Pictures from our week....

Jacob has his school's Fun Run this past week.  He ran his little heart out.

All the kids had stickers on their shoulders that would receive tally marks for each lap.  Here is Jacob getting a quick tally mark.

Waiting in line for tally mark.  I ran several laps with him.  One of them I was in a full on sprint trying to keep up with him.  I thought I was gonna pass out when I stopped.  Thankfully, he does not know about slow and steady so I still would take him in distance :-)

Joseph decided it was time to celebrate black bear's first birthday.

We pulled out the winter gear recently. The boys always love the hats!

On Saturday we attended a local Raptor Fest...Being a 'bird of prey" exhibit.  Jacob is thinking hard as he sketches the eagle.

Here is a hawk, that was injured and now in captivity.  I learned the peregrine falcon is the fastest bird in the world that can dive at speeds up to 250 msp.

A cute little owl.

The boys participated in an obstacle course of such....they were trying to beat the records of the animals...These were Jacob's numbers.

A lovely turkey vulture....

Great horned owl.  It was interesting to learn that most owls either have a an owl ear tipped forward or backward or their ears are asymetrical - different heights on the head.  This is so that owls cannot only determine if a sound is left or right but it allows them to determine if it is high or low.  Even with big eyes, their ears are the most used sense they have.  They can detect a mouse 18 inches under the snow.  They had an owl wing and an eagle feather.  The quickly waved the eagle feather up and down and the noise it created was pretty loud.  The noise created from the owl wing was undetected, another way in which they are able to successfully hunt.

This was some kind of falcon.

This is an owl skull.  Look at those eye sockets.  That is why owls cannot move their eyes but must instead turn their head.  They can turn about 300 degrees.

The boys had a great time and we will make it an annual thing going forward.

Gearing up for another week. I think we are finally hitting our stride with the schooling. Of course every week I think that and then we find a better way to do things! Benjamin finally started getting into history. He is having a great time piecing everything together with Jamestown and the early settlers.