maze.

















The Little Pueblito Cafe


















Virginia takes orders from some fellow museum visitors.

















Check out those teeth!



















Reuben lifts a soapy wall around himself in the bubble room.




































Miriam pulls one all the way to the top!















The little grocery store is very popular, and the kids shopped and checked out many times during our visit.



































































The art room has lots of supplies for creative crafters.















A model of a hot air balloon rises to the ceiling after being heated.


















View of Rutherfordton's main street, still with Christmas decorations up.

















Reuben reluctantly leaves the museum behind. Until next time!

Around the House and Garden

Jude is full of new expressions



















































Seth enjoys Lego of all sizes


















































The kids like to be creative with their food. Reuben's style is to slice his carrots and then stack them.
















Seth prefers to dunk his in water first.


















A good pose for a split second.



Continuing to document the progress in the garden.

Holidays at West End Farm

Fall....and stuff

We've been having lots of fun this fall. So much fun, that I haven't had any time to blog about it all!

We kicked off the first day of the season with an equinox party and bonfire at our home. A few families came from a new "homeschool" group called LATTE, which stands for "Learning all the time, everywhere". It's really a planning center for events and activities and is particularly suited to our autodidactical approach to education. The group was recently started by a friend I met at the local farmer's market, and it's been a wonderful way to incorporate the kids' interests within the local community. Leslie heads up the children's table there at the market with activities and crafts each week. She brought materials to our party to make fall garlands and apple stars. The kids all had a great time collecting leaves, twigs and acorns to thread onto the garlands. Then we enjoyed a hot dog roast and s'mores over a cheery fire for supper. And last of all, we skyped my friend Lauren in Australia to meet her family and see what their brand new spring looked like in the southern hemisphere.
The kids are all growing, especially Jude, who has gotten quite chubby and quite too big for his newborn sized clothes. Here he is at his first trip to Grandma's. Big sister Virginia snapped this picture, as well as the one above of the fire in the wood stove. She experimented with several settings before she found one that captured the dancing flames just right. She does a lot of experimenting these days. You might stumble on a perfect, rectangular patch of new grass on the bare patch under the old swing set, a half finished model of a lego fire truck, and many bracelets with various arrangements of beads strewn about the house. Especially since my friend, Kelly, and I coordinated a jewelry making class with Kelly's girl scout troop led by two local artisans, whom my girls had gotten to know a bit at the farmer's market. Both Virginia and Miriam made lists of the things they wanted to learn this school year, and jewelry making was at or near the top for the two of them.

Miriam is the little mama to her brothers and loves to have them accompany her on endless pretend trips to the market and real picnics that she packs up for them to take outside. This morning she drew a calendar with illustrations in each box for the chores they had to do each day. When I asked her why she only had "feed the cat" for one day, she informed me that that was the day they would visit Virginia and help her feed her cat, but they did not have a cat to feed every day.

Reuben is funny, and impatient. But you can't blame him too much when he is stuck in the middle and sometimes needs a little extra drama to get attention. We are all learning to be patient with each other. He loves super heroes, drawing monsters and dressing up as a fireman. We took a tour of the local fire station in his honor with the LATTE group. At four, he is proud to make himself snacks, which he learned by watching his sisters. Trail mixes are his specialty, but chocolate milk from scratch (a spoonful of sugar, a spoonful of cocoa, a spoonful of hot water, mix, then stir in milk) and a cup of tea are, well, also his cup of tea.

Seth is quickly leaving his babyhood behind. He's grown into a stocky boy with a bright mind and lots and lots of words. He is our earliest talker and has opinions too, which he never hesitates in sharing. He is also the loudest and largest for his age, which sometimes makes the two year old mood swings a bit challenging. In a matter of seconds he is the loving big brother who makes the baby coo and smile and the charging bull/screaming banshee who didn't get his way when Mama refused to let him ...wave a sharp knife in the air, pound the baby, flood the kitchen, play with fire, you get the idea. But he's almost always in the mood for a cuddle. They all are, and I'd better get as many in as I can before they think they're too old. (You are never too old from a mama's point of view).
We've also been enjoying the harvest. I let the garden go while recovering from the c-section and new baby days, but was grateful to still harvest some big sweet potatoes (which were so good, we ate them all already), a few acorn squash and some beautiful, colorful ears of Cherokee popcorn. I've been gathering acorns, too, soaking and drying them, and grinding them into flour, and making oodles of muscadine jam. It's hunting season too, and our neighbors have given us a generous portion from a buck they shot here in our neck of the woods. I made some stock with the bones and used it to make some warm, hearty stew with local veggies from the farmer's market, herbs from the garden, and some tender meat that was stuck to the bone. And I have steaks and roasts in the freezer for future recipes to try.

Three Kings Day Celebrations

As Episcopalians, we have always celebrated the Feast of Epiphany. Our family tradition has been to make King cake and display the three wise men worshiping the baby Jesus from the nativity set. And we take down the Christmas tree. But this year we decided to add something a little different, something to celebrate the beautiful, ever changing, ever blending, multicultural landscape of our locality. And so we adopted the Latin American tradition of leaving hay and water out the night before for the Wise Men, or rather, their camels. In the morning, the children expect to find a gift left by the venerable Magi. What could be better than homemade play dough? So this morning, each child found a bag of play dough and played to their heart's content, and Mama got to take a long soak in the tub. Then we all made King Cake together. Tonight we will see who finds the hidden treasure inside the cake.

Build a Snowman

Here in South Carolina, we don't get to build snowmen very often. Maybe once or twice a year. But with this easy felt game, we can have lots of fun and stay warm and snug in our cozy kitchen. Ok, so nothing beats the real thing, but this project comes in for a close second and makes a great homemade gift that the kids can help you with.

To make this game you will need 1 sheet of white felt, scraps of black, brown, orange and other desired colors for the scarves. Then you will need four colors of felt for the building surfaces, each made of half a sheet. Also, you will need 1 die.

First, draw your patterns onto paper. I drafted a whole snowman, rather than three separate balls. Virginia designed the hat, scarf, carrot nose and stick arms. Next, on the sheet of white felt, trace four snowmen, cut them out and then cut into three "balls". Trace and cut out the accessories. Make four hats, four scarves, four noses and eight arms.

To play, each player chooses a building surface. Then, they take turns rolling the die and adding each piece that corresponds to the number rolled. Here's how we did it:
1. snowball
2. nose
3. give a piece away (if everyone already has the pieces you have, you don't have to)
4. hat
5. scarf
6. arm

The winner is the first to assemble a completed snowman.

The game has become quite a hit with the kids. Miriam asked for it first thing in the morning. And they can't just play one game at a time. It usually takes 3-5 rounds before they have lost interest, which makes for a great rainy day activity.

Jammin'

Last week we were blessed by some kind folks who chose to share their abundant harvest with the freecycle crowd. I responded to their ad and was invited to come pick muscadine grapes from a very old grapevine. It had been planted by the owner's grandmother, and has now seen five generations of happy pluckers.

After a moderate 30 minute drive, the kids and I were greeted by Lynda and escorted to that venerable matriarch of the plant kingdom. It grew over a long trellis, which it covered completely, and its foliage formed a hollow tunnel along the entire length. The children were just the right size to crawl underneath, and could easily stand upright once inside. They chattered happily with Lynda, who helped us with the picking, and the conversation was pleasant all 'round. The baskets were quickly filled and, after a heartfelt thank you and gifts of our fig preserves and apple butter for Lynda, we left with three gallons of grapes in the floor well of the station wagon.

The next day was spent almost entirely making muscadine jam. First we washed, stemmed and crushed the grapes, using a potato masher. These were cooked for a little while, then pressed through a colander, resulting in a purple, pulpy juice. Sugar was added and the mixture was cooked down to a thick sauce, then processed in the pressure canner. I did all three gallons in two batches, but I wasn't quite sick enough of the kitchen not to make some biscuits to have with tea and fresh jam. Mmmmmm.....


















cooking the jam.....













Jam and Biscuits...















other yummy stuff we preserved this summer