Science and swimming! What a day!

*originally written back in September! Forgot to hit PUBLISH!*

Our first official homeschool field trip was AWESOME!

To be honest, I was dreading the 2 hour drive. Right up until the morning of, in fact. But I really, really wanted to take the boys, and they really, really wanted to go. So after breakfast, packing some lunch, and loading the car, we drove to Juno Beach to meet up with some friends. It ended up being just a small group of four moms, our kids, and one other parent's kids, so I think there was right around 18 or so of us?

We met up at the park first, and let the kids run around and eat lunch. Then we walked across the road to the beach. The real beach, like at the OCEAN! (Like every other beach isn't a real beach, or something. But it is something special to see the ocean. It was all three of the boys' first time at the ocean. I'm kind of sad that Jason wasn't there with us, but it is what it is, and we will definitely go again. It was a beautiful stretch of beach, and hardly anyone was there. Well, it was the middle of the day, on a Friday, so...

After a quick picture,

we went back to the park, and to the Loggerhead Marine Life Center. The impending storm drove us inside, and we barely made it in before the torrential downpour started.

We walked through the visitor center and store for a while, before heading outside to wait for the rain to stop.

My phone battery was nearly drained, so I didn't get any pictures of the many sea turtles that we got to see. There were green sea turtles, and, I think, loggerheads.

Ethan liked seeing the turtles, but wasn't interested in signing up for the vet lab, and was being a bit camera shy. Not to mention it was terribly hot and humid out. Jackson was running around like a wild man, asking questions, playing in the little play area, and pointing out every turtle to us.


Alex decided to sign up for the vet lab, and really seemed to enjoy it. In it, each child got an "injured" plastic green sea turtle, that they had to take care of. They had to figure out it's injuries, name it, tag it if it wasn't, do "bloodwork", measurements, etc, and fill out paperwork, and listen to some facts given by the teacher.

The younger boys each chose a small stuffed animal from the gift shop before we left.

Time to go to the beach before our drive home. After taking what felt like forever to get Jackson to eat something, and then get him and I changed into our swimsuits, the four of us followed our friends back to the beach.

No pictures, because my phone was charging, and I was having too much fun swimming in the ocean with my guys! Between digging in the sand, and swimming, they all three had a blast. E made a friend while they played a game of sort of riding the waves. A and his friends made up a game to see who would be the last one pushed back to the beach by the waves. J and I swam together, and looked for shells. One of my mom friends caught a tiny crab, baby shrimp and even a itty-bitty fish using some sea weed. Nearly 2 hours later, I decided we had to call it day, as I knew they would be getting quite hungry, and J would probably fall asleep in the car before dinner if we didn't leave soon. We said our goodbyes, and after a quick rinse and change of clothes, we headed out to dinner. Several slices of pizza later, we were back on the road, and home by around 9pm.

I'd call that a huge success. The boys are already planning to go back, as a family this time so Jason can see the turtles and the beach, and when extended family visits, it's on our list of possible places to go.

Family field trip

Today, I kept the boys out of school and we took a field trip.

Target sponsored a Family Day at The Henry Ford Museum, meaning admission and parking was free! Since the reason behind the family day was honor and remembrance of the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination, we were going to try and see the car from Dallas.

Our morning started a little slow with the boys all sleeping to 7:30 or even 8! I snuck out of our bedroom, which Jack currently shares with us, and took a quick shower while he slept a bit longer. When I got out, he had just woken up, E was up reading, and Alex was still in bed, but waking up.
After making a quick breakfast for the boys, I went through our weekly budget and started some laundry.

Before we left, I printed off a little packet of activities about JFK including a coloring sheet, vocab list, crossword, word search, and a multiple choice quiz for the boys to do in the car.

We made it down there just before 11am and got to see many really neat things. There are tons of old farm equipment, cars, carriages, furniture, appliances and housewares, trains, airplanes, an Abraham Lincoln exhibit, the Oscar Meyer wiener mobile, a bus diner and many other things. I think our favorite might have been a really neat LEGO city with skyscrapers taller than me! There was so much detail, from the cornfield to the helicopters, a concert stage to the Willys building! The boys were enthralled by it.

I realized something about Alex today. He is definitely our budding photographer. He got an inexpensive digital camera last Christmas, but it got misplaced sometime during the year. Alex really wanted to take pictures, so since I had our nice camera with us to take some pictures, he was put in charge of it ;) He did a pretty good job and asked how to use the zoom and other buttons. I have to upload the pictures still but I can't wait to go through all of them.

We did have a couple of things that could have gone smoother. First, lunch. We didn't pack because I'd forgotten the expense of eating there... That and the "restaurants" weren't easy to navigate with 2 boys and a toddler in a stroller by myself. The first one only had hot dogs, which E won't eat - it's a sensory thing. The 2nd one had no place to sit and 4 daily specials, none of which any of us wanted. The third is a cafeteria style set-up. Think hospital cafeteria, where there are 3 different main "kitchen" areas: a grill, an "oven" and a salad bar, and then a refrigerated section with yogurt, desserts, and bottled drinks, and a fountain drink, plus the cashier. Now add about 30 people beside your family. It was really difficult to navigate the stroller while carrying a tray overloaded with food. We managed to find a seat after a minute and hurriedly ate our food, as the people who sat beside us were less than polite to the employee and made me uncomfortable.

Jackson needed cleaned up, and when we made it to the bathroom, the older boys sat outside while I went in to change him. There was no changing table :( so I had to use what I can only assume is a designated changing area on the counter top. As I lifted him out of the stroller, I discovered he had wet through his onesie and pants, and had a dirty, not just wet diaper! I'm so glad I remembered to grab a clean outfit before we left. While practically wrestling with him to change his clothes, I heard a mom and her kids coming in, and one of them asked her where the boys in the hallway's mom was. She said something along the lines of "I don't know where their mom is" with a somewhat exasperated, if not judgmental tone. As she was walking in the door, I said "the boys in the chairs? Yeah, they're mine. I thought they were too old to be in the women's restroom". She said sorry if she sounded judgmental, that she was tired, etc. I'm sure she didn't mean anything, but I wanted her to know they were being left unsupervised to roam the museum. :)

We walked around some more, and then Jack needed changed again, and since he had another dirty diaper, I used the last few wipes in my purse. The boys were all pretty exhausted so we decided to call it a day at around 3pm. We didn't get to see the Presidential car because there was a super long line due to the day.

It was a good time, and I think they learned something, plus saw some really cool stuff. The museum has changed since the last time we were there a few years ago, with some new exhibits.

If I wasn't struggling to keep my eyes open right now, I'd upload all our pictures, but they will have to wait till tomorrow. I'm so glad that we decided to play hooky and take a family fun day instead. 

I definitely learned a lesson though from today: Pack lunches or leave and eat elsewhere. Bring a backpack with plenty of diapers, wipes and maybe even 2 outfits for Jack. Know that I can trust my older boys to wait outside the restroom for me while I change Jack and/or use the restroom myself. Although, we did come out to them NOT sitting where I told them to, but standing over by the ATM "checking out all the signs". Silly boys.