Field trip: Western North Carolina Nature Center

This is one of our favorite places in Asheville, N.C. Once I went here for a drum-making class and the wolves howled during part of it. It was SO cool.
So the kids and I stopped in on our way back home from South Carolina as a leg stretcher.
And it was again the wolves that were the most intriguing. At first, they were laying about in the sun then they got up and moved around, nuzzled each other, exhibited wolf behavior.It was our best part of the day.
All of the snakes in the reptile house were very active. The Boo watches a rat snake getting water:Usually bears are out but we couldn't find them. It was actually a little cold for most of the animals so we hung around the farm area - you know, like we can't do this at home.

Homeschool valentine party

Fabulous homeschooling mom and friend Jeanette organized this homeschool valentine party. She issued that all cards needed to be handmade and personalized! We worked on them early in the week so we'd be ready.
After watching a Charlie Brown valentine movie, the kids decorated their boxes to receive cards. Now look at this one! And then cards were distributed: Everyone's was overflowing and everybody left happy! (Moms too!)

Another reader?

While The Daisy was at her homeschool testing last week, The Boo and I hung around the bookstore to play with the train set. He pulled out a couple of Transformer books and thumbed through them. This is what The Daisy used to do and pretended to read them. I'm hoping he loves reading as much as she does.

Two Ladies and a Cake

My friend Donna has a friend who has opened this cupcake business. We stopped in after galivanting all around Saturday and this is what her friend made us!

Horses from The Daisy's perspective

Here are some pictures from The Daisy when we visited the babies at Shadwell Stable in Camden last week:
This is Kalila, a 2 year old colt:
Me messing with him:
The Boo hiding from Kalila behind a tree with Julie babysitting (or she was hiding too, I'm not sure):
The Daisy got a cute picture here:
She liked this colt:
I think this one is Splasha:
Splasha messing with the high-falutin' salt lick all the Shadwell babies get

Our favorite place: Camden Training Center

I'm not sure if we go to the Camden Training Center just as a side visit when we go home to South Carolina or if we go to South Carolina just to visit the Camden Training Center. Yeah, pretty much the latter.
I have such fond memories of the training center - hanging around the barns in the mornings when I was a newspaper reporter and then just to hang around because I loved horses.
So we hit Shadwell Stable and Jennifer, the assistant trainer, always welcomes us:
So my Facebook friend Wendy was interested in this Shadwell colt she saw last August. He's really filled out and is now 17 hands at only 2 years old.
Just as they brought him out and took off his cooler, he did the silly baby thing and hopped and jumped. Of course, The Boo was standing right next to him so I grabbed Boo by the neck of his coat and dragged him away. He immediately wanted to go sit in the car. So you can see in this picture that The Boo is hanging behind the pine tree waaayyy off from Kalila.
He has a cute face. Jennifer says he's a big goofy boy and very nice. There you go, Wendy - your big baby.
Jennifer brought out a bag of carrots for the kids to feed. A lot of the babies have no idea what to do with carrots.
We were glad our friend Julie joined us for the morning to go to the barn because she hadn't seen Jennifer in the longest time.
The Boo tried to entice the babies to take a carrot - the only way he'll get close to the horses is from the other side of a gate.
I loved on Ritta:
And The Boo liked her very much too.
Jennifer is SO cute! And always puts up with us interrupting her morning with a big smile on her face.
I think sitting on a saddle inside the house is about the only way I'm going to get The Boo interested in a life with horses:
Right before we headed to the training center, we stopped by noted steeplechase trainer Jonathan Sheppard's barn at Springdale Race Course. It was a little chilly out and the barn was very busy so we didn't hang around.

Home again, home again

I just couldn't take it anymore. The snow, the ice, temps in the teens. It was time to get to South Carolina and have a visit. I tell you if they ever paint this house any other color besides pink, I probably would not know to make the turn to my grandmother's street. Here's Great MawMaw with The Daisy and Boo! And here is my most favorite house in the whole world:

Homeschooling experiments

The Boo has bugged me for ages to get out a chemistry kit I bought at a homeschool convention a couple of years ago. We pulled it out and The Daisy donned the goggles even though I said I didn't think she needed them.
Our first experiment was distinguishing the pH of different liquids.Then it just became a free-for-all: And somehow The Daisy came up with this blue color:

The kids went over to their friend Shannon's house and this is where The Daisy really gets into the farm work, helping Miss Tracy with their horses and sheep and baby lambs. She was pointing out the ugly lamb to me. Is there such thing as an ugly lamb? So that was the day before when it was snowy out and freezing then it hits Saturday and it's gorgeous so the kids had to roll down the windows and stick their heads out: I can't believe he's only 4:

Noooo ... really?!

In a shop at Cairo airport