This month our field trip was to a Dairy farm. Twin Lakes is a grass based dairy farm. This is good because the cows only come up twice a day to milk. They are not confined all the time. They have 2000 milking jersey cows, a few good bulls and currently about 500 calves! The main dairy building is on 500 acres but they have their cows spread out on 2,500 acres. It took us about 3 hours for the full tour. I felt a little sorry for the owner, Laurie Hannon. She was a wealth of information and very patient. We Moms had a million good questions for her. The kids however only had eyes for the cows, calves, open fields and best of all the HAY BALES!!!!! I know that the kids had a blast and Laurie claims it was good fun for her and her workers too. So, I'd say the Dairy Farm was a win/win situation.

We were able to see the containers the milk is stored in until the truck comes to pick it up, the cows being milked, the cows in the feed line, the newborn baby calves, the older calves in their hutches, the older cows enjoying the grass in the field, and we also caught the truck while it was there to pick up milk.

Huge drum of foamy fresh milk! Yum!


Aww... a newborn. They were so sweet.
Some would even try to suck on your fingers!


Mom, Can I have a hay bale for Christmas?


Got Milk? Cliche I know, but in this post
don't you think it just had to be said somewhere?

Emily has been hard at work making Christmas lap books. First she did this free Nativity Lapbook: http://www.scribd.com/doc/524998/Nativity-Lapbook



She drew a nativity scene on the front cover all by herself. Can you see baby Jesus there in the middle and the star in the sky? She loved this project. She likes to take all the people out of the pocket and set them up in the manger scene.



Next she made a free symbols of Christmas lap book from here: http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/lapbooks/christmas_symbols.htm





I put the Title on the front for her but again she drew a cute little nativity scene up by the star all by herself. She really enjoyed this book also. I read to her and talked about the meaning behind each symbol. I'm not sure how much sunk in but hey now she has this little book to remind her!

Now Brandon says he is ready for another lapbook. He collects wooden nutcrackers. He gets a new one every year and I think one of his favorite things about decorating for Christmas is setting these guys up. So, he wants to do a lapbook on nutcrackers. I have no idea if I'll be able to hunt down a free lapbook on nutcrackers, but I guess I'll give it a try.

Last month Home Depot had Pirate Ships for their Kid's workshop! Bran and Em loved them. Some of the kits we've done in the past were a bit tricky but these were pretty easy to put together. They kid's did an awesome job painting them don't you think? Can you tell which one is who's?



Home School Moms and Dads check out your local Home Depot and Lowes for their kid's workshops. They are a lot of good ol' family fun!

Since we are about to go on another field trip to a Dairy Farm I should probably finally post the pictures from the field trip we went on last month! You think?