Breighton's Journey

Parke Hydro Farm Strawberry Picking

Today we took a field trip to Parke Hydro Parks in Dover, FL (exit 17 off of I4…same exit as Dinosaur World). We arrived and the place was empty. They had just opened after teir normal two days off on Sunday and Monday. You could see the berries hanging when we walked in. After the rough cold winter they were delayed a bit this year but we lucked out with our timing today.

Dara and her Mom joined us for some fun. We had the run of the field and were really well behaved.

Dara found a mutant strawberry!

I found this itty bitty tiny one. It was amazing how the different variety of berries grew so different and TASTE so different as well.

I had a fun time picking. Daddy eventually gave up trying to convince me to stop picking the “half and half” berries. Apparently you are only supposed to only pick the red ones. I kind of thought the half and half berries were neat though.

Dara and I eventually got silly and Mommy took that as a cue to stop picking and head to the front.

My “girlfriend” being silly.

Dara’s Mommy, Miss Jill! She is very nice to me and thinks I am well behaved!!! HAHAHA!

When we got up from we found out we had enough berries for the best rate of $1.99 a pound. You have to have 20lbs to qualify!!! He had, ohhh, well over 30 pounds!! Then we added some nice organic peppers and other veggies. It was a very fun morning out. The weather was overcast so it didn’t get too hot like last year.

Birds, Beach and Flowers

Today we joined a group of home schoolers for a morning at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary. I really wanted a picture of the HUGE pelican outside.

Isn’t it HUGE!

We waited patiently for the friends to arrive. We had a lot of laughs watching the pelicans try to sneak into the food room. Some got really aggressive.

I enjoyed walking through ad looking all the birds and learning about why they were there. They bring on average 20+ birds a day into the facility for treatment or rehab. A lot are caught in fishing lines, tangled in nets or have flown into windows. We did not get to see the surgery centers but we did see a lot of different birds: hawks, vultures, woodpeckers, pelicans and more pelicans! Afterwards we got to play on the beach.

My friend, Dara, and I worked hard to build a sandcastle. We had some bucket difficulties as the one we were using burst into a bazillion pieces when we tried to get the wet sand out of it.

Since we were right outside of the bird sanctuary every time someone reached into a bag or made a loud sound the birds flocked over to see what was going on. We managed to come out without bird poop on us, surprisingly!

Dara and I had a lot of fun. We are becoming great friends! She has no clue that I am a crazy boy! But being around her is so calming to me. We really click.

When we got cleaned up and came home Mommy let me water my new plants. I am growing snapdragons, which I am learning to spot at places like Disney and Safety Harbor. I am also growing another flower that I picked out.

Emmerson and I had a fun time watering everything we could find with our squirt bottles.

Here is one flower.

This is my snap dragon. Aren’t they cool! You can even open them like a dragons mouth.

Between by store bought flowers I am growing sunflower seeds. They just sprouted and I can not wait until they are taller than I am!

The nice winter weather was finally here today! It is nice to be outside playing and enjoying the weather finally.

My hair is getting longer in the front and it is hard to find me in a picture. Mommy said we are trying to grow the front out when it is cooler and try to get the lengths a bit more even before we decide what to do with my mop-head!

I had a lot of fun today compared to the last nearly week. I had a horrible cold that turned worse and my ears were hurting a lot. Mommy and Daddy finally took me to the doctor when the boogers set in. I had an ear infection and an upper respiratory infection and what could have been strep throat. More antibiotics for me! fun fun fun! We were all feeling better by Thursday and headed over to Disney World with Miss Lynn and my buddy Zachary. We had a grand time until about 7:00 pm when Emmerson started vomiting uncontrollably. This continued all night and then he felt a bunch better by morning. I felt fine until we got home Friday night. About 3am on Saturday I woke up telling Mommy my tummy hurt and about 30 minutes later I started to vomit. Once again, Mommy was up all night tending to me and my bucket. We must have picked it up at the doctors office. Mommy and Daddy think it was rotavirus. Oh well. We are feeling better now. My tummy is still a bit sensitive but getting better.

Golden Rainbow Ranch Part Deux

A few of my friends met up with us today at the Golden Rainbow Ranch for a fun and long day!

This is my “girlfriend” and future wife, Dara.

I groomed the miniature horses.

So did Dara.

I love the doggie named Gigi. She is really mellow.

I held her still so Emmerson could pet her too!

Cousin Anna came along with us as well. I had fun showing her around the ranch.

They had several baby goats that were just a week old!

I taught the goats to dig in the dirt.

At the end of my day I got to milk a goat!! I DID IT!

Anna tried too and got squirted!

I pet the mama goat and told her thanks for being so still so I could milk her.

Growing Crystals

For Christmas Grandma Susie gave me a cool crystal making kit. The instructions are VERY long so I needed some help from Daddy to make them. Today I took a nap so I was allowed to stay up late after Emmerson went to bed. All I wanted to do was start my crystals.

I was a big goofy while I was waiting for Daddy to boil some water.

We mixed some crystal powder in boiling water until it dissolved and then poured it into a plastic container over a rock to help it grow.

The directions called for a rock the size of the container but not more than 3/4 of an inch high! We don’t have rocks like that in Florida. Thank goodness Mommy remember that we had a bucket of rocks from Lake Erie from last summer! She found the perfect rock for me to use.

We had to wait for the water to cool down before we added that last part of the mixture.

I hope my crystals grow quickly. I am super excited to see how big they grow… the box makes them look HUGE!

While I waited for the water to cool down I got to watch Twister on Blu-ray. I LOVE Twister and kept telling Mommy each part before it happened. We watched up until the flying cow and then I was tuckered and ready fro bed. What a fun day I had!

Quote of the Day

“Mommy I have nothing profound to say so I am going to sit here quietly”

Science Class at the park

Today my homeschool science class met at Marshall Street Park in Safety Harbor for a nature hike. We got their a bit early and had fun exploring the playground and burning off some energy.

I am really loving my new climbing skills. Each day I get more and more brave.

This is a neat park to play at and it also has a LOT of nature.

When my classmates got there we headed into the woods. They are making a new trail and it is still under construction. The bridge has not been put in and the path has only been rough cut. You have to cross the river to get to the path. It was very steep but I listened to the directions and was able to make it across without an issue. One girl skinned her knee because she jumped instead of walking carefully. We had a neat time jumping over some logs, swinging on some vines and finding all sorts of nature.

I was fascinated by these mushrooms? Maybe it is a fungus. Mommy will have to look this one up for me.

Mommy could identify a lot of the plants on our hike. I knew I wasn’t supposed to touch this. A beautiful example of poison ivy.

We learned about invasive species on our hike. We found Brazilian pepper, air potatoes, kudzu, asparagus fern and cat’s claw. We are thinking about setting up a day in the woods soon to collect trash and air potatoes! Not poison ivy!

What a fun day in the woods. I really had a lot of fun with the older kids and learned a lot about plants.

Future Architect?

During quiet time I wanted to play with some empty cereal boxes. I built a few towers and then decided I needed to build a wall. I laid a foundation with cereal boxes and then dug all the mac and cheese boxes from the storage closet and made a two tier wall. I was very proud of my creation. Maybe I should teach the army corps of engineers how to build?

Everybody paints… just not like me

I am really into full art submersion. The messier I can get the better the results. Mommy sent Emmerson and I to play in the yard last night. She handed me 3 bottles of paint (red, blue and yellow). Normally I just put a few little circles on a paper plate. Not this time. I took all three bottles and emptied them into a cardboard box to make BLACK paint. It took all the contents of all of the bottles to get the right color! Mommy INSISTS I could ahve done the same thing by mixing equal parts of each color in a MUCH smaller quantity. Whatever mom!

I stood in the box to mix the paint with my feet and then used my hands for a final stir.

I walked all over the back patio.

I accidntly got a LITTLE paint on the yellow paper Mommy had given me to paint with.

I know, silly me! Soon I got bored and started to head inside. Daddy stopped me dead in my tracks and made me strip down. He turned his back for a second and I took my painted hands and rubbed them all over my stomach, arms and legs. I was COVERED. He came back and flew me to the tub, where Emmerson was already waiting (he got bored with painting and wanted to be clean earlier than me).

I turned the entire tub BROWN!

Burning off that custard for breakfast

After our morning at the custard shop we went to the playground for a while. I wanted to go on a nature walk, so off we headed down the trails.

I found a HUGE tree that was hollowed out. I think an OWL lives in it!

I learned about how you could cut a tree to make it fall in a certain direction. We found a dead tree and talked about how it should be cut so we made sure it didn’t fall into the walkway or the pavilion. We checked our theory on a tree that had been chopped down next to the one we found. I correctly identified which way the tree should fall and how they should cut it. We checked the saw marks and breaks on the tree and I was RIGHT! It was neat to play “tree scientist”.

Then we hunted for animal tracks. The ground was too dry and packed down to find fresh prints. But we did find LOTS of raccoons dirty prints on the trash can. I decided that is where raccoons like to eat front. But I think the top is too heavy for them to get off. Mommy said that raccoons are really tricky and probably know how to open the trash can anyway.

Loving my day!

I found a tree that was hugging another tree so I had to hug both of the trees. Emmerson joined in for a while as well.

On the way out I met back up with my friends Matthew and Aran and we took turns climbing the tree.

I am learning how to move my body to wiggle into the branches.

I got up all by myself!

Pretty fun! I was SO proud of myself.

Then I worked backwards and climbed back down to the ground. I am getting so strong!

Field trip to make custard!

Today we went on a field trip to Ritters Custard in Palm Harbor. We met with the owner, Mr. Josh, for a morning of fun and sugar!

We all put on work aprons and then listened carefully to all the rules.

I wanted to be right up front so I didn’t miss any of the action. If it is about cold and sweet then I MUST be first, afterall I am a REED!

The bigger kids joined up for a quick picture. My friends Aran and Matthew were there as well. Aran and Matthew have both been five for a while now. You can see how much bigger than all my friends I am! I am super tall considering I am still 4.

I stood very still and listened very carefully. Then Mr Josh asked us silly questions about custard and what is the difference between custard and ice cream. EGGS! I knew all the answers. I laughed when he asked where milk came from.

I learned that Ritters custard comes in a pre-made mix and all they do is add the flavoring. All the mix is the same flavor except for chocolate. We saw how they add flavor and make the mix-ins for their fancy flavors.

Then we dumped the mixture into the HUGE machine. We got to see the motor and gears and then into the big bin with the beater bar. Then we waited… and waited… for what seemed like FOREVER. Okay, so it was really about 2 minutes!

CUSTARD! It just started coming out the front of the machine.

I asked if I could lick it… sadly the answer was NO.

Soon, Mr Josh let us have a taste of the FRESH custard that we made. HOW COOL! I remarked that it was “THE BEST EVER!”

Emmerson had a nice time but didn’t want to leave Mommy’s arms.

Aran and I waited patiently to make our sundaes. I chose chocolate custard with hot fudge, whip cream and sprinkles. Emmerson chose vanilla custard with LOTS of whip cream and sprinkles.

YUMMY!

What a fun field trip. Good to know that homeschoolers can have field trips too!