Minecraft Mentionables

I can't help myself.  In between giggles, I have taken to recording a bunch of the hilarious sound bites I hear whilst my people disappear into their Minecraft world together.  I am sure all these things make all the sense in the world to them, but to someone NOT playing the game, it sounds like they are high.  Just sayin'.

• Anna, when you are on the potty, don't go outside to fight zombies.
• We are like the Midianites stealing from the villagers!
• Noah!! I needed the leather!! Daddy, I killed a cow and Noah took all the meat and leather!
• You wanna come with me, Noah?  No, I wanna work on my farm a little bit.
• If you kill a pig man, you get enchanted stuff.  I got enchanted armor!
• Anna, are chickens chasing me?
• This is terrible! You are in debt and I just don't know where you are.  You just need to die and go back to the spawn point.  But I don't wanna lose all my precious gold!!! J: Yeah, that's unfortunate.
• Uh, question - How did we end up in the cave?
• We need to make a compass!
• I have obsidian!
• Luckily I have some wheat.
• Are you taking all my arrows?
• It's a little bit scary how zombie pygmies can walk across lava.
• What's killing you?  I don't know, but I am running! Lava is flying!
• Watch out, Anna, you just hit Noah.  No, that was a goo-ball.
• Our portal is messed up!! I can't get through the portal!  I am on fire!
• Is that beet root?  Yeah, I grew it in my garden.
• Daddy, will you do me a favor?  Harvest my wheat and put it in my food chest. I need stuff in my inventory.  Ok, but I need to check my zombie house first.
• Who set me on fire?!  Daddy, did you do that?   No, Anna did that.  Stop that, Anna!
• How enchanted is your Spider?
• Daddy, there's some raw flesh over there!  That's ok, I don't want it.
• Oooh, I can make some TNT!
• My main goal is to get lots of iron so I can make an anvil.
• What did you just throw at me?  A weakness potion?
• What do I do with a poison potato? Oooh, let's feed it to the pig.
• I am just really interested in Noah's new world - it's a mushroom world!

Five Days of Field Trips

Soooo, this last week of April was less of our regularly-scheduled homeschool programming and more of an out-in-the-field, fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants second sort-of Spring Break type learning.  We really proved our field trip shirts true!

For starters we spent the first half of the week with my sister and her kiddos who came to town while Lee was out of town.  With them, we hit the creek to explore and also hit up the strawberry patch. On the way to the patch, we followed a cow in a truck and much agriculture and where-our-food-comes-from talk ensued.  That was followed by Anna and Natalie making a Vegetarian Pact until they see each other again.  HA!

Jam got made in short order, as well as syrup, strawberry shortcake, and some chocolate mousse for dipping said strawberries. 

The day Emily left, we also headed south to Nashville to take in a play at the Children's Theater - Frog and Toad All Year.  Anna read these books in her curriculum this year and Noah read them a couple years ago as well.  These stories have my heart, they are so charming.  Also entirely charming was the play.  Every. Single. Second.

Thursday was Field Day at the kids' co-op.  I did not attend as it was timed exactly during Lasa's naptime, but I did grab a few shots other parents posted of the day's events.

And finally, today we headed out again for a tour of Historic Rock Castle here in Hendersonville that did not disappoint.  We have been there several times for pictures, but have never been all around the grounds and inside the home.  Really neat!

The kiddos learned about Daniel Smith and his contributions to TN history as well as how he and his family lived, about all the rooms and details in the house, some stories from the family cemetery and garden, about the clothes from that period in history, and also got to try their hands at cipher codes.  Good day!  Great week to be a homeschooler!   Even more so because we are in the single digits of remaining days in our school year. :)  Next week we hit the zoo!

Camping at Defeated Creek

Last weekend, the Lord blessed our little camping crew (us, the Hohenadels, and the Fentresses) with the most gorgeous spring weather for our long-awaited camping trip.  Goodness, it was so perfect!  The only part of our plan that didn't come together was the respite care we had set up for Lasa, which ended up not being a big deal anyway.  I stayed home each night with Lasa and found a sitter for her alllllllll day Saturday so I could go join our peeps and relax.  It was a wonderful weekend getaway!  Photo dump coming right up to better communicate the sweet times that were had. (Confession - all the good pics were taken by Gloria. :})

One of our friends found a grand total of SIXTEEN ticks on her over the course of the weekend.  So far, we only found two on us ... both on Anna.  But I feel itchy all over again just thinking about it.  :}