Wordless Wednesday Mother Zari Zoo Visit

Zari and I had a Mother Daughter Date at the Portland Oregon Zoo on May 18, 2018.

Here are some of the neat animals we saw.

Here is some of the awesome scenery we saw.

It was super fun!

Animating Life: The Art, Science, and Wonder of LAIKA Exhibit at The Portland Art Museum is Not to Be Missed!

Since October 14th of last year The Portland Art Museum has been showcasing the awe inspiring art of stop-motion animation in their Animating Life: The Art, Science, and Wonder of LAIKA exhibit. This exhibit will close on the 20th of May and, in my opinion, should not be missed.

LAIKA Studios is an animation studio that has become a local fixture of Portland Oregon since 2005. They are not just any animation studio, however. They use stop-motion animation, a technique where the animator has to physically manipulate the object so it appears to move on its own. You might have seen one of their 4 award-winning films: Coraline (2009), ParaNorman (2012), The BoxTrolls (2014), or Kubo and the Two Strings (2016). Just by watching you don't feel of the real scope of these movies, but the characters are brought to life by animators painstakingly moving them 24 times for every second of screen time. The Animating Life: The Art, Science, and Wonder of LAIKA exhibit gives you an up close and first hand look at the meticulous artistry that goes into each one of their films. Visitors to this exhibit are immersed in LAIKA's wonderful imaginative world. Museum-goers get to explore production design, sets, props, puppets, costumes, and world-building that have become the studio’s hallmarks.

Here is a sneak peek at what is in store for you if you go...


My son, Jaedan, and I went to the Portland Art Museum on April 27th. We started the day out at Voodoo Doughnut. I had a Mango Tango and my son had an Apple Fritter. Then we went out to lunch at some of the food trucks in the Pearl District. Jaedan had seafood curry noodles and I had a Gyro. We just couldn't visit Portland and not partake in these delectable treats. Going to Voodoo Doughnut and eating from food carts is part of the experience of the of the City of Roses.

Eating Voodoo Doughnuts and Food Cart Food are a must while in Portland.

After our meals we headed towards the Portland Art Museum (PAM). As we had never been there before we tried to partake of what all the museum had to offer before diving into the LAIKA exhibit. We looked around first at the art that was part of the permanent and private collections. Of the Museum’s collection of 42,000 objects, we saw only a representative few, of which my favorites were: Isa Genzken's Two Orchids, Claude Monet Nymphéas (Waterlilies), Nude in Sunlit Wood by Childe Hassam, Joseph M. Raphael's Cottage Garden, Uccle, Belgium; Gabriele Münter's In The Village Chamonix, Frank Stella's Newell's Hawaiian Shearwater (Exotic Bird), Sonya Clark's Penny Loafers, and Dale Chihuly's L'arbre rouge.

Just some of the lovely art we saw at the PAM.

Then we headed to the exhibit we had been anticipating all day. When you go through the doors to the Animating Life: The Art, Science, and Wonder of LAIKA exhibit you are automatically drawn to a towering skeleton puppet looming over the room. This was used for the film Kubo and the Two Strings. This piece is over 18 feet tall and the largest stop-motion puppet ever made. It is jaw dropping with its impressive lighting and glowing eyes to make it look even more menacing. It was fun to learn that LAIKA's studio is too small to house this giant beast all put together and they had to film it in two pieces: legs and torso, for Kubo. For this exhibit it is the first time this puppet has been in one piece.

Skeleton puppet used in Kubo and the Two Strings.

Beside this massive creature you can see the puppets of Beetle, Monkey, Kubo, and the Origami Samurai Warrior for reference of size. On the far wall you can see the "Wall of Faces", which features the rapid-prototype face replacement 3-D printing that LAIKA won a scientific and engineering Oscar in 2016 for. This technology, used first in ParaNorman, is astounding to me because each tiny expression and movement of the face is captured in individual faces that LAIKA snaps off and on the puppets to make them seem far more lifelike than other stop-motion animations.

Jaedan looking at Coraline's "Other World" House.

Next we migrated to a room with Coraline's "Other World" House in it. We saw first hand how LAIKA animators could go behind it so they could manipulate the puppets. This was a piece of the actual set! It was like a large doll house and it was intricately designed...all the way down to tiny plants hanging from the porch and lights that actually glow. The attention to detail is mind-boggling!

Back into the skeleton room and through a corridor of Asian art we come to the main LAIKA exhibit. Before you enter it warns, "This exhibition contains a zoetrope that produces a strobing effect and may trigger visitors with photosensitivity or epilepsy. Staff are happy to direct you to another entrance or answer questions." The room has a darker ambience and there is so much to take in and see. We saw many LAIKA artifacts, including: original sketches, small models called maquettes, puppets, sets, costumes, rigging, storyboards, etc.

Some of the LAIKA sets we saw at the exhibit.

The sets are amazing! As you go in you can see the set of Kubo's childhood home to the left with Beetle and Monkey inside. We saw some of the sets for The BoxTrolls: one scene of the verminator puppets chasing down Eggs and some BoxTrolls in the hill top town of Cheesebridge, Norvenia and another set of the ballroom dance scene. Coraline's Garden set took up almost a whole room by itself and when seen from above you can clearly see Coraline's face in the garden itself. There were also some neat sets from ParaNorman.

Jaedan looking at the Kubo and the Two Strings Giant Eye Monster.

There are also things you can touch and manipulate too! Inside there is a 11 foot Giant Eye Monster from Kubo and the Two Strings that you could go behind to see the robotic framework and then move with the same bowling ball trackball interface that they used to create the underwater scene in Kubo. We also got to manipulate the ocean waves in Kubo which were made out of paper and seemed to topple over each other like a string of dominoes.

Everything had remarkable detail. There are so many teeny-tiny handstitched outfits and props to go with the sets and puppets. These must have taken them so much time and effort to make! All of it is just so intricate and ornate and ultimately makes the films feel even more lifelike.

Snapped a photo of the Animating Life: The Art, Science, and Wonder of LAIKA exhibit banner as we left.

I wish we could have taken more time to explore the Animating Life: The Art, Science, and Wonder of LAIKA exhibit. We enjoyed it all so very much! We had a fabulous time visiting the Portland Art Museum and hope that LAIKA decides to come back there again at some point. I highly recommend to go see the LAIKA exhibit if you can. The last day is the 20th of May!

This exhibit is organized by the Portland Art Museum and the Northwest Film Center in collaboration with LAIKA.

Follow LAIKA on Social Media:

• Website: https://www.laika.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laikastudios
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/laikastudios
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBnyjFhOn23xjsqOUW4j6OQ
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laikastudios
  

Follow Portland Art Museum on Social Media:

• Website: https://portlandartmuseum.org
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/portlandartmuseum
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/PDXArtMuseum
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/PortlandArtMuseum
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/portlandartmuseum

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any compensation for doing this review.

Wordless Wednesday Lower Columbia Estuary Canoe Field Trip and Hike

Teela & I went on a Canoe Trip and hiking with a group at the Lower Columbia Estuary Scappoose Bay Marina (4/6/2018).

Guided Hike: Saw Oak Galls, Gall Wasp larvae, lichen, & mushrooms while doing a scavenger hunt & bird-watching.

Apologia Educational Ministries Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal Review

My family had the privilege of trying the Apologia Educational Ministries Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal for this review to use in conjunction with my own homeschool curriculum. This is a Schoolhouse Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family. This post contains affiliate links that will benefit the blog.

Field trips are always a welcome get away for my family. I especially love the field trips that are educational, but any field trip whether for eduction or fun or both are great because they get us out of the stuffy house and let us see stuff we would have never been able to see otherwise. I also love to document my experiences by photography, sketching, scrapbooking, journaling, and blogging because they are outlets where I can be creative while writing about my adventures in life. I believe that it is easier to actually learn by doing and seeing. Field trips let us learn in this way.

The Apologia Educational Ministries Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal is a neat spiral bound book with pages to fill out. The Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal can be used for one child or the whole family. It lets you record your trips in the journal in a fun way. It has colorful pages that are appealing to children as well as adults. The pages are made from a lightweight card stock so they won't tear easily. The front and back of the cover is shiny so if there was a little bit of moisture that spills on it you can wipe it off easily, but it won't repel a lot so be careful around liquids. The book has 64 pages total and 9 different sections which are listed in the table of contents with their page numbers. This is a scrapbook, a field trip recorder, a 4H event recorder, a nature journal, and a family trip memory book wrapped up into one neat workbook.

Jaedan filling out his experiences at the Sluggerville Museum on the Field Trip Pages.

The Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal also has a lot of pages that are fun and get your creative juices flowing. In the front of the book it has a page to fill out the name of the person or family the book belongs to. Then it has the Table of Contents listed to easily find the pages you are looking for in the book. Next it has pages about Preparing For A Field Trip. These pages have great tips and things to do before you go and when you get there in checklist format. After these pages there are Field Trip Ideas. These ideas are so versatile and are in a easy to read chart. The Places I've Explored Maps are great to fill out what you've experienced around your state, around the United States, and in the World. The Field Trip Pages have you fill out things about a specific trip, like: where it was, date, a map of the place, a list of books to read about the place (that should have been read before the trip, but can be read later as well), a spot for a photo or drawing, emergency contact plan, and a list of things wanting to be seen or done on one page and then a page opposite that one where you can write a story of your day and something that you never want to forget after you have made the trip. There are 10 sets of these pages. There are also My Special Spot Pages that document a small (about 20' X 20') section of wildlife throughout all four seasons in the year. These pages have a place for a photograph of the spot during that season, a place to record: location, date, temperature, and rainfall; notes, and a grid to draw an aerial map. After these are As I See It Pages. These pages have 7 that have fun prompts and 10 pages that you can complete as you desire. These are made to capture things in sketch format instead of words.

Included in most Apologia Educational Ministries products, they have a link to a list of helpful third party websites to go along with your product. These you have to log in for to have access to with the password provided in the product. For the Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal extras they had all sorts of links to explore online about field trips and journaling, including: The Importance of Field Trips, Field Trip Ideas and Searches, Maps, Field Guides and Identification, Resources, Natural History Museums, Science Museums, Children's Museums, Aquariums and Zoos, National Parks, State Parks, Botany, Animals, Earth Science, Aeronautics and Space, Human Body/Biology, Chemistry and Physics, History and Government, Community and Municipal, Business and Industry, Culture, Additional Field Trip Websites, and Art Journaling.

How We Are Using This Journal:

My whole family has been using the Apologia Educational Ministries Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal for different things that we have explored since we got it. Here are just a few of them...

• When my son, Jaedan, and I went to Louisville Kentucky May 22nd through the 24th I brought the Apologia Educational Ministries Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal with us just in case we found the time between studying history and being with our group to fill out some pages in it. Our trip there included seeing two very cool museums. I let him fill out two sets of field trip pages for both museums because I wanted his thoughts in the book about our trip and I knew I would be writing a blog post about it later too. 
• On Memorial Day, the day after our mother son trip to Louisville, my family met my parents and my sister, Melody, and her two kids at Claggett Creek Park in Keiser Oregon. Melody had came all the way from Nevada to visit. We had a lovely Memorial Day eating picnic food at a picnic table there and watching our kids play on the playground. I filled out the field trip pages for our picnic, but included what the rest of my family thought about the trip as well. 
• We also went to Everfree Northwest in Seattle Washington, which is a My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Convention, as a family on May 30th. Even though this trip was mostly for fun we still had a blast. I filled out the field trip pages for Everfree, but included what the rest of my family thought about the trip as well.

We also love the As I See It pages where you get to draw what you see and the My Special Spot pages where you can record seasonal changes in nature out in the wild. We haven't gotten to fill out the My Special Spot pages completely because we haven't had this book for that long, but we plan on using this whole book to travel, study, explore, observe, record, document, and create memories that we can remember as a family from years to come.

I like that field trips are only limited by imagination. You can do virtual field trips or real ones. You can go just in your own backyard or across the world. It is up to you what you do with the Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal. Let your imagination go and explore!

BUY IT
You can purchase the Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal on the Apologia Educational Ministries website for only $22.00! You can download sample pages on there as well.

Follow Them on Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/apologiaworld/timeline
Twitter: https://twitter.com/apologiaworld
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/apologia/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/105053356034237782125

Read other reviews for the Apologia Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal...

Fun Experiments and Family STEM Night at Lower Columbia College in Longview Washington

Friday, September 26, 2014 my husband and I took our girls to a Family STEM Night at Lower Columbia College in Longview Washington. STEM education is teaching and learning about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. It is hands-on and so much fun! I love to include this type of learning in my homeschooling. Teela had been excited to go all week because she saw a handout with information on it.

We got there a little late, but it was going to be going from 4pm to 8pm so we actually were fine. We met in the Student Center and spread out to different areas of the campus from there.They handed out a map which had each station listed and well marked so we could find our way around. Hands-on learning activities included: Marshmallow Catapults, Make Your Own Slime, Sink Your Boat, Electric Play-Doh, SubZero Demonstration, Reptile Roadshow, Fire Truck Crawl, Alka-Seltzer Rocket Cannons, Ocean in a Bottle, etc.

Community participants included:

• Lower Columbia College
• STEM Fest
• Fibre Federal Credit Union
• Weyerhaeuser
• Longview Police
• Longview Fire Department
• Reptile Road Show
• Tula Yoga
• Lower Columbia School Gardens
• OnTheMark Associates
• Port of Longview
• Panda Express Panda Cares Foundation
• SubZero Ice Cream

Making catapults to launch mini marshmallows.

My daughters made marshmallow catapults with rubber bands, Popsicle sticks and  a plastic spoon. Teela tried to launch them into her mouth. The instructions on how to make the marshmallow catapult can be found on DevinCollier.com.

Fun with Slime.

DIY Slime

Ingredients and Additional Items Needed:

• Elmer's white glue (for opaque slime) or Elmer's school glue gel (for translucent slime)
• Borax (find in the laundry detergent aisle of the store)
• Water
• Two bowls
• Food coloring (optional)

Instructions:

• In one bowl mix ½ cup (4 oz) glue and ½ cup water.
• Add food coloring if you want colored slime.
• In the other bowl, mix 1 tsp borax with 1 cup water until the borax is dissolved.
• Add the glue mixture to the borax solution, stirring slowly.
• The slime will begin to form immediately; stir as much as you can, then dig in and knead it with your hands until it gets less sticky. (No one makes slime without getting a little messy!)
• Don't worry about any leftover water in the bowl; just pour it out.

Science behind the Slime:

The glue has an ingredient called polyvinyl acetate, which is a liquid polymer. The borax links the polyvinyl acetate molecules to each other, creating one large, flexible polymer. This kind of slime will get stiffer and more like putty the more you play with it. Store it in a plastic bag in the fridge, to keep it from growing mold.

Boat sinking 101

We had fun shaping tin foil boats, floating them in a plastic tub with water in it, and filling the boats we made with various items to try and sink them. We answered the questions: Why do some things sink and others float? and How does the shape of something affect its ability to float? We learned the properties of: hydrodynamics, fluid dynamics, buoyancy, upthrust, gravity, density, volume, mass, water displacement, and the Archimedes' Principle.

Making a circuit with Play-Doh

DIY Electric Play Dough (Play-Doh)

The idea of adding electricity to play dough to make play dough creations have light, sound, and motion was developed by Samuel Johnson and Dr. AnneMarie Thomas of the St. Thomas Lab at the University of St. Thomas. Dr. Thomas and her researchers wanted to introduce circuits to young kids. In their research they discovered that salt dough was a great conductor and sugar dough was a solid insulator. They called their invention Squishy Circuits.

Ingredients and Additional Items Needed:

• conductive dough (click here for recipe)
• insulating dough (click here for recipe)
• battery pack
• batteries
• light emitting diodes (LEDs)

The last 3 items you can get from your local electronics store or you can order a kit online at squishycircuitsstore.com.

If you're assembling everything yourself, pick up some spade terminals while you're at the store and crimp them to the end of the wires. Click here to see how.

Simple Circuit Instructions:

• When you have all the materials together and set up you can have your child start by making a simple circuit. The circle of circuitry will create a closed circuit and the light will turn on if done properly.
• Give your child two pieces of the conductive dough.
• Have them make a ball with each piece setting them on a surface apart.
• Let your child place one wire from the battery pack into one ball and the other wire from the batter pack into the other ball. Make sure the two pieces of dough don't touch each other.
• Your child can now close the circuit by placing a wire from the LED into each piece of dough. If the LED doesn't light up, have your child flip it around. LEDs only allow energy to flow in one direction.
• Success! Your child has just made a simple circuit and the light should turn on.
• Now have your child remove a piece from the circuit, either one of the battery pack wires or one of the LED wires. The light will go out. This creates a open or broken circuit. The energy/electricity can't flow.
• Have your child put the circuit back together so the light comes on again. Have them move the dough pieces closer to each other. This makes the light go out and is called a short circuit. To fix the short circuit take a piece of insulating dough and put it between the conductive dough. The light will shine again.

Vocabulary Words:

• Electricity
• Squishy Circuit
• Circuit
• Conductor
• Insulator
• Battery
• Positive
• Negative
• Closed circuit
• Open circuit
• Short circuit

You can amp up the fun even more and get even more creative with the dough. Have your kids sculpt the dough into different things and use the lights as eyes for animals, etc. You can get more ideas online if you do a search for circuit dough. Once your child has the simple circuit concept down you can teach series circuits, parallel circuits and voltage to them.

Yummy food from Panda Express and Panda Cares Foundation.

Panda Express Panda Cares Foundation and SubZero Ice Cream provided free food and refreshments for participants.

SubZero Ice Cream

The SubZero Ice Cream was in the next building over so after we ate our dinner from Panda Express we headed over there to get a taste and see what other things we could do. SubZero uses liquid nitrogen to make their ice cream really cold. It instantly freezes the custom ice cream to temperatures of -321 degrees Fahrenheit. It was really fun to watch them make ice cream out of ingredients and a billowing cloud of "smoke".  It was very entertaining watching them make it and my kids loved the show as much as the ice cream.

Reptile Roadshow

My daughters had fun seeing and learning about all the reptiles and some arachnids from the Reptile Roadshow that came to Family STEM Night. They got to pet one of the tortoises while they were there.

The wonderful world of microscopes.

The Lower Columbia Gardens was also there handing out free packets of seeds. They told Teela and Zari they could each take 4 different ones. They also had microscopes set up to view the wonderful world of the microscopic. All of us got to see up close live earth worms in composted soil, a cross-section of a bee's head (that is the little speck on the one Teela is admiring in the second picture above), and a sunflower. It was really amazing how cool they all looked under the microscope. It got me wishing I had one like theirs for homeschool use. Maybe someday :)

Making the Ocean in a Bottle.

DIY Ocean in a Bottle

Ingredients and Additional Items Needed:

• 1 small water bottle with the label taken off (You can use other clear plastic bottles if you add 2/3 water to them. If you use a clear mouthwash bottle the lid is childproof.)
• cooking oil (we used vegetable oil)
• blue food coloring
• glitter and small shells (optional)
• funnel
• hot glue (If your lid isn't child proof you may want to add a bead of hot glue around it on the inside before tightening it after everything is added to the bottle.)

Instructions:

• drink down or dump out approximately 1/3 of the water in the bottle. There should be at least 2/3 of the bottle filled with water still.
• add a couple drops of food coloring to the water
• tighten cap and swirl gently to mix food coloring with water
• uncap and add glitter and small shells
• using the funnel add oil to top off the bottle
• tighten lid and tip bottle from side to side and upside down to make a rocking ocean motion

Science behind the Ocean in a Bottle:

Oil and water don't mix. This all comes down to chemistry. Everything is made of tiny particles called molecules. Water molecules are dense and polar. Polar means they have a small positive charge at one end and a small negative charge at the other end, and they stick to each other. Oil molecules are non-polar meaning they have no charge. Because of this, oil molecules are more attracted to each other than to water molecules, and water molecules are more attracted to each other than to oil molecules. It may seem like the oil and water are mixing when you shake or swirl the bottle, but if you set it down again the oil will always rise to the top because it is also less dense than the water.

Alka-Seltzer Rocket Cannons

DIY Alka-Seltzer Rocket Cannons

Ingredients and Additional Items Needed:

• one empty 35mm plastic film canister and lid. These are getting harder to find, but stores that develop film should have some. (The white canisters work much better than the black ones do.)
• one fizzing antacid tablet
• water
• safety goggles

Instructions:

• put on safety goggles and go outside to do this experiment
• break antacid tablet in half
• remove the lid and place 1 tsp (5 mL) of water into the canister

Do the next 2 steps quickly!!

• drop the tablet half into the canister and snap the cap onto the canister (make sure that it snaps on tightly)
• quickly put the canister on the ground CAP SIDE DOWN and STEP BACK at least 2 meters
• About 10 seconds later, you will hear a POP! and the film canister will launch into the air!

Caution: If it does not launch, wait at least 30 second before examining the canister. Usually the cap is not on tight enough and the build up of gas leaked out.

Science behind the Alka-Seltzer Rocket Cannons:

When you add water it starts to dissolve the antacid tablet making a gas called carbon dioxide. When the canister is capped the carbon dioxide gas builds up inside creating pressure as more and more is released. Finally there is so much pressure that the cap is pushed down and popped off with so much force that the canister goes flying up. This is called thrust. Real rockets use their rocket fuel to blast off much in the same way.

You can take the experiment one step further by adding fins and a nose cone made out of paper to the canister to try to control the path of the rocket cannons better. Also you could add some different colored tempera paint to the water and make exploding art on a large sheet of paper like this blog did.

Fire Fighters, Fire Trucks, and Police Cruisers.

Last but not least, Teela and Zari got to meet some awesome fire fighters all dressed up in their gear. They also got to sit inside a fire truck and police cruiser. So cool!

The evening was really fun and we got to learn some neat things along the way. I am glad we got to go and share the experience with all of you!

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER:  I did not receive any special incentives or compensation for posting this. I just wanted to share my evening with my readers.

The Pumpkin Patch and Keeping Portland Lost Corn MAiZE in Sauvie Island Oregon

 Welcome Sign for The Pumpkin Patch and The Corn Maize

We received free media passes from US Family Guide to facilitate this review and post.

We've been to The Pumpkin Patch and The Corn Maize before at Sauvie Island in Oregon, but it had been more than a few years. I recall the last time we went we still had our daughter, Tatiana, with us and Zari hadn't been born yet. I definitely thought it was high time we visited again. We sure needed a break from our super busy lifestyle that we have been having and this was just the ticket! We went as a family again on Saturday October 12th. This was Zari's first visit and since Teela was just a baby when we first went she didn't remember much about her first time there.

It's muddy! Bring boots!

I admit I really hadn't been in a corn maze before. The last time we came Tatiana was stroller bound so I stayed with the little ones while my husband and my boys went through. I did remember that there was a lot of mud, so this time I came prepared with my Safeway rain boots. We also weren't sure what the weather was going to do so we brought warm jackets, scarves and gloves. While we were there it actually was super nice and didn't end up raining on us at all. It had rained previously, however; so it was very muddy like I suspected.

Sunflowers

There are a number of places you can pose to get pictures. I love sunflowers, so I had to have my girls pose in this cutout that was under a nice covered picnic table area behind the ticket booth where you would pay for The Corn MAiZE. You can see parts of the corn stalks from the maze in the background. There are also helpful guides that you can take to help you through the maze. They have a lot of different ones you can choose from and they have different trivia questions on them you need to answer correctly at each numbered marker in order to go the right way.

Lost in The Corn MAiZE

My girls and I went through The Corn Maize together, but we got lost and couldn't find our way to the exit even with the trivia card we had. So we just tracked our way back through the entrance. My boys got all the way to the end in no time at all...I chalk it up to more experience. We did have fun winding our way through some of it though.

Keeping Portland Lost Corn MAiZE 2013

Hay ride to The Pumpkin Patch

We got on the free hay ride next. They have signs posted to follow to have a safe trip. We had a fun bumpy ride all the way there and I held on tight to my littles so they wouldn't fall off. The hay bales were a little damp that we sat on so maybe next time I will bring something to lay under us.

Delbin with his pumpkin he picked at The Pumpkin Patch

I let both my boys pick pumpkins at The Pumpkin Patch. You get a slight discount if you pick one there instead of at the store or market. Make sure to look at the skin and stem thoroughly when picking. You don't want to come home with one that is going to mold right away or has mushy spots. Pick one with good coloration too.

After the hay ride the boys brought back perfect pumpkins :)

My boys posing with their pumpkins and my husband being silly :)

Big Red Animal Barn

Next we went to the Big Red Animal Barn where they had an assortment of farm animals to look at. We especially loved the llama, cow, goat, and sheep that were there. Zari wanted to pet them all.

Teela and Delbin riding on the cow train.

Jaedan riding the cow train.

We waited in line for the cow train and I wasn't sure whether these were also included in our package. I asked if the bloggers got free cow train rides too and they said yes, so off we went on our ride. I held Zari in my lap, Jaedan got a slightly smaller cow all to himself, and Delbin and Teela shared one. I think they gave us an extra long ride because they knew I was blogging about it :) We had a lot of fun on the ride and really it is worth the actual price.

They have some really big pumpkins there too.

There is also a hay climbing pyramid that the kids had fun climbing on, but I didn't get pictures of them doing that this time. As we were leaving Jaedan had to get his picture with one of the large pumpkins at the outdoor market.

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received free tickets for my family to go to The MAiZE at The Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island Oregon to facilitate this review. Thanks to USFamilyGuide.com for providing me this promotion information and free tickets. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for posting this promo.

My Birthday and Mother's Day: Visit to Tillamook Oregon

I decided to celebrate my birthday and Mother's Day with my family and my parents in Tillamook Oregon. My birthday was on May 10th and Mother's Day was May 12th, so we decided to go May 11th to celebrate.

My parents live in Sweet Home Oregon and we live in Rainier Oregon, so for both of us it was about a 3 hour drive give or take a little bit. My family were coming from different ways to Tillamook than my parents and so we planned on meeting at the Tillamook Cheese Factory for lunch. On their way to Tillamook...guess what...my dad got lost (He is notorious for doing so and I think a Magellan GPS might be a great present for him for Father's Day! We have one and love it!).

While we were waiting for my parents to arrive we went and to see the Cape Meares Lighthouse and Wildlife Refuge along the Oregon Coast. We hiked up a trail to see the Octopus Tree first. The hike was really nice and not too much for Teela and Zari. When we got to the Octopus Tree someone offered to take a whole family shot in front of it. We all loved the scenery and spectacular views over the cape.

We then went inside to tour the Cape Meares Lighthouse. It has a delightful little gift shop inside the bottom floor and then you take some spiral stairs up to the beacon tower lantern house. We learned from the guide that this lighthouse had some vandalism in 2010 and back in 1963 while it was vacant for a number of years to the gorgeous Fresnel (pronounced "Fraynel") lens and the building itself. It is very unfortunate that people would want to harm such a wonderful historic building and I am very happy we got to see it.

After the tour we hiked up a different trail to the parking lot and we saw the Three Arch Rocks out in the distance. The Three Arch Rocks Refuge is home to Oregon's largest seabird nesting colony. We saw a number of wildlife including a Millipede the girls stopped to look at.

Finally we met up with my parents at the Tillamook Cheese Factory and by that time my tummy was growling of hunger. My parents had brought sandwiches, chips, juice, fresh fruit & veggies and deviled eggs in a cooler. We sat around a tree on park benches and ate a very nice picnic.

Then we went inside the factory to explore. They have a lot of neat things to look at and some fun stuff to pose with. While we were downstairs briefly, before we headed upstairs, my kids posed in the plywood cow and farmer cutout with their heads poking through. Teela is a very cute moo, don't you think?

Upstairs we could watch the process of packaging cheese through a viewing window and we could also see the large cheese vats that they mixed the cheese into in another viewing area. Upstairs they also had some interactive video consoles that played the history of the factory and Tillamook city. They also had some antique cheese making equipment behind glass in cabinets that you could see.

Back downstairs again we sampled some various cheeses and then headed on over to the ice cream parlor to have some delicious authentic Tillamook creamery ice cream in waffle cones. I had black cherry and it was so yummy! The kids all had mint chocolate chip and the others had different flavors. Teela and Zari had to have a bowl under theirs because it melted quickly and was dripping...I got them a couple of spoons to help them along. Then my boys goofed off in the Loaf Love Tour Bus for silly pictures.

After lunch and dessert we decided to go see the Munson Creek Falls. We were really enjoying the weather. It had held out for us and didn't rain at all while we were in Tillamook for our day trip. Unfortunately by the time we arrived Zari had fallen asleep in the van in her car seat. My husband, Brian, decided he would stay behind until she awoke because he was feeling the ill effects of all this walking in conjunction with his Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) and needed to sit for a while anyway. The rest of us walked up the trail to the Munson Creek Falls and were enjoying all the lush green around us. There was this awesome gigantic tree that had large roots nearby and I got some neat pictures of it as well as the waterfalls and creek. When we got back to where we parked we noticed that Brian had taken Zari to the creek to look at rocks because she had awoke. The kids also had fun racing leaves down the water in the creek.

Next we headed to the beach to round out the day. We saw kelp, seaweed, driftwood and sea shells that had washed up onto the sand. My boys took off their shoes and immediately waded out into the ocean waves. My girls played in the sand together with their sand toys: sifting, shoveling, scooping, packing, dumping, mixing, raking and molding. What fun! Jaedan couldn't help but love it when Delbin wanted him to bury his bottom half in the sand. My mom also got out some special treats when every one was washed up, some chocolate dipped and covered strawberries! Yummy! Brian had found some neat treasures while beach combing: an agate, some whole sand dollars, mussel shells, a piece of coral (I am going to string onto a necklace) and a crab shell.

We brushed the sand off the kids as best we could, said our goodbyes to my parents and my mom gave us a cake she made for Jaedan's birthday party (his birthday is May 15th and we are celebrating with his friends on the 25th) we could freeze when we got home and a yellow butterfly shirt (that reminded me of Fluttershy, an MLP) for my birthday.

We had wanted to do other things too, but ran out of time. My husband was eying the helicopter rides and the paragliding. Maybe next time we are in the area we can do these.

We then climbed into the van for the ride home to our dog, Prince, who was being dog sat by our neighbor while we were away. We had Subway sandwiches on our way home and when we got home we climbed into bed exhausted, but happy. Our day as a family together turned out really well. I had a really nice birthday and Mother's Day outing.

How was your Mother's Day??

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: No compensation was received for this post. This post is a personal post written by me.

The Magic School Bus All About Earth DVD Review and Giveaway

To celebrate Earth Day I received The Magic School Bus All About Earth DVD for free to facilitate this review and the opportunity to also give one away.

I homeschool my kids and so I seek out educational programing on TV, Netflix, etc. for my children to watch and learn from. I grew up watching The Magic School Bus, a long-running Emmy® Award-winning animated science adventure series, on TV when I was younger and so I remember enjoying learning along with the show. When I got older and had children of my own I incorporated The Magic School Bus in my kids' education at home because they are so much fun. We have collected many of The Magic School Bus series of books that the series is based off of too over the years. All my kids love both the series and the books and so do I.

From Ms. Frizzle's outrageous wardrobe to her anthropomorphic school bus that takes her students on field trips to impossible locations, The Magic School Bus series takes you on great adventures all in the name of science. The classroom pet Liz, a lizard, that accompanies them on most of the excursions. These present scientific fact with situations where fantastic things happen with humor thrown in to make learning fun.

In The Magic School Bus All About Earth DVD you get 3 all new, never before released episodes: The Magic School Bus Goes to Seed, The Magic School Bus Blows its Top, The Magic School Bus Goes on Air AND a bonus episode, The Magic School Bus All Dried Up. This DVD also has both Spanish and English language options. These are fabulous for getting inside the Earth like never before. Celebrate Earth Day with pizazz.

In The Magic School Bus Goes to Seed we get a bugs eye view of plants, flowers and bugs. In this episode we learn about plant nectar, pollen, and seeds. The class' garden is going to be featured on the cover of Plant It! Magazine, but Phoebe's garden plot is extremely empty...can they fill it in time for the magazine photo? We loved this episode and my daughters loved learning the parts of the flowers and about the bug's proboscis.

In The Magic School Bus Blows its Top we rock out with Ms. Frizzle and her class as we help them discover a new island. In this episode we learn a little about the formation of islands, Earth's crust, underwater volcanoes, magma, and lava. We loved this episode and my girls loved learning about heat buildup in volcanoes and what they form when they erupt.

In The Magic School Bus Goes on Air we see Ms. Frizzle and her class under a lot of pressure to get a class project done for the Walkerville Space Capsule. In this episode we learn about air pressure. We loved this episode and my girls loved learning about what air pressure can do.

In The Magic School Bus All Dried Up we try to beat the heat with Ms. Frizzle and her class as they go to the desert. In this episode we learn about how animals adapt for survival in such a hot seemingly arid place. We loved this episode and my girls loved learning about the desert and some of its flora and fauna.

We will definitely treasure this DVD and I know my kids will love watching these episodes again and again. I love the educational content. This is a great DVD for Earth Day or any day!

For more information on this title or any other Scholastic Storybook Treasures release, visit www.newkideo.com. Also, visit New Kideo, the online home for the DVD line, at their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/pages/New-Kideo/169330949777241

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Purchase The Magic School Bus All About Earth DVD from New Kideo for $12.95

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Prize: 1 winner will win a copy of The Magic School Bus All About Earth DVD free from Scholastic and New Kideo.

I am trying out Rafflecopter on my blog. Please click on this post link if you do not see the script for it below. Also, if there is anything that is wrong with it let me know by emailing me: finamoon AT gmail DOT com I will try my best at fixing it. Thanks for being awesome readers!

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DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received product for free to facilitate my review and the opportunity to give another away to my readers. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review.

Milk Unleashed Giveaway and Blog App

It’s back to school time which means car pools, sports practice, recitals, field trips, and maybe a little time for mom thrown in for good measure. Having an on-the-go lifestyle can be challenging to say the least and Milk Unleashed is here to help!

With handy single-serving shelf safe milk there’s no need to ever run out! You can take it anywhere at anytime! Milk Unleashed goes wherever your family goes, whether it’s a lunchbox, a cooler, purse or a diaper bag!



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Prize: Win a Milk Unleashed variety pack consisting of four shelf safe milks (white and chocolate) from: Hershey’s, LaLa, Horizon and Organic Valley.

I am trying out Rafflecopter on my blog. Please click on this post link if you do not see the script for it below. Also, if there is anything that is wrong with it let me know by emailing me: finamoon AT gmail DOT com I will try my best at fixing it. Thanks for being awesome readers!

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: Because I am posting about the Milk Unleashed I am getting a free Prize Pack of my own and an additional one for my readers as a giveaway. Thanks to PartnersHub for providing me this promotion information and free product. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for posting this blog app and giveaway.

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