Homeschool Fair

The annual homeschool fair with our PSP group was earlier this month and the boys did real well! It's one of their favorite activities.

This year Nathan entered the table decorating category...I encouraged him to do it but to put a masculine twist on it. Thankfully he ran with it and I think he did a great job. I simply showed him tables settings on Pinterest and he told me what he wanted to do.

He actually won 1st place!

Josiah wanted to bake this year! I showed him a few of my favorite cookie recipes and he settled on Chocolate Cherry Thumbprints.....he won 1st place. He baked them all by himself even though the experience wasn't without incident...my kitchen was a mess afterwards but that's all a part of the fun!

He also entered the hanging art category and got 3rd place for his entry entitled "The Union".

Way to go, Jojo!

Whale Watching

We got to go whale watching at the end of February and it was absolutely fabulous! We went last year in mid-April and we did not see one single whale. Scientists say though because of El Nino the migration patterns of the gray whale and humpback whale have been thrown off a little causing the whales to cross migration paths. There's also more food in the water closer to the shoreline bringing whales closer and closer.

We started off from the Channel Islands Harbor.

It was a gorgeous day in California.

Lots of beautiful sunshine.

Our first encounter were gray whales.... 

in total we saw 5 gray whales.

We then headed off to the Anacapa Islands...

and we happened to see a couple of humpback whales.

We saw a ton of dolphins...i mean a ton!

It was such a lovely day. We were all so amazed by God's beautiful creation. We also saw seals basking in the sun on the Anacapa Islands, a "sunfish", and different varieties of birds. We highly recommend Channel Islands Whale Watching company in Oxnard.

Look who took a day off and joined us!

History and Homeschooling: Part 3 Civil War Re-enactment :

 One thing I learned at this event is that these "musical bands"...can't remember the proper name... played during battles on the sidelines.  They had special songs they played according to what was happening in the battle.  Also different drums would tell their side where the enemy was positioned. It was a gentleman's rule that you didn't shoot them but sometimes men weren't gentlemen.

After the Battle of Gettysburg the soldiers marched to hear Lincoln address the Union.

 

 

Lincoln giving his Gettysburg address.

The defeated Rebels.

One of Jojo's Sunday School teachers, Mr. Kaya, is a re-enactor!