Frontier Culture Musuem

For Memorial Day, we took our visitors out to see the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton. It turned out to be a beautiful day for sightseeing and the sight was not at all crowded. We saw all 4 "origin" sites - homes that people woudl have emigrated from - and most of the new world sight depicting life in American for new arrivals.

African village

Abby and Benji pretending to be tour guides

Outside of the English cottage

Since the museum is also a working farm, there were lots of baby animals about:

Ducklings

Goslings

A goose shepherds a baby duck across the stream

Observing the lambs

Benji in the German barn (where we saw a 2 week old calf)

Abby, learning to card wool in America

Looks Like Summer

Welcome Sign for Grandma and Pop-pop

Counting Down...

 

9 more days until the end of school...

Mud Puddles (or, what little boys like)

Anniversary Pigs

For our 12th anniversary, Kevin and I revisited the bed and breakfast where we spent our first anniversary.  It is a vegan B&B and also a pig sanctuary.  The decor, if anything, was even more bizarre on this visit:

Happy anniversary, Kevin!

Watching the Grass Grow

Benji's class decided to finish out the year with a gardening unit.  I suspected this would be a disappointment after the games and sports unit, but Benji at least has really taken to it.  The projects have included growing grass:

Measuring the growth

 Seeing if flowers will soak up dye and change color:

And studying flower paintings:

Benji, trying to paint in the style of Georgia O'Keefe

The kids will keep up planting and observing for the next few weeks - Benji now wants to stop and smell the flowers wherever we go.

Cupcakes and Clubs

We had our last girl scout outing of the year on Monday (and last event as Brownies - the girls fly up to Juniors this summer).  We decided to take the girls to Sweethaus to decorate cupcakes:

The bakers kindly provided special frosting colors and toppings for the girls:

After we got back to school, we let the girls have some free time and marveled at how much they have grown since our first meeting:

Look at the difference 3 years makes:

Commencement

This weekend was graduation at the University, which always brings a lot of buzz to Cville. Alex and Steph kindly came down to visit (as we were stuck in town so that I could take part in the law school ceremony on Sunday), and Abby and Jules decided they wanted to hold their own graduation. They even made their own caps:

Congrats to the class of 2013!

Greenbrier Spring Picnic

This year, the school was also celebrating its 50th anniversary.  They made this awesome quilt:

 

Abby was also very excited to show us all the old photo albums and the story boards detailing the school's founding.  Only a few more events left this year!

Fun Run

Two very sweaty children after completing the second annual Greenbrier Fun Run.  More pictures from the spring picnic tomorrow.

Haircut Time

Legos, legos everywhere

Benji, with some of his creations:

Mother's Day 2013

We had a wonderful mother's day, filled with gifts:

Abby's creations

Benji drew me a picture

And wrote(!) on this keychain (it says mom I heart)

Two brunches, pedicures and a play.



Mother's Day picture:

Fashion Show

This is Abby and Sarah's favorite activity when they have a play date.  Every outfit change is coordinated and given a title.  During their most recent catwalk run, I was elected to be their paparazzi: