Next, on our way home from New Hampshire, on Memorial Day weekend, we stopped at the Rainforest Cafe in Burlington. I had never been there before and that was a good enough excuse to stop and try it out, since we were going right by. It was really cool! More restaurants should be like this one. There were leaves, trees limbs and various other green forestry looking things all over the ceiling. You could not see one "real" piece of ceiling. All of the lighting and duct work was hidden perfectly. There were animals (not real of course) all over the place. Some were discretely hidden in the forest background and some had more obvious "stations", where you could walk up close and take a look. Every 2o minutes there is a "thunderstorm" , where various lights flicker to simulate lighting. There are also loud, but not too loud, thunder sounds. All the while, monkeys, birds and elephants make sounds as if they are disturbed by the storm. It is all very cute and distracting-for those waiting on their food. :-))
Around the end of May, I set up a homeschool field trip to a local dairy farm. We have been to this dairy farm before with another homeschool group of ours. It was as pleasant as the first trip. The family that owns and runs Arruda's Dairy Farm are so incredibly nice. The children saw the calf barn where all of the new calves are housed and grow up. Then they were shown all of the various farming equipment and told how it works and what its purpose was. Then, the highlight, we were brought into the milking parlor. It was very smelly, but so interesting. It is so important that children get to see where our food comes from, not just the grocery store. It is also such a great thing to teach the children the importance of patronizing local businesses. They were also able to view where the bottling of the milk happens. In the end, they were offered a cupcake and a container of milk. Yummy!!
The beginning of June was Joshua's and Brianna's dance recital, their last one. We will not be participating in dance until further notice. It is such a commitment of our time and resources (gas, money, etc). I have to say, I am so relieved that it's over. They did a great job on stage. Joshua was in tap again and Brianna had a tap/jazz/ballet combo class. Brianna would like to get involved in Girl Scouts in September. Joshua hasn't figured out what he's going to do.
We have been continuing to work in our yard. It is looking so nice. I have finished the stone walkway, and Brian finished all of the pathways. He also made me 3 planter boxes for Mother's Day, he still has 3 more to make. We bought a hammock and two Adirondack chairs, they do their job, making me relax. We have had our fair share of animals this spring. We had not seen much of anything for a while, but the coming of spring has given us visitors! We have had a slew of snapping turtles this past week. I'm thinking they are making the trek up the hill to lay eggs. not sure though. We have also found that a small bird of some kind has made a nest under our porch. Perfectly made nest, I have to take some pictures to post. We also saw a young buck in the field below our house last evening around 6:30pm. He was watching all of us, watching him. Last month we had a little excitement when a coyote ran across the field around dinnertime. Brianna is convinced that one of them will come up and try to eat us soon. I'm so excited to see so much wildlife in our backyard!!
Brianna is learning how to read! We are so excited for her. She is taking to it very well. She loves to do "school work" every day. We still have a long way to go with the reading, you know the English language and it's quirks. Joshua is very excited about public school ending next week. I can't say I blame him. :-)) Mia is starting to walk. Just the beginning, taking 4-5 steps at a time before falling on her bottom. She is getting her own personality lately, very cute. She is such a cuddler!! I do love it!! I can't believe she will be 1 next month--say it isn't so!! I will try to post more often after this, since we are not so busy anymore.
