To the love of my life...

Al came home tonight with these gorgeous flowers for me.  Tomorrow we will celebrate 9 years of marriage...we'll be together almost 10 years this summer!

I am writing to express my utmost love to the man I married 9 years ago.  He is the love of my life, my soul mate, the father of our beautiful boys.  I grow more in love with him every day...

Happy Anniversary, My Love...

Really cool class!

Yesterday Noah and Kadin took their first of a series of monthly science classes at Peabody Mill Environmental Center in Amherst, NH.  These classes were organized through a local NH homeschool group.  Animal Tracking was the February theme, followed by a Tree Study in March, Spring Birding in April, Forest Study in May and Aquatic (Pond) Study in June.  The boys are really looking forward to the rest of their classes!  What a great place!  The setting is beautiful...very New Englandy.  And, it is only about 30 minutes from our house (and practically in GiGi and GrandDad's backyard)!  Another reason I like this place is that there is plenty to do with the little ones on site while the boys are in their class or out in the field.  If it happens to be a subject that we all have an interest in, their teacher welcomes all family members into the classroom session and in the field!  I didn't take part in snowshoeing with Aaron and Matthew this time, though.  We stayed behind and explored around the building.

Yesterday's class taught the boys the basics of how to track an animal in the snow.  They learned how to identify several different animals...rabbits, deer, black bears, porcupines, squirrels and coyotes.  During a one hour teaching session in the main building, their instructor, Mr. Scopa, explained how to look for certain characteristics in an animal print.  He handed out an information-filled identification card that the boys can laminate and take with them on their snowshoe hikes.  If they see a print in the snow, they can bring out their card and try to identify it.  Even Aaron sat still and listened intently through the entire class!

After the hour in the classroom it was out to the field!  The class all put on their snowshoes (Noah and Kadin brought their new ones) and they headed out to a beautiful trail in the woods for a 45 minute walk to try and find some tracks then identify them.  Unfortunately, we had some fresh snow before class yesterday, so they didn't see too much.  But they did see fresh porcupine tracks!  They were very excited about that!

Here are some pics from our day.  I forgot to bring in the camera to the classroom session, but I got some good ones outside afterwards.  Enjoy!

Peabody Mill Environmental Center - Amherst, NH

Happy Aaron playing in the snow, waiting for his brothers.

Walking up the lane!

Matthew trying to catch his big brother Aaron!

Having FUN!  Aaron has absolutely NO fear on these snow piles...he was jumping off from the top with no warning!!

Getting ready to throw at Mommy!

The class coming back from their snowshoe hike in the woods.

Happy boys!

Happy his brothers are back!

Moose in the lodge.  Matthew was afraid of him when we arrived, but as we were leaving he asked to pet him!

A great day!  4 very tired boys!

Cheese!!

Tired...  :)

Lego morning...

Today we went to the SEE Science Center in downtown Manchester.  Noah and Kadin were a part of a special program called Lego Gravity Racers, which was led by the foreman of the Lego Millyard Project (see pics below for just a small amount of the project) which is on display at the SEE.  There were about 20 children in the class who all built their own Lego racing car then learned the effects of gravity based on the design they chose.  Cool program...boys had a great time.  I stayed with the little ones while Al joined the older boys in class.  Aaron and Matthew really had a good time playing with the many hands-on things that SEE has.  Their favorite, by far, was pretending they were farmers.  They spent a good 45 minutes planting crops, feeding and milking the cow, gathering eggs, and pushing the wheelbarrow around.  Al had the camera for most of the morning...here are the pics!

Noah checking out the Millyard Project

Noah and Kadin playing music

Kadin checking out the Millyard Project

 Noah and some of his "competition" ;)

One of Noah's designs

Kadin building

One of Kadin's designs

And again...

Another one of Noah's designs

Matthew showing me the eggs he just gathered

Aaron gathered some eggs, too.  Silly boy, putting them in his ears!

Matthew and the cow that he and Aaron took such good care of!