Weekly Wrap- Up: The Week We Went to Salem and the Zoo

We had so much planned for our week but I just knew that I could not take another whole week off from our schoolwork and books. I was starting to feel like we were falling behind and getting way to used to not doing any schoolwork.  I was so pleasantly surprised that we were able to get quite a lot of schoolwork done this week while having lots of fun!  With Halloween fast approaching we decided to visit the zoo and go trick or treating there as well as taking a trip up to Salem, Massachusetts.



The boys and I headed out to meet our homeschool group at the apple orchard on Friday.  It was a beautiful fall day with clear blue skies and a bit of chill to the air.  After picking apples and buying some yummy apple treats like cider and candy apples we hung around talking and letting the kids climb on some of the larger trees that are no longer producing apples (and are OK for kids to climb on).  When we parted ways the boys and I headed home for some lunch.  Alec asked to play Clue and before I knew it we had played 4 games!  The other two boys soon asked if they could play too and we had a rousing game going.  Once we were done our games we headed outside for a bike ride/ walk to the mailbox and back.  I just love this time of year with all the leaves turning colors and the weather cold enough for long sleeves and pants (though I still wear my flip flops!). 












Saturday Ian headed off to work with his grandfather and the younger two boys went with my husband to help finish cleaning a few things out of his grandfather's house.  It was so nice to have the house to myself!  I got a chicken going in the crock pot and did a bit of housework. They were back home by lunch and we spent a quiet day in the house.

We had another quiet day at home on Sunday.  Ian headed off to work, of course, but the younger boys and I spent a rainy day inside watching TV and puttering around the house.  We went on a nice long walk in the woods right before dinner looking for some leaves for an art project this week.

I knew I had too many things planned for Monday and I was not sure how fun our day would seem.  With having had the last three weeks off from school we really needed to work on math, reading, spelling, and grammar but I also wanted to find time for a fun art project, to read a couple more civil rights movement books for history, and a quick science experiment-- all before heading off to celebrate Halloween at the local zoo during their Zoo Boo days!  I could not have been more surprised that we were all ready to go to the zoo by 11 with ALL our school work completed.  I even manged to get dinner going in the crock pot before we left.




An experiment with static electricity 







We started the day on Tuesday with some quick schoolwork.  All three boys had cursive, geography, math and reading to work on.  We also read a couple more civil rights movement books and a few chapters in our family read aloud-- Treasure on Superstition Mountain.  We then headed to karate, came home for a quick lunch, and went to a new art class that Alec is starting.  He had a great time at his class and they worked on drawing apples, oranges, and leaves.




Wednesday we decided to ditch our schoolwork and head out very early in the morning for a field trip to Salem.  We had been studying the Salem witch trials and I knew I wanted to try and visit Salem in the fall before the weather turned bitterly cold.  We weren't sure what we'd find there or how crowded it would be since it was Halloween season and Salem plays up the witches and Halloween quite a lot.  I had a few vague memories of Salem from a trip I took in high school but mostly we went with no idea what we'd find or what we'd do. It was fun but we weren't sure it was really worth the long drive.






I knew we had to cover school on Thursday but I also needed to get groceries, run a few errands, and find time to vote on our town's budget as well as take the boys to our co-op's park day.  I was prepared for a busy day... but I really hadn't anticipated just how busy it was going to feel.  I was so thankful for the two hours at the park to just sit, talk with the other moms, and relax.



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Comments

  1. Andrea NineOctober 20, 2017 at 8:20 AM

    Happy Friday sweet lady! This reminded me of how my boys used to love to climb trees and trace leaves. The zoo looked so fun. I hope your weekend goes great!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mother of 3October 20, 2017 at 1:52 PM

      Thanks! The zoo was a lot of fun and we felt like we had most of the place to ourselves.

      Delete
  2. Carol @Comfort Spring StationOctober 20, 2017 at 8:30 AM

    It's wonderful to see family trips, boy's fun, and learning all together.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ElyseOctober 20, 2017 at 8:35 AM

    We are headed there next week!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mother of 3October 20, 2017 at 1:54 PM

      I was so surprised at how crowded it felt already! We arrived around 10 and had to park on the top level of the parking garage since everything else was full. It had changed so much since I was last there and I found myself wishing that I had put more effort into planning the day before we arrived. Walking around a quasi- city with three boys asking what do you want to do endlessly was not all that much fun..

      Delete
  4. Kym ThorpeOctober 20, 2017 at 2:17 PM

    Love the costumes, and the animals!! And especially the visit to Salem - I would so love to visit there myself sometime.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mother of 3October 20, 2017 at 3:06 PM

      My boys were thrilled with their costumes this year; comfy warm and some of their favorite Pokemon characters!

      Delete
  5. Dawn RebekahOctober 21, 2017 at 7:56 AM

    Awesome! What a fun adventure. I would love to see Salem some day.
    Blessings, Dawn

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ethan.n.EvelynOctober 26, 2017 at 6:53 AM

    The colours in the park amazing! I love autumn too. I love your leaves painting. It is so beautiful and such a lovely easy technique to use. Salem Witch museum sound spooky! lol! Thank you so much for linking up with us on #FabFridayPost

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mother of 3October 26, 2017 at 7:18 AM

      I was so thrilled that we finally have beautiful fall colors everywhere... and then it's been rainy and windy for the last three days and I'm thinking we might not have many leaves left by the time this storm is over.

      Delete

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