Camping at Ouabache State Park Again

 On our way over to the state park at Bluffton Thursday, we stopped at a park in Huntington to have a picnic lunch.  We've been past this park a few times, and the girls have always wanted to stop because they have a big plane and tank out near the road.  They enjoyed playing for a little while after eating.

 Laura on the tank

 Kara on the tank

 On Friday morning, we went to Geneva to the Limberlost, home of Gene Stratton Porter.  We thoroughly enjoyed the tour of her home.  For those that aren't familiar with Mrs. Porter's life and writings, she was a naturalist and her books reflected that.  Her home is filled with moths and butterflies in glass cases and stuffed birds.  As the kindly, older gentleman was giving us the tour, Laura answered most of his questions and interjected many facts of her own.  At one point when the man was expressing his surprise at how much Laura knew, I told him that she knew all the answers to his questions, but she couldn't remember 6 times 4.  After we'd been through 3 or 4 more rooms, he was asking a few questions and out-of-the-blue, he asked Laura, "What's 6 x 4?"  She just looked at him with a blank look on her face.    When I prompted her what the story was on her flashcard, she knew the answer right away.  (I ordered material and flashcards for right-brained children this year.  Each flashcard has the number sentence embedded on a colored picture along with a story.  This helps the right-brained child to remember the facts better.)

 When Mrs. Porter had this stone fence built around her home, she had the workmen make it with holes in it for the little animals to be able to come and go easier.  

 We keep paints, sidewalk chalk, and games in the camper.

 Laura used the paints to paint the veined side of a leaf.

 Then she turned the leaf over and pressed it onto a piece of paper.

 She used different colors and different shapes of leaves to make many pretty prints.

 We got this idea out of a camping book I bought Laura for her birthday last year.  She takes it every time we go camping or when we go on long trips to study it.  I think that's where she got a lot of her information she used to answer the questions at Gene Stratton Porter's home!

 Playing Sequence States & Capitals

Father's Day dinner--rib eye steak, the potato recipe I gave you a few weeks ago, and canned peas--a delicious meal cooked over the fire.

The main purpose of this camping trip was to see our friends, the Whisnants.  They were giving a concert at the Gospel Barn in Bluffton on Saturday night.  We enjoyed lunch with them on Saturday at Pizza Hut in Bluffton and the concert that evening.

It was a weekend packed with fun activities and relaxing, family time.  Good memories!!