On Saturday we made a spontaneous trip (Us? Spontaneous? Yep, that’s right) down to Pinnacle Mountain State Park for a little outside/nature time on a beautiful day. We had no intention of climbing the mountain, of course, but I knew they had a couple of easy paved trails that might be about right for us. First we went to their very nice visitor center. The girls enjoyed bird watching, bee watching, seeing live baby alligator and a no-longer-live adult one, and several other things. Then we “hiked” the Arkansas Trail through the arboretum, saving the Kingfisher Trail for another trip.

We gave both girls new binoculars for the occasion!

Science lesson in progress—learning about tree rings:

One of the favorite parts of the trip—we came across this tiny (about an inch long) caterpillar hanging by a string in mid-air in the middle of the trail, but the string was so thin it was practially invisible. Anna’s face lit up in amazement and she started giggling uncontrollably. She must have thought it was magic. Can you imagine? I mean, you’re just walking along through the forest and there’s this thing floating in the middle of the air. We did tell her, of course, but it was so fun to see her reaction.

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We had two graduations, of sorts, this past week. On Monday, Sarah “graduated” from Mother Goose on the Loose story time at the library. I was kind of sad; we’ve loved the Mother Goose program ever since Anna was a baby. Sarah has really enjoyed it and learned so much. Anna and Sarah do many of the rhymes and stories and songs at home. I didn’t get any pictures, but we had a good last day; Sarah was happy the whole time and participated in everything and enjoyed herself. It was a good way to end. But even though we’ll miss it, it also means twice-weekly library trips will be reduced to once a week, which is nice!

Then yesterday Anna graduated from preschool. She’s had a great two years there, and this year she has made some sweet little friends as well. But again, though it’s the ending of something great, I’m looking forward to the next phase of our lives—homeschooling, which means not just “book learnin'” but all the activities and relationships that will enrich our lives. Here are some graduation day pics!

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