Wordless Wednesday
Eckert’s
At the Pumpkin Patch–2013
Today we made our annual trek to Eckert’s pumpkin patch. The children had their best year to date, picking just over 60 pounds of pumpkins. Turkey won, with a 20 pound gourd, and Bunny wasn’t far behind with a 17.5 pound beast. Moose and Ladybug picked pumpkins that were pretty close in size to each other, as well…they were all very happy with what they found!
Chickadee wasn’t too sure what to make of the pumpkin experience. This was the first time she was able to get down with the pumpkins, and she wasn’t sure if they were drums, or chairs, or something else altogether. She did decide that whatever they were, they were fun!
Since Ryan wasn’t with us when we went apple picking, we also had to go back and visit the baby goats so that he could see them. They’ve gotten a lot bolder in the last two weeks, so the children got the chance to really pet them…it was adorable!
I was thinking to myself while we were riding out to the pumpkin patch, that I wonder how many more years we have of the children wanting to do this. They still love it, especially since they’ve turned it into a competition to see who can pick the biggest pumpkin. I know the year is coming, though, (and probably soon!), when they decide it’s just not cool to do this as a family, and that will be a sad day indeed. It was good to remember that I need to cherish every moment like this while they’re all still young and like being together!
Apple Picking 2013
I was starting to worry that we weren’t going to make it to the apple orchard this month, because we’ve been so busy. So, today, I decided that our best bet was to just go to Eckert’s right after Moose got out of school. It actually turned out that this was a great time to go…we didn’t have to wait in line at all!
They had Jonathan, Golden Delicious, and Red Delicious apples available for picking. We tried all of them! They really should take the children’s weight before and after they go out to the orchard, because they ate a lot of them while they were picking!
We also stopped by the petting zoo area, and saw the two new baby goats…they were adorable!
Next month, we’ll be back at Eckert’s, picking pumpkins!
Summer Fun 2013
Well, I guess now that fall has officially begun, summer is really over. We had a lot of fun these last few months, starting when school let out, until the last official day of the season…here’s a look back at some of the things we did!
We visited a lot of playgrounds:
And spray parks:
We saw a dock dogs competition:
We went to Grant’s Farm (twice!):
And had a few tea parties:
We saw a lot of baseball games:
We went to Eckert’s and picked blackberries:
And peaches:
We visited Six Flags St. Louis for the first time:
And celebrated the Fourth of July:
We visited the zoo:
And saw the new sea-lion exhibit for the first time!
Turkey played in his fourth season of baseball:
We celebrated some birthdays:
And had fun at VBS:
We volunteered at and/or visited the LCMS convention:
And toured the Gateway Arch for the very first time!
Bunny met a few famous people, who happened to be married to each other!
We went on a few road trips:
Ryan and I repainted the front room of our house…it looks so pretty in blue!
We visited the Art Museum:
A new school year began:
We toured the Science Center:
Some of us were just cute!
Did I mention baseball?
I worked hard to make this a fun summer, even though, as always, we didn’t go on a vacation. It’s going to be hard to top this amount of fun next summer!
Picking Peaches
This morning we went to Eckert’s to pick some peaches. We ended up with about 10 pounds, which isn’t a lot, but I wanted to make sure we didn’t pick more than we could eat, especially since I’m not planning on baking with them this time.
It was a beautiful morning!
I swear, you can see the fuzz on the peaches from the road!
Before we left, we also stopped in the country store, and bought about six pounds of tomatoes. Homemade creamy tomato-basil soup and BLTs are on the menu for this weekend. As always, I’m so thankful to live so close to such a wonderful, family-owned farm!
Blackberry Picking
We went to one of our favorite places this morning!
We’d never picked blackberries before, so we decided to try it out. They were clearly expecting a big crowd today!
Fortunately, we got there early, so we didn’t have to wait in line. That didn’t stop Turkey from racing through the whole queue, though!
Turkey and Ladybug were in charge of one box, and Bunny and Moose the other. Chickadee decided that she hates blackberries, so she just hung out with me and watched disdainfully.
There were still a few blossoms, but not many.
We saw berries in all stages of development, from tiny and green, to red, to black and ready to pick!
It was much easier to pick blackberries than it was strawberries, thanks to the very cool rotating trellises. We ended up with almost five pounds of blackberries. Turkey and Ladybug had more blackberries by weight, but they didn’t weigh Moose on his way out, and I’m pretty sure he ate more than he put in the box, so in the end, I’m guessing both pairs of children picked about the same amount.
It was a fun (and delicious!), way to spend a beautiful morning in June!
Dock Dogs
This morning, we went over to Eckert’s to watch the dogs competing in the Splash for Rescues event. It’s really fun to watch the dogs’ enthusiasm for jumping and retrieving!
It’s also fun to see how big of a splash they make…the children even got a front-row view, where they got a little drenched, too!
Strawberry Picking
On Thursday, the girls and I went to Eckert’s to go strawberry picking. It was our last field trip of the school year. Sadly, Turkey was sick that day, and couldn’t join us, but he really wanted us to go so that he could at least have some strawberries once he was feeling better, so we ventured out for a girls’ morning!
We saw strawberry blossoms:
And green strawberries:
Bunny and Ladybug had a great time looking for strawberries. We were all shocked at how quickly our hands (and their faces!), turned red! It was obvious that they had been sampling strawberries along the way.
When it was all said and done, we picked about 5.5 pounds of strawberries (I think), and only spent about $13. For how amazing they taste, I would have gladly paid much more!
In addition to eating tons of them plain (and some with fresh whipped cream), I’ve also made strawberry bread and strawberry muffins.
After having lived basically down the road from Eckert’s for almost seven years, I’m glad we finally got around to going strawberry picking. Up next…blackberries in June!
2012-13 School Year–Week Thirty-Three
That’s a wrap!
After approximately 186 days of school (probably a few more…I sometimes forget to record field trip days!), we have finished the 2012-13 school year!
We did a lot of work this week (unlike, say, the public school, which appears to have been on vacation for the last two weeks of classes!). We had to finish up American history from Nixon to the present (a lot of fun stuff to explain in there!). We had math lessons to complete, and reading lessons for Ladybug, who finally made it through the whole alphabet, and all 27 of her “Fun Tales” readers! Turkey and Bunny also finished their spelling books, and one last writing assignment. We haven’t finished our read-aloud, but we can continue reading that for fun every day!
We also had some fun this week! On Thursday, Bunny, Ladybug, and I went strawberry-picking at Eckert’s, which seemed fitting since we went apple picking during our first week of the school year. Turkey, unfortunately, was sick, but he wanted us to go anyway, which was very kind of him. We had a fun time in the strawberry fields…it was the first time any of us had picked strawberries!
Today, after our last two tests of the year, we had a tea party for Pentecost. We were supposed to have it on Pentecost itself, but I ran out of time, and since it’s still Pentecost week, I figured I could still use red as a theme!
We also built the Lego Brandenburg Gate, a special project to tie into our studies of WWII and the Cold War/fall of the Berlin Wall. Since we waited until this afternoon to work on it, Moose got to join in, too! I love the Lego Architecture series, and can’t wait to see what other Landmarks they may come up with that I can use for school!
It’s been a great school year. There were tough times, trying to figure out how to balance three students in two grades, with an infant (and then toddler!), besides. There were challenges as I had to look for new materials to use for Ladybug when some of the things I used for Turkey and Bunny didn’t work for her. There was the difficulty of trying to teach long division! But the good times and the successes and fun events far outweighed any problems we came across. We’ve finished five years of homeschooling, and I’m already looking forward to year six…see you in August!
Farm Tour
Today, we went to Eckert’s for their “Spring Fling.” It was so much fun! Ladybug got to pet a pony:
And we went on a wagon ride, which isn’t that unusual, but we’ve never gotten to do that in April before…it was fun to see the trees blooming along the way!
The main reason we went to the Spring Fling was to go on a farm tour. It was truly fascinating. Chris Eckert was the one leading it, and he shared tons of information about the crops they grow, and the new methods they try out. One of the highlights of the tour was going in the green house, where they’re growing tomatoes. We learned a lot about how the green house works, and how many tomatoes they grow in a season.
The have an interesting system of growing the tomatoes…six of the rows grow on traditional trellises, while the final row is going to be left to grow up to the ceiling of the green house on a special system of cables and clips.
We also saw the strawberry field…later in the year, it will be seeded for the pumpkin patch.
It was interesting to see the weather station at work:
Their center of farm operations is huge. I guess it needs to be, to house all of the vehicles and equipment they need, but I was still surprised to see it!
We stopped at the peach orchard. It was interesting to hear how they thin the blossoms and fruit to make sure the trees don’t have too much growing on them.
He showed us how to peel back the blossoms to find the tiny peach inside!
Eckert’s now has a small vineyard, and this summer, they’ll be producing their own wines…I’m looking forward to trying one!
We also drove past the beehives that they outsource. They keep the bees near the apple orchards, because the apple trees need to be cross-pollinated (in this case, with crab apples), in order to produce fruit.
We also saw the blackberry field.
They have a fascinating rotating trellis for the blackberry plants, to make them easier to pick.
We learned that the old farmhouse on the property was built in 1881, and is now used as office space.
It was a fun afternoon at one of our favorite places, and we learned a lot on top of it!