The girls had fun getting ready to go out this afternoon!
Saturday was Dad McGuire’s birthday. He wanted to get his chimney fixed for his present, so Allan and one of his brothers went to help Dad. Then everyone who lived close enough, came by for a surprise party.
Dinner was good and the cake was excellent–we have some great bakers in the family! But the best time was watching everyone interact.
The cousins, no matter the age, played a game of baseball following rules the girls made up to make it a more even game. Nothing could make it really even; the three boys were mostly older than the four girls on the other team and the babies kept switching teams or being “ghost” players or base holders. So, the rules got sillier as the game went along.The adults enjoyed the game, but mostly sat around talking about whatever.
Happy Birthday Opa!
Audrey was invited to teach three first grade classes on butterflies. She prepared a slide show sharing how she started and some things she has learned about Monarchs. Then she read one of her favorite butterfly books, Gotta Go! Gotta Go! by Sam Swope and Sue Riddle, had a question time and interacted with the students for 45 minutes in each class.
All three classes were completely different. Â The first class knew a lot about Monarchs. Â They had raised a few and were bringing in more caterpillars and “critters” for the class to enjoy. Â The caterpillars in the other classes had stopped growing and the students never got to see their full metamorphosis.
All of the children were curious about Audrey’s butterflies, even students we saw in the hallway as we walked between classes. It was a good morning for us as Audrey was able to pass on her love of butterflies to a new group of children.
On Saturday, we enjoyed going to the Gathering at Five Medals, a reenactment of life in the northern Indiana area prior to statehood. This is the first time we have gone for years because of other commitments.  It was a great year to go, the weather was beautiful, there were many reenactors and a lot of new things to see.
Everyone enjoyed different things. Â Megan loved seeing what we are starting to learn in history. Adrian liked the cannons-but not the noise- and the skirmish. Â Mark was fascinated with the different guns and the blacksmith shop. Audrey enjoyed watching the mock skirmish, especially actors who were not sure if they were “still” dead or not. Â Andrea enjoyed watching everything!
While the whole day was great, my favorite part (and Allan’s) was done by Steven Caudill, a descendant of Daniel Boone who shared about Boone’s life. Â He did a great job telling his story and sharing the gospel along with it. Â I would enjoy being able to listen to him again.
This evening Audrey taught a class on Monarchs to fifteen adults, most who are studying to be Indiana Master Naturalists. She did a wonderful job getting her slide presentation ready and sharing what she has learned about butterflies. Since her class last year, she has grown and matured a lot, and she presented a well polished seminar.
After class, one of the gentlemen expressed surprise that she was only thirteen years old. He thought she was at least eighteen or nineteen as composed and mature as she presented herself. Allan, who never heard her presentation, was able to make it to this one and thought she did “pretty good.”