Scheming

One of the hardest parts of homeschooling for us is the "little sister effect."  When I leave Elsa to do a section on her own for a few minutes, I have to keep checking on her, because I frequently find her sister peering over her shoulder or plotting some scheme of a tea party or other fanciful event.  

And yes, we have quickly achieved homeschool high style - jammies and bathrobes.

Big Sister Helper

She was upset about something

And needed some Daddy-cuddlin'.

the Vulcan

Birmingham was built up around the mining and steel trade (it has a natural abundance of iron ore, limestone, and coal - the ingredients of steel), and this history is commemorated with a huge statue of Vulcan overlooking the city.  I got cheap tickets, so we went!  

I don't find the Birmingham skyline particularly impressive, but we did have fun picking out buildings that we knew.

And we also had fun wearing our sunglasses.

They had a small museum about Birmingham's history and of the statue, which was built in the same era and style as the Statue of Liberty.

It is the world's largest cast iron statue, and perhaps the only one of a Roman god wearing only a blacksmith's apron.  

At the top of the pedestal (you can't actually go up into the statue):

And the best part, running down the hill multiple times with Daddy!

And then even better than best, Daddy took us for treats at Steel City Pops, another nod to Birmingham's history with steel, and the girls thought it was great that they had a silhouette of the Vulcan on the wall, with a Popsicle!

And, though at first I was among the skeptics regarding gourmet popsicles, their Arnold Palmer (sweet tea + lemonade) popsicle won me over.

The outing was a long day for Beatrice, but we enjoyed exploring a bit of our new city.

Playing with the baby

Zoo Photographer

Nora went to visit my mother for a few special days by herself, so Elsa (and Beatrice) and I had a few days to ourselves!  We spent one whole day at the Birmingham Zoo, where Elsa was delighted to go just wherever she wanted without having to take turns with anyone!  Beatrice was a bit sick that day, so she slept almost the whole time in the stroller.  It was really nice to have some substantial one on one time with Elsa.  She became very interested in taking pictures, so it was especially convenient that we could take our time however she wanted.  I didn't actually take too many photos of the animals because I was having too much fun watching Elsa frame her shots!  I'll have to post some of her pictures when we upload them.

Yes, this is a fake hippo in the pond, but Elsa said it would make a good picture anyway because it was so close and she liked the grasses and lily pads:

They have a children's zoo, which is basically a farm petting zoo, so of course we loved that.

And just to prove that we're not from Alabama (as if anyone was really wondering), Elsa is the only child I noticed that wanted a picture with BOTH the Univ. of Alabama and Auburn mascots.

It was a sweet day together with lots of conversation and happy baby who took two very long naps that day.  We spent 8 hours at the zoo!

Circus

One advantage of being in a big city is that the circus comes to town!  And it's a really big one!  

I had never seen a human cannonball before.  I kinda didn't think they did that anymore.  But she came out in all her glitter...

 ...and flew out of the cannon to the other end of the arena!

We managed to get seats together with some of our new friends here.  Two other new friends babysat Beatrice for us.

Nora's favorite part was the Poodle Show:

Joel's favorite was the street acrobats/trampoline act:

and Elsa's favorites were the mermaid trapeze acrobats.  What?  Yep.  Mermaid acrobats.  They didn't do too many tricks, but they did have very sparkly costumes.