Weekly Wrap-Up: The One with our First Busch Gardens Trip of the Season

Ahhh! Spring and, finally, spring-like weather, are here.  And spring at our house means one thing.  Weekly trips to Busch Gardens.   It's been open for almost a month but this crazy weather has put off our first visit.

But finally we made it.  We try to go every week or two until public school lets out.  Then we avoid it all summer until school is back in session and enjoy beautiful fall days there.  It's open on Fridays and that makes it perfect for home schoolers like us.  We enjoy perfect weather and no crowds.  The perks for home schoolers just keep on coming.

Here are the highlights of our day.

The Gang minus Kayleigh

BFFs

Home schoolers are weird. LOL

Whoooo!!

Kayleigh's very first roller coaster ride.  Mackenzie ditched her bff because she wanted to ride on the same train as Kayleigh.

Her BFF's first time on Apollo's Chariot

They seem to think it's fun

Signs of spring from our glorious Creator

Woot!  Saved me a trip to the mall.

We did do school the rest of the week.  We're still studying WW2.  Mackenzie got her worst "grade" ever.  A 73% on a math test.  I think she'll start checking her work now because that crushed her.  LOL

We finally were able to finish our first lesson on insects because the weather decided to cooperate.  We were able to find some insects to experiment with.  The second experiment was really...something.  It was called the Lazarus Experiment.

We were supposed to find an insect.  Hold it under water for 3 minutes, or until you think it's dead.  (I know, right?)  Then lay it on a paper towel and cover it with table salt, then gently blow it off.  Wait for 5-10 minutes.  The insect should "come back to life" and crawl away.  Should, she says.

It doesn't drown because it can close the spiracles in it's abdomen.  Which is helpful to little creatures stuck out in big rains.  When they're dry enough they can open their spiracles and go on their merry way.  The salt speeds up the drying process.

So we caught this guy.  We called him Lazarus.

We attempted to drown him.  It's unnerving.

Lazarus wasn't having it.  He was under for over 8 minutes and just kept crawling around like it was a party.  We kept chasing him with the spoon.   He refused to "die".  So we set him free.  We're not sure if we're willing to attempt this again, although we are curious.

Be sure to pop over to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to check out other wrap-ups.