Latta Plantation

Another bucket list item for our trip--a visit to our favorite plantation. We spent so much time out here when we lived here, especially the years we homeschooled. They have some great programs they do for the students and we all have fond memories of helping with sheep shearing and learning about medicine and food and life from different periods of time when the plantation existed. 

We totally lucked out this weekend and dropped by when they were having a civil war reenactment. So we got to hear live music and see the encampments and watch a battle, along with the normal plantation stuff. It was a fantastic afternoon.

(The kids had to jump right in and do their own fighting, of course.)

Nature's Playgrounds

 

All the beautiful weather we've had lately, and the lack of mosquitos for the moment, has made it perfect for enjoying all the great outdoor spaces we have near us. The kids had a Friday off from school a couple weeks ago, so we met up with some friends and hiked on of our favorite

trails at Latta Plantation.
 

 

And Bug's Lego Club after school has meant time along the greenway and creek by the school for my little vine swinger. 

 

The school has actually incorporated this area into the recess rotation for some of the grades and I think the kids all love it.

 

Even the middle schoolers have a great time when they get the chance to play. Bean has really missed recess this year, and missed getting to spend time at the elementary school campus, so these afternoons where I pick her up first have been a treat. This last week, it was so nice out that we hung around with one of her friends for another half hour once Bug got out, too.

 

These two monkeys will try to climb just about anything, even dirt walls.

Getting Dirty

What could be more fun than a Saturday service project that involves mud and friends? Our church spent the morning at the Latta Plantation Nature Preserve helping out with a few projects, including cleaning out the little pond area and lining the bed with rocks. The kids were all excited to help out with that one, of course.

And of course, in the process, Peanut fell into the muddy water.

It only took a few seconds for his friends to decide to join him. They had fun playing for awhile, and then almost as much fun getting hosed off. It wasn't until the walking-around-wet part that it stopped being so fun. But overall, this goes down as a fun activity. I like it when the kids think doing service is fun. And the new play area didn't hurt, either.

 

Once lunch was over, we had to run home to get cleaned up and then head to the church for the baptism of one of the little boys in my primary class. He was the last one from my class for the year and I was glad that it worked out that we could be there for his big day.

Then, there was a little yard work to do around our own house and while we were out there, I decided that we should finally get out the croquet set that we bought 3 or 4 years ago and teach the kids how to play.

I hadn't played croquet since I was about Bean's age, but I do remember loving it. We had my grandparent's old set, which was a lot more solid than this cheap one from Walmart, but this one works more or less.

 And it was mostly fun, although of course there were tears. I doubt there are any games we can play as a family that won't involve tears at this stage of our lives, but I live in hope of reaching that place some day. I've heard it's nice there.

At least the tears didn't last forever. These guys were taking a little snuggle break and checking on Tumtum who got to join the family outside and pig out on the grass. Poor little guinea doesn't make it out into the real world very often.

In other fun news of the week, I got to go to my first Activity Days on Tuesday night--an ice cream and game night to celebrate the end of school. It was the last night for their previous leader who moves next week, and then I'll be planning and running their activities from now on. I'm pretty excited. I've thought this job sounded fun ever since Bean was born, and it's now her last year in the program, so I'm glad I'll get to do this with her before she moves on.

And finally, a picture from swim practice on the last day of school, which was a very un-summery type day. The kids were FREEZING at practice that night. I think it was 66 and breezy, and the water, according to Bug, was deathly cold from the rain the day before. At least the cold only lasted for a couple days and now were back to normal summer weather. They did an intra-squad meet on Friday night to get their base times before the regular meets start next week and it was nice and hot for all the parents sitting on the deck. Kids did pretty good, although Bean choked, literally, on her butterfly, so we'll have to see what that looks like next week. But it looks like it will be a good season.

Running Here and There and Everywhere

(AKA--How many times can we drive out to the church area in one weekend?)

 

This weekend was a mad rush of activities that left all of us needing another weekend. First off, it was our turn to clean the church building Saturday morning with a few other families, so we had a quick breakfast and were out the door by 8:45, at which point we are usually still in PJ's and making pancakes on a typical Saturday. Then, we'd planned to head to Latta Plantation a few miles down the road for the Celtic festival, but it was raining pretty good right then and was supposed to clear up for the afternoon, so we went home for a couple hours.

 

During those two hours, we cleaned, I worked on the cake I would need that night (more later on that), and Daddy-o gathered the things he needed for the pre-prom dinner he was making for the kids from our congregation that were going to the church prom that evening.

 

At 2:00, the kids and I headed back out to Latta Plantation, grateful for rain boots because even though it had stopped raining, there were 8" deep puddles the size of our van all over the place.

 

The Celtic Festival is one of our favorites. Lots of vendors selling tartans and dragons and swords, haggis and shepherd's pie. 

And what's not to like about people wearing kilts? Not only the performers, either. There were plenty of casual observers decked out, too. Bug was admiring the tartan scarves until he saw the $50 price tag and decided maybe he wasn't ready to make that purchase.

The pipe band was fun to listen to.

The kids loved trying out the lathe. The man running it told them this machine has been around for more than 800 years.

 

 Bean is hoping to build one in our backyard. She made me take pictures and everything so she could recreate the setup. Sometimes I think this girl was born in the wrong century.

We ran into friends while we were there. Pretty funny since they'd been over at our house the afternoon before for a very long overdue get together, and then after weeks of not seeing each other, we get to hang out two days in a row.

 

Peanut wanted to hang out with the animals, of course. He loves them all and can't get enough of calling for the donkey, Oreo, to come to him. Sometimes Oreo obliges, but I think it's a coincidence.

They had a few stations set up focused on WWI troops.

Bean was fascinated by the dancers.

 

All in all, it ended up being a beautiful day and I wished that we'd had more time. But after a couple hours, we had to rush back home so we could get ready to drive right back out that way to the Cub Scout Blue and Gold Dinner at the church.

 

Along with the dinner, they also had a cake/dessert auction, for which Daddy-o had stayed up late Friday making one of his famous apple pies and I had made a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake.

 

We all had fun at the Take Flight themed dinner. Bug and Bean made paper airplanes to fly down the hallway runway, the scouts put on a few skits, we ate pizza, and drooled over the desserts.

 

And while all that was going on, this little guy was busy flirting with his new friend. Her parents were probably grateful she was busy because they were fully occupied keeping her brother from bidding on every single cake. Auctions get intense! Daddy-o's pie ended up bringing in the most money of the night, $100 thanks to a big leap made by a family who really wanted that pie to celebrate the ultimate Pi Day. They posted a picture a little later, letting everyone know that they took a bite on 3.14.15 at 9:26:53 p.m.

 

After such a crazy Saturday, it might have been nice to have a lazy Sunday, but no such luck. Today was our annual ward conference and potluck for church. Which translated into fixing a crock pot of Paula Deen's White Bean Chili with Chicken (and being really grateful we'd bought a couple desserts the night before to bring for dessert), Daddy-o coming up with a short sermon, me planning a lesson for the 8 year old class I teach, trying to get there earlier than normal, and then a 9 hour day at church for Daddy-o with all his extra meetings before and after, and a solid 4.5 for the rest of us.

 

Thankgoodness the weekend is over--not sure we could handle anymore. :)

 

Beautiful February

This weekend, we got lucky with some beautiful weather considering it's the beginning of February. Perfect timing for the Latta Plantation Fairy House Festival. The older two kids and I went to it a couple years ago, but the weather was even better.

 .

 

Even though we didn't take our own advice from last time and bring along supplies, the kids took the building of their fairy house and grounds very seriously.

 

First, there was the picking of the perfect spot. Mossy ground, good trees to build against, and right on the lake offered a unique twist.

 

The house may have been simple but it had its own boat dock. They actually spent way more time working on the dock than the house--anything to do with water. . .

 

This sweet boy was mostly content to throw things in the water, including some of the building materials Bean and Bug had used on their creation, which didn't go over so well. But overall, they had a great morning. One of my favorite things about this is that we see a lot of people from our preschool days there, and this year, there were also several people from church, so it felt like a great community event. I love anything that makes me feel like I live in a small town--I'm always searching for my Stars Hollow :)

 

There was also a WWII event at the plantation house, so we stopped by there for awhile, too. There was a lot of fun equipment to look at and Bug even got to try on the British supplies. We talked with "soldiers" and a woman war correspondent who filled us in on the roles women had during the war. Russia even had a famous woman sniper.

 

Peanut came home obsessed with guns for the next couple days and kept wanting to shoot all of us. What is it with boys and guns?