Wrapping Up Our Whirlwind Week

Whew! What a week!!!! The girls and I got home Sunday afternoon and it took us half the afternoon just to catch Daddy up on all our fun, now let me see if I can be abit more succinct in summarizing our week here :)

Sunday was the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival!! We try to go to this every year. It's such a fun day.  We always enjoy the sheep sheering, and sheep dog demonstrations. This year, as an added bonus, the people who do the sheep dog demonstrations had a new dog they were just starting to train, so that showed us how they train a new dog. It was really cool. Little Bit took awhile to decide she liked things this year, but once she got into it, my mom said they could NOT get her out of the sheep barns. She met a sheep with her name (but spelled differently), so thought that was cool. Mom finally convinced her to say goodbye to the sheep by telling her that sissies and I had found baby bunnies! They had angora rabbit babies there. Sooo sweet!!! And bigger angoras that you could pet and hold and feed dandelion greens to. A fun day all around!

Monday our "livestock" fun continued. Awhile back the big girls had remembered how much we used to enjoy feeding the calves at a dairy farm where we bought milk when the twins were little. They asked if, next time we went to Mama and Papa's, we could take Little Bit to feed the calves. So we did that on Monday. Feeding the calves has always been fun, but this time was awesome!

The guy who's in charge of feeding the calves there now is amazing with kids!! After most people had left, he let the big girls teach a brand new baby, born that day, to drink from the bottle. They LOVED it!!!

When Little Bit saw her sisters IN the pen with the calf, she didn't want to be left out, so he let her go in the pen with him and pet the 2 day old calf (one of a set of twins) that he was coaxing to eat.

 And finally, after letting the girls help him give grain to the calves, big enough to eat regular grain, he also got a chick out and let them hold it.

Tuesday we visited the girls' friends M&N (and the rest of their awesome family). We always have a blast there, and the kids come home WORN OUT! Gotta love that. This time, the weather was perfect, despite predicted rain that never came, and the kids spent all day kayaking and swimming in the pond. They had sooo much fun. 

Little Bit was afraid to trust her life jacket, so she waded near the shore and whined about being bored, despite repeated offers by her sisters to help her go out and see that the life jacket DID work, or to take her in the kayak and promise not to make it feel like it would tip (I think that was part of the problem, she DID go in the kayak at the very beginning but with multiple kids it was tippy and she was scared. If she'd have gone later with just one person who was intentionally NOT tipping it, I think she'd have enjoyed it, but she wouldn't try). Awesome day! 

Wednesday was our "quiet day". We just hung out at Mama and Papa's house and relaxed abit. Lexie took the opportunity to cook a birthday meal for Mama (her birthday was the 10th but since we knew we'd be going home that day, she got her birthday meal early). 

Thursday we headed to DC and the girls completed their Junior Ranger for the National Mall. It's an interesting one. Since there are soo many monuments, you can start anywhere and each of the monuments that has a National Park building by it has a single 2-sided page about that monument. You have to complete 3 or 4 of those sheets to earn the Junior Ranger (the Ranger who gave us the first sheet, and the folder they go in, told us 3, the folder itself said 4, so I'm not sure which it is . . . might depend on the ranger you talk to LOL). Then any of the rangers can give you your badge once it's completed. We weren't sure how it would work (what's online is completely different, and doesn't include instructions), and figured "Survey Lodge" by the Washington Monument was as likely as anyplace to have the information so we started there. The girls ended up completing the pages for the Washington Monument, WWII monument, MLK and FDR. We were going to go on to the Jefferson, but since we had 4, and it was hot, we decided to call it good. We may get the rest of the pages and do them some other trip, just for fun. 

While we were at the FDR monument, Little Bit (my stuffed animal lover), decided to use some of her birthday money to buy a little stuffed dog (modeled after FDR's favorite dog) in the gift ship. She was so excited to pose with the president whose dog it was :) 

Friday and Saturday the big girls and I went to a homeschool convention. They came with me a few years ago, and it was fun, but they were still little girls. Now, they're not little girls. We shopped together, looking at various curriculum, discussing pros and cons. . . they are actively choosing their curriculum now, they know what they want, and need, to study and we were looking for it. While we went to some "just for fun" seminars . . . like the science one where the guy electrocuted a pickle, they listened, and paid attention, and comprehended the other seminars we attended, it was a fun couple of days, and a definite reminder that my babies are rapidly growing into lovely young ladies!