DOUGHNUTS

So, I have been meaning to do a little exerpt on my experience with homeschooling and keep forgetting--until tonight! That's what happens when your hubby is out of the country, girls in bed, and nothing better to do:)

Anyway, I am really enjoying teaching Faith. I love how quick it is!! She picks things up so quick-as most children do. We are learning letters, numbers, some science, language, and social studies.

She has learned to dial my phone number, the days of the week, counting to about 70, and how to sound out words for reading!!!!!!!!!!

Every week is a new letter and we create a tongue twister for the week. They (Dalaina too) really enjoy thinking them up and trying to say them!

This week we are finishing up "D" And, they created this twister:

Daisy dolphin and dancing dinosaurs dine in the dark!

We also do something special that week related to the letter. Today we finished up the "D" week by making doughnuts!

I whipped up some biscuit dough, they rolled them and shaped them, I fried them and coated them with sugar&cinnamon when they were hot, and then we chowed down!!!

We had great fun and wow, what a mess in the kitchen!!! They went from the stools in the kitchen directly to the bathtub:)

And, then after the sugar high-off to bed:)

CHARLIE'S SAFARI

A neighbor recommended this place and wow---it is awesome!!! I decided to take the girls after we did some school today and it was definitely worth the trip(30minutes away). It is a huge, indoor, fun center...there is mini golf, moon bouncers, gerbel tubes, slides, arcades, food, and a laser tag area:)

We started with 9 holes of golf. They have not ever played and so we learned today. Dalaina did great, she listened and took instructions well. Faith, well, she did her own thing(as usual)!

We had to take a photo here because the giraffe's name is GG and the girls were so happy about that. They call my gram GG-great grandma!

This was so cool...I joined in. Lots of climbing, sliding, jumping, swinging.... it was like being a kid again:) ( after a while, my body reminded me that I was not!)

These slides were great----Dalaina liked it even though she had a petrified look all the way down:)

Okay, so, some parts were not exactly ideal for a parent to try. However, you climb up there and you have to get down, right? Nobody tells you that this tree is insanely difficult for an adult!! A half step here, and then quarter turn to another half step and then down, turn, step...and well, I just don't twist that way!!!!!!!!!!! (I think I will not be able to walk tomorrow. I can feel my bulging disc and nerves barking at me already:( )

I couldn't not go down! They were like come on mom!...Dalaina helped me get unstuck though:)

Do you see how high this thing was!!!! It was crazy. And, in the middle was a spiral slide--orange in color. Dalaina wanted to go down--but not alone of course:) So, I said sure and down we went...and down...and around...and around...and down. Oh my gosh, I thought I would puke and just went I thought we were at the bottom, we went around and down again!!!!

This was the area full of bouncers as you can see. The girls loved it...me, after one bounce and fall, I was done!!!

They enjoyed this little section as well. Actually, there wasn't anything they didn't like!

Onto the arcades....They pretended to be riding and thought is was cool!

By this time, we needed to refuel at the watering hole. After lots of water and a quesadilla-which was delicious---we went back to play and bounce and slide and crawl...

Who knew they made such a great place!? And, out here, where it rains 9months out of the year, this is my new favorite place. Good fun, good food, at a great price:) I think I may open one of these myself!

CHOCOLATE

OH, I don't know how I missed posting this one!!! We went to Seattle to Theo's chocolate factory. An organic, fair trade chocolate company. Bean to bar:) YUMMY--



The cocoa bean



The girls enjoyed the tour:) It was very interesting and educational ( we went for C week)...and, you get to taste lots of chocolate bars!!




Above, the roaster--the beans are double roasted.

This is where the chocolate comes down and goes through the tubes and into the vats. This is where the flavorings change the longer they sit.

Conehead?

She was very into the tour guide:)

The Confection kitchen. A person has thirty seconds to put decoration on top of the confections as they pass by on the cooling belt.

They acquired a lot of matching, antique (from the 60s) equipment before opening the factory.

The cooling racks

BIG Chocolate Vats!!!!

Overall, we enjoyed the tour, and tasting all of the chocolate bars, and we bought some for the ride home!

Theo's---it's great, check it out online.

FALL STUFF

So, I've gotten behind and therefore will cram some stuff into this post...
CRANBERRIES!!!!!!!!!!!
The annual Cranberry Harvest Festival was last weekend. We drove there- about 2 hours southwest of where we live. We were too late for the tours, however, we did our own tour.



We drove around to find some cranberry bogs and we did...

...we also caught some men harvesting-from bogs to bags they say.

A week ago, the girls were learning about colors and so we tie dyed some shirts:) When I say we, I mean the girls and their Gram--I was at work. The shirts turned out great and they had a blast:)

Dalaina insisted on circles for her shirt!

Faith had to do a 2-step color system for hers. The blue one was one of David's white shirts and I think it runed out great!

Late September, we went to a pumpkin patch (an earlier post) and the girls picked pumpkins. They insisted on bringing them home and painting them. Of course, I said sure!!

Can you see the faces?

The girls have also been learning about the seasons. They took a walk with my mom and collected some acrons, leaves, twigs, etc. We put it all together and created some autumn wreathes:)

The one on the left was made by Dalaina and the other one is Faith's. This one below, that was the one I made. We had a lot of fun and we enjoy looking at them everyday:)

Now, I am caught up!