Here, Joshua, Rebecca and Caleb share notes on what they are finding in their scavenger hunt - they were given laminated cards with animals to find in the environmental center and then check them off. They all found all of their animals (with a little help from friends).
Caleb finds the rhino on his scavenger hunt card. He was very excited.
After the scavenger hunt we headed outside, again with our nets and buckets, to catch RIVER critters. There was a big difference between 1000 Islands and Barkhausen. First, Barkhausen was a pond and LOTS of living things like to live in there and the naturalists really give you a lot of detailed information. 1000 Islands is on a river, and this was just an outlet next to the real river, so not much could be found - except for lots of fish. The naturalist was more like a supervisor and so we didn't really learn as much. In the picture above, Joshua and I have finally caught up to the other three kids who had walked about 50 yards down to under a bridge. Joshua had boots but was a bit scared to walk in the water and MOM forgot her boots and was gingerly walking in the driest spots to get out to under the bridge.
This is Caleb - who decided to really get into the water and after awhile couldn't stand that his feet were nearly floating in his boots - he thought for sure that something was swimming in them. He wasn't too happy after we took them off and I told him that his wet socks and feet needed to go right back in his wet boot.
Andrew is looking on as the Voyageur tells what it was like for the men who got into this trade. He really enjoyed this station and the ones that included guns and weapons!
Rebecca tries out a loom - the man who did this station makes lots of garments and accessories out of the loomed cloth he makes.
Here is Caleb digging in his net and finding all sorts of pond critters - he has one in his hand but I don't remember what it was. This fieldtrip is one of the kids favorites...they take nets and dig into all the muck on the bottom of the pond, they bring their net up onto the grass and start watching for things to crawl or move and digging in the gunk wiht their fingers or scoopers. They put everything they find in these white buckets - which are graduated in size so the bigger sized things don't eat or squash the tiny stuff. 
Here is a good shot of Joshua and Rebecca digging their nets into the pond muck!!!!
And here is an up close look at a few of the little critters they caught - they caught a lot of frogs but they are not pictured here - these are bugs like backswimmers, dragonfly nymphs, toe biters and a baby crayfish. 
This is Bethany's 2nd year on the Homeschool Volleyball Team and she loves to play. She plays the front line mostly but desires to play all around the court - maybe next year (if she plays again). She is really great at blocking the ball - her timing is nearly perfect when she jumps to block or tap it back over. She has also learned to overhand serve this year which is what the coach prefers. The season began the first week of August and will end on October 17th.
About a week ago, Dan built the bottom bunk of a loft bed he had built for Andrew years ago when we lived at our home on Michaline Drive. We have had the loft bed in the boys room ever since we moved in. First Andrew slept on it, then no one did, then Rebecca spent about 8 or 9 months on it - now it is Joshua's bed and the bottom bunk is Caleb's. Most nights the twins sleep separately but they have asked to sleep together a few times. This is the result of them sleeping together - I just love this whole twin bond thing!
Well, no, this is not all 120 lbs worth...the other 40 lbs are somewhere else. The younger 4 kids and I went to a local apple orchard with our friend from church, Mr. Greg Fischer...he is the master applesauce maker! The past two years he has come to our home for the better part of a day to make applesauce - and whew, he has the right technique - it's great stuff! We did NOT make our applesauce today however - that will be one day next week :) 
