Excursion escolar

We had our first field trip with the homeschool group this week. We went to an apple orchard about 90 minutes away. A friends drove us in her van and the kids had a great time hanging out with her children during the drive, and she & I had time to chat most of the way there and back, which made for a pleasant trip.

JMC wasn't interested in the presentation about the apple orchard, but the tractor really caught his attention.

M&Ms to keep a 2 year old quiet. The tour lasted about an hour longer than we had anticipated and ran into his normal lunchtime.

We each got to choose a gourd to take home.

The boys on the wagon heading back for the rest of the tour.

Once the actual tour was over, we had a picnic lunch, and then got to explore. There were some farm animals, and a HUGE playground. JA & JT stayed within the fenced area, but were running from one place to another, so I didn't get many pictures of them playing. JMC stayed near me (or I should probably say I stayed near him) so I have a lot more pics of him enjoying the afternoon.

There were nearly 70 people from our homeschool group on this field trip, these are the friends we came with.

Trying to walk on the log like the big kids.

The only one not afraid of the goats.

We left at 8:30am and didn't get home until 5:00 in the afternoon, so the kids were exhausted. We ate dinner (I had some chicken ready to go in the crock pot) and then baths and bedtime. They laid down around 7:00 and didn't get up until 8:00 in the morning! If this place weren't so far away, I'd take them there all the time just for the long night of sleep! :)

See, I didn't lose her. :)

There was a store and JT wanted to buy some apple jelly. While we were looking for it amongst all the flavors, JA's tooth fell out. We found a napkin for her, and then found the apple jelly, along with cherry jam, rhubarb jam, and pumpkin butter. We also brought home some apple cider donuts to share with Papi.

It was a great time and I look forward to going again next year.

I almost forgot the best part - 2 other moms noticed that the kids are bilingual and were complimenting me and talking with me about it positively. Papi and I truly believe raising the kids to be bilingual is important, but I often hear more negative than positive from other people and it can bring me down a bit. Of course, Papi only hears positive responses to having bilingual children, but I think that's because having a 2nd language is a valued asset in the business world, and I just don't deal with business people on a regular basis.  Anyway, it was nice to get such a positive response to while on the field trip.