October, Part 2

For the third year in a row our church and a public elementary school in downtown Reading have teamed up to host a trunk or treat for the kids from that school and surrounding area. This is a school where almost all of the students qualify for free lunch. It is soo awesome to see these kids and their parents enjoying a family afternoon, appreciating the simple games and candy. Last year a local police officer had a trunk.This year we had two police car trunks AND the Bomb Squad truck as a "trunk"!! Of course, they passed out fire balls as their candy LOL. It was so cool! And great to see the kids high 5'ing and fist-bumping the officers, and getting their pictures taken with them. 

Little Bit had planned to be a unicorn, wearing her unicorn jacket, but it was HOT! Much too warm for a jacket. Thankfully one of the trunks offered face painting, so she was a cat instead LOL. 

A friend was manning her trunk alone with her baby & almost 2 yr old. Needless to say, it didn't take much arm twisting to convince me to help her out by cuddling the baby. Between Lexie, Ashlyn, and me, we kept her most of the afternoon! I think her big brother enjoyed getting some extra mommy snuggles and we ate up all the sweet baby snuggles!

The next day our homeschool co-op had a field trip to Paulus Orchard. We had a wagon ride through the orchards, then each kid got to pick 3 apples and choose a pumpkin. After that we could enjoy the "play area" for as long as we wanted.  

There was a "bounce pillow" that everyone got a turn on, then there were slides, "hamster wheels", pedal cars, a play house, rubber duck races, a "sand box" of corn kernels, a spider web to hang out on, giant hay bales stacked up so they could be climbed . . . It was a very fun day!  We finished up with Apple Cider Donuts from the shop, yum!

Later that week my parents came up to replace our second garage door. The one we replaced in June was rotting away and definitely needed to  be replaced. The other one was starting to rot  but could have survived another year or so BUT the original doors were dark green and the replacement door was white so we wanted to go ahead and replace the second one so they'd match. 

After that was done the girls and I went back to my parents house with them and, on Friday, headed to Summer's Farm Corn Maze in MD. It's a big corn maze that I took the girls to when they were toddlers but we hadn't been back since we moved away the spring Lexie & Ashlyn turned 5. So, 10 years later, we came back! 

While the kids loved all the extra activities when they were little, the corn maze itself was a bit frustrating. The theory is that every time you come to a decision point there's a numbered sign and you can answer a question to know whether turn left or right but in actuality there are a lot of unmarked decision points. With two toddlers, that was a bit of a disaster. This year was much more fun. They were bound and determined to "beat" the maze so all I had to do was follow along and not worry about getting lost since, after all, we'd get out eventually. It took us about an hour to make it through the 12 acre maze, so we'll call it a success :) We also enjoyed the activities they had like the "hamster wheel" (similar to the ones at Paulus Orchard except those weren't built into a "house' they traveled back and forth on a track, which was more fun.

Jumping on the bounce pillow. There was a group of boys playing football on it at one point. But they did pretty good at not plowing into other people so everyone had fun :) Can't believe even my "baby" is too tall for the "little kid" jump pillow now!

The "big slide" doesn't look nearly as big as it did when they were 4 either, and Lexie declared it not fast enough but Little Bit had fun and went down several times. 

We finished our time at Summer's Farm by visiting the petting zoo. The cow was soo friendly, and happy to have Ashlyn cuddle it :) 

Saturday we went to Woodlawn Manor in Sandy Spring, MD to go on an Underground Railroad trail and tour. I had assumed, based on the website, that they would show us routes and hiding places that were documented as having been used in the Underground railroad, or at least were strongly suspected of having been used, but in reality, the original owners of Woodlawn Manor were slave owners so, in a community that was predominantly Quaker, and therefore anti-slavery, they chose the one site known to NOT have been sympathetic to slaves, as the starting point of their tour. It was mostly just a hike through the woods, and meadows, stopping occasionally for the tour guide to talk about how things might have been, and tell stories of specific slaves who escaped (but in most cases went nowhere near the area where we were). It was interesting, just not what I was expecting, and I didn't feel it was worth the price. The tour ended at the site of the historic Sandy Spring that the town is named after. Land development in recent years has re-routed the spring so it no longer flows from it's historic point, but the monument is still there. We then hiked back at our own pace, and visited the small museum that is a part of Woodlawn Manor. 

On our way back to mom & dad's, we stopped in Gaithersburg to walk around a lake there. We didn't make it very far around the lake because the Hero Dogs organization was outside a restaurant soon after we started. They had dogs from a 7 week old puppy up to a 3 yr old ready to be placed. And were happy to let us love on their dogs, and have those old enough to have at least started the training process show off their "tricks". The dogs are trained to do things like pull a wheelchair or crutches over to you (which involves training them to pull without shaking their head like dogs instinctively do) pick up your keys or their leash, open and close drawers and cupboards . . . and they are also trained to help with anxiety. So if the trainer tapped his foot like someone might do subconsciously if they were worried, the dog would put her paw on his foot to calm him. When the trainer put his hands up to his face like he was scared or depressed, she jumped up into his face to get his attention. It was really interesting and the dogs were all super sweet :) 

After talking to the Hero Dog people, we headed on up the road to make sure we got to South Mountain Creamery by 4pm to help feed the calves. This never gets old! Since it was the weekend it was busier than we're used to, but each of the girls got to feed at least one calf. Ashlyn was frustrated that the calf she really wanted to feed (an adorable, TINY, Jersey calf) someone else had "claimed" but then just put the bottle in the "bottle holder" and stood there watching it eat. 

Rodney joined us at my parents' house Saturday night and Sunday we headed down to his mom's house to visit with her and Rodney's sister and brother-in-law. 

In other October news, all three girls joined our homeschool co-op's Chorus, so we're immersed in the Christmas songs they're learning. Little Bit is once again taking art classes twice a month, and we're hosting an American Girl Club once a month. Lexie & Ashlyn joined the tween/teen book club at co-op which meets once a month . . . so we're staying busy.

Other schoolish stuff this fall:

Little Bit is enjoying Waldorf Essential's Second Grade Curriculum (adapted to fit our eclectic style, of course)

Lexie and Ashlyn chose a "Who Dun It" writing course for this year. We're having fun reading classic mystery books and watching classic mystery shows while they plan out the "who dun it" novel they will complete by the end of the course. 

We've cycled back around to Ancient History, using Story of the World Vol 1 as our spine. The older girls are digging deeper into the more "scholarly"books on the topic and I get to hear tidbits of what they read. I had figured we'd just use the Saint and hero stories included in the Waldorf Essentials curriculum for Little Bit's history, but she is enjoying picture books related to what her older sisters are learning about Ancient History. 

Lexie continues to be fascinated by genetics and read horribly long books on the topic :) 

We're finishing up the Little House series of audio  books in the car, in between CDs related to Ancient History.

We're introducing Little Bit to the earlier Harry Potter books. We're all enjoying listening to the audiobook of the Sorcerer's Stone for bedtime, along with audiobooks for the teen book club and/or the Who Dun It course.

October, Part 1

Obviously I'm better at remembering to blog when I'm traveling. So . . . we got home from our epic Little House trip in late September and spent the rest of the month getting settled back into our normal routines.   Tracy, the cat who's been banished to the front porch for repeatedly peeing everywhere but the litterboxes, was very glad to have us home again! Daddy wasn't willing to go hang out on the porch and give her love. Of course, 5 seconds after I took this picture she BIT my toe because I wasn't giving her ENOUGH attention! Silly cat.

As if we hadn't done enough traveling in August and September, the second week of October we headed to Pittsburgh for Rodney to work and the rest of us to play! Unfortunately, our beloved Carnegie Science Center was closed that week, so we didn't get to go there, but we did go to the Pittsburgh Children's Museum. Lexie and Ashlyn have "aged out" of it for the most part (I think someone their age who had never been there would still find it interesting, but after going so often when they were younger they mostly just found a corner and read a book. Little Bit still enjoyed most of it though. Painting, playing with water, and checking out the new (awesome) chairs they have in the "garage". These chairs are soo cool! I went hunting online to find them. I did, but they're over $700 each, which is beyond absurd for a hunk of plastic!!! Here's hoping someone makes a cheap knock-off LOL.

Can't go to the Children's museum without a picture of Little Bit next to the giraffe sculpture :)

We also got lots of swimming time while we were in Pittsburgh. Little Bit hasn't had as many opportunities as her sisters did to practice swimming since she's been tall enough to be in the pool without floaties, so this was a wonderful opportunity. She definitely took some solid steps toward being more comfortable in the water. Wish we'd had longer.

The next day we went to a small zoo near where Rodney was working. It was overpriced for what it was, but we had a fun day. They want you to buy food to feed the animals (can't bring in your own baby carrots, have to buy a bag from them for $4! I don't even know how much the bucket of "nuggets" were. After what I'd paid to get in, I wasn't paying anything extra. BUT because most people do, the animals tend to come running up to the fence in hopes of being fed, so we could see the animals closer than most zoos.

There was a baby giraffe that only came out at certain times, but we managed to get a "front row" spot to see it. Little Bit was over-the-moon :)

They also had "baby animal feeding time". There were several young animals in the pen (a Sabu, and I don't remember what else) but only the camels were still being bottle fed. They definitely knew when it was feeding time. So cute! Little Bit said the camels are easier to feed than calves. They don't butt at the bottles like the calves do. So all in all, it was a fun day :)

When we got home, Little Bit had a fun surprise! One of my parents' "National Park friends" is a geologist and posts pictures of rocks and minerals on facebook every day. When we were on our motorhome trip, mom was showing those pictures to Little Bit, and let the friend know that her granddaughter enjoyed his pictures. He asked if he could send her some rocks and they had arrived when we got home from Pittsburgh! She was very excited! It was really cool! A box of rocks, each marked with what it is and where it's from!!!

Sleeping Bear Dunes

We spent Aug 29 at Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan.



The girls and my mom earned their Junior Rangers which required driving through various parts of the park. As part of that we stopped by a cool covered bridge.


And found Alligator Hill


These dunes had big signs warning you not to climb down. People were doing it anyway and the ranger we talked to later said they end up having to rescue people frequently.


Then we moved on to the dunes you're allowed to climb. Little Bit, my mom, and Lexie climbed them. You can see Little Bit's bright pink skirt. They climbed on up out of sight but said it just kept going so they turned around.


Finally we headed back to the visitor center to get their Junior Ranger badges.

posted from Bloggeroid

May Field Trips

As I mentioned in my last post, we did a BUNCH of field trips, back-to-back.

Day 1:  Gettysburg and Eisenhower Farm

We had hoped to do both in one day, but ended up only doing Eisenhower Farm (but you have to park at Gettysburg and take a bus from there to get to Eisenhower Farm. It was a gorgeous day! When we got off the bus we were met by the tour guide and had to jump straight into the guided tour. Given the choice, I would have preferred to go to the visitor center first and gotten the girls' "Junior Secret Service Agent" books, watched the video, etc. But . . . there was no choice, so we went with it. It amused me that both Little Bit and Lexie asked questions that the tour guide couldn't answer . . . After we finished the tour, we got the girls' "Junior Secret Service Agent" books and they got busy. It was a pretty cool program, but nobody at the site seemed to really want to answer their questions or help them. And, of course, it would have been much more efficient if they could have been watching/listening for answers DURING the tour. So it ended up taking all afternoon, but at least it was a pretty day to hang out on a farm :) 

Even though we didn't have time to do the Gettysburg driving tour, or Junior Ranger, since the bus left from (and returned to) the Gettysburg Visitor Center, we snapped a picture of Little Bit with Abraham Lincoln, outside the visitor center :) 

Day 2: Washington DC - Ford's Theatre and the Library of Congress

The next day we took Metro into Washington DC. Dad wanted to get the newest state quarter, so we tagged along, but did more fun things than buying quarters :)  First we went to Ford's Theatre. Lexie and Ashlyn did that Junior Ranger several years ago, but Little Bit hadn't, so she (and my mom) did their Junior Ranger. There were some school groups there so it was pretty crowded, but still interesting. 

Thomas Jefferson's Library

Then we headed to the Library of Congress. I'm not sure how, but we'd never managed to stop there on all our visits to DC. We will DEFINITELY be going back! We opted to just wander around on our own, rather than take a guided tour. The only bad side of that was, at one point, my Dad had asked the employee in the room a question and we were all listening to the answer and the rest of us were told we had to "move on" because a tour group was coming. 

After looking at the Gutenberg Bible, and a similar-age, hand-written Bible, and the unknown room we were told to leave (at the time we were told to leave, I was waiting for the employee to finish answering Dad's question so that I could ask what the significance of the room was, since it wasn't labeled. But I didn't get the chance), we headed upstairs. There was a docent there with a display showing how the building was built.  He grabbed Little Bit's attention effectively by telling her, as we walked up, that the building was "like an Oreo cookie" (it's a brick building with granite overlay on the outside and marble overlay on the inside). He proceeded to explain that and then answer questions. In addition to the information on how the building was built, he had tons of information about all kinds of things. He showed us the "stories" of the murals on the ceilings in the area we were, and also gave us information about the ceiling murals in the Main Reading Room. He told us about Thomas Jefferson's library (pictured above) and how it came to be donated to the Library of Congress. . . he did an excellent job answering the girls' questions in easy-to-understand, but informative ways. It was awesome! 

Once we left him we visited some more of the exhibits, before heading to the "Young Reader's Room". By the time we got there, it was near closing time but we had time for Little Bit to find the Elephant & Piggie toys, and look at some books. Lexie and Ashlyn browsed the teen section for awhile before they kicked us out :) There was still more to see, we plan to go back next time we're in DC!

Day 3: Wheaton Park and Brookside Gardens

 The next day we planned to go see the live butterfly exhibit at Brookside Gardens. The 18th Century Market Fair had inspired Lexie to research making 18th century clothes, and she'd been researching authentic fabrics to use. Since there's a  big fabric store near Brookside, we stopped there on our way down and Lexie happily browsed until we told her it was time to go :) She claims to hate shopping but forgets that if there are books or fabric involved :)  When we left G Street Fabric, it was near lunchtime. So we decided to go to Wheaton Park so Little Bit could play on the playground and we could eat our picnic lunch.  I'm not sure we'd been to Wheaton Park since we moved away from MD when Lexie and Ashlyn were 5. They've completely re-done the playground, and it's just as cool as before. Even Lexie and Ashlyn enjoyed playing on it (though they didn't want pictures taken!)

I couldn't resist snapping a picture of Lexie reading WHILE swinging though LOL.

After playing and eating lunch, Mom and the girls and I walked through the gardens at Brookside to the greenhouse (Dad drove around so we wouldn't have to walk all the way back). As we walked through the gardens, we noticed someone waving to us, and some friends from home, who are in the process of moving to Maryland, were there! They had come to see the butterflies, and then were eating their picnic in the gardens. So we stopped and visited with them for a few minutes before heading on to the Greenhouse where the butterflies are.

It was pretty much perfect weather for visiting the butterflies. When it's hot, the butterflies (mostly tropical varieties) love it and are active but it's miserable for people because it's so hot. When it's chilly, the butterflies are too cold and aren't active. We managed to hit a day where it was cool enough to be comfortable for people, but warm enough that the butterflies were active. Little Bit is finally old enough to get into it, and spent her time asking the volunteers questions and using the magnifying glass they provided to check out the butterflies up close. The big girls and I found a comfortable bench and just enjoyed watching the butterflies fly around and land near (and on) us. Lexie is never without her book, so she was reading part of the time, and a friendly butterfly stopped by to see what she was reading :)

Day 4: South Mountain Creamery

One of the things the girls had said they for sure wanted to do while we were in Maryland was go to South Mountain Creamery to feed the calves. Even though we drove by it (more or less) every day, we never managed to be in the area at calf feeding time, so the next day we just went to feed the calves. Got there a bit early, and ate ice cream (yum! Though they didn't have the mocha flavor that Ashlyn was hoping for). And then, even though it was still a half hour till feeding time, we went to visit the calves. They figured if people were there, they should be fed, so they were very "friendly" hoping for food. Since there was no food yet, they settled for having their ears scratched and generally being loved on until feeding time. Lexie's favorite was one with long white eyelashes. 

Little Bit's favorite was one she named "Droopy" because she said it's ears were droopy.  It happily chewed on her shirt while she petted it until the milk bottles got there, and then she got to feed "her calf" :) She has since re-named her stuffed cow "Droopy" and drawn countless pictures of "Droopy the calf" :)   Once all the calves were fed, we made a quick stop back by the store to get chocolate milk and headed home. Little Bit didn't remember the chocolate milk from previous visits, so when we got home and I poured her a glass her eyes got big and she declared it SOOOO GOOOD!!! Yes, yes it is!!! Later, as Lexie was drinking a glass, she commented that it's "so creamy" and Little Bit gave her a disgusted look and said "Well it IS called South Mountain CREAMERY!" I was amused.

Day 5: Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

Our final field trip of the trip was the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Most years it's beastly hot there but this year it was almost COLD. We figured the vendors didn't mind, it was probably easier to sell all the gorgeous wool shawls and such with cooler temperatures :) We enjoyed wandering through all the vendor areas, stocked up on wool for felting projects this next year, watched the sheep shearing and sheep dog exhibitions, and petted lots of sheep, and rabbits, and alpaca.  We were amused that, in one barn, there were sheepskins hanging on the side of the pen where the sheep were. Seemed a bit twisted to have the skins of their "friends" hanging on the side of their pen LOL. 

And that was our busy first week of May! 

April Field Trips

As I mentioned in my last post, we finished up April with back-to-back field trips.

Wednesday we went to Indian Echo Caverns with our homeschool group. It was awesome! The caverns are beautiful! My camera was giving me fits, so I only managed to get one or two pictures, and it doesn't do the cave justice, but it was very cool! The tour was interesting, and the kids had fun learning about the cave, and spending time with friends. After the tour, we ate the picnic lunches we had brought and all the kids (from preschoolers through teenagers) played on the playground and eventually they were all participating in a huge game of tag. So fun!

We left straight from the caverns to go to my parents' house so that, on Thursday we could go to Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. My zoo membership expired the end of April, so we wanted to sneak in one last zoo before it expired. The "nests" at Maryland Zoo have been a favorite photo spot since the big girls were little, but now only Little Bit will humor me :)

The real reason we made sure to go to this particular zoo was the baby giraffe! When we got there, the parking lot was more than twice as full as I've ever seen it! (granted, we try to make a point of going on not-busy days, apparently a Thursday in late April doesn't fit that category, who knew!). I was concerned that, with so many people, the giraffe house would be mobbed and/or closed because the baby needed a break. But we ended up, rather randomly, choosing to do the "other half" of the zoo first, then ate lunch and THEN headed to the African animal area.

By then the school groups, and many of the other people had cleared out (and/or were in the section we went to first), and there were only a couple other families in the giraffe house when we got there. The baby giraffe, in addition to be adorable (of course), is a complete natural at this zoo thing! The entire time we were there she stayed right in front of the windows, and often right up AGAINST the windows, seeming to pose for pictures! Little Bit was over the moon!

Friday, we headed to the 18th Century Market Fair at Fort Frederick. It was HOT, and we all got a little sun burned, but it was sooo fun!! I'd been wanting to go for several years but had never figured out the logistics to actually be in Maryland for it. This year it worked out! And I think it's going to be a priority most years from now on. The "living history demonstrations" in the fort itself weren't as impressive as I'd have expected . . . the barracks were open, but not that much more than normally, and there was a musket shooting demo while we were there but we're not nearly as interested in guns as we are in the rest of history. BUT there were tons of "sutlers" (vendors) all over the grounds. The rules are pretty strict to make sure that the vendors are historically accurate, which means there's tons of really cool stuff to see AND all (or at least most) of the vendors are true history nerds!

By the well inside the fort.

We spent probably an hour talking to a woman who makes 18th century clothes by spinning and dying her own wool, weaving it into cloth, and hand-sewing it into period clothing. It was fascinating! The other vendor we spent a LONG time talking to was a "blanket historian". He has spent years studying a specific type of 18th century woolen blanket known as "rose blankets" (they have an embroidered design on the corners that looks similar to a compass rose). He not only taught us TONS about the blankets, but told the girls that if they're interested in history, the key is to "specialize" in something nobody else cares about. Because if you go into a museum and ask to see something that ALL historians want to see, the curator's not likely to let you, but if you go in and ask to see something that's shoved in a back room being ignored, they're likely to turn you lose in that back room, happy that SOMEONE cares about it. He said he's gotten to dig through cabinets full of blankets at museums from tiny little ones to the Smithsonian. We probably talked to him for 45 min. or more and could easily have stayed longer if we hadn't wanted to see the rest of the vendors before we left.

Some of the sutlers' tents as seen from the wall of the fort.

The day re-inspired the girls' interest in making colonial costumes and they're busy researching how to make stays, and historically accurate costumes. We figure, even if it's a couple years before we make it back to Williamsburg, we should be able to make it back to the Fort Frederick Market Fair every year so they can wear their costumes there :)

The last couple days of April were quieter, and in a few days I'll have another post with our "early May field trips" :)

Whirlwind of Christmas Field Trips

Jumping back to the beginning of December. Because why bother to blog in order, right? . . .

The girls and I spent the first several days of December in a whirlwind of Christmas field trips with my parents.

We started our whirlwind at Brookside Gardens. We visited the greenhouse in the afternoon, went to Chipotles for supper (it was right next to a Costco that's parking was in a parking garage. We were most amused at the contrast between that Costco and the Costco we normally shop at in Lancaster, complete with horse and buggy parking!). After supper we headed back to Brookside for their walk through light display!

I convinced Lexie to pose next to old Mr. Frog so I could compare it to another picture of I have of her with the same Mr. Frog from a few years ago . . . She's changed just a tad in the past 10 years :)

And while we're sharing old pictures . . . this one is from Brookside Gardens too, in the green house, 11 years ago.

And a couple more pictures from this year's Brookside Garden lights . . .

The next day we hopped on Metro and went into Washington DC. Our first stop was the National Greenhouse. Their "special" display this year was about the National Park sites and it was very cool! Though there seemed to be a disproportionate number of displays for west coast sites compared to east coast sites.  While we were at the Greenhouse we went through the permanent displays as well. Lexie entertained herself in the desert display by seeing if she could touch all the cacti without getting hurt, or something . . . 

Lexie and Little Bit humored me and posted together in front of the National Park Tree (As hlyn was in a "no pictures" mood. I've joked that 100 years from now people looking back over the picture record of our life would assume she vanished at age 12 or thereabouts LOL. Little Bit also posed for me in the "Train" . . . isn't if fun? 

When we were done at the National Greenhouse we headed to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. I had an ulterior motive, a few years ago when we were at this museum, Little Bit found a giraffe Christmas ornament in the gift shop that she HAD to have. I humored her, and she LOVED it but it somehow vanished during our move last year. I'm sure it will show up again someday, but in the meantime, she was very sad to not have it, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to at least check and see if they still had them (I didn't mention it to her until I'd made sure they did). She was VERY excited to get a replacement ornament. As you might have noticed from the pictures, she kinda likes giraffes.

By the time we left the museum it was getting close to dark, so we went ahead and headed down the mall to catch a glimpse of the National Christmas Tree, and all the state-decorated trees. I have to admit, most years, I'm not overly impressed with the national Christmas Tree, and look forward more to seeing how all the school kids have decorated the state trees, but this year's national tree was GORGEOUS!!! So simple, and patriotic (it's hard to tell in the picture, but the little lights are red, white and blue), and just plain PRETTY! Which isn't to say I didn't also enjoy the state trees. It's always fun to see what the different states, mostly school kids, though some states have a specific artist, or art studio, to do their ornaments, come up with.

After seeing the trees, we headed back to Metro. On our way into the city, Little Bit had caught sight of "a big panda with Christmas lights". We'd been in a hurry to catch a train, so hadn't taken time to check it out then, but at her request, we hunted it down before heading home, and got her picture with it. As you can see, it's a rather creative advertisement for the National Zoo's light display :) 

And finally, the reason we chose this particular weekend for our field trips. Harper's Ferry's Old Time Christmas. The whole town was decorated, and had re-inactors around. It was fun. We enjoyed a harp concert at the church, visited the horses, and learned some interesting information about how they train horses to be "re-inactors" (have to teach them to not mind the gunshots and such). . . saw a shooting demonstration. A demonstration of how they baked bread . . . lots of interesting stuff.

The last thing of the day, was a Civil War dance demonstration. We poked our head in the tent to check it out, and . . . stayed until the last dance was done. Lexie jumped right in and danced every dance. By the last dance, one of the instructors sought her out specifically and asked if she wanted to dance with him and be the "lead couple" because he needed someone who could follow the steps, and keep up a good pace. She loved it! It took longer for Ashlyn and Little Bit to decide to join in, but once they did, they had a blast as well. One of the dancers found out, in conversation, that we're from the Lancaster area, so told Lexie that they are from Lancaster, and offer free dance classes in Jan-March in Harrisburg . . . so that's how we knew to go to the dance class a couple weeks ago. :)