The Nina

Last week, my parents, sister, and I (and the kids!) went to visit reproductions of Columbus ships The Nina and the Pinta. The Nina is the most accurate reproduction of a Columbus ship, and boy could we feel it! We all had a great time with our brush with history.

Boarding the Pinta:

View of The Nina from the Pinta:

The Nina:

Again:

Checking out the view from the poop deck of the Pinta:

To read more about the ships visit here.

Memorial Day in Our Little Town

We went to the parade for the first time this year since moving to this town. After our story hour theme was "parades" last week and the kids received flags and practiced marching, I knew we had to go! It's a small parade, but both the boys certainly enjoyed it! Okay...I did too! The marching band had nothing on our hometown, but there's something about hearing a drumline!

We found a perfect, shady spot to stand right in front of the high school...

Waiting...

VFW...octogenarians walking alongside 20-somethings...

Junior ROTC...

High school marching band...

Fire department (our priest was somewhere in there)...

A classic fire truck from a neighboring town...

My favorite of the classic cars...

After the parade we drove up to the lake shore to walk around...

This park has a picnic area and lawn, two nature trails, a rocky swimming beach, and offers many free, family activities throughout the season. I know we'll spend a lot of time here this summer!

Another Art Studio Visit

Today we returned to the art studio we visited last month.

The children finished the project they began last time. The owner of the studio fired the clay animals after our last trip and today each child painted them as well the "scene" and then we assembled the pictures.

Isn't this a beautiful rainbow fish-- and so well camouflaged?

After the children finished their first project, the teacher read them Snowmen at Christmas and then they made snowmen! Everything was ready for the children and they painted then added arms, nose, etc. to bring the snowmen to life! I think our snowman will have a permanent place in our winter nature scene each year!

Little brother had a good time too! He managed to dip his fingers in my watercolors and watched the entire process with wide eyes! It won't be long before he joins in!

M. is absolutely delighted with both of these projects, and as another mom said today, "They are definitely "forever" projects!"

A Visit to an Art Studio

Today our MOMS Club took a trip to a local art studio!

Working with clay...

Experimenting with tempera...

The children had a great time with markers, clay, watercolors, and tempera. We're going back in a month to paint the clay figures we made today (the owner of the studio did most of the work creating a shape for each child)!

I know we'll make many trips to here in the future for art classes. There is a summer program as well as daytime classes for homeschoolers (and cooking classes for adults)! Our club is even discussion holding holiday and birthday parties here!