Slices of Life

We were planning a wonderful park today! We packed up kites, bubbles, trucks, hula hoops and jump ropes and headed to a beautiful park along the shoreline that I hadn't been to since Ian was a baby. It was a fabulous day with sunny skies, a cool breeze, and everyone had a wonderful time.  The boys dug in the sand, flew kites, got wet and dirty.  They ran around the beach, jumped off rock formations and found sand creatures and shells. We saw tons of birds, dogs and kites (though most of the kites were stuck in the trees!).  We saw excavators on the beach, fighter planes flying overhead and we ran through the fields and grass. We walked around the mansion and it's gardens.  They rapped and made music using water bottles and an abandoned dog bowl. It was a fabulous day!  Alec flies his kite the mole crabs we found (though we had to look up what they were when we got home!)  the bottom of the mole crab Throwing rocks in the channel from one side to the other  ...

I came outside to find Alec and Evan excited about a baby painted turtle they found.   We often find creatures all around our backyard but this was by far the cutest! Next thing I knew they were building him a home. They took the dam they had built a few days ago (and where they found the turtle) and filled it a bit more with water, added a large rock for him to sun himself, added some moss and greenery for him to hide in and hopefully eat.   They ended up adding a few small sticks that they put half in the water and half out so he could crawl out when he wanted and also use them for sunning himself.   They filled a smaller hole with water next to the larger hole so they'd have a place to put him out of harms way when working on improving his home.   They wanted me to go in the house and find books on caring for painted turtles so I did one better and brought my laptop outside. We looked up:  "what do baby painted turtles eat?"...

We headed to Southwick's Zoo today, just myself and the younger two boys.  We walked all around the zoo checking out the baby animals, taking a train ride through the elk forest, and seeing what was new for this year. We just love visiting in the spring and seeing all the new baby animals too. We've been coming to Southwick's Zoo for 8 years and it's amazing to watch how much it grows and transforms from year to year.  New rides, attractions, exhibits and animals.  They're constantly working to make it a better zoo and it shows. We had a great day and learned even more about the animals.  Alec talked to several zoo keepers set up around the zoo and got to see a gorilla hand, foot and skull up close.  We got to examine a giraffe's skull and compare one of their vertebrae with ours. It was great. It was also pretty hot in the sun and it was crowded so by 1 o'clock my boys were ready to call it quits.   learning about the giraffe Alec loves the birds  White...

Our weekend started with Evan's soccer practice.  Look how hard he's working! After soccer I took the two younger boys to the Horizon Wings Raptor Rehabilitation and Education center.  I had read about their Earth Day celebration through a homeschooling group e-mail and thought it sounded like something Alec would just love. We stayed for 3 hours! The place was actually very small but they had so many wonderful programs and people handling the birds so the kids could see them up close.  It was wonderful-- and cheap too! Once we paid our $9 admission pretty much everything was included (though donations were asked for and in total we spent $20). The boys got temporary tattoos painted on. Evan's dragon tattoo Alec's tattoo of a flower and some butterflies They filled out raffle tickets for prizes, and had tons of snacks, baked goods, and lemonade. Snack time! There were owl pellets for the kids to dissect and handouts that they ...