A Fall walk at Tynehead Park

Today the rain held off so we headed out for a walk to enjoy a nice fall day with Grammy Sue, Sissy Meadow and Andrew.

Meadow, Aayla and Me

I have walked this park many times but have never ventured down to the fish hatchery so today was the day to do it. There aren't any fish there right now but there were baby fish in the ponds. Above the ponds were layers of CD's for the musical enjoyment of the fish...no really it's to scare away the birds from dropping in and eating them :)

While looking at the baby fish there was a gentlemen who came out and fed the fish with the girls

 and then offered to take us inside and show us the hatchery. Since there are no fish in the hatchery we got to see a freezer full of different Salmon specimens.

And also got to see jars of fish eggs and baby fish samples.

Andrew showing us the samples

After thanking the man we went down to the river to see if we could see any fish and we did. There were about 5 in total.

Then we headed out trying to find a geocache but it was in the middle of some overgrown blackberry bushes and after Sierra stepped on some prickles we had to give up on it.

Sierra showing Andrew some mushrooms she found

Meadow and Andrew looking for a geo cache

Aayla and Grammy Sue

So we continued on our walk. We have very few trees that change colours and loose their leaves so our forests are still so green.

Aayla and Sissy Meadow

Playing in an old tree trunk

Look! Can you see what Aayla found

She is so proud of her find

...it was a big banana slug

 Incase you didn't notice I stop to take pictures of every mushroom which slows us down sometimes. At one point we got way behind and Aayla walked the whole way saying "Gammy" and then when we hit the boardwalk she began to run until she found her and was so happy. I think she thought they left without us.

Sierra decided she'd had enough pictures taken today

a little chicka...dee...dee...deee

Looking for gnomes but no one was home...they were out gathering food.

I HEART wonderful fall walks

 Meadow and Andrew got a work out with swining the girls up and up over and over again

 

 And at the end of our walk I found a 4 and 5 leaf clover patch.

Some how the rain held off and Ian's plan to stay at home and get some painting done paid off and he painted some of the trim on the house. Little by little it's being transformed :) It's looking good babe! Soon that blue trim will be gone and replaced with a nice chocolate Brown. Bye bye Blue and grey!!!

Play-Doh App

As a treat some days Sierra likes to choose new Apps to download on our IPhones. At first when she asked to download Play-Doh Play-Dates on my phone I thought it would be one of those apps you download, look at and delete.

But I was pleasantly surprised that although this App makes playing with Play-Doh become a product art instead of  process art; it saved me on a busy afternoon. Instead of being asked to help make a ladybug...Sierra opened the App and followed the steps to make it herself as well as a bee all by herself; while allowing me time needed to finish what I was doing. :)

Sierra's lady bug

Following the directions on the App to make a bee

Adding the antenna. (YES those are cracks on my IPhone screen in numerous places
from being dragged around Disney World this summer in a bag. Although it
isn't very pretty looking it still works so I can't bring myself to pay for a new phone!)

Admiring her handiwork

(Normally we would make playdough at home ourselves but we had left over Play-Doh from our trip this summer and for some reason when the girls get this store bought Play-Doh they think it is a real treat!)

A week of firsts

This week Aayla went back to daycare for the first time in almost 5 months.

Aayla so proud to be going back to daycare on her first day back.

Armed with Snookie her bunny and her lunch box
 she was ready to get back to her friends.

Sierra had a couple firsts...

Sierra on her first day of kindergarten...we stayed all of
5 minutes so not really her first "day" of school

So Sierra got two first days at school. After her first 5 minute day she got to go for 2 hours and was sooOOOooo excited.

Walking to school

Running ahead so as to not be late

Almost there

Waiting outside the classroom on her first real day of school

Aayla joins her :)

We have decided that after we sell the house and are on the road we will homeschool but for now Sierra really wants to go to school and so far is really enjoying it.

Today we had our first meeting with the teacher. It was a scheduled meeting where everyone goes in to spend 15 minutes meeting the teacher and sharing any concerns etc.

Today I had my first "oh my are we doing the right thing by sending her to school"? I mean most everybody sends their kids to school. It is the norm...we have been struggling with the decision to send her to school or to start homeschooling now.

Today after 1 week of school I had my first wonder as to if we made the right decision to send her even though she wants to go. Why did I feel this? Well it's a small thing which in my mind has snowballed. I am fixating on a problem which really shouldn't be a problem. We have been "told" to pay $40 for school supplies for the year. No problem right? Well it is for me. I have a problem with being "told" I have to pay it and can't send in our own supplies. It's $40...not a big deal but I have a foyer full of school supplies we are trying to sell left over from the store and it doesn't make sense to me to pay to buy more when I have all kinds of supplies just sitting here.

Her teacher explained that if I really had a problem with sending in the money I could exchange certain things like perhaps the crayons and markers but everything else I would have to buy from her or else go out and make sure I have the same brand and colour as her list as she needs everything colour coordinated.

Inside I am fumming. On principle I don't think we should be forced to pay for supplies we don't need just because she wants everything to be colour coordinated. I feel really bad that this first meeting has left me feeling bitter. Am I just being ridiculous? Am I looking for an excuse to not send her? Or is she being ridiculous in needing everyone to have the same brand and colour of scissors? When did colour coordination become part of education??? I don't get it.

Then she goes on to tell us that the Edu pac cost $33 and the extra $7 is going to be used towards feathers or googly eyes etc that they will use throughout the year so if I don't buy the $40 supplies I will be asked to bring in 3 red feathers, 12 googly eyes etc??? Come on now. I said I had no problem paying the extra $7 for that as I didn't want Sierra singled out as different...so there it is...I don't want her singled out as different...I don't want her teacher holding a grudge against me and then taking it out on Sierra so I'll pay the $40...but I don't agree with not being given a choice and I will write a letter accompanying my payment saying so. I'll hold the grudge but I know Sierras best interests are at hand this way. She will have enough of her own difficulties in school and won't need me complicating the matter for her. I believe we will all need to work as a team to get Sierra support in class that she will eventually need when her honeymoon period wares off and our spirited Sierra shows herself to them.

So after this first week of school all I can do is hope that we made the right choice in sending her...this choice is one I might not learn the answer to for awhile...so we'll wait and see and hope...

Home for now

I had planned on updating this blog more while away on our trip but it just didn't work out as we were just having too much fun! You can hop on over to our other blog Operation Explorations and read about all our travels this past 4 months.

Recently I made a commitment to living a year of choice and I am so happy with all the choices we are making so far. We chose to sell our business last fall, we chose to take 4 months to travel and see how we liked life on the road, we chose a rough schedule for our maiden voyage and loved every minute of our travels. We have now chosen to sell everything so we can travel more, buy land and live a life of winter travelling. After we build our Earthship we will still have a "home" to return to.

We have now returned home from our Maiden Voyage and are now undergoing a huge sort out of things and deciding what to keep as most everything will be sold off, including the house in the Spring, as we pack up and head on a new journey. It's a huge undertaking but it feels so good to sell off "things" we really don't need. Things...things that really don't bring us happiness. It's funny that we spent years working to have money to buy "things" and now all we really want is a simpler life and fewer "things". We are so looking forward to getting back to the basics and leaving the rat race we have been caught up in for the past 20 years behind. I look forward to what lies ahead; to the journey through the rest of our lives.

In between sorting out of things we managed to get out and collect some blackberries.

Aayla picking blackberries...yep spiderman slippers
 and a tutu that's how we roll at our house :)

A few berries actually make it into the basket

Sierra points out to be careful of the prickles

Our beautiful blackberries...not quite a full basket
 but just enough for...

5 bottles of yummy blackberry jam :)

Here's to many more homemade bottles of jam and to simple the pleasures in life. Life is precious. Life is short...enjoy it while you can :)

May Nature Connections

Our month of May in nature:
We've enjoyed beautiful sunsets

We've hiked to places like Delicate Arch in Arches national Park,

Collected rocks

climbed the Goblins at Goblin State Park

Hiked to Horseshoe bend

Splashed at different beaches

Visited the Grand Canyon

Explored ancient ruins

We caught and took care of a lizard for a few days

 And also some hermit crabs

We explored caverns

Sled down White Sand Dunes

Caught bugs

Fed seagulls from the back of a ferry

and watched dolphins swim by

Danced outside with elves

Collected pine cones

 watched for fish swimming

AND SO MUCH MORE!

Follow us at http://www.operationexplorations.blogspot.com/ to see all our adventures until we return home in September and get back to more crafty stuff :)

This post is part of May Nature Connections

Go check out this months entries at

http://livingandlearningnow.blogspot.com/search/label/Nature%20Connections