Belated Weekly Wrap-Up

So, I already told you about our fun at the Erie Zoo, which kind of gives away where we were last week, huh?

Rodney had to be in Erie all week for work, so we decided to tag along.

Monday was spent driving up to Erie, prompting the girls to comment on the fact that Pennsylvania is a BIG state! LOL.  Yes, by East Coast standards, it most definitely is!

I had a whole slew of planned things to do in Erie (it's really an awesome city, has all the "necessities" that Reading is missing (like a Wegman's and a Krispy Kreme! (and yes, I see the irony of listing those 2 side by side)), and that great zoo, but it's not a "big city" by any means!).  But as things turned out, the zoo was the only full-fledged "field trip" we managed to fit in.

Instead we had time at the hotel pool, which Little Bit LOVED because she is finally tall enough to stand in the 3 ft section (at least at that pool, I did warn her that some pools might still be too deep), AND it had a LARGE 3 ft section, so she had lots of room to play without having to wear her floaties.


One afternoon Rodney got done early and told us that the treasurer he'd talked to had told him that it was concord grape season. Apparently Erie is a HUGE grape area, so we set out driving the back roads and found a stand to buy fresh concord grapes at. YUM!!!

We all LOVED them! Rodney's been talking about growing grapes ever since we moved last winter, and now the girls are SOLD on the idea too, if we can grow concord grapes. They also are very confused as to why they don't sell concord grapes in the grocery store instead of "grocery store grapes" LOL.

Something tells me that the girls will be lobbying for Daddy's Erie-area audits to ALWAYS be this time of year, so we can get grapes while we're there :)

Last spring when we went to the Sheep and Wool festival we got a needle felting kit to try out, and have never found the time to actually do it. So at the last minute, as we were packing for this trip, I grabbed the bag and threw it in "in case we have some down time".  The girls made SURE to find that "down time" and have discovered a new obsession. I haven't gotten to try it, because they won't hand over the needles, but I agree, it looks like a LOT of fun and SOOO easy!! Something tells me I'll be buying a LOT of wool at next year's Sheep and Wool festival if we go LOL.  The kit we got has the wool, and directions, for making gnomes, so that's what the girls are making for now. I'll have to post a picture of their gnomes once they get all 6 done. They're pretty cute!

One day, I decided not to try to drive as far as we'd have to drive to go to any of the museums and such, so we just scouted out a park, with a playground, near where Rodney was working and hung out there. The kids played for awhile, did some school, played, we ate lunch, played some more, did some more school . . . it worked quite well.  I couldn't resist snapping a picture of all 3 girls industriously doing their school work.  Little Bit LOVES having her Fundanoodle workbook to work on when her sisters are doing their school. And can you think of a better place to do school then at nice picnic tables in a park, on a lovely fall afternoon?

Little Bit also did great at self-entertaining on this trip. As always, the iPad is a good source of entertainment when she needs something to do, but she also has spent hours (literally) playing with her lalaloopsie figurines. She looks bored in this picture, but that's just because she saw me snapping the picture and didn't want me to, or something. She'd been happily playing with them for a LONG time, making them talk, I think this was the time that she was using Lexie's shoes as amusement park rides for them . . . having a great time, just quietly, making up her own thing. I LOVE it!!!

So that was pretty much our whole week.  Friday morning we packed up and headed out. I was sad we didn't find time to go to the Maritime Museum, and Presque Isle while we were in Erie this time, but it was a fun trip just the same, and between doing school work at the park, and going to the zoo, and just generally learning through life, I'd say the girls had an educational week despite fewer field trips than some trips.