Field Trip: Fort Raleigh and Lost Colony

Last Friday, we went to Fort Raleigh in Manteo, NC. We watched a film on the Lost Colony and toured the old Earthen Fort. The kids took a class on Native American markings and got to design their own markings for themselves.

We toured the backstage area of the Lost Colony. We got to see the stage, costume area, etc. We even got to watch them making scenery for an upcoming production of Oklahoma!

We went to see a production of the Lost Colony that evening. We went a bit early and met some of the actors and interacted with them. My husband even juggled with one of the entertainers. My 8 year old son was positive that he was going to hate this show and really resisted going. However, in the end he really enjoyed himself and was probably the one who enjoyed it the most. We got seats on the last row of the producers circles which ended up being a great spot. Soldiers marched past us several times and when the Native Americans were hiding in preparation of attack, they hid right behind us!!! It made things a bit more exciting to say the least.

Field Trip: Roanoke Festival Park

On Friday, we went to Roanoke Festival Park. It was a great field trip to go along with our history studies. We had a lot of fun and learned quite a bit also. Roanoke Festival Park is very hands on. It has an indoor museum, an outdoor settlement sight and a representation of the ship, Elizabeth II.



The indoor museum has a lot of things for kids to do. They can dress up as explorers, pirates, early colonists, turn of the century beach goers, and farmers. They can learn to use an astrolabe, pretend to be in the civil war, scrub their laundry, and climb all over a variety of boats.

Aboard Elizabeth II, they can see how a real ship looks and interact with live docents. My kids loved turning the capstan and we played a game of Nine Men's Morris while on board.

At the settlement site, the kids tried on armor and saw what it was like to live in army tents. They did a pole arms class too. However, I think their favorite thing was playing skittles, an early form of bowling.

The park is adding more exhibits to include more Native American culture. We can't wait to make another trip to see it. Meanwhile, we satisfied ourselves with playing with hoops.

Memorial Weekend Canoe and Hike

We visited Umstead State Park over Memorial weekend. It was truly a lovely day. It did rain for about 15 minutes and then it was blue skies and gorgeous scenery.

We canoed around BIg Lake for a bit. I have to tell you that after years of kayaking, the canoe really felt unstable! It was still fun looking at fish and listening to the tree frogs. I couldn't get over how calm and peaceful it was, especially since it was a holiday weekend.

We also did a bit of hiking and exploring. One of the coolest things we found was a brown snake that was hiding in the rocks by the creek.

Unfortunately, the snake was musking and left Daddy smelling very stinky.

Junior Bluebird Monitors

Wednesday, we went to Harris Lake for their Junior Bluebird Monitoring program. What fun. I can't believe we were the only family to do it. The ranger was fun and had a lot of interesting activities for them to do.


One of the activities she did was throw multi-colored pasta all around the ground and the kids had to fill each egg carton mouth so many pieces of pasta in a short period of time to see what it is like to feed baby birds.

We hiked around the park and monitored the bluebird boxes. Some were empty and some had old nests. The kids learned that you approach from the side and knock first so birds can fly out. We had a nuthatch fly out of our first box! Then we looked in the boxes and determined what bird had a nest there. Just because it's a bluebird box doesn't mean a bluebird will be the bird to choose it. Our boxes had bluebirds, nuthatches and wrens! The ranger said she found a snake in a box once.
We had to learn a lot about nests. Some birds make shallow nests and some deep nests. Some use mud and some don't. Because different birds have the same color and size eggs and you don't always see the parent bird, you have to know your nests.

Bird Banding

Today we went on another field trip to Prairie Ridge Ecostation. The kids got to follow the museum's scientist around to check the bird nets. They put nets out in various places and when birds get caught in them, they take them out and attach a band to the leg.

We checked four nets and found one bird, this female summer tanager. It took awhile to loosen her from the net and I donated my water bottle to feed her. I dipped my finger in the bottle and dropped in her mouth. Once she had some water, we put her in a canvas bag, to help calm her as well as for ease of transportation. The nets were rolled up for rest of day and we took bird back to banding station. At the station, the bird was identified, weighed, measured, banded, and logged and then set free.

Renaissance Faire

Our family loves Renaissance Faires. We go to one on the fall every year. Unfortunately, we have trouble getting to the one in the spring due to weather but we go when we can. Luckily, the weather was good this year and we could take advantage of it. After all, we are studying the Renaissance times in history.


Of course, we go in costume. Unfortunately, we couldn't find Harrison's ring mail armor that he made in the fall. It fell victim to one of my company's coming cleaning sweeps. However, we had one that he and his dad made two years ago. This scale mail shirt is easy and inexpensive to make. They traced a dog tag on old cereal boxes and cut out. Then spray painted them silver and glued them onto a black t-shirt in a scale mail pattern. My son opted not to wear matching pants lol.

Melissa is wearing a top we found at Goodwill. It has the lace up front and some nice detail up close. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures before she dripped ketchup all over it!!!

Melissa had trouble deciding what to do/get. She was going to get her face painted but decided that for about the same amount of money, she could get a henna tattoo and it would last more than a day.

Harrison took part in a class on pole arms. He was the second youngest to take it and the youngest to complete it. He really enjoyed it and even though the rest of us observed the entire class, he gave us blow by blow details. Here he is marching with his squad. He is concentrating hard on keeping that pole up!

This is the way to deal with sibling squabbles. Just kidding. They did like sparring with each other. Other things they did at the Faire: shoot crossbows (Harrison hit the dragon), ride ponies, hunt for dragon eggs, watch a magic show and a joust and then performed a show of their own with our pet griffin. We also looked at every single weapon for sale and I mean every. single. one.

Renaissance Faire

Since we are testing this week, not much is happening. Therefore, I thought I would show some pictures of things we did pre-blog. We attended the Renaissance Faire in October. It's a yearly family tradition and we've only missed one year in the twelve years that my DH and I have been together. This year, it was especially fun because we were studying the Middle Ages and early Renaissance times. My husband helped Harrison make his Viking costume. There is a ring mail shirt under that "bearskin" vest. I will have to get a picture of the armor when we go to the spring Faire. Melissa and I put together a last minute costume too.

Harrison loves medieval weapons. At the Faire, he was able to use a bow and arrow, shoot a crossbow, throw an axe and "joust" with a lance.

Llamas and Chickens and Goats, Oh My!

In anticipation to starting homeschooling next week, my daughter joined the 4-H group within our support group. For her first meeting, we went to a local farm. They fed the animals (goats, llamas, pony, chickens) and explored the farm. One of the highlights was getting to hold a baby goat that had been born the night before! The other highlight is that we came home with three baby chickens. We will keep the chickens a week or two and then return them to the farm.