Kiawah Island

The swampy marshland known as Kiawah Island, S.C., sure is a good location for a wedding.
That's what brought us here this weekend, and tonight, as I type this post on our last night on this beautiful island oasis, I can't help but be thankful for the tranquility of this weekend. 

It's also a great place to spot horseshoe crabs.

Jack has been wanting to see one up close since we read about them more than a year ago. When we went to Massachusetts last spring I was sure we would see plenty on the shores of Cape Cod, but we were to be denied.

Not so this weekend. And because we hadn't even considered the possibility, it was a fantastic surprise!

Kiawah is also filled with gators. We didn't see one up close enough to snap a picture, but we definitely saw a few from a distance.

Discovering the Devlins

Last year we came across a book that instantly warmed our hearts. That book, "Cranberry Thanksgiving," started my love of all things Devlin.

Wende and Harry Devlin published an entire "Cranberry" series as well as some books known as the "Blueberry Witch" collection. We now own the entire "Cranberry" series. I bought "Old Black Witch" on a whim not knowing how my two might react to it. Mattie was scared the first time I read it, but has asked me to read it countless times since.

The "Cranberry" books, part adventure and part holiday tale, have unforgettable characters in Maggie, Maggie's grandmother and their fisherman friend Mr. Whiskers. Wende is the author and Harry the illustrator, and I have to share my favorite picture from "Cranberry Thanksgiving," complete with crinkled pages from us turning them so much.

"Old Black Witch" reminds me so much of our time spent in New England. I keep imagining spots in Maine or Massachusetts we've visited as the setting. And I absolutely love reading the witch's chants in my best cackling witch voice.

Field Trip Double Dose

In trying to simplify life, or at least live where I don't feel like I'm rushing from one place to the next, I've made a conscious attempt to limit our commitments lately.

But when I got notices about the two field trips we took this week, I knew these were commitments to make.

On Thursday we visited the Planetarium in Montgomery, Ala. The moderator there told us they were Montgomery's best-kept secret. Apparently, because the place has been open since 1968, and a native of Alabama, I never knew it existed until two years ago.

While small, it has a lot to offer. The shows that run on the domed ceiling are fantastic. My favorite part was when the moderator pointed out what the night sky in our area looks like, with Venus and Jupiter currently visible above the horizon. This fact gave me a real thrill because a few weeks ago we sat in the backyard as the sun went down and could clearly see both. At the time we weren't sure what those were, but now we know they are planets!!!

She also pointed out the brightest star in the sky, Sirius. We all loved that because our dog is named Sirius. Now we named him after the Harry Potter character, not the star, but I have a feeling JK Rowling got quite a few character names, including Sirius, from constellations or ancient Greek. Characters such as Regulus (brother to Sirius), Draco and Remus are a few other examples. And to make the connection even more clear, did you know that Sirius is the "dog star?" Pretty cool, huh!

Then on Friday we headed out to the Poultry Science Research Center here at Auburn University to learn a bit about chickens. Truth be told, I wasn't sure my two were going to be that keen on chicken research, but boy was I wrong.

The hour-long program was fantastic! All the children enjoyed drawing their own chicken inside of the egg.

They talked a lot about chicken and egg facts, which all the children - and adults - found fascinating. We learned why some chickens lay brown eggs and why some are white (hint: the color of their ears), how long it takes a baby chick to fully develop inside an egg (21 days) and all about chicken anatomy (do you know what the comb and waddle are?).

At the end they brought out a HUGE chicken for the children to observe and pet. My two were all about it until the chicken started pooping everywhere. To say Mattie had a minor meltdown about the poop would be an understatement. And in the interest of full disclosure, on the inside, her mother was having the same said meltdown.

Because Some Mornings Call for More Noise

I'm one of those people that loves quiet. Thing is, with two children home with me all day, I don't get much of it.

I especially have a hard time with all the noise in the mornings. That's the time I feel like I need and want quiet the most.

But in an effort to embrace the energy and noise, some mornings I join in the hooping and hollering. Yesterday, I even encouraged it.

My children love to jump on the bed. They find it especially fun when I take the sheets off to be washed because I slip the bottom sheet off one side just enough to puff it up and make a big bubble.

Then the jumping, rolling and laughter ensue.

 And while I don't usually join in on the jumping, I can't help but joining in on the laughter.

It's All Egypt

I might have mentioned a time or two how obsessed my 7-year-old son is with Egypt.

A few weeks ago his clay teacher completely adjusted the schedule to include an Egyptian theme for the week. I think she did it more to not have to hear Jack ask when they were going to do something related to Egypt. HA!

She had the coolest set of Egyptian heiroglyphic stamps that she purchased many years ago from the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art in New York during her own son's Egyptian phase.

I don't know why it never dawned on me to check out their online gift shop before. It is an art lover's paradise. Not only did I get a set of similar stamps for Jack for Easter, but I also came across some educational resource materials.

We started our Egyptian study this morning, and if all continues to go well, I'm considering purchasing their other collections down the road.

We kept it simple today. We talked about the land and people of early Egypt. Then we worked on our own project using Play-Doh.

Taking the map located in our resource guide, we created our version of ancient Egypt, complete with the Nile River, palaces, pyramids, the eye of Horus and an Egyptian army (the brown dots represent people).

The clumps on the left side were my three-year-old daughter's contribution!

Trucks

Did you know trucks were considered fine art?

A collage of truck paintings

It appears the artist John Himmelfarb has always known this.

Today we visited his exhibit at our local art museum. We've been to a lot of museums all over and have seen some great exhibits, and this one ranks with the best of them.

Himmelfarb's works are exhibited in large museums in cities like Chicago, London and New York, which makes our small-town museum pale in comparison. He works in so many mediums: watercolor, acrylic, clay, bronze, wood and the list goes on and on.

The artist, a native of the midwest, completed this painting during several Saturday sessions at the museum. The finishing signature date is less than a month old. Watching him work would have been remarkable to see, and I hate we missed out on it.

And we took in a few of the other works of art in the other gallery while there.

The Whale

The Goddess

Notice anything particularly different about this last piece? It's a sculpture made completely out of shoes!!!

Space Explorations

We've been studying a lot about outer space during our science Friday lessons, so much so that science Friday isn't occurring only on Fridays.

I found some lectures on Open Yale that I used to supplement our first few lessons. From those we were able to discuss exoplanets and the geocentric model in-depth.

These last few weeks we've been working from a book studying the sun, Mercury and Venus.

We've even thrown in a few experiments. The purpose of this one was to use the butter as the representation of the rock (a solid), melt it on the stove (to form the liquid) and then pour it over a cup onto flour to represent the lava running onto the surface of Venus.

After letting it sit a while, we came back to feel the surface once the "lava" had cooled.

And because Jack is so into planets at the moment, I'm trying to plan some cool daily or weekend trips in March or April. There's a planetarium nearby. I've heard great things about the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, GA and want to include that on our list. There's also a Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL that would be great to visit at some point along the way.