Spiky Balls

we have been out lots enjoying the beautiful weather (except for the rainy days last week.) when we went to Clark park last week to get our new nature tote bag (birds), the park ranger was leading a nature walk on fall leaves. It was little old for the boys but I learned some and we got great coloring books which helped us learn to recognize some trees. We went around the yard and ID'd the trees. I had the great ID to sign the first letter of each tree's name but it's kind of hard to tell now so you'll have to ID them yourself- we saw white oak, red oak, pine, maple (with helicopters), holly, and sweet gum:

C holding a spiky ball from our sweet gum!

so much time outside, so few pics

so we have been spending a lot of time in the great outdoors but somewhere between the diapers and the strollers I haven't gotten many pics. The boys (and I) have been learning and just enjoying the wonderful fall.

Just this week, we went to a park ranger led scavenger hunt at Lake Rim Park "Who's afraid of the park?" The boys learned about spiders, snakes, owls, vultures, and other "scary" animals. Now we know there are 6 types of poisonous snakes and 2 types of poisonous spiders in NC. The boys loved all of it- talking to the park ranger, the walk, the fun things at each stop- finding eggs, throwing frisbees, sticking spiders on webs, ... lots of fun and learning too! and we got to go with friends too!

Then we went to Clark Park the next day. The boys loved seeing all the animals inside the Nature Center- now we know that a salamander feels like the inside of your cheek. We went on a great nature walk (the Bear Trail) where we saw lots of different kinds of trees- one day I might even be able to identify them without a sign. We did find lots of acorns and looked at the different shaped leaves. Earlier in the week we made leaf prints I wish I'd taken a picture of- next time!

At Clark Park we also picked up a nature tote- Bugs- so we've been collecting bugs, identifying spiders. we're looking forward to getting more of the totes in the future.

Beautiful

I really should add some pictures- it's wonderful out now. Such great weather. I love hearing K pointing out the plant and spider that we know. (maybe more than one) I really wish I knew more- we picked some leaves up today on our walk in the woods and tried to figure out what plant they were.

Learning so much

we've been enjoying making a point getting out in nature and watching. I haven't been great at taking pictures but we're enjoying learning- even if I still call plants the wrong thing. we went out this morning and spent a long time working on our "weed gardens." We found rollie pollies, snails, earthworms. then as we were taking our weed gardens out into the woods, we saw a huge spider web. K took one look at the spider and said "Mommy it's a spiny bellied spider." I'd never heard of those until last week when I googled the strange looking spider and found out that it's super common- who knew? Here's a baby duck that we watched outside the condo at Disney. We took tons of pics in Animal Kingdom.

we also got our first pet-Fuzzi Wuzzi- although I think that Florida was too warm for him. After briefing losing and refinding him, we put him into a new home for the trip to Florida. The second day there I thought he'd been squooshed. turns out he'd started his cocoon (a few months early) but he doesn't seem to be making a ton of progress- he is still in his home so we'll check on him later.

We also made a trip to Cape Fear Botanical Gardens which was great. We enjoyed a scavenger hunt and learning about the different plants there. I thought I'd learned about hostas until today I confused an elephant ear plant for a hosta- much to learn!

First nature post

so I used to think people with multiple blogs were a little crazy but now I'm so excited about our nature studies that we needed a new one just for that! we've been spending lots of time outdoors looking at all the amazing things God made. In the last few days, I've learned lots about bugs- especially spittle bugs. I didn't take pictures but we found bug eggs on some of our weeds. I didn't know what they were but thanks to google found out they were spittle bug eggs. then I started to tell the boys that the bugs all over the front yard were stink bugs but noticed they were never stinky and learned they were grown up spittle bugs.

I'm definitely learning something new every day. Here are some more bugs we've been watching.