Grass Valley Draft Horse Fair

Last week we took a jaunt up to beautiful Grass Valley, near Auburn, CA. It was such a perfect, (nearly) fall day. My mom has wanted to take my girls up to see this event for a year and we made sure not to miss it. Both girls love horses and these are HORSES! They are so huge. But they are one of God's most awesome creation. Just looking at them, you can see how powerful they are. There were Percherons, Clydesdales, Belgiums, Shires, Suffolks, and American Cream breeds. Unfortunately, because we went the very first day, the fair itself was not completely up and running and the performances weren't scheduled until later that night, which for a number of reasons, we could not stay for. But we enjoyed admiring these beautiful animals and standing in awe of their stature. Next year we are planning to make a full day of it, on a Friday or Saturday, of course!

Scabs!

Gross, huh? Moving onward in our study of the circulatory system, which is so fascinating I might add, we discussed how the body protects itself from infection. Enter - red and white blood cells and platelets! Yahoo! This is a fun little project that we did. First I cut up a bunch of "platelets" and " red and white blood cells". Then I cut a few large holes from a piece of black construction paper and laid tape over the holes. Then I told a story about Billy -- Billy was a daring kind of guy who liked to do exciting stunts on his bike...." You can figure out where blood came in. So Billy has this accident and scrapes up his whole arm (the black construction paper). Who come rushing to the rescue but our heroes, the blood cells and platelets! The girls had to cover the sticky opening entirely to prevent infection. As they did that, I did little cheers for the "players". It was a short but fun exercise. Even Dayna was singing "blood cells, blood cells!".

Blood Cells - Our Heroes!

We've been back to school since mid-August but this is the first time we've had to post. The first two weeks were about getting back into routine and the following week, we went to D.C. for an extended field trip! So, now we are back home and back in the thick of things.

Psalm 91 - we have been studying how God protects us. He protects us and spares us from things we don't even know about; He created our body to protect itself in numerous ways; He gives us wisdom to implement family rules to protect us, etc.

Blood cells are two of the ways God has created within us to protect us so we did a fun project to recreate a blood cell. Not only fun but yummy! First we made raspberry/cranberry Jell-O.

Then we placed the Jell-O (the hemoglobin) in sandwich bags (the membrane), along with a grape (I thought this was supposed to be the nucleus -- but guess what? Red blood cells do not have nuclei.) After lunch, we enjoyed eating our yummy project! And added a white blood cell (whipped cream) to join us!

Dayna enjoyed being in on this "smells good" project!