One of the Reasons I Love Homeschooling and Hanging Rock

Genuinely, I love homeschooling.  I love watching my children grown and learn.  I love the sibling interactions it promotes.  I love the community we are blessed with.  Homeschooling is just awesome.  For history we are using Story of the World.  One of the projects was to go outside and use whatever you have around you to make a dwelling (we used stuffed animals as the inhabitants).  I sent them outside and 30 minutes later they called me out to see their creations.  I just LOVE their creativity.  Above is Ryan's dwelling and below is Madeline's.

Add caption

In the beginning of June, we took a "wonderful" trip to Hanging Rock, NC.  A few families from Madeline's Y Princess Tribe organized the camping trip, so we joined them.  It is a beautiful place to visit, and the hikes are amazing and family friendly.  When we arrived, we immediately went on a hike and then headed to the camp site to put up our tent.  Thankfully, the pack-n-play and 4 sleeping bags fit.  After spending about 10 minutes at the camp site with a fire, we realized that we had bit off more than we could chew with our sweet 1 year old who was still unsteady when it came to walking.  Thankfully, she went to sleep within a couple hours.  The rest of us had a fun evening with the rest of the families around a campfire.  It was chilly that evening, so we had fun cuddling together as a family in the tent.  Unfortunately, Lilly Grace woke at 5:40.  Usually, she would have gone back to sleep, but she looked around and realized we were all there, and I think she thought there was a party in the tent.  She immediately wanted to hang out and play with us.  We took her out and when it was getting crazy inside the tent, we took our "party" outside.  Unfortunately, the sweet toddler, who did not want to be held, kept falling on the uneven terrain and crying.  So. . .at 6am, we jumped in the minivan and headed out to hike.  No likes a crying baby at a campsite.  Lesson learned. . .tent camping with a 1 year old should be avoided!

Here are Madeline and Ryan scaling a rock.

I LOVE my babies!

My cool 6.5 year old boy.  He loved climbing the rocks and was excited to get as close to the edge as possible.

Our adventuresome pretty princess, who always challenges herself, regardless of her fears.

Look how beautiful and big she is!

Mommy and the girls.

Boy, don't you fall!!!

You go girl!

Check out Madeline's and Ryan's superhero strength.

Love this progression on the tree branch.

Best buds.  They have such a sweet friendship.  Madeline and Ryan truly enjoy one another.  And they sweetly sleep together every night.  We know it won't last long, but it is precious for right now.

Daddy, carrying Lilly Grace in the backpack.  The grumpy face is the result of waking at 5:40am!!!!

The falls were so pretty and we were able to get so close to them.

Pals

Our littlest princess.

Mommy and LG hung out while Daddy and the big kids explored.

Wow, there's that superhero strength again!

Madeline and Ryan had a great time, though we hiked at 6am!  Are you surprised to hear that we were packed up and heading out by 10am.  Next time we'll do a day trip.  It was a blessed family time together.