Nature Walking

Grandma always has the best ideas!

A few Wednesdays ago, Judy scheduled an 

"Art With Grandma" day.

This one was a little different.  It included a nature walk.

A nature walk!

I absolutely LOVE nature walks.

And what a beautiful day for a nature walk!

Can you believe that these pictures 

were taken on March 28?

I think that when we got back into the truck to go home, the temperature read 74 degrees!

Judy and the boys decided that they would like to take their nature walk at our town's park.

I absolutely LOVE the park!

Look at the beautiful Red Bud trees!

Carrie admires them every year.

One of these days, we will remember 

to plant one in our yard.

One that Charlie doesn't think 

is her own personal chew toy.

Josh and Matthew...Nature Walkers!

Here is the creek that runs through the park.

It's just calling our names...

But before heading to the creek, Matthew needs to fix the bridge.

Grandma and the boys are taking a look at the different plants growing close to the creek.

Take a look at that giant dandelion!

I love dandelions. 

The path that leads to the creek.

So charming!

It's even more charming when occupied by two little boys with buckets.

Time for some fun at...

Sorry.

Time for some fun IN the creek.

"Hey, Grandma!  Look what I found!"

I must take a commercial break to show Carrie's fabulous Pinterest braid!

:)

Now...back to the nature walk...

...and wade.

What happens if I break this rock open with a hammer?

Carrie found the perfect skipping stone.

See how perfectly it fits in her hand?

And I believe William found a "kerplunking" rock.

William was determined to find the biggest rock that would make the biggest splash.

Discovery...

Time to move down the creek a bit.

It took quite a bit of convincing...and the promise to return to the creek before going home...but we did eventually headed onto another trail leading deeper into the park.

The boys weren't the only ones to get dirty on this trip!

Grandma came home with some good ol' park mud too.

Camo Tree

I want a Camo Tree!

Run!

Run as fast as you can!

We'll count this as PE time too!

Matthew declared himself the winner.

Josh is doing a little adventuring on his own...

Squirrel!

And here we are.

Back at the creek.

Enjoying sunny spring days with Grandma,

Double Dream

This is Charlie.

My, how she has grown.

Let me tell you a bit about Charlie.

She is naughty.

She doesn't mean to be.  

She tries really hard to please me, I know.

Last fall, I finally planted daffodil bulbs.

Finally.

Every spring, I admire everyone else's daffodils while simultaneously giving myself a facepalm.

But not this year. 

This year, I have enjoyed the fruit of my labor.

So, why do I mention Charlie?

Because this winter, I looked out the kitchen window and saw her carrying something around in her mouth.

Upon further investigation, I discovered it was one of my daffodil bulbs!

I saw my spring daffodil bubble burst 

right before my eyes.

I yelled at Charlie to drop it.

Drop it now!

But she just sat there looking at me.

With the bulb in her mouth.

Drool escaping around the bulb.

My bulb!

Yesterday, while I was outside admiring my daffodils and being thankful that there were some left to admire, William said to me, "There's one of those flowers out by the garage.  It has little purple flowers around it.  

Pretty cool."

Could it be?

Could Charlie have planted the bulb as a gesture of friendship and repentance?

Could it be?

THE bulb that Charlie carried around in her slobbery mouth?

It just has to be!

Although, instead of being purposely planted by my gardener dog, I think that it may of been 

an accidental planting.

One in which the bulb fell out of Charlie's mouth and rolled down the hill out of her reach.

How can I tell?

I can still see the bulb.

Matthew couldn't help but admire the lone daffodil.

 "'Mell it Mommy!  It 'mells like 'ping."

Pride?

Confusion?

Guilt?

Apathy?

The reason we were outside in the first place...beside the fact that it was an absolutely beautiful day...was because William spotted a pair of ducks in our creek.

This is not the first time that
ducks have been seen there. 

I think that we have seen a pair of ducks almost every spring waddling in our creek.

I remember one specific time--four years ago
to be exact--that we ran out to see the ducks.

It didn't end very nicely.

I didn't get pictures of the ducks that time.

But I did this time...right before Charlie spotted them and they flew away.

My Mother's Day 2010 gift...a Cleveland Pear tree.

Josh told me yesterday that he accidentally hit it
with his frisbee.

And then very quickly, he said, "But it was so pretty!
It looked like it was snowing!"

It is a beautiful little tree.

My carpet of forsythia blossoms.

Paul and I planted a forsythia outside our bedroom window many years ago.

My dream was that someday, it would bloom all big and yellow and make my bedroom shimmer.

Some springs I have beautiful blossoms.

Some springs I have nothing.

Last fall, the forsythia was huge and overgrown.

Paul and I talked about cutting it way back.

My neighbor told me that I should do a little research to find out if it bloomed on old wood or new.

I had never heard that before!
(Thank you, Tonya!)

I googled it and found out that forsythias bloom on
old wood in the spring.

So...if I wanted blossoms, then I needed to trim it AFTER it bloomed in the spring.

Wow!

Dream come true!

I wish that my pictures could show
how my bedroom shimmers!

One morning there was nothing, and by afternoon,
it has bloomed!

I went out to Walmart and found forsythia sprigs so that I could decorate my wreath.

Can you see my daffodils in bloom out there?

Double dream come true.

Enjoying the fanciness of spring,

Groundhog Day, 2012 Edition

I am really, truly working on a blog post or two all about Carrie's 16th birthday.

Really I am.

I've just been a little sentimental about it all, so I'm taking it slowly.

Very slowly.

So...maybe by July I will be able to post pictures and tell what we did.  :)

Until then, I decided that I better blog about our life right now.

If the rest of the year flies by like January did, then it will be 2013 before I get around to posting anything.

February!

This is one of my most favorite months of the year! 

It seems to be a bright month.

Maybe because the sun is in just the right position to shine brightly and warmly through the back windows of our home.

Maybe because there are no leaves on the trees, so the sun reaches the corners in our home that it doesn't during other times of the year.

Maybe because there are so many really fun holidays!

In all honesty, Groundhog Day is one of my favorites!

I tune in early in the morning to watch the fun happening at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

I love all the celebration and hope that one day I can be there to be a part of it all.

Seriously!  It's on my Bucket List!

Until then, we celebrate here in our home several thousand miles away...

Matthew is mimicking our groundhogs.

And here is the 2012 Gaggle of Groundhogs!

Gaggle just sounds good.

I actually googled it and found out that groundhogs are loners, so they don't have a name for what a group of groundhogs would actually be called.

Come to think of it, I never have seen two groundhogs running around together.

Breakfast time!

This year, we also made a Groundhog Mix.

We are going to the ice rink this afternoon to play Broom Ball with our homeschool group.

Since we are supposed to take a snack to share, we decided to make something that goes along with our Groundhog Day celebration.

Peanut Butter Cap'n. Crunch, M&M's, and Chocolate Groundhog Cookies (a.k.a. Teddy Grahams).

Funny thing.

As a kid, I was scared pretty badly by a groundhog. 

I wrote about it last year in my Groundhog Day post.

I just have to wonder when my attitude and affections changed, because now when I see Phil come out of his oaken stump, I just ooooohhhhhhh and aaaaaaahhhhhhhh!

The kids do too.

We're  an oooooohhhhhhhing, aaaaaaaahhhhhhhing bunch sitting there by the computer.

Enjoying six more weeks of winter,