Even though I have been drowning in projects on the Homestead since I moved in I do occasionally take a break and enjoy my kids while they are still kids!
We got to go to Moneta Park and enjoy a play date with a couple of the kid's friends from school.
Moneta Park is a great park for school aged kids. There is an excellent playground complete with swings, a nice picnic pavilion and there is even a fire pit with a flag pole! Plus there are clean restrooms, soccer fields and plenty of room for running around!
The kids have really enjoyed being around the Homestead during the hatching season. I have made sure they have had the chance to handle the baby birds as they have hatched and they love to hold and "tame" the chicks. The Momma ducks are being allowed to raise their ducklings because they nested low to the ground, but no matter what is hatching the kids are always excited to meet new babies! Plus, it's a great way for them to learn about how birds grow and develop while they think they are just having fun. So far we have been able to see three nests of ducks hatch within 24 hours of the first pipping in each nest and a chicken nest produce a baby a day for over a week .
I think that having the chicks hatch the way they have has been especially neat because it makes it easy to see how much a chick grows in a week and even in a day. In this picture the chicks from left to right are two, one, eight, six, seven, five and four days old. We have five more eggs in the nest and didn't get a chick today, but the kids are looking forward to checking the nest again tomorrow to see if there are any new babies.
Thursdays have been egg delivery day for us and that put us halfway to Lynchburg early in the morning so we took the opportunity to head out to Riverside Park and see if it was as neat as it sounded online. There were several playgrounds, some older and some newer. The newest looking playground is pirate themed, with a ship parked at the docks... and even has a "Sail" in the design that provides shade for the play equipment during the heat of the say. There is a instrument circle for the kids to create their own tune using plastic drums, maracas and such....plus there's a nice splash pad area for the kids to cool down in when it gets really hot! I really can't believe we jumped from low 70's to mid 90's so quickly this year!!! It's been soooo hot... and don't get me wrong I like the heat I just need to adjust my wardrobe and maybe need a hair cut if it's going to be that hot....just sayin'!
The older playground is still in good shape and the kids really enjoyed the tire swing and the caterpillar monkey bars! Once the kids got some fresh air and the temperature started to go up we headed across town to Amazement Square!
I can't say enough good things about this museum. They have some fantastic sponsors that offer reduced admission to EBT cardholders ($3 each for up to 4 people), Family Fun nights once a month on the second Saturday ($3 each), and one of the workers told me the library has an admission pass that can be checked out that covers admission for up to four people as well. (<-- I haven't verified that last tidbit, but wow! What an idea!) Amazement Square is an awesome place for kids from toddlers to grade schoolers to visit. They get to learn hands on and really explore. The museum has four floors of displays covering everything from painting on the walls to learning about air power, from making music in a band to performing onstage, from living like an Indian to living on a farm, and so much more! Then straight up the middle is a "Tower" of ladders, slides and tubes that will take you from a observation platform above the fourth floor to the first floor.
The girls really liked the couch that was so comfy it "sucked you in"! There was half a floor dedicated to the League of Healthy Heroes. While on the couch there is a neat video about becoming a couch potato and how it's bad for your health and then the middle of the couch drops down turning you into .... you guessed it....a couch potato...oh no!!!....lol...there was also a room that used physical activity (pedaling bikes and rowing a boat) to defeat an enemy, a throwing game, a Wii game and more teaching kids about healthy choices!
In the Big Red Barn kids under 4 ft tall can see what it's like to sit on a small horse, while kids of all ages can try milking a cow, harvesting vegetables and crawling in a mole hole... Don't forget to check under the chicken to find the eggs... oh and watch out for the giant spider under the rock!
After some deliberation the kids decided going to a pool was going to be more fun than the splash pads so I did some texting and finalized some surprise plans for them. Then I made them PB&J sandwiches, handed out ice cubes for water and chips and off we went all the way back to Roanoke to go to "Jenn's pool"! Grandma Dee Dee loves to see the kids enjoying her pool we thanked her so much for letting us come over and hang out with her for awhile!
My pool diva, Isabella, convinced her brother to trade floats with her again and headed off to the tiny foot pool she loves so much! ...lol... she cracks me up with her tiny pool and just right float...goggles, arm floaties and all...lol... It was a great way to cool them off and entertain them for awhile on a hot afternoon! They were even more excited that Grandma Dee Dee offered them an extra meal on such a fun filled day and she served an awesome second lunch of hot dogs w/chili, chips, fresh deviled eggs, and pickles! (They all played hard and were eating me out of all the food I had brought for them...but it was all good when Grandma came to their rescue) ;) Thanks again for having us over!
We got to go to Moneta Park and enjoy a play date with a couple of the kid's friends from school.
Moneta Park is a great park for school aged kids. There is an excellent playground complete with swings, a nice picnic pavilion and there is even a fire pit with a flag pole! Plus there are clean restrooms, soccer fields and plenty of room for running around!
The kids have really enjoyed being around the Homestead during the hatching season. I have made sure they have had the chance to handle the baby birds as they have hatched and they love to hold and "tame" the chicks. The Momma ducks are being allowed to raise their ducklings because they nested low to the ground, but no matter what is hatching the kids are always excited to meet new babies! Plus, it's a great way for them to learn about how birds grow and develop while they think they are just having fun. So far we have been able to see three nests of ducks hatch within 24 hours of the first pipping in each nest and a chicken nest produce a baby a day for over a week .
I think that having the chicks hatch the way they have has been especially neat because it makes it easy to see how much a chick grows in a week and even in a day. In this picture the chicks from left to right are two, one, eight, six, seven, five and four days old. We have five more eggs in the nest and didn't get a chick today, but the kids are looking forward to checking the nest again tomorrow to see if there are any new babies.
Thursdays have been egg delivery day for us and that put us halfway to Lynchburg early in the morning so we took the opportunity to head out to Riverside Park and see if it was as neat as it sounded online. There were several playgrounds, some older and some newer. The newest looking playground is pirate themed, with a ship parked at the docks... and even has a "Sail" in the design that provides shade for the play equipment during the heat of the say. There is a instrument circle for the kids to create their own tune using plastic drums, maracas and such....plus there's a nice splash pad area for the kids to cool down in when it gets really hot! I really can't believe we jumped from low 70's to mid 90's so quickly this year!!! It's been soooo hot... and don't get me wrong I like the heat I just need to adjust my wardrobe and maybe need a hair cut if it's going to be that hot....just sayin'!
The older playground is still in good shape and the kids really enjoyed the tire swing and the caterpillar monkey bars! Once the kids got some fresh air and the temperature started to go up we headed across town to Amazement Square!
I can't say enough good things about this museum. They have some fantastic sponsors that offer reduced admission to EBT cardholders ($3 each for up to 4 people), Family Fun nights once a month on the second Saturday ($3 each), and one of the workers told me the library has an admission pass that can be checked out that covers admission for up to four people as well. (<-- I haven't verified that last tidbit, but wow! What an idea!) Amazement Square is an awesome place for kids from toddlers to grade schoolers to visit. They get to learn hands on and really explore. The museum has four floors of displays covering everything from painting on the walls to learning about air power, from making music in a band to performing onstage, from living like an Indian to living on a farm, and so much more! Then straight up the middle is a "Tower" of ladders, slides and tubes that will take you from a observation platform above the fourth floor to the first floor.
The girls really liked the couch that was so comfy it "sucked you in"! There was half a floor dedicated to the League of Healthy Heroes. While on the couch there is a neat video about becoming a couch potato and how it's bad for your health and then the middle of the couch drops down turning you into .... you guessed it....a couch potato...oh no!!!....lol...there was also a room that used physical activity (pedaling bikes and rowing a boat) to defeat an enemy, a throwing game, a Wii game and more teaching kids about healthy choices!
In the Big Red Barn kids under 4 ft tall can see what it's like to sit on a small horse, while kids of all ages can try milking a cow, harvesting vegetables and crawling in a mole hole... Don't forget to check under the chicken to find the eggs... oh and watch out for the giant spider under the rock!
After some deliberation the kids decided going to a pool was going to be more fun than the splash pads so I did some texting and finalized some surprise plans for them. Then I made them PB&J sandwiches, handed out ice cubes for water and chips and off we went all the way back to Roanoke to go to "Jenn's pool"! Grandma Dee Dee loves to see the kids enjoying her pool we thanked her so much for letting us come over and hang out with her for awhile!
My pool diva, Isabella, convinced her brother to trade floats with her again and headed off to the tiny foot pool she loves so much! ...lol... she cracks me up with her tiny pool and just right float...goggles, arm floaties and all...lol... It was a great way to cool them off and entertain them for awhile on a hot afternoon! They were even more excited that Grandma Dee Dee offered them an extra meal on such a fun filled day and she served an awesome second lunch of hot dogs w/chili, chips, fresh deviled eggs, and pickles! (They all played hard and were eating me out of all the food I had brought for them...but it was all good when Grandma came to their rescue) ;) Thanks again for having us over!
No comments:
Post a Comment