UGO! Day 2

 

We stumbled out of bed fairly early despite our rather late night! Part of the fun of unschooling gatherings like this one is that many families will host "funshops"-activities their family enjoys and they want to share with others! Sophia decided to join a funshop that involved hiking down past the lake and back up the other side of the large hill to a spot called "Bald Eagle"....it was a long hike but she conquered it!

 

She was quite proud of herself upon her return! I wasn't able to join her because I had a funshop scheduled to start right around the same time! Body art with Henna, temporary tattoos and sharpie markers!  Everyone seemed to have a really great time playing with the henna and other body art supplies!

Following our Body Art Funshop was the "Kids Market Place" where kids of all ages are encouraged to sell their wares, be that homemade items or items they have that they are ready to pass on to a new owner!  Sophia and her friend Marley shared a table.  Sophia sold homemade earrings and Marley sold her art work!

 

Tori took a liking to a sculpted piece of wood near the fireplace....

 

After the market place (are you tired yet?) there was an "icecream sundae on Friday" event.  Almost all of the families turned out to have icecream sundaes...I think for many families it was "lunch"!

 

After our icecream lunch, we hosted another funshop:  Cardboard boat construction and racing!  The kids were given about 1 1/2 hours to construct a boat out of only three materials:  cardboard, saran type plastic wrap and duct tape.  Fortunately for me the kids were all pretty independent because Tori went into meltdown mode and was pretty much out of control for about 30 minutes until she finally passed out and took a much needed nap!

 

Once the boats were complete we all met down at the lake (YES, another trip up and down the dreaded steps!) to race our boats.  Jacob went and sat in a canoe about 30 yards out into the lake and the kids were supposed to see who could make it out to him and back....we only had a few successful boaters, but everyone had a GREAT time!  Hopefully everyone learned something and if we host boat construction and racing next year they can incorporate what they learned!

 



So back up the steps (sick of hearing about them yet?) and over to dinner.  At least the food was edible, but the burgers and fixings weren't plentiful, only 4 pieces of cheese on the plate for our table of 8 and other tables scrambling to find burgers and fries....at least the all you could eat salad bar helped to fill everyone up!

 

After dinner was movie night, Tori didn't have any desire to sit and watch the movie, kind of bummed me our since I had wanted to see the "Lorax" but she at least decided to behave herself so that I could participate in the "Rye Whiskey Tasting" event!  I had NEVER drank whiskey straight before (and am not sure I would do it ever again) but it was interesting that you could definitely taste a difference in each of the samples, even though they were all rye whiskey.

 

Don't know if it was the whiskey or exhaustion (or a combination of both) but I headed to bed shortly before midnight with Tori at my side and Luke and William nearby.  I am pretty certain that the youngest end of the 10 and over crowd didn't make it in until about 2 AM.....and that the older boys didn't return until about 4:30 AM! It stormed overnight and the air cooled.... So day 2 melts into day 3......