And We've Never Been to Alabama in the Fall.....

Due to moving into the new house in August, the girls got a late start on the school year. We are now into our seventh week. Hope has started into the fourth grade level and Tori is somewhere in between the first and second. According to herself; she's most certainly a second grader.

We are enjoying our new books, and already have favorite subjects. Mine is our morning devotions with the books "Everyday Graces" and "Manners for Little Girls". I am absolutely thrilled with the things we are learning and discussing together. Everything from answering the telephone and tea time etiquette to honoring your father and mother. So many stories and verses to read, if only Addi would sit still just a little longer to enjoy them. She insists upon "doing school too" which pretty much consists of coloring a few pages and whatever she can manage to get into without being caught. Hope is really enjoying her math right now. She has been introduced to division. It seems to be clicking much quicker than multiplication did for some reason. I'm happy, she's happy. Tori's favorite varies for each day. This is the first year for her to have a full line of subjects, sometimes she's bored, and other times she's asking questions that surprise me. She'e adjusting, I find it a challenge to keep her attention most of the time.

In history we are Enjoying "The Story of the World" We are currently finishing up exploring Ancient Egypt. I was slightly amused when they asked if we were going to take a field trip to see a few of the pyramids. I assured them I'd love to... we were just a few thousand shy of anything but the internet.

In science we are studying birds. We attempted to make a backyard habitat, but alas our treeless yard and neighborhood have made it a little less than promising. So, we've taken them to Wheeler Wildlife Refuge and to several of the North Alabama Birding Trail sites. We've ventured as far as David Crockett State Park, hoping to see more. We've spotted Cardinals, ducks, geese, Herons, Sparrows, red winged black birds, and a few others. I think it likely to see more... if only we were quieter. It's been fun sketching them and listening to all the different sounds. I'm sure we'll see more in the spring... for now it's mostly ducks and geese.

We're enjoying all our little outings. It's helping us to feel more acquainted with the area. There are many places to go and see. So far we've visited Cathedral Caverns, the Botanical Gardens, Constitution Village, the Train Depot, Wheeler, David Crockett State Park, The Space Center, Russell Cave, and Point Mallard Creek. Alabama is certainly beautiful. We still have a list of places we want to go explore. It looks like our weather is holding out for just that. I didn't expect such warm temperatures this time of year, whether that is normal or not, we're trying to make good use of it.

We had visits from Grandma and Grandpa Barone who joined us on several of our adventures. We also had cousins Faith and Esther over who went to the cave with us. It's always nice to have others along to enjoy it as well.

We are looking forward to the up coming holidays, and plan to explore and do as much as we can squeeze in. I'll try my best to keep my blog updated. As a dear friend reminded me just the other day, "It's been forever since I've done a blog update". I don't know where the time goes, but I do know, there certainly isn't enough of it.