Hatfield Marine Science Center Homeschool day

We got  up this morning and after packing up lunches, snacks, drinks, baby gear etc. headed out to Newport Oregon. Daddy took the day off from work to help out with the baby while the girls and I did our activities.

Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center is located next door to the Oregon Coast Aquarium and has a rather nice facility. There is no set charge but suggested donations for those visiting. They hold two "Homeschool days" a year; one in fall and one in the spring. We had planned on trying to do the fall one but it didn't work out scheduling wise so we went for the spring session.
We really lucked out! It was a gorgeous day at the coast! We had to be there by 10 a.m. so it was a really early start out the door for us. The car windows were still iced over. The drive wasn't bad at all and blue skies seemed to go on and on!

We finally arrived and got checked in for the classes, then it was on to discover the center while we waited for them to begin..

Touch tanks and aquariums are always a great hit! We love seeing the colorful fish! I tried getting a good picture of one little guy that seemed intent on hiding at the bottom of the tank in just the wrong spot for me to catch him. Darn it! I'll have to try again the next time we go over.

Once classes got started it was out to the estuary for slurping. Slurping? Well, the tube we use is called a slurper so I guess we went slurping? Anyway we had on our "get muddy" clothes for this part..

So exactly what do you slurp for you might ask...

Ghost Shrimp (and a couple of juvenile dungeness crabs happened to get caught as well).
This female had a lot of eggs!

After all that work it was back to the classroom to grab our stuff and eat some lunch..We sat out in the front and enjoyed the warm sun while eating our sandwiches and snacks. Dominic wanted to play so the girls got into the spirit of things...

Dominic loves it when the girls crawl around with him! After all that it was back to another class...which lasted another hour or so and then it was time for the girls to get out. I wasn't sure which group to put them in so I put them in the class group they would have been in if they were in public school and unfortunately they found it rather long and boring (they finished the experiment rather fast and then had to sit there for 40 minutes while the other kids played). So we decided to head into town and make a couple of stops and walk the historic area.

The girls always love seeing these guys (and gals)! Lots of fun sounds for Dominic to listen to as well. So after a little gawking at the locals we headed towards town and then ran into this scene.

The girls found it rather entertaining! This is on the side of the "Undersea Gardens" aquarium/shop along the boardwalk. After a short stroll through the town we headed home but made a couple of stops for more pictures...

We had a nice time and I'll just have to remember to up their grade level by one the next time we go for the homeschool day so that it's a bit more interesting for them.

In other news we are getting stuff done around the house. We got the baby gate across the front door again.

We do this every year originally we did it so I could open the door and the dog wouldn't get out, but now that Dominic is pretty mobile it's great to have the door open for fresh air and know that he can't get out either! He loves to sit and watch the girls out front or just go over and "check" to see what's happening out there. He also enjoys sitting out in the front in his pack n play or having the girls push him around in a stroller while I'm busy.

Painting is slowly getting done. The girls decided to help out with one of the big walls but wanted to "play" first so they made "cave drawings".

I'm pretty sure there are a couple of kids, a baby and a dinosaur in there!

This weekend they have a party to go to and then it's more work on the house! Hopefully most of the front room will get finished as well as the hall. Then it's the last wall in the living room (we have to empty out all of our bookshelves first) over the week and I'll finish up some of the work in the front garden.