Museums, Parks, and He's Home!

First things first...Our family thanks each one of you that have prayed for my daddy. He came home from the hospital Saturday with great reports from his doctor and is recovering nicely. He's high spirited...VERY high spirited. Moreso than what I have seen in a very long time. Bruce and I picked him up from dialysis this morning and were able to spend a couple of hours with him. He talked our ears off and laughed and joked more than I've heard him do in quite some time. So, thank you so much for praying. I know he appreciates it also.



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Thursday was our home school co-op day. There were two field trips planned. Mrs. Kim Howell planned one for the younger children to go to Kidsenses Museum. Harrison had a WONDERFUL time. He just could not stop talking about it that night. I planned for the older children to view the Gems of North Carolina Exhibit at the Kings Mountain Historical Museum, have lunch at Lineberger Park, and then view the Tusk Exhibit at the Schiele Museum.


Here are a few pics Amy sent me from their trip to Kidsenses. Thanks, Amy, I appreciated you doing that so much!
(Shadow Room)


Finding Harrison's pulse.



Some of the children playing around Puffy.



Harrison LOVED this...he and Cameron stood in a booth and when you pulled the rope, the bottom would come up and you would be surrounded by a bubble. He thought it was so great to be in a bubble.



Here they are playing on the fire engine. Malachi and Laurel have on firefighter coats.



Harrison and Cameron were learning about the teeth here. Harrison is wearing a Dentist jacket, looking quite professional, isn't he? He said you could take the teeth out but not cavities. LOL Cameron is holding a big toothbrush. Looks like they had a great time.
There was one incident when a little guy in the group took a tumble and ended up with three stitches. Poor thing. I hated to hear that. Other than that, they seemed to have a wonderful time playing and learning.



While they were living it up at the Kidsenses Museum, we were learning about the gems in our state. This museum is located inside of the old Kings Mountain Post Office.



I gave the children an assignment to be turned in at our next co-op. I'm looking forward to reading their reports and what they learned.



I was very pleased at how respectful and quiet they were in the museum and how they took notes on everything. Well, there was ONE who did not take notes. There was ONE that decided to pick up a few brochures and do his report from those. I won't tell you who that ONE was, but he knows. HA! And you thought I wouldn't rat you out!


Some of the displays...






Jamie was taking notes off of this poster identifying minerals. I told him to look intelligent and this was the best he could do. LOL


More displays....






There were other displays in the museum that were fun to look at. When I see pieces like this I always imagine the people of that time period working steadily. Do you do that?







We have some very old albums I bet would play on this. I would love to try it!! CD's are great, but I love the sound of a record on an old Victrola. Of course, this was an Edison, but you know what I mean!





When we left the museum, we headed to the Lineberger Park. It was a BEAUTIFUL day for a picnic. We had a nice shelter in a great location at the park.


Just below us over the bank, was a little creek. The girls had a ball splashing in it.



The boys decided to scope out the tunnels.



The kids wanted to play for a little bit and it was such a lovely day we didn't want to rush them.



They were having a great time until Nicole sliced open the bottom of her big toe, needing five stitches. Yes, five stitches!! While "little man" was getting stitches from his tumble at the Kidsenses Museum, Nicole was getting stitches from a broken beer bottle in the creek. Can you believe that? A total of eight stitches on our co-op field trip. I guess we're trying to set a record!