Trip to The Air and Space Museum in DC

Reid and Jacob have been learning about the Wright Brothers and this past week, World War I. We took a trip to the Air and Space Museum on Sunday - I'm not quite sure who enjoyed it most, the boys or the grown-up boy, Chris.

Chris, Reid, and Jacob outside the Museum:


If you look carefully, you might be able to spot the Capitol building in the background of this picture. It was extremely cold! Crowds were light, we were able to find a parking spot right across from the Museum - that's a rare happening on the Mall in DC!


Here's the main reason we wanted to visit, the actual Wright Flyer, the first plane flown by Orville Wright on Dec. 17th, 1903.


Jacob learning about airflow and its affect on a plane:


Jacob and Reid hanging out with an astronaut. Do you know why visitors aren't allowed to touch the front panel of the 'helmet'? It's made of a thin layer of gold and is easily damaged:


More moon adventures:



Do you see Jacob with the rockets?

Holidays

I'm way behind but wanted to put up a few pictures from the holidays.

This is what we did for Advent. The nativity scene belonged to my grandparents. It sat on their living room mantel throughout my childhood and young adulthood. Each evening this year we took turns reading an Advent passage from the Bible and then the reader would put up a star to count down until Christmas.


Every year our church has a family service on Christmas Eve that features a play. This year, I was the mother of Mary, 2 shepherds, the star, and the crucifer. It was very relaxing, we sat in the pew and watched, just the 2 of us! That's a first.


Here's the whole family on Christmas Eve, with our new rector, Mother Joy Rose:


Jacob and Lauryn in front of our church's nativity scene:


Christmas morning! Brianna was not amused to be awakened so early by her siblings, can you tell?


Here's proof that I can actually prepare and cook mush - it's a Christmas morning tradition that goes way back, I don't know how much generations, but through my mother's mother's family. You boil a fresh ham or pork roast. Then, you remove the ham and pour corn meal into the flavored broth. You then refrigerate it and fry it on Christmas morning in slices. Very yummy! The litmus test for a potential mate in our family is whether or not he or she likes mush ;-)


Chase's 14th (!) birthday, complete with cake and singing.

Catching up...

These last 2 weeks have been very busy - all fun stuff, but not much time at home. Here are some pictures:

Lauryn singing with her friends from Brownies at Sotterley Plantation


More pictures from Sotterley, freshly face painted:


With friend Luda, who is from Russia:

Santa and friends:

Making a craft:


Jacob's Boy Scouts Pack sang Christmas carols for the folks at Charlotte Hall Veterans Home


Here's something you don't see every day: Chase in a tux! He's on his way to the Christmas Concert at school, his first in high school. We were very impressed, the music was great! The jazz ensemble was especially talented. They sang a song in honor of Stephanie Weir. It's called Dare You to Move, by Lighthouse. It was very moving. Watching these teenagers, including my own daughter, try to cope with the death of their friend continues to be heartbreaking.


Picking out the tree at our favorite spot, the Walters small tree farm in La Plata. Mr. Walter passed away last year, but his son and Chris shared some great memories of the years we've found the perfect year there. This is most likely our last Christmas in Maryland - and this is our biggest tree ever!



Playing with a new friend, Shadow:



We saw our favorite doctor again! Dr. Biersack is back from living in San Antonio and invited us over one Sunday afternoon.

Learning About Color

We had a lesson on color today. Some review, some new fun. We learned about primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. We also experimented with tints and shades by adding black and white to primary colors. Next stop: an art project based on Winslow Homer's use of values in color.

We had our annual Christmas Card photo shoot today. The deal is, they pose nicely and then they can do what they want. The best pictures are usually the ones where they do what they want. Here's one featuring 5 out of 5 children and 2 out of 3 dogs.

Adventures in Homeschooling

Welcome to our blog, where we plan to share our adventures in homeschooling.