Sheep and a Schoolhouse

We had a fun visit to a nearby farm in Tamworth NH called Schoolhouse Farm. They raise Icelandic sheep, a breed known to be triple purpose, wool, meat, and milk! The seep had been shorn a couple months ago to make way for kidding. There 18 lambs born this season!

This was as close as I could get with my phone camera so you cannot see the curly long wool on these beautiful sheep. Check out the link to the farm above to see more sheep pics. The wool actually gets really long almost touching the ground before being shorn.

We also got a tour of the farms namesake, the old schoolhouse. It was so neat to go inside a schoolhouse untouched and as it was long ago.

This was what you saw as you walked in the front door. So cute!! And the map was so neat!!! It was of Carroll County and some of the old hotels and stores were pictured around it.

The kids, not really ever having sat at a real school desk had lots of fun pretending!

There were only two little desks so the little kids piled their chairs around both sides of this one. No electricity and no lights made this photo with my phone a little dark but fun!

There was also a frog/swimming pond, a barn that was solar powered and the beautiful farm house to check out too. The kids had a great time with their pals as you can see from these sweet pics of friendship.

Boston: Day One!

Our trip to Boston (back in September) was so much fun! For some reason it has taken me until January to post only half of the pics from this trip!!! The boys ask me when we are going again all the time!! A big thanks goes to our homeschool friend Sonja who did tons of leg work for the trip! Here the kids are posed at the church where we were camping out. Two more families met up with us in the city. The church kindly let us camp out in the basement at night while touring the city by day.

Ethan and James had never been on the subway and I had only been on once or twice! It was a real learning experience for us all and by the end of the trip I think I could have gotten us across town??? Ethan and James are posing here with Sonja in the background as we descend into the ground for the first time!

The subway pics came out BAD, but I just had to include their first subway ride!! Ethan's face looks a little scared in this one but Maverick is as happy as a clam!

Now James looking oh so calm for his first ride!

Our first stop in Boston was the Public Garden and the Swan Boats! Even though this is not necessarily a Boston history stop, it was a necessity for those of us who read the Trumpet of the Swan!

A beautiful day for a boat ride! Here Ethan and James pose on the boat.

Our swan boat ride would not be complete with out some swans!!

The nice looking bunch sitting behind us!

A policeman on horseback was kind enough to stop and talk to our group and let us say hello to his horse! I think the horse was named Fredrick (Fred for short). So fun!!

While in Boston Public Garden you absolutely must read Make Way for Ducklings! Thankfully Sonja was prepared for this and brought the book along. Sarah read it to all the kids while we sat near the duck statue and had a snack. At each stop we had a snack themed for that particular site.

Make way for the Homegrown Explorers! And the ducklings too!!

A statue of George Washington! We snapped this just as we were leaving the park.

Sonja set up a visit to the lobby of the Ritz Carlton! A fun treat to those of us who read The Trumpet of the Swan, Louis the Swan was able to spend a night at the Ritz in the book!

Here the kids were able to do rubbings of the Declaration of Independence. They were easily able to see John Hancock's name and everyone wanted to rub it onto their paper!

James took this fun photo of his feet on the Freedom Trail. These red bricks mark the way throughout all of Boston.

This is the Granary Burying Gound named for the Granary that was located next door It was really neat to walk around and see all the old graves.
The boys were looking for several famous graves on their Boston Bingo sheets. Here is Paul Revere's grave.
The boys located the Samuel Adams grave site next.
Then we were on the move again to find more interesting sites on our Boston bingo sheet. Here the boys pose with Ben Franklin at the Boston Latin School, the oldest public school. I thought it was amusing that all though Franklin attended this school, he is one of Americas most noted high school dropouts!!
A fun group photo with the donkey statue also at the Boston Latin School! Click here to check out the history of the statue.

Ethan opposing the democrats! Go Ethan!!

James had tons of fun taking pics of all the "sky scrapers" and other interesting buildings!

We loved the contrast of old and new in Boston! This is at the site of the Boston Massacre.

The big building with the clock is really beautiful when lit up at night! It is the Custom House Hotel.
Ethan thought it would be fun to take a pic with one of the mayors of Boston. He has not one but two statues in this little park near the Holocaust Memorial?? After, we headed over towards Faneuil Hall to Quincy Market for dinner.

After dinner we decided to visit the Boston Public Library since we could not go back to the church until after the bible study was over. This didn't come out great but it is the open courtyard at the library! It was so beautiful and huge!! The pic does not do it justice!

Here is the amazing marble entry way in the Library! We walked around a little and then found a quiet corner to take a break and read before heading back to the church.

James and Ethan thought it was fun to act like they were holding up the pillars of the building like Sampson! As soon as they saw these pillars in the library that is what they thought of! So cute!!

We then headed back to the "T" for another ride to the church where we were staying.

Stay tuned for day two!

Portland Head Light

Our homeschool group got the privilege of touring the Portland Head Light, one of the most photographed light houses ever. The tour was set up with some really nice men from the coast guard who took time out of their busy day to give our group an amazing experience! Thanks so much to the Thornes for setting this up, we had such a great time!! Here is the front of the lighthouse keepers home...now a museum.

When we started the tour we leaned about the shipwreck of the Annie G. Maguire on this very rock. The lighthouse keeper helped the stranded people by using a ladder to make a bridge! You can't see in this pic but there is a huge drop off between the kids and the sign.

We then learned how all the lighhouses in the area work together to warn boats about the dangerous rocks. The first pic is of the fog horn system which is so loud that they wouldn't let the kids go near it to protect their ears in case it went off. The black bump at the top of the lighthouse is on of the ways the lighthouses communicate with each other.



It was great to have my mom with us! She helped me so much with the kids and she loves the ocean and lighthouses so it was a great field trip for her too!
















A group pic:


We then headed into the lighthouse! This pic is in the stair well at one of the little keyhole windows on the way up.



The stair well as you can imagin is a huge spiral! 79 steps in all!! It was very steep and intimidating! We all made our way to the top except for James who wanted nothing to do with the stairs! This pic is at the top looking down.

This is the little door that leads to the catwalk at the top of the lighthouse.

Here is the view from the top! I was a chicken so I passed the camera off to one of the braver sole's that ventured all the way around (thanks Cindy).



We also got to peak our heads up into the top where the light is. It is spinning all the time so we couldn't go all the way.





Safe at the bottom again, the kids pose in front of one of the old warning bells that they used before they had the fog horn system.

We then went into the museum. Here James is standing in front of a model of how the light house has changed through the years. It was first built at the time of George Washington! He was the one who commissioned this lighthouse into existence!


One of the many lights that was used through the years. The glass was cut just right so that only a very small light would look much bigger!


We also got to visit the Whistle House. This is where they house all the electronics that make the horn and other instruments work. In this pic he is showing us an old light and horn system.

Ethan checking himself out in one of the old mirrors used on the light.

On the way back to the car the kids wanted to pose with this old bell...

...and this old cannon used when this area was a military base.

After a picnic lunch at Mrs. Thornes parents house we walked a little ways to the beach! This was one of the beautiful homes in the area.

I didn't realize we would be ocean swimming in MAY so the kids didn't have their suits! They went in anyway!! My feet felt numb just standing in the water for only a few minutes! Oh to be a kid again!!! To their credit it was really HOT and the water was refreshing!


They also had a great time playing in the sand!


I'm guessing they needed to warm their blood back up and sitting in the warm sand was just the thing!

The little girls had a great time building sand castles!


Their masterpiece was this castle with a seaweed moat!


Mollie was not sure about the ocean waves! She held tight to Mimi's hand for a long time not wanting to get too close! After a while she warmed up. At one point not noticing Mimi was gone she grabbed the closest hand to her (Mrs. Jette)! Too cute! Thanks for being the standby!

After the beach we changed and then explored a couple of the old buildings near the lighthouse that were used when Fort Williams was a very active military base! The boy's could have played for hours there I think!
We then headed off the the Maine Mall for a long anticipated trip the the Build A Bear Factory! Mimi had been promising a trip there soon and we thought this would be a fun ending to our exciting day! I wish I had brought the camera into the store! They had such a great time choosing and stuffing their bears (a dog and a cat too). Thanks Mimi!!
It was such a fun trip! We can't wait to go back!