2014 May

Fourth Step: Jane Austen

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The beautiful spring(finally!!!) inspired a garden shoot for the blog! Some of my favorite gardens are English, which led me to Jane Austen! It was a sunny and humid morning which brought out all the beautiful colors at Cantigny Parks and Garden, but it made for a sweaty mama, squinty eyes and frizzy hair for Big Sister. I curled her hair before we left, all super cute and they fell by the time we got to take any pictures! 😦 They still turned out pretty cute, but darn it! All the best made plans….. I didn’t quite capture what I wanted the first go ’round(did I mention squinty eyes and frizzy hair?), which might have had a little to do with the fact that I went by myself with 3 kids under 6 and forgot the stroller. I was running around with clothes in my arms, a camera on my neck and a baby on my hip! Little Sister did not like my elbow in her face while I was trying to shoot, lol! So, we made a second trip, this time just me, Big Sister, and lots of glorious sun blocking clouds! It did make for a bit of a chilly shoot, but we braved it and I am thrilled with the outcome of the second set of pictures. I’ve included pictures from both shoots below. Without further ado, I present Miss Jane Austen. 🙂 P.S. If you are interested in where I got the dress or any of the activities I do in upcoming posts you can check out my Pinterest board for Jane. 🙂

Little Miss told me she was going to do one of her own poses 🙂 This picture just makes me think of Scarlett O’Hara!

Third Step: Amelia Earhart ~Conclusion~

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So this month has been crazy hectic! Turns out we’re moving. In a month. Needless to say the blog has taken a back seat and so has Amelia Earhart. We’ve still been doing activities and reading, but it hasn’t been as well thought out it as it as been before. Which is unfortunate, but that’s life sometimes, right?! So, our move involved a trip to our new, soon to be home in the Pacific Northwest, which meant a trip to the airport!

The airport was so fun for the kids! We’ve been before, but it’s been two years so the excitement and anticipation was new all over again for the older two. We spent a little time at the Battle of Midway Memorial exhibit at Midway International Airport.Part of the exhibit includes a plane recovered from Lake Michigan in 1991, the SBD Dauntless Dive-Bomber. It hangs from the ceiling as part of the exhibit and is the same type of plane flown in the Battle of Midway in WWII. The exhibition also includes interactive kiosks with videos, pictures and sculpture commemorating the battle. The kids had a good time exploring it while we waited at the airport. Unfortunately, my camera was packed and I only have some terrible iPhone pics of us at the airport. The timing of this trip was perfect and so fitting while we learn about Amelia Earhart and aviation! (Excuse the iPhone pics from the airport, I accidentally checked my camera! 🙂

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Once we got back we did a little experimenting with some different planes in our backyard. It wasn’t very scientific at all, but it was fun! We had a very large styrofoam plane, an inflatable vinyl plane and foam plane that launched from a gun-type device and we flew them all off our deck in the backyard to see which went the furthest. The kid were a little surprised that the largest plane went the furthest. I could go into more detail about why some planes worked and some didn’t, but this was just about fun. 🙂

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We also read some great books about Amelia Earhart this month. My daughter’s favorite by far was ‘I AmAmelia Earhart,’ by Brad Meltzer. She brought to school when it when it was her turn to bring in a book for read aloud and carried it with her for a couple of weeks. It’s a really fun and cute book for young kids the puts an emphasis on following dreams and working hard to achieve them. Admittedly, it’s a favorite of mine as well. We also read ‘Night Flight: Amelia Earhart Crosses the Atlantic,’ by Robert Burleigh, which was great for describing what is like to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean. Finally, we used ‘Amelia Earhart: The Legend of the Lost Aviator,’ by Shelley Tanaka as reference for Amelia’s life and achievements.

We still have a couple more weeks until the move, hopefully I can get back on track soon! It will be quite interesting to take an adventure of our own!