Geocaching!

Last weekend we started a new hobby - - geocaching.  Some of you may be scratching your heads and saying "What the heck is that?" Well, according to a geocaching website, the definition of geocaching is "a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location." I'm part of some homeschool groups on Facebook and one of the moms posted about it (I had heard about it before but never had taken the time to investigate it) so I finally looked into it and saw that it was easy and fun.  Of course, having cell phones that work as GPS devices make it much simpler than I'm sure it was way back when.  

As you might imagine, there is really no actual treasure.  It's usually just a piece of paper where you write your name and the date as record that you found it.  Sometimes people will leave some small inexpensive item like a dime or cheap toy and you can trade it out with something you brought.  At any rate, clearly the excitement is in finding the treasure, and not getting a treasure.  We are using an app called "Geocaching Intro" and it's really easy to use.  You just open it up and it shows you all the caches around you and gives you directions to find them.  They can be hidden anywhere like in a sign, a tree, under some brush, etc.  It doesn't tell you THAT much detail because it would be too easy...rather, it just gives you the coordinates for the general area.  

We decided to try it out on Sabbath afternoon after nap time.  I will say that it will be up to you, of course, as to whether you find this to be a Sabbath activity.  We thought about it and determined it was motivating us to get out in nature and there really wasn't anything involved that I thought was a distraction from keeping Sabbath.  That is our take anyway.  We found some spots marked along the West Orange Trail (a great bike trail that goes for miles) and decided to walk along that and search. What a great time!  There were four different ones to find and we found all of them.  Duncan found the first one and then Calleigh and I (more me but I think she thinks she was first) found the second and third and I found the fourth.  The last one was actually along the shores of Lake Apopka where we ended with a picnic supper.  There are millions of these caches around the world so check it out!

Duncan finds the first cache.  It's in a 35 mm film case.  Can people actually still buy film or do folks save the cases thinking they may need them someday?

The next one was buried underneath a pile of leaves next to this tree.

The third one.  Located next to a butterfly garden.

The last one was in a box.  We had to be careful getting that one because there were a lot of people around.

Picnic supper.  I would have added the word "Nice" in front of picnic but there were a ton of bugs flying around which kind of put a damper on things.

Since soccer is over, our Sundays have been a little more peaceful.  I can sip my tea and read the Sunday paper!  But, no time to waste as there are kids clothes to go through (Colby transitioned to size 2T for shirts and 18 months for pants/shorts, Brady transitioned out of 18 month shorts into 2T and 3T, Aubree went to 6 for shorts, and Calleigh completely left 7/8 for all her shirts).  The never ending cycle of clothes going out and coming in.  I can only imagine what people with more kids go though.  We also went through the girls shoes and got rid of a bunch that we too small.  You would have thought they were pets.  Calleigh wanted to take a picture of a pair that she was apparently particularly fond of and didn't want to say goodbye and then Aubree had to follow suit. Oh the drama!  People may make fun of adults that wear Crocs but I honestly couldn't live without them for the kids.  The girls haven't had a pair that fit in a few months so we made the trek to the outlets so we could go to the Croc store.  I'd buy them on-line but Aubree is so tricky with her sizes.  She fits like a 10 in dress shoes but a 12 in sandals/flip flops. Crazy kid.  

Evidently these were very precious to her.

I don't know Aubs...they look like a regular pair of flip flops to me.  Unless you were trying to show what a pair of dirty, used flip flops look like in which case you have a winner.

Monday morning it was back to gymnastics for the girls after a two week hiatus.  Coach Kory is officially gone and now they have Coach Adam.  This is the first time they've had a male coach but they said they like him.  And, in fact, he seems to be doing more gymnastic-y stuff with them as opposed to Coach Kory who kind of did it more as a PE. We will see how things go.  Duncan actually came and picked the girls up because he was home for a little while before flying out of town up to Charlotte for work.  Thankfully it was just one night and he was back home Tuesday evening.

Tuesday we had a field trip with our homeschool group to the Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park.  We were going to have a free 45-minute tour for our group of eight families.  On the way there, I started really questioning myself..."This is a MUSEUM.  Do you really think Colby is going to be STILL and QUIET for 45 minutes?  Am I insane?" He really hates being in a stroller (I think he thinks he's a big kid and wants to do what they're doing which is walking around) and chasing a kid through a museum is just not good.  But, we persevered (one of our words of the week) on.  When we got there, we were the first ones so we took a trip to the potty.  The tour was at 11:00 am and when we came out of the bathroom, we had about five minutes to go so we waited in the lobby for the other families to arrive.  We passed the time by looking at a few artifacts they had displayed there.  At one point, Calleigh walks over to something and puts her hand up to point to it (I knew she wouldn't touch it) and in a matter of 1.5 seconds, an employee had made a beeline to her and was pushing on her hand.  Good grief.  She knows better than to touch!  

Time ticked by and no families arrived.  I was completely befuddled.  I checked my email and there wasn't anything I missed about it being cancelled.  Unfortunately, I didn't have any one's phone number who was supposed to be there so I couldn't call.  The odd thing was that the leader of the homeschool group was supposed to be there.  You would think a leader wouldn't forget!  At any rate, the lady was nice enough to give us our own private tour since not a single other person showed up. Works for me!  It was definitely nicer having someone to tell us the information rather than having to read it off signs.  The only thing that was really weird is that when she was talking, she would only look at Calleigh and not any of the other kids.  Brady and Colby were clearly not interested in what she had to say but Aubree was right there and yet she barely looked at her.  I guess she must have thought Aubree was "too young" to be interested in this stuff.  But the girls both were very interested and I was really impressed on how they took it all in and were engaged the whole time.  Most of the stuff we saw were blown glass, lamps, paintings, etc by Louis Comfort Tiffany.  I do not consider myself to be an artsy person by any means (afterall, this is my worst category in Trivia Crack) but i did find it all very interesting.  She took us around the museum for maybe 35 minutes and when it was done, I had to pinch myself that it had gone so well.  I had Colby in the Bjorn and he didn't make a single loud noise.  Brady was in the stroller and was silent until the very end when he said "Can we go now?" I sure heaped praises on the four of them for their amazing behavior.  Gives me hope!  

Nothing like a good bathroom photo.  But I thought he looked cute.  Calleigh looks like she's guarding someone in basketball.

Of course, you can't actually take pictures in the museum so we had to take this one to prove we were there.

After we left, I sent an email to the leader, Jennifer, asking if I had missed something and she said she wasn't there because her grandmother had died and then one other family had said they couldn't make it so that left five families that must have just plain forgotten. Poor Jennifer said she was so embarrassed because the museum was probably thinking poorly of her for organizing it and hardly anyone came that was scheduled to come.  Oops!

We had a pretty good week of school this week with only a few minor complaints from Calleigh (who else?)  Aubree's big accomplishment was finishing her "100 Reading Lessons" book.  Calleigh finished it on 2/11/14 so Aubree is 11 months ahead of Calleigh's schedule (not that we're comparing here).  Aubree is reading so well that she didn't really need to finish the whole book but I think it's nice to finish something you start.  



The kids are still on their puzzle kick.  It's funny how they go through spurts of things they like to do.  I had gotten like four or five new puzzles at a yard sale last Friday so I'm sure that's what also spurred it on.  The seller was a teacher and when I bought them she said "You know, I'm a teacher and it's amazing how many kids don't know how to do puzzles so I think it's great your kids like to do them." Mostly they've been doing floor puzzles but now we are transitioning into more pieces and I'm on the hunt for some good ones with 100 - 200 pieces.

Phew!  Brady had shorts on for the last picture. I didn't want you to think he only ever wears just his underwear. Because that would not be true.  Sort of.

Duncan has been working on another big home project that he had forbidden me to talk about or post pictures but now that it's almost done, I've been given the green light.  He's been building a rock climbing wall in our gym.  It's not quite done but it's usable and as you can imagine, the kids are very pleased with it.  I don't know where he gets these inspirations from but keep them coming!

Brady climbing the wall...in his underwear!

A few conversations with the kids:
Aubree had worked on a craft for John 3:16 which had the text in much plainer English than how many of us learned it.  Aubree was showing the craft to Grandpa when Calleigh butted in.
Calleigh:"I know that memory verse except I know it in a different way."
Grandpa:"Oh yeah?  What is it?"
Calleigh:"For God so loved the world that he gave his only forgotten son..."

I guess she wasn't that far off actually.  We do know that is how Jesus felt when he was dying on the cross.

Yesterday the girls got into a skirmish and I had to send Calleigh for a time out which then prompted some disrespectful words to me.  
Me:"Calleigh, because of your disrespectful words, you are going to have to clean your room by yourself."
Calleigh (sighing and half crying):"WHY does it have to be SO hard to be a HUMAN?"

A few more pictures...

Another Lego project for Calleigh.  Whoever thought up the idea to use the same pieces to make three different project and include instructions for all three...GENIUS!

Wish I had a picture of us together but Aubree and I both wore white shirts and blue skirts to the museum and styled our hair the same way.  I had to take this picture to prove her hair was the same as mine.

Aubree does my hair every night while I'm reading a book to them.  I sure hope that when I get to heaven, there will be someone there who can just brush my hair all day.  I would be..in heaven.

When you get rained out in the back yard, the only solution is to come inside and play in the tub!

Loved Brady's face in this one!

Nothing like falling asleep with black loafers three times too big on your feet.

Have a Happy Sabbath!