river banks

I drove a bit farther then normal to have a picnic at a park with a larger playground.  I thought this might be a little switch up from our daily forest walks.  The kids were interested in watching the ducks and then they said they wanted to go on a walk in the forest.  I was surprised that they would pick that over slide and swings.  They have a serious love for the outdoors.

So we went to the river banks and threw rocks & sticks in the water.  In addition they like to throw flowers, leaves, crackers etc. to see if it will sink or float down the river. 

caterpillars

We went on a 2 mile (mile out, mile back) hike with the kids this past weekend.  As we walked over a bridge we spotted a nest of caterpillars.  "Dad"said they always had caterpillar nests in their apple trees growing up.  I had never seen one before.  I thought it was fascinating.  A couple days later we found a caterpillar (same type) at grandmas house.  We have a poster up of the "Life Cycle of a Butterfly" and this brought it to life for us.

barrel

We went to Flower World and picked out plants for our barrel.  Pepper kept picking out flowers.  We did get a variety of flowers but we had to explain most flowers like a lot of sun and we are putting it in a shady place. Tabor and dad did the planting.  Pepper watered it.  Kitt loves digging in dirt.  In order to keep her out of the barrel I fed her lunch on the porch so she could be with everybody, but stuck where she couldn't tear things apart. 

ocean in edmonds

The first thing animal we noticed was a starfish.  They were all over.  We also found shrimp, crabs (both big and little), fish, blue heron, geoduck, mussels and anemones.  

salmon berries

On our walk we spotted salmon berries.  The kids love them, and they don't have thorns. Perfect combination.  I pointed out the types of berries we do & don't eat. 

 

When we returned Tabor took the bread that had been rising and shaped them into balls.



bug like creatures

Today we stuck around our house/neighborhood.  That is all we needed to find bits of nature.  Pepper found a spit bug.  It had just poured rain (usually it just sprinkles) and we found a bee trying to dry off so they could fly again.  Tabor remembered that when we take a bee out of the swimming pool it has to dry off before it can fly again.  I was so glad he made that connection.  Also, on the side of our house were hundreds of baby spiders all bunched together (that is until Tabor blew them).  Lots of great finds today. 

Garden Fairy

I let Pepper pick out the fairy & colors and paint the whole thing on her own (although I did suggest sleeves to the strapless dress).  She has such a high level of concentration.  We get it back next Saturday... cant wait to see how well it turned out!

Girl Time

This morning we walked through a neighborhood garage sale.  I got 4 boxes of "Hooked on Math" that were un-opened.  I have always had a hard time grasping onto math that I don't understand what to use it for in "real life".  These boxes have money, beans and other items that teach math in a practical way.

The boys (dad and tabor) are camping out this weekend.  So it is girl time for us! We went in grandma's hot tub tonight and tomorrow we are going to paint pottery.

Peoms, Art & Nature Walk

As a family we are working on memorizing short poems. Right now we are working on "Reflection".  Peppers favorite thing to work on is art.  She took both a fish and cat and drew a picture of them. She is a natural artist.  At lunch time we went on our daily nature walk.  

webbed feet

 

Pepper LOVES to know things.  She asked Tabor "do you know why ducks have webbed feet?" and then she answered her own question "because it helps them swim".  We began checking all the birds we saw, to see if they were swimmers... ducks yes, chickens no, robins no, geese yes, peacocks no! I love that I don't have to bring learning subjects up, they just come up. 

holes in leaves

Tabor was curious of why there were holes in some of the leaves.  We pretended we were detectives and looked for clues.  Then Pepper spotted a slug on the stem.  And then we spotted another and another.  Pepper said "this is like a slug world!". Tabor started flipping over leaves and spotting slugs.  We are into sticky creatures lately. 

 

We found a tree that had been struck by lightning (a LONG time ago).  It was hollowed out. And since a new tree had grown on top.  It made a great little hide out.  We had our snack there.  Kitt is carrying around the trail mix, I swear that girl is forever hungry. 

A portion of the trail went by the river.  We didn't spend a lot of time there because the water was moving super fast. We will have to go back with dad sometime soon.