Alpaca's, Nature Study Day & What we're Reading!

Last week in review:
Last weekend we spent a day and went to an Alpaca Farm about an hour away. We had spent the prior week learning about Alpaca's, their fibers, shearing, spinning, using the fibers so the kids and us adults were pretty excited to venture out and learn more and see these animals in person.  A small family owned and operated farm, the husband was friendly and full of information, proud as he told us about his 30 Alpaca's, how his farm started and his love for the animals.  He was also thrilled to offer his services if anyone was interested in their own Alpaca, he'd help you select one, and set up  your pen/stalls at your property as well. My daughter and I watched a spinning demonstration, as we were told how the process works from shearing all the way to spinning it into yarn to knit with. We were intrigued and excited to perhaps one day try our hand at it ourselves.

During the week we had our 4H meeting, our daughter finished up her record book, recording her expenses from the previous years projects and decided on what animal projects to do for this upcoming year. 

We took mid week off on Wednesday to take our pup to the vet, so while he was their for the day we took advantage and went up to the mountains to spend the day on Nature Study- playing, hiking, drawing, taking pictures, reading and doing community service- park clean up- the kids were very passionate about keeping the campground clean of trash and debris. Our 7 yr old son kept asking aloud 'who would do this' and 'why wouldn't they put their trash in the trashcan?' along with 'don't they know animals could die!'  A valuable lesson to keep our earth and environment clean and to take personal responsibility.

We also made two Library trips instead of just one this week.  Our daughter, the 'reader' went through all her books over the weekend and needed more!  With her huge interest in ballet we got online to the library and had books shipped in from larger libraries about the history of ballet, different specific ballets, dancers and technique books.  She also, from reading 'American Girl' books on Cecile and Mary Grace learned about Yellow Fever and wanted to learn more about it and plagues! So she pursued checking out a book on that as well.  Our son, still into his fishing but now into birds too checked out several books on both topics. Another bird book he had previously checked out came in handy for our Nature day as we found several different kinds of birds in it, during our hike and the kids were both excited to be able to reference and identify the birds. As for me, I'm reading a little bit of everything- education, self sufficiency, home made, hand made, gardening and about fibers and yarn. My husband is researching more home made items and recycled materials to be used around the home.  He has been under the weather this week as well as working hard for our family, so its been me and the children adventuring!

As for Vegan Meals, our week has been pretty light due to hubbie being sick or being at work during meal time, its just been me and the kids. 

Speghetti, Garlic Bread and Salad

Rice and Bean Taco's

Mashed Potato's, Vegetarian Baked Beans & Corn

Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese

and we ordered Pizza!

A very kid-friendly week 

Next week we have plans to hike around the river, collect, document, check out the water, animals, rocks, as well as go on our weekly Library trip and park date, get into the Fall and Halloween spirit and decorate and craft, read a lot, play a lot, learn a lot and just have fun together!