Pilgrimage To The Cathedral

One day in the second half of June, we went on a pilgrimage/field trip set up by our homeschool group to our diocesan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.  They had recently renovated it and we had not yet seen the improvements.  In fact, I'm not sure if the kids had even been there before. 

This whole area is brand new.

Waiting for our tour to start.

Beautiful statue of Mary and Jesus.

The cornerstone.

First look inside the renovated church.

Homeschool families gathered around the baptismal font.

Depiction of the Holy Spirit above the baptismal font.

Glimpse of the dome.

Looking up into the dome.

The kids around the statue of Joseph and Mary (and Baby Jesus in utero!).

It was a good tour, unfortunately it was not one of Anthony's good days, so I did not hear all of it and some of it I missed altogether.  It was nice to see all of the improvements in our Mother Church.

In Victoria

The rest of that weekend in mid-June, we hung out at Grandma's house.

Chocolate milk, anyone?

After Mass on Sunday, we went to the cemetery to say a prayer at Grandpa Brungardt's grave.

Where's Anthony?

Here he is, hopefully his presence counts as his prayer!

After lunch with Grandma, we went out to the nature trail with Uncle Joe.

Ready to explore.

And climb on fallen trees.

And walk down lots of shady trails.

And climb on more trees!

Don't fall!

Joseph spotted something.

So did Dominic.

Here we go!

We have to wear the kids out for the trip home.

At the top of a very steep hill.

Since it was Father's Day, we stopped at Freddy's Frozen Custard in McPherson on the way home:

Time to treat Daddy to frozen custard.

Anthony really enjoyed his.

The girls.

Sternberg Museum, Part II

After we finished looking at the natural history exhibits at the Sternberg Museum in Hays, KS, we went to a little area where the kids could practice digging up dinosaur bones!

Hats on, tools in hand, they were ready for discovery.

Catherine and Joseph found a long bone.

Anthony, the world's youngest archaeologist.

They could have stayed here for a long time.

After digging up bones, we made our way to the Discovery Room, which is a homeschooler's dream!  It was chock full of fun and interesting activities for kids to do, from puzzles and games to looking at things through magnifying glasses and balancing weights on a scale.  There were lots of books, stations for drawing, stamping, and tracing, a wall of live animals in tanks, even a spot by the window for identifying cloud formations.  You could easily spend half a day in this room. 

Joseph found a friend.

An attractive corner with books, puzzles, blocks, and tubs full of interesting animal puppets.

Working on a puzzle.

Right in the middle of the room, you could climb on this giant bone.

Anthony liked this giant spider sculpture.

Another great puzzle done by Anthony and Joseph.

Trip to Victoria - The Sternberg Museum of Natural History

In mid-June, we went for a weekend visit to Victoria, KS.  On Saturday afternoon, Dan's brother, Chuck, took us to the Sternberg Museum in Hays.  We spent several enjoyable hours there.

Starting our self-guided tour.

We watched a "man" unearthing a new fossil.

The famous "fish-within-a-fish" fossil.

Anne loved looking at a depiction of the evolution of the horse.

The next three pictures and video were from a temporary exhibit of prehistoric mammals, all of which were animated.  It was really neat.

Wooly mammoth.

Sabertooth cat attacking a giant sloth.

Ancient apes.

Then it was on to the top floor of dinosaurs!

The building is dome-shaped, so it made a nice effect on this top floor.

Approaching the T-rex.  Anthony jumped back a ways when it started moving.

It was huge!

Uncle Chuck and the kids.

Catherine, Anne, and Anthony.

The T-rex in motion:

Catherine, Anne, and Dominic.

Fishing On Our Pond

There is a pond between our property and our neighbor's, but before now, we have not really done anything with it, other than walk by it, and tell the kids to stay away from it.  There were so many trees and brush on our side of the pond, that it would have been rather difficult for one of them to get very close to it.  However, that has changed.  In the early part of June, Dan cut down a few trees to make an opening to the pond, so he could take the kids fishing.  This first time of fishing was for showing the kids how to cast the line into the water.  And teaching them safety, like "don't stand right behind the person casting, or you might get a hook in your eye."  No fish were caught this first time fishing. 

Joseph took a turn.

Daddy helped Joseph, while Dominic shimmied up the tree, and Catherine looked on.

Joseph, with his "catch."

Catherine took a turn.

Anthony played with Biscuit. 

The kids enjoyed their time down by the pond, fishing with Daddy.

Funny face!

Then Daddy helped Anthony cast the fishing line into the pond. 

Anne waited patiently for her turn.

It was a nice night for fishing!