State Botanical Gardens

On Wednesday of last week, we drove out to Athen's to visit the State Botanical Gardens at UGA. I'd never been there and was hoping that the flowers would still be in bloom. I have to admit, I want to go back when I have a bit more time to enjoy the trails.

Once you park, the visitor center is part of the Conservatory. It's not huge, but it definitely has a lot going for it.

These are a couple of close-ups of things inside the conservatory. I didn't get much chance to take a lot of photos. I was put in charge of a group of students. My daughter got some of these with her group for me.

These are outside, not far from the conservatory. There's a series of trails that you can explore as well.

This is my obligatory picture of my kids. It's at a fountain in front of the visitor center.

Chattanooga's Discovery Museum

Last week after the kids and I finished our tour of the Chattanooga Aquarium, we decided to finish the day out at the Discovery Museum. It worked for me to finish a long day in Chattanooga and make the drive worth the time. I "lost" my two here for around an hour playing with the water. This area has a climbing structure as well for the kids (5 and under need someone older with them). The kids went up a couple of times, but came back to the water table each time.

They had an area to explore music and instruments. The girls got the giggles while here.

This was the archaeological (or dinosaur) area. My kids decided the sand was soft like silk and wanted to either a)bring it home with them or b)swim in it. You can guess which they did.

This was the rooftop area. The "swing" is a pulley system. You "race" to the top to ring the bell by pulling yourself up the rope.

There was an art area, a 'medical' area and an 'inventions' area. We couldn't get to the tower (under construction) or the changing exhibit area (also under construction). We did, though, spend around 2 hours here. The kids probably would have stayed longer except that a)the museum was closing not long after we left and b)I didn't want to wait too late before heading home.

All in all, the day was an excellent adventure. Thanks to GCA for doing a trip to the Aquarium, giving us the excuse to explore elsewhere too.

GCA Field Trip - Chattanooga Aquarium

This past Monday, GCA set up a field trip to the Chattanooga Aquarium. It was an opportunity too good to miss, so I packed the kids up and made the 2 hour trip. The littlest one in our group is a penguin fan (my guys love 'em too) and was very excited to see these guys.

These are all fresh water rays. Love the colors on them.

We easily spent an hour in each of the buildings out there. I probably didn't take as many pictures as I should have. The ones that we did take, I had to be selective of as most came out blurry or dark. So, I picked the 3 "best" of the rest and present them to you here.

The kids had a blast. We divided it up by doing the first building, stopping for lunch at the Mellow Mushroom and then moving on to the second building. From there we had ice cream at Ben & Jerrys and then went out to the Discovery Museum. I'll show you the pictures from that part another time.

It did make for a great all-day outing, though. The kids were happy but tired when we got home.

Hidden gem in Roswell

My kids went on a field trip with one of the Social Studies teachers at GCA. We went to the Roswell visitor center, where we learned something about the history of city. The focus for the group was primarily the civil war time frame.

From there we went on a short hike. Behind "The Mills" (and just down from the visitor center) is the old mill machinery shop and a covered bridge. The bridge crosses Vickery Creek.

There are several trails you can follow. We crossed the bridge and followed it back to the dam.

It was a gorgeous day for the hike. We only did a portion of the trail, though I'd like to go back and do the rest of it. We did return back to the visitor center before heading home. I got this shot of my two before we left.

Braselton & Mayfield

I took the kids out to Braselton to visit the Mayfield Visitor Center. I'd heard of the tours ending and center closing, so on their day off from school, we made the drive. Unfortunately, tours stopped on Friday, Oct. 14th. The visitor center closes at the end of the month. They recommend calling Mayfield and asking them to reconsider this.

The front of the Visitor Center

We weren't allowed to use our cameras on the tour, but I can summarize it. We started with a video about the history of Mayfield Dairies. We were then led back to view the processing area (homogenizing/etc) for the milk. From there we moved down a bit to see the lab where they test the milk. They test it as soon as it's brought in on the trucks and again randomly on the lines.

Our 4th stop was to see where the trucks came in and were unloaded and to view a second video about how the containers are made. We didn't get the chance to enter any of these rooms. They were all viewed through windows. My kids still thought it was interesting, though, especially to get a chance to ask questions of our tour guide about what we DID see.

We returned to the Visitor Center/Gift Shop. They have several displays in the room showing the history of the company. This was one of them.

I think the highlight of the tour was having ice cream afterward.

This was outside (of course) and the kids just had to visit it. Which meant that I just had to get a photo of them with it.

Decorating Cup Cakes

One of the GCA teachers had an outing in downtown Duluth this past week. We went to a new bakery called Tie Dye 4. They do parties and more. We actually started the outing outside, then moved inside for the fun part of decorating cupcakes. I think the kids enjoyed themselves.

Starting with the frosting..

Adding sprinkles, reeses cups and lots of other stuff..

The finished products which didn't last long..

Kinsey Family Farm

Several of the teachers at GCA coordinated an outing at Kinsey Family Farm. It was advertised as 'science' related, but didn't quite meet the goal I was expecting. It was a nice day to get out and an excuse to 'skip school', though we really didn't. The farm itself is mostly a Christmas Tree farm. They did have pumpkins for sale.. A pond full of LARGE catfish the kids could feed.. Goats to pet and feed.. And lots of trees to see..

I don't think this is somewhere I'd normally go. My only excuse is that it was a teacher excursion. I think the youngest of my bunch is the main one to enjoy it.

Boy in the House

My son 'worked' as a page for the Georgia House of Representatives Friday. We got there early (as indicated by our packet, but earlier than necessary apparently), so one of the door keepers let us onto the floor for a quick picture.

The pages ran notes and papers from people outside to the representatives inside. They looked constantly busy to me, though my son said 'not really'. At the end of it, my son received a certificate signed by our actual representative (BJ Pak), $10 and a button. They took a picture of him with the Speaker of the House and our representative which will be mailed to us later. I asked my son if he'd like to do it again, his reply "eventually".

Jimmy Carter Museum

After we finished with Fernbank on Monday, we had time to kill before going to the orthodontist to have 3 more brackets fixed in my son's mouth. I decided that since this was maybe 2 minutes out of the way, that this would be a great detour. I've never been there, so I was feeling nosy. My kids were bored not long into it (they'd had enough culture/history for the day), but tolerated me and my whim. They did enjoy the outside garden area, though.

Student Advocacy Day

I talked with my eldest after we had finished the day out. He was pointing out what he thought was most fascinating (and what he took notes on). The first is how much each county spends on each student to give them their education. It's a good thing he's interested in this as it will definitely affect him as he grows.

The second fact that he took away was something an unexpected speaker gave us. He was quoting facts/figures from the Fulton County Jail. I may have some of the numbers wrong, but they're approximately correct. One - approx. 89% of the inmates are african-american males. Of those, approx. 80% did not graduate high school. Of those approx. 70% read at a 3rd grade level or below. It reinforced in my son's mind the importance of a good education. The question it raised for ALL of the kids there, is WHY do they drop out? What can they do about it? Maybe one of these kids will be the one to figure it all out. Certainly the rest of the adults haven't been able to.

What pulled my son in to both of these, though, is that both had facts/figures/statistics to back them up. It was very interesting to see what he pulled out and what he will retain.

Student advocacy & visiting the Capitol

A friend of mine is very involved in PTA and is a legislative liason. Through her, I heard about a program called "Student Advocacy Day" out at the capitol. It was a chance for middle/high schoolers to find out more about what's going on legislatively that affects them as well as their rights. We were among the first to arrive, though we weren't long waiting for the others. There were around 300 students there. Not only did they have several adults speak, they had kids from various schools talk as well. Presenting information on HOPE, illegal immigration, funding for education, bullying and more. After the talking was done, we adjourned for lunch over at one of the government buildings. We then wandered over to the Capitol itself. We had planned to sit in on one of the sessions (either Senate or House), but they had broken off into committee meetings by that point. True, we still could have stayed, but after looking around, the kids were ready to go home. We'll arrange to go back another day to listen, or listen in through the web.