Life as a Leach

On vacation, Caleb had an awesome opportunity to blow his very own glass ornament!  He was so excited, and the ornament turned out beautiful! First, the guy put a sand mixture in the oven. He rolled it a bit to cool it off. Caleb got to choose the color he wanted.  He wanted red, so the guy rolled the hot sand in the red glass pieces. Back in the oven! He shaped it a bit before it was time to blow it. Then Caleb was on!  He blew air into the ornament with a long tube that was attached to the pole.  He's been telling everyone that his air is in the ornament.  :) After a whole lot of shaping... ...this is what the still very  hot ornament looked like.  We left it to cool overnight. This is the beautiful, finished product...with a very excited little boy!

Look what Caleb got to do! In 50 degree weather, no less! In the words of Caleb, "It was awesome!!!!!!! "

During our day in Charlottesville, we found an awesome Freedom of Speech Wall where people could write whatever they wanted using the colored chalk they had available.  Someone made this awesome mural, with their own little political statement.  :) Caleb and Abby LOVED the Speech Wall!!  We hung out there and colored for quite some time! They were quite serious about their drawings.  :) I wish we had something like this around here.  Or a Menchies.  That would be good too.

We got a great deal on Living Social for 50% off of a membership at the MD Science Center.  Since Baltimore is our second home, we figured it would be well worth it.  We love that place, and it has been.  But what is even better is that we have reciprocal membership to a huge list of museums nation-wide.  We just show our card and we get in free! During our trip planning, I checked the list and found a museum in Charlottesville that would be worth checking out. Charlottesville was about 1 1/2 hours away, so we spent the day there.  They have a lovely little pedestrian zone there! The Virginia Discovery Museum was a great place to both kids.  They had everything from a tree house, to a frontier home, to a garden where you could pick your own fruits and veggies, to a mini-Charlottesville.  It was SO cool! Abby loved banging on these tubes that play music.  She went back to them time and time again. She especially loved the padd...

Matt and I love scenic drives, so we didn't mind paying the car fee for Skyline Drive.  We soon knew we would get our money's worth when we realized just how much Caleb (and Abby, somewhat) loved climbing the rocks!! Our first day on Skyline drive, we just drove and stopped at a bunch of scenic overlooks.  We had planned to take a little hike, but rainy, cold weather prevented that.  I checked the weather the night before and it said 60s and sunny...but that was in Harrisonburg. It's amazing how different the weather can be high in the mountains, even though it really isn't very far away!  It didn't seem to matter that we didn't hike--the kids had a blast on the rocks anyway! Caleb even took a few pictures of us!  Of course, Abby had to photo bomb one... The second time we went on Skyline Drive, the weather was much nicer.  We asked a ranger about a good family hike (read:  one which won't involve carrying whi...

I'm a mountain person.  I'd much prefer to vacation in the mountains than at the beach.  I don't like sand! I do love these views!  Earth and sky,   woods and fields,  lakes and rivers,  the mountain and the sea,  are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books. ~John Lubblock

See?  Told Ya!