The Birth of Impressionism

We were off to Nashville! The girls & I went into the city yesterday to see the Impressionism exhibit. It was amazing! I was a bit nervous about finding it & finding parking as I am by no means a city driver. Thank God for the GPS!

Walking up the hill from the parking lot.

Here it is!

We weren't allowed to take photos inside so we took a few before going in.

After walking through the exhibit for almost 2 hours we were full of new knowledge & appreciation.

Upon discovering that there was an upstairs we decided to investigate. There was an exhibit of photographs & an area for hands on fun & discovery.

The girls set to work making print art.

First they drew a design on plain paper. After that was done they took a tool & traced their designs onto a piece of foam.

Rolling paint over the foam print.

Crank it through the press!

Her turn!

I forgot to take a picture of their final prints. I will add that later.

Boo wanted to try out the digital film making. You were able to set up 20 scenes. After you set up each one you took a picture. The button for it is right there on the box. You could then choose whether to keep the photo or delete it.

Setting up another scene.

After you had all 20 photos taken you pressed another button & it all came together in a mini movie. We got a huge kick out of Boo's movie!

We took a quick tour through the photography exhibit & then headed out. Parking was adding up fast!

Once outside I saw this beautiful building. I had to take a moment to get a snapshot.

I'm not sure if it was a church but it reminded me of one. One day I'd love to take a trip & photograph churches all around the country.

On a warm day this would be a perfect spot to dine.

The girls indulged me with this photo. LOL!

The view of the building from the parking lot.

Payment for parking had to be made to a machine. It was acting up but we finally managed to get it to take our money. It gave us our change in dollar coins. We were all kind of fascinated with them.

The fire was lit! Boo spent the rest of the afternoon pouring over art books. I picked these up back in MA at a library book sale. I miss those!

P.S. After seeing some of the same paintings in our books we realized the photos don't even come close to seeing them in person. I had guessed but it was amazing to see what a huge difference it was!

Newborn Baby Goats

Late this afternoon we had the amazing opportunity to watch a baby goat being born. We arrived in the nick of time too as she was pushing him out as we walked in! She had already delivered two babies and they were lying in the pen nearby.

**FYI ~ There are a couple of graphic photos of the birth & placenta. I debated over including these & then decided that the experience wouldn't have been complete without these. It truly was an amazing learning time.

The third baby being born.

We could see the sack & the cord. We saw her push the baby out too.

Baby #1 or #2

Mama goat immediately got to work cleaning her baby.

After a bit she began to push out the placenta.

One of the little girls exclaimed, "That is gross!" My Elvis promptly replied to our amusement, "It's supposed to be gross. It's a birth!" ROTFL!

This was A's reaction.

Mama Goat & 2 of her babies.

Bugs watched for awhile & then ran off to play with the owner's two little boys.

I tried to take these through the stall slats. I think it blocked the flash.

This is one of my favorites.

Surprisingly the third baby was the most active. He was determined to find mama's milk! It was delightful to watch him try to stand & scoot around. We quietly cheered him on in his quest.

SUCCESS!

Feeding Mama Goat

Here she tries to help the baby nurse.

Some of the other goats.

This one was a cutie pie.

How can I resist that face?

She did a fantastic job.

Mama with her three wee ones.

Isn't he precious?

Elvis pets Papa Goat.

Beautiful

I was reminded again what a miracle birth is & what an awesome Creator God is.

Hitting the Books

Vacation is over & it's back to the books. We're hitting them hard as we want to be able to have flexibility to enjoy the spring weather when it returns. We would like to be able to get out as early as possible too! So as the snow covers the ground & the cold weather keeps us huddled in layers we are studying hard.

Princess plays with some of her new toys (and some old) in her corner of the living room.

Bugsy works hard at his math. He is learning to write addition & subtraction problems in different number sentences. It really makes him think & stretches his mind beyond memorization of the facts.

The Learning Corners went back up.

Boo's still isn't finished but she wanted to use it anyway. =0)

Sweet Pea choose to study in her room snuggled in blankets. Sky is there to soak up learning too.

Working hard!

Next Bugs moves on to some coloring time while watching "Between the Lions". He really soaks up a lot from these PBS shows!

Princess had more interest in throwing crayons than she did in coloring. Lol!

He has recently started to enjoy coloring. Yay!