Three Field Trips in Two Days

After no field trips last month, we made up for it this month with three field trips in two days. We started out with an educational trip on Wednesday to Medieval Times - wonderful food and the kids really enjoyed watching the program. I had never been before and was not expecting much - I was definitely impressed. It was nice going on a school day - we were there with only three other private schools.

After Medieval Times we headed over to a new indoor trampoline place called Sky Zone. All three of our kids love trampolines, who doesn't, right. Lexi and Ava Mae have been working hard on their side and front aerials {they desperately want to take acro dance}, so they appreciated the practice. They both spent a solid hour on a trampoline just working those moves. The trampolines are much better than anything they had been on before in someone's backyard and they would have stayed all day. Devin enjoyed trying out all the areas - trampoline basketball court and foam pit.

Yesterday, was indoor rock climbing with our GENESIS 1:TEN group. Two hours of scaling indoor walls. We even got Ava Mae climbing - who is normally afraid of heights but, the poor child was suffering from a neck injury from her tumbling at Sky Zone. She was  good sport though and really wanted to climb, pain or no pain.

Apple Picking {2012}

This weekend we took a day trip to the North Georgia Mountains for some apple picking. The drive up and back were beautiful with all the changing leaves.

Pumpkins in the apple orchard.

After sampling a few varieties of apples, we soon found our favorite and decided to fill our bags.

Ava Mae insisted on finding the smallest apples because, they looked cute.

After picking two bags of apples, we headed back to the orchard store to pick out some more goodies.

It was such a fun day trip! Love spending beautiful days like this with my husband and kids. We came home with lots of farm finds ... 30+ pounds of apples, 2 pumpkins, cherry apple cider, apple cider donuts, and two fudge covered apples. I am off now to find some apple recipes on Pinterest. I guess it is safe to say I am over my pumpkin obsession and moving on now to apples.

October Field Trip : Carlton Farms

We enjoy visiting a farm every fall as one of our field trips. Last year it was Burt's Pumpkin Farm - this year we headed back to Carlton Farms - a working dairy farm about an hour from our home. The weather was perfect with high's only in the 60's.

One of the highlights of this field trip is the hay ride out to one of their pastures. They put premium hay on the ride so the cows come running to eat. They are not shy at all about sticking their heads into the wagon and eating away. We also got the opportunity to see a baby calf {less than 24 hours old} up close.

Ava Mae with the farm cat she wanted to take home.

My friend's son guarding the exit from the corn maze.

Girls were so happy to have made it through the maze and they found all of the 12 checkpoints.

No field trip would be complete without a picnic lunch with friends.

November Field Trip - "Holiday Etiquette Boot Camp"

Our November Field Trip was to attend a "Holiday Etiquette Boot Camp". It was a great class, led by a fellow homeschool mom who has an Etiquette business where she teaches manners classes to children.
The kids learned many tips for the holiday party season - including the proper way to conduct yourself at a buffet, proper etiquette for the dinner table, the importance of making eye contact with adults when speaking to them, where our napkin goes, how to properly ask to be excused from a dinner table - just to name a few. My daughter, Lexi, who has gone to Etiquette School prior to today, told me it was really great to get a refresher course on everything. My son, who had to be bribed to attend the field trip, told me the class was a lot of fun and nothing like he thought it would be {boring}. Ava Mae was just so excited to finally be able to take an etiquette class - she has been begging to do this since Lexi went to Etiquette School last fall. {Pictured below: Ava Mae shows off her new found table setting skills}

The class concluded with an actual party buffet. The kids all enjoyed picking appetizers and desserts and then practicing their new skills at the table.

Thank you Elizabeth for taking time out of your busy schedule to teach this wonderful "Holiday Etiquette Boot Camp" and if you live in the Atlanta area and are interested in having your children take a manners class from Elizabeth, just let me know and I will get you her contact info.

October Field Trip {Burt's Pumpkin Farm}

Our field trip for October was to Burt's Pumpkin Farm ... it is located in the North Georgia Mountains and is a working pumpkin farm {not a farm where pumpkins are brought into and sold like another farm we have frequented each fall}. So worth the 1 1/2 drive ... it was so scenic and the leaves were just beautiful!
Three days ago the weather was warm ... not so much today. When we arrived at the farm temps were floating below the 40 degree mark. Thankfully, we were able to duck inside one of the buildings and get some warm popcorn while we waited for our field trip to start.
The kids enjoyed the hayride and picking out pumpkins. We brought home four sugar pumpkins, a grey pumpkin and a bright orange pumpkin.

{Above: Lexi posing with one of her good friends - JK}

{Below: kids posing with some of the gorgeous pumpkins ... Ava Mae had on an adorable Halloween outfit - unfortunately, she was too cold to remove any of the layers that were covering it.}

September Field Trip: Turner Field

Yesterday was our first field trip of the school year ... Turner Field's Weather Day followed by a Braves v. Marlins baseball game. We even got to walk the warning track prior to the start of the game and got up close with several of the Braves players as they warmed up.

I have to say this was probably Devin and my husband's favorite field trip. The girls and I were along for the ride. {Though I love watching baseball - I prefer it usually from a suite or at least the Casino Moon level where there is plenty of air conditioning directly behind you.} Our upper level seats yesterday were not that bad ... we ended up with a great view of the game and we were in the shade the whole time. The best part was that the field trip - including our seats for the game and lunch were only $8 a person. You can not beat that price!!

The weather classroom was hosted by a local television station and was quite informative. We even were able to see a weather balloon up close - something the kids and I recently talked about in Science.

The game had a slow start but, the Braves pulled it out for an exciting end. So glad Devin was able to see some of his favorite players down on the field when we walked the warning track. The players were super nice about waving and saying "hi" to the kids as they were down around the field.

Here are a few pictures of our day at the ball park.