Today two friends and I took this crew of children to Butts Mill Farm, which is about 1.5 hours south of Atlanta. It is very close to Roosevelt's Little White House in Warm Springs, GA, as well. This part of Georgia is very pretty, and I'm thankful it's just a short hour's drive from our home.
I was surprised that the farm was not very crowded - considering it was 70 degrees and the last day of Spring Break for most schoolchildren in the Atlanta area. It was so wonderful to spend the day with my friends from church, Karen and Melissa, and all of our children (who are also great friends!).

The farm is set right by a river, with a covered bridge and lots of fun things for the kids to do in the summer time. Mental note: come back here in the summer when it's 90 degrees and everyone is miserably hot. The water trampoline sounds particularly fun, along with the slides going into the water and tubing. If it wouldn't have been for the highly active four and five year boys in tow I could have just sat by the river and read a book -- but instead we were patrolling the boys to make sure shoes didn't get too squishy and no one fell in!

One thing the children all loved was the track where they could ride bikes and scooters. There were some very neat Razor trikes with castor wheels on the back that made turning very fun! The scooters, called tri scooters, don't seem to be that expensive and would be a fun and different thing to have for your kids. Or, as you can see from the picture, they are fun for moms, too!

We loved seeing all of the animals at the farm, and the children got to ride horses and feed other animals, too. We are so removed from this, living the suburban life we do, that the kids are so enamored by farm life. It's kind of sad, and I want to make more of an effort to expose them to these sorts of things. I think this is where homeschooling is going to be great for us. We will have the time to do these things as a family and not be stressed about meeting the demands of a public school schedule. When I look at my children's sweet faces and see the joy they are experiencing on our journey together, I KNOW I am doing the right thing for them.

I just regret that I waited until third grade to make this decision for my precious Anna, and that I didn't have the courage to trust my heart and pay attention to God's gentle nudges and try it sooner!

As I type this post, Anna is curled up in the family room reading the third Harry Potter book.... she started Wednesday evening and is almost finished! Grant and his dad are upstairs racing some Mario Kart Wii together (big surprise), and I am looking forward to relaxing with my current book, "Crow Lake", when everyone is in bed! Enjoy the weekend!