It's my birthday and I'll blog if I want to

I told myself I would start a blog on my birthday and I did! Quick run down for those who don't know me. I'm Miranda, unschooling mom to A and E, married to C (for 9 years today, actually!). A is a 6 1/2 year old girl and E is a 4 1/2 year old girl, and I won't mention how old C is. I just turned 34. Today!

I guess I will just jump right in and give a rundown on our day today (actually yesterday). Today was a park day for the unschooling group that I co-run, hereafter known as the Life Learners or LVLL. I wasn't sure how many people were going to be able to come and I always get nervous that I am going to drive all the way there and not have anyone to hang with and the kids will be sad their friends did not come. Never happens, so I should get over that! Three other families came and we had a very memorable day. It was hot, but not bad if you stayed in the shade. The park had a measly water feature, but it worked, so getting wet was an option for the kids. They got wet a bit, but mostly played in the sand that was under and around the playground structures. They (kids ranging in age from 3 to 12) all spent hours building a big "life size" castle, which mainly consisted of a wall with a moat around it. But they could fit inside, so it was life sized. They took any and all empty water bottles or food containers we all had and carried water from the fountain to the moat. It actually filled up! I took some pictures with my new camera (my birthday present).


The park we were at was having a farmers market that afternoon and while the kids were working on the moat filling, the market people were setting up a couple bounce houses. It was $3 for unlimited bouncing, so we did it. I got some cool pictures of the kids bouncing with my camera set on sports mode. This is not one of the cool ones, as E is just sitting still, but it is cute anyway. They had a blast bouncing their hearts out. There were only a handful of kids there so the kids had the bounce house all to themselves. In the past, A and E have not wanted to bounce with strangers. More fun with friends, I guess!

After two of the families went home, A and E and their friend J went back to the bounce house, but not until we had all had some kettlecorn. Yum! There were a lot of people there with their dogs and the kids had fun saying hello to all the cute little ones. One family even brought their birds, two cockatoos and a parrot of some sort. We spent some time looking at the birds and E even found a feather from the cockatoo on the ground.

We headed home as the sun was setting. Just enough time for a quick dinner, bath and bed for two very tired girls.