Ropes Challenge-Destination Imagination By: Stella

Hi, All!
I am here today to tell you about our recent Destination Imagination field trip! It's an adventure-so hold onto your seats!! :D

We hopped into the car and enjoyed a peaceful ride on the way there, with me reading some books. We passed Newfound Lake and shivered just thinking about hopping in the lake.
"That would be REALLY cold!!" Leo mused.
"Yes, I just wish that swimming wasn't over completely for the summer," Stella declared.
"There's always more swimming next year. Remember the last time we went to the lake?" Mater asked.
"I could never forget!" Stella said.
The last time we went to the lake was after Hurricane Irene came with her whipping winds and stormy gusts. The beach was TOTALLY covered with water! All the way up to the rocks was completely flooded! It was certainly an adventure! But I am getting off the topic of THIS adventure...
We came to Camp Berea and, opening our car doors, popped the little kids into strollers and walked down a path.
"Hey! Where is everybody?" Rus asked.
"I don't know, Rus," Mater answered.
"Hey! I think I see them!" Leo said. We hurried in that direction.
We looked everywhere for our team but couldn't find them!
"I'm going to ask in the office," Mater declared.
The walk wasn't too bad; we were still on time, but the minutes seemed to fly past. The sun moved in between clouds, and the multicolored leaves rustled in the trees. The lake spread out before us, beautiful, but with splashing waters and freezing cold waves.
Mater asked the people at the desk. They told us which direction our group went in, but they had no idea where they really were.
We stood on the steps, with our thinking caps on, the wind nipping at our faces.
"Should Stella and I go looking for them?" Leo questioned.
"It's worth a try; just don't go too far." Mater warned.
Leo and I ran off again in the direction we thought they went in. We ran and ran! It was a beautiful run though. The wind blew in our faces; the sun came in little patches through the fluffy white clouds with the beauty around us. We passed another large group of children running around with happy shouts. We ran past them. Sucking in deep breaths, we stopped.
"I think we should turn back," Stella said.
"I guess you're right," Leo sighed. We turned back and jog-walked to the steps. Mater greeted us, but we were disappointed. But it was hard to be too unhappy on this beautiful day. Still, the beautiful surroundings weren't bringing us any closer to finding our team. Mater went inside to see if they had Mrs. L's number.
Filia sat in her stroller. Rus and Tert sat on the steps on either side of her. Leo and I leaned against the post. After a moment, Leo's face brightened. He had spotted a member of our team! He popped his head in the office, and Mater eagerly gave us permission to go over. Again Leo and I ran over. J smiled and waved. He and his mom knew where we were supposed to be.
Once again merry, we walked over to Mater and the little ones, and they joined our small group.
"Yes, they are at the gym!" Mrs. N. said. We got to the gym. There were several doors. We tried the side door.
"Nope," J said. We hurried to the next one.
"Nothing," Leo said.
The next one didn't heed to our pulling either.
"They're in there." We heard them in there. Resigning ourselves to wait, we stood outside one of the doors. In a moment it clicked open. The team walked out.
"There you guys are! We were wondering where you were!" H said.
"No! We were wondering where YOU were!" Stella laughed.
"Anyway, we're together as a group now!" A said.
We walked over to the start of our Ropes Course.
Ben, our Ropes leader, introduced himself. We all said our names and our favorite Disney movie, and then we waved goodbye to Mom, who was taking the little kids back to the gym. We walked down the path. The dirt path had leaves on it which crunched as we walked. Looking around and up at the tall trees, breathing in the fresh crisp wind, and enjoying one another's company on this beautiful day, we slowly made our way to our destination. We stopped at a log, which was held up a little ways from the ground, suspended by a thick chain. We all stepped on in no particular order. Ben then told us our challenge:
"This is your challenge: We are flying a little contraption here. The only way we can land is by ordering ourselves from shortest," pointing to the left, "to tallest," pointing to the right.
We all looked to the tallest. Our eyes widened and his did too. He was at the very end of the side where the shortest was to go! We had to order ourselves in order from shortest on the left to tallest on the right without stepping off the log.
"But wait! There's more!" Ben said. "There are some birds of prey around here and if you make too much noise you might rouse them and that wouldn't be pretty. So, only one of you can talk. Looking at me, he made me leader.
"You may talk, and only you! The rest of you have to make signs!" We all got ready. After falling off a couple of times and getting up to try again, we finally figured out that the best way to get in the place we wanted to be was by crouching. We also found that if the taller and the shorter people had to switch places, instead of the shorter person going over the taller person, the taller person went over the shortest. We finally, (amid much confusion) made it in order! It went really well. It was interesting; sometimes when we are all able to talk (all seven of us), it is harder to really listen to each other and fix a problem. When we all weren't able to talk, we didn't talk over each other or anything, and the signs worked well. We all mused over this as we walked down the path to our next challenge. This time we stopped in front of a rather large board, probably about five feet across and maybe six feet or so long. It was like a huge teeter-totter, with a log in the middle making it fly back and forth at the slightest touch. This time Leo was leader (but we all could talk), and we had to all get on that board, in the middle of it, one at a time and balance it out. When someone got on it, they had to have the board completely balanced before the next person (whom Leo picked) got on.
Ben said that this time we were on a whale watching tour and we had to get (as I wrote above) on the gangplank (the middle of the 'boat' or rather board.) We all got ourselves ready for the challenge. We also couldn't move unless Leo told us to or we would have to get off and wait until Leo had us go back on again-which was rather hard. One of our team members had to get off THREE times because he moved when Leo hadn't told him to! We all laughed hard. J grinned in spite of himself. Leo directed everyone on there, so that we were in about this order on the board:
A N J
H E Me
Leo

It worked well and we all got off one at a time at Ben's cautioning.
"I don't want anyone getting off on one side and catapulting the person on the other side!"
We all laughed and got off in a single file line one at a time in the middle.
"We have time for one more challenge!" Ben led us over to our next challenge.
We arrived at a thick tree. It went way up and seemed to touch the sky. We looked up and then down again to our next piece of equipment. There were two chains linked into the tree about a foot away from each other and a couple inches off the ground. There were two thick, VERY wobbly wires. They were spaced about six inches away from each other at the beginning and then the wires got farther and farther apart from each other and formed a V. Our next challenge was this:
We had to pick partners, (Me-A, Leo-N, E-J, *H-Me, *uneven amount of kids.) Then after we were with our partners, we had to get up on the wire, each of us on one wire and put our hands on each other's shoulders. We went as far as we could, leaning on each other for support on the VERY wobbly wire. We then grasped hands and went as far as possible, two team members behind each of the two people on the wire, and Ben in the middle with another team member. Making our wobbling way along the wire we went as far as we could, and then we stepped down if we couldn't go any farther, so not as to fall on our faces! A and I made it the farthest, and Leo made it second farthest.
We all were sad to see our fun day end. We walked back to the gym on the way, taking a team picture, and talking about our challenges. We then played some carpet ball with the rest of the group. When we left, walking and crunching our way along the dirt parking lot, we declared the trip-a field trip to remember, and one we hoped to do again soon!

Recent Quotes to Share...

I called to Rus, asking if he needed help in the bathroom. He was astonished that I knew that and asked, "Mom, how did you know that I needed help in the bathroom?"

I replied, "Mom's know everything that their babies need!"

A bit puzzled, he concluded, "Wow, I guess even PEOPLE have instinctions!" (instincts)

Some more bathroom humor...

I asked Tert why he couldn't just go to the bathroom and get it over with. He answered, "Mom it's not that kind of poop."
I questioned, "Well, what kind of poop is it then?"
His answer, "The kind of poop they had in the old days!"


Rus - "Filia will probably be in first grade when I get married, so she can be my flower girl!"

"Mom, I love you just a SPECK more than I love Joli."

Little Tert walked up to Stephen with his catechism..."Dadda, there are some issues in this book."

"Mama, I ate my lip!!!"

Rus - "Mom, tomorrow I'll need you to stay out of your bedroom for a few hours because I'm going to be decorating it like the solar system!"

"Mom, can you remind me what a hamburger is?"

"Mom, if I had to leave you to go to school all day, I'd be so sad that I wouldn't even be able to learn my alphabet!"

Rus was doing an activity with his Destination Imagination team. All of the kids had to name their favorite foods. Kids were naming the usual...macaroni, pizza, spaghetti... When they got to Rus, he announced that his favorite food was CRAB LEGS (and he meant it!).

Tert is not the most politically-correct 3 year old. He was glancing at pictures in our History book and, pointing to some foreigners, asked, "Are those people ODDITIES?"

I asked him where he came from, and his answer was, "Africa!"

Class Clown

By Leo: Our wonderful trip to the orchard

On Friday we went to the apple orchard. We went first into the main building. As we approached the main building, we passed a large box of gourds. Filia quickly snatched one up and we found it impossible to remove it from her secure grasp. We then entered the main room. We quickly went to the section filled with apples. We soon found many appealing apples in large bags; we soon were finding it difficult to decide which to pick. Then we approached the peaches. We carefully selected three soft peaches. After selecting all our apples we quickly went outside to get a pumpkin. After we made our selection, we went inside to buy it. Soon after we went to see if we could spot anything at the orchard's hawk watch. When we were convinced we would find nothing, we went to play on their rope swing. As we made our our way to the car we saw a sign on another building that caught our eye. We went inside to find 2 tables of stuffed birds. I will include the pictures here. Though it would be good to get home, it was hard to leave such a wonderful apple orchard.

Our Amazing Field Trip to Remick By: Stella

Recently we went to the Remick Museum-and I would like to write about it today-so hold onto your seats folks-it's gonna be a WILD ride... :D :D :D
We set out, after having a yummy lunch of chili and milk with apples. We got into the car and set out. It was a longer drive so we listened to a CD in the car- Wee Sing America. We anticipated the day before us- onto Remick -a long drive back and a soccer game in Hillsboro. Whew, we thought as we drove on...WHAT A BUSY DAY!!!
We arrived at Remick and hurriedly made use of their bathrooms, after meeting up with our friends from the Co-Op, with whom we were going to be taking the field trip. We looked at the lovely view-mountains and fields and grassy areas with goats and cows in the distance from our picnic table, the squawking of chickens a little distance off, and the fresh smell of hay greeted us as we walked up the path. We took it all in and took advantage of the first few minutes when we were waiting for our tour guides and the rest of our group by feeding some goats, walking around and snapping pictures-which of course, I put below. :)

Filia enjoys the beautiful scenery.

Silly Tert!

Rus and Tert Feed the Goats...




The tour guides walked over. They told us what we were going to be doing that day. We split into two separate groups, the younger ones and the older ones. We older ones went to the kitchen, where an old fashioned hearth had a fire roaring inside it.
We went to the bathroom to wash our hands. After scrubbing our hands we lined up in groups. We learned some more about cooking in the olden days. There were so many ways to cook meals! For breakfast you could take the crane and hang a pot on it and swing it over the fire and cook a pot of oatmeal, or make a nice supper of soup. There was this metal spit-like thing, which you could slide your chicken on it and you would put it in this metal box and it would be open on one side and on the other side it would have a window. The metal box had holes bored through each side of it, so instead of the modern way-(where you watch the spit turning automatically in the grocery store and lick your lips at the sight of it) you had to take the spit and move it up a notch to the next hole after a few minutes. The drippings from the chicken would fall into the bottom of the metal box and there was a spout so you could take the drippings and make a delicious gravy to go with it! It makes us appreciate our easy ovens and microwaves today!

After we learned more about cooking we were told we would be making biscuits. The younger group, (including Tert and Rus) were going to make butter to go with it.
We looked at the table before us. There was all of our ingredients, and the measures. Well, back in the olden days they didn't have the nice little cup measures and teaspoon measures and the labeled handles-no! They had spoons and cups and their fingers and pots and pans-that was it. They had to estimate-which we had to do as well. Some of the cooking tools we used were interesting, and I took pictures of them, which I'm pasting below...
This was the cutter which we used after we made the dough for our biscuits-it was like a weird shaped cookie cutter!

This is a spoon made of animal horn-which I thought was really cool! It felt just like plastic-and was a much cheaper way back then to get utensils than medal was...

We made the biscuits using the recipe-which I have printed below...

(Note: Back then there were NOT nicely printed out recipes-the women had probably been making these recipes as long as they could remember-so I'm sure they kept the recipe in their heads!) :D
This is the recipe we used:

3 cups flour

6 teaspoons baking powder

3 tablespoon fat (lard of bacon drippings)

Approx. 1 cup of milk

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

(Mix) together dry ingredients, (Flour, Baking Powder, Salt, Sugar) then rub in lard with fingertips, (this is much easier than mixing it in with a spoon, as we figured out) until flaky. Pour about a cupful milk to moisten. (We added milk until it was properly moistened through, and there was no more flour crusted to the bowl.) Turn out on well floured board and pat about 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with biscuit cutter and place in greased dutch oven that has been slightly preheated. Biscuits should be touching but NOT crowded. Place preheated lid on oven and cover with hot coals. Place on bed of good red coals and let bake about twenty minutes or until brown on top and bottom.
--Clair Haight, Hashknife Outfit, Winslow, AZ, 1922 (reprinted in: Chuck Wagon Cookin', by Stella Hughes
We used this recipe, making the biscuits and putting them in the Dutch Oven. Then we took the burning hot logs and moved the logs off of the coals, and we took the coals and piled them in one section on the hearth. After shoveling the coals onto the hearth we place the Dutch Oven carefully on top. Then we placed more coals on top of the Dutch Oven, which had a lip for that purpose. This heated the biscuits all the way through, and made a delicious outcome.

These are the biscuits in the Dutch Oven. We crowded them a little bit-and by the way, the number of biscuits above is the amount you would get in a double recipe. This gives you an idea of how many you'd get in one single recipe.
Shoveling the coals onto the top of the Dutch oven. (What a HUGE hearth!) Just above the shovel in the picture is where we put the flaming logs, and you can see the coals to the left of the shovel.

If you want to make the recipe-your oven at home works too! Pop them in the oven until they are a slight brown on the top and bottom!

While we waited for our biscuits to cool we washed our flour covered hands and then took a quick tour of the rest of the kitchen.

This is a butter churn-like the boys used to make farm fresh butter for our scrumptious biscuits!

Refrigerator-or ice box! :D

We then stepped outside again, into the scorching heat and walked with our next tour guide to the new (still in progress) discovery center. We passed the ice house and sugar house on the way.
Outside the ice house...

When we walked up the steps into the discovery center, we were greeted with the lovely scent of wax-for dipping candles! The smell was so sweet! We all plunked ourselves down on the floor, the grownups getting the chair, and listened to our tour guide. She told us all about the different forms of candles, and the different forms of stuff they used to burn. The first use for candles was of course....

If you said LIGHT-you got it RIGHT! They also used to use lamps for burning. They put oil in them-(No, not the type you put in your car-) olive oil.
No-there's no genie in it, we tried...
We got to see


Look at the fresh beeswax! It was just taken from the hive!

This is a poster about the Early Lighting. The jar to the far left is full of wax-older wax.

The bees produce a different colored wax for your candle dipping at different times of the year. The wax right now is beautiful!

We then stood up and got right to candle dipping. In our group we had about eight people, so we stood in a circle and went around, taking our wax and quickly dipping it in and pulling it back out. We went around in a steady circle while being given several interesting facts.

Leo Dipping Candles...

This last picture from the candle dipping I thought was really funny. In the olden days they used to have these really, really long candles wrapped around a metal frame. There was a metal bracket to hold the candle up-however much you wanted to burn.
So what? That's what I thought until I heard the story behind it! These candles are called courting candles. You see, in the olden days the men came to visit the ladies. I mean, where were they going to go? They couldn't go on dates to a fancy restaurant! Your parlor had to do for that. So the man would come over, and the parents, depending how much they liked the guy would raise the candle however high they liked him. When the candle burned down-their date was over. So, if you don't like the guy, put the candle really low. :P

We walked back from the discovery center to the main building and hurried up the stairs. We were rushing because we had a soccer game in Hillsboro that night! We tried our DELICIOUS biscuits, with the homemade butter from the little kids. It was amazing! After that we hurried out into the parking lot. Taking one last look at the beautiful farm, we declared it an amazing field trip-one that we would do again, really soon!

By: Stella

Rus and Tert's Trip to Remick By: Rus and Tert

We recently took a field trip to Remick. Rus and Tert are here to tell you about it today. :P

Rus: Um, we did farm chores.

Tert: Ca lum too fee if 2 1.

Rus: No Tert! You have to say it in WORDS!!!

Tert: Oh, I SHOULD do that.

Rus: We- ah... we made butter!

Tert: Yeah, yeah... no, we didn't make CHEESE! I should write this on the LIST...

Rus: Well, we, uh...

Tert: Well, we um... ah...

Rus: We fed the pigs!

Tert: We fed the pigs! Yeah, we fed the PIGS Sissy! What did we do else?

Rus: We PICKED BEANS!

Tert: We picked the beans.

Rus: We uh... BRUSHED A HORSE!!!

Tert: Yeah, we brushed a horse.

(Pause) Tert starts singing:

Tert: Pig Salad, yummy yummy, fruit salad, pig salad yummy yummy! (We did NOT have pig salad. :)

Rus: Tert watered the chicken, I mean turkey.

Tert: Yep, the turkey, a lerky.... Oh I don't know.

Rus: We picked plants that was kinda round and had leaves on the top of it, I don't know what it was... Just say plants with leaves, okay? (Beets)

Tert: Number 5! What about that?

Rus: We sang a song:

Come Butter Come, Come Butter Come- Little Rus is at the gate waiting for his butter cake, Come butter come! Come Butter Come!

Tert: Okay-this is the IMPORTANT part.

Rus: That's it!

Tert: No! We brushed the horse, that's what we did.

Rus: We picked beans, oh and we ate the butter.

Tert: I carried a yoke with buckets on it and that's it!

Tert: Yeah, well-we did.... No, yeah we did... Our farm chores-that's done... WE'RE DONE!! WE'RE DONE!!! (Walks away with Rus and breaks out in song.)

By: Rus and Tert:
Dictated To: Stella
Aged: 5 and 3

Face Painting By: Stella

Hello All!

We went to our Old Home Day, but the face painting there was really expensive. We decided to get a face painting kit and have Dad do our faces. I think that he did even better! We got the face painting kits as a back to school present-and here are the pics...

Get out the Paints...

Leo-The Tiger... :)



Stella



ROARRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And Tert- <3 (Done by Ethan)


Thanks so much Dad!!!!

By: Stella

Back to School 2011 By: Stella

It's hard to believe that summer is done and the school year has begun! But it has- and we are not holding onto summer any longer... So-on with the pictures!!!

Our first day back to school was a half-day, but the next day it was full swing. Here are some pics. from our first half-day, and the real thing...

We all got back to school presents- which we loved! We came in on the first day with our places set neatly with a webkinz at each of our places- mine was a swan-which I promptly named Penny after being a part of the Honk Jr. production where the Ugly Duckling's pretty swan girlfriend meets him. :)
Leo's was a leopard which he named Todd, Rus' was a dolphin which he named Nemo, and Tert's was a lionfish which he said was, "A girl named SQUIRT!"

Squirt and Tert :)

Rus and Nemo


Leo and Todd

Grin :D

Filia with her back to school doll


Rus and Tert have a special time with me, where I make a craft with them. In this picture we made a Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall poster with them!
Our Poster

We have enjoyed getting back to school, and we wish you all a wonderful school year too!


By: Stella

Remick Museum By: Leo

Yesterday our family went to Remick farm. As we arrived in the parking lot we anticipated the fun day ahead of us. We walked to a nearby field. Here we came upon our friends waiting for us. As soon as every one arrived, we were introduced to the staff. Then we were split into two different groups. Those in fourth grade or under joined the smaller group (Rus & Tert were included in this group.) Stella and I joined the older group. We went first to make biscuits. Almost as soon as we walked in we felt the heat of the hearth fire. Before making the biscuits we went to the bathroom to wash our hands. After washing our hands we went to the counter to bake.:) Soon after an introduction to the colonial tools displayed, such as the spoons made of horn, we split into two different groups to make the biscuits. We found out that the the younger kid's project was to make butter to go with our biscuits. We began reading the recipe. Soon we had a large mound of fluffy dough. We then used a biscuit cutter to form the biscuits. We put the biscuits into a dutch oven. We then shoveled embers out onto the brick hearth. We placed the dutch oven onto the embers. Next we placed embers over the dutch oven so it was surrounded on all sides by heat. After this we had to wait for a while. While waiting we were scheduled to do another activity; we were going to dip candles. As we walked we encountered several colonial structures. These included the ice house which I thought to be very interesting. It got its ice cut from a pond across the path. Soon we came upon the large house in which we were to do our candle dipping. As we walked in, we smelled the strong scent of beeswax. The dipping was tedious, though I enjoyed it immensely. As we waited in line we were given a quiz on the colonial tools on display. The one which I thought was interesting was a long candle wound many times against a metal frame. At the top it had two handles resembling built in pliers. In colonial days a young man would visit the women at her parents house. Depending on how much the parents liked the man they would raise or lower the candle. As soon as the candle died down the date would end. An interesting fact I learned about candle dipping was that each year children were required to make 400 candles! This made me appreciate the colonial children who made 400 candles according to the needs of their families and not 1 for entertainments sake. We soon finished and walked back to enjoy our biscuits with the younger kids butter. We walked to the car thinking back on this fun day!

Happy (Belated) Birthday Leo Pictures and Post By: Stella

Hello All! I am behind (Again...) on pictures-but I'm ready to face the music now! I'll start with a post on Leo's birthday! Anyway-I hope you enjoy!

BRUNCH:
Leo's birthday is especially happy for our Grandparents! Grandma Z shares Leo's birthday, and Grandma and Grandpa P. have their anniversary right around then too! We ALWAYS celebrate Leo's and Grandma Z's birthday with a special birthday brunch! For this year's menu-(which was brunch at dinnertime the Sunday before Leo's birthday) is listed below:
Coffee Cake (Birthday cake) :)
Bacon
Maple Apple Sausage
Fruit
Granola
Cafe' Eggs
Orange Juice
Milk
Smoothies

It was a SCRRRRRRRRRR-UMPTIOUS (:D) meal and we ended with a nice evening together and presents. Leo got even more excited about his real birthday-which was yet to come...

REAL BIRTHDAY:
We all were excited for the party in the evening! We got all ready for the party, setting the table, putting out Mom's surprise flowers from Dad (<3), Dad leaving work early for a last minute birthday shopping spree and a messy round of face painting. We all were excited when Dad walked in with his arms full of Tomatoes Pizza. The birthday party was ready to begin! Leo's special birthday pizza order was Shrimp Portafino-which he always envied Mom getting with Uncle A! We got some other types of pizza too. We all ate ravenously and enjoyed root-beer as our special drink with dinner. Then we sang happy birthday as I brought out the cake. It is always a mad rush in our house to get the cake to the table before either the candles burn out or the wax drips onto the cake. Then everyone breathes easier as we wait, anticipating thick slices of ice cream cake-(w/ lots of frosting of COURSE...) We had an irresistible ice cream cake longing the night before, and so we ate some of cake the night before-but it tasted better-everyone declared-the day after! :)
After the smaller presents, Dad went out to the car for the present that he had just picked up at Walmart. Leo's mouth literally dropped as Dad pulled up a BRAND NEW MOUNTAIN BIKE!!! into the dining room. He didn't even move as Dad brought it in. I was chiding myself that I didn't have my camera-the look on his face was picture-perfect! I had my arms full of Miss Filia! But, everyone declared the evening a success, and it ended with anticipations of the tooth fairy coming, because Rus had lost his first tooth!!
So-we all wish you a very, very-
HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY LEO!!!!!

Here are the pics-ENJOY.... :D

Birthday Preparations

Make a Wish!

Ready for Cake!!!

Leo's Birthday Cake (You can tell we dug into it the night before :)

Presents!!

Presents-Presents-Presents!!!


We hope you had a wonderful birthday Leo!

By: Stella