A Bug's World

Omgosh! We had SOO much fun yesterday! We participated in A Bug's World at the OARDC in Wooster. Sooo awesome! They put on all kinds of great classes for the kids. I had never been before so had no idea what we were in for. They do this annually and if you ever get the opportunity, I highly recommend it!

We took:
Busy, Busy Bees
Cafe Insecta
What's Eating your Lunch?
Aquatic Insects
Insect Olympics
Critters up Close

The hit of the day was Cafe Insecta....why? Because it was a class where you ate bugs! Yum, huh?
This is Livy with a mealworm....

And chomping on a cricket:

Trin wasn't so keen to try the bugs but she had fun balancing water droplets on a cabbage leaf:

And they loved the Critters up Close class and looking at the bugs under microscopes:

And just in case you are wondering....yep, I tried the crickets. They are just crunchy and don't taste like much of anything at all. They made chocolate chip cookies with them in them and it was just like having nuts in them. Just added some crunch. So, not gross at all.

The Sugar Shack

Lorain County Parks puts on a great maple syrup field trip! And the reservation they do it at is nearby! Even better (I live in the middle of nowhere, when I don't have to drive 40 minutes I am excited! 20 minutes is a short trek to me)! So, when we had the opportunity to see how maple syrup is made I quickly signed us up. This was back in March and I finally got around to scrapping the pictures today.

Syrup season is over, but if you get a chance to go in the future, take advantage of it. THe kids loved it! They learned all about it during a short presentation by the ranger inside. Then, we grabbed buckets and a drill and went out and the kids tapped a tree. We found one that was flowing, so they all got to taste syrup right from the tree as well and take what had already dripped out to the sugar shack to be make into syrup.

Papers are from Kaiser Kraft and I LOVE them! Bling from K&Co and asst felt.

Iron Chef Night

For those that say homeschooled kids don't get enough socialization, I have to laugh! We make soo many opportunities for them to get together and homeschooling in this area is a COMMUNITY. Last night, our co op sponsored an Iron Chef night event. 4 families competed against each other. They had 1 hour to create a dessert and an appetizer using the secret ingredient (we sent it out to them a week in advance, it was cheese).

It was SUCH a fun night! The food was spectacular and we truly enjoyed ourselves. Livy and I were judges. It was so cute how seriously she took her 'job'! And great seeing how the families all worked together.





The grand prize was a $25 grocery store gift card, my girls would have been more interested in second which was an Auntie Anne's pretzle making kit. All families also received a recipe album for participating (made by me of course!)








I also made these cute name tags for the emcees and judges