Week 36 - Marsupials, Sun, Sun and Fun with Friends

We had a wonderful week in Florida.  We started it out by taking the kids to Key West for the weekend.  Joe and I went here on our honeymoon.  And since we were so close, well 5 hours away, we decided to take them for a short trip.  We enjoyed the drive down on Saturday morning.  I almost cancelled though because I woke up with a borderline migraine.  I was the walking dead.  Lots and lots of peppermint oil and Feverfew tea.  But we got going.

We took them to the Lighthouse.  Brayden never climbs lighthouses.  He decided to try this one.  It was a steep metal staircase.  He was freaked out most of the climb, but he did it.

We took them to the Southern most point.

And the Sunset Festival in Mallory Square.

The Shipwreck museum, which we also did on our honeymoon.  The part about wreckers was so interesting.

We did a history walking tour of the area.  We saw the biggest banyan tree.  I didn't even know that a tree could get that big.  It was amazing.  We also saw the roots, they are hanging roots.  That was neat.

After we posed at this tree, we found out that it was used by the KKK to hang people from.

This is the banyan tree.  Largest on the island.  Takes up the whole property.

At the Sunset Festival, Brayden and I were sitting and watching the sun go down. This pelican was right in front of us.  We got to see his mouth as he stretched.  It was pretty amazing.  The bird laid down right in front of us then.

We walked about 7 miles.  This is the next morning.  A very worn out Brayden.

We also visited Fort Zachary Taylor.  A Civil War fort on the island.  The fort never saw any firing action.  

The view was amazing from the top of the fort.  I wouldn't have minded being stationed there.  Minus the wool uniform of course.

While in Key West we also visited Truman's Little White House and did that tour.  It was pretty interesting to see this presidential home and even learn that high level political figures and their families can still stay at this home.  

Caty went on to start reading larger books this week.  She read me all of Red Fish, Blue Fish.  And went through the entire two sets of Bob Books that I brought with us.  She also started the 2nd half of her Singapore Math book for the year.  She was excited!

I tried hard to work with all that was going on.  I made the bed into a desk so I could watch the ocean out the balcony window.

Brayden was well cared for by the front desk staff.  They kept him in M&M Chocolate chip cookies.  They would call up and let us know when they were ready.

We enjoyed the beach as much as we could.

We reserved a cabana on Tuesday when our friends from Miami came to visit.  Joey was resting from the wind and water and watching Psych on his tablet.

Even Brayden got into the Body surfing.  That totally caught me off guard.  He NEVER goes into the ocean.  But out of the blue, he did Tuesday.  He went in every time we went back to the beach.  He really loved it.

Working on science this week.  This week in our Sassafrass science journey, the twins were sabotaged.  We explored a Eucalyptus Forest and a Bamboo Forest.  Here the girls were coloring sheets while I read.  We talked about koalas and how their pouches keep their babies warm.  We heated up my rice pack and used a dish towel to show the warmth that the baby is getting.

We worked on the beach patio for our writing.  The girls have started using Here to Help Learning.  Watch for our review next month.

Our friends gave us National Geographic version of Mad Libs.  We are having so much fun creating the stories.  I had to force the girls to stop the one day because they didn't want to stop making up the stories.

They all successfully finished their January reading challenge.  We started our February reading challenge. 

Joey struggled a bit with finishing his work.  He had plenty of time to finish his assignments, but instead chose to sneak and take constant breaks on his game.  We had lots of discussions this week about taking our student responsibilities seriously.  Brayden tried to pull this one too.  But he realized that I wasn't going to let him get away with it.  Next week we will be working on doing our work thoroughly and not rushing through it.

This was our last week in Florida for a few months, we will be heading out Friday for Indianapolis for our next adventure.  

Hope everyone had a wonderful week! Linking up with other moms on: