Climbing Trees

Trip to Cook Forest

As promised, here are some of the pics from this year's trip to Cook Forest in lovely western PA.

We took a couple of canoes down the river, and although I can't say I'd repeat the process in the same conditions, we will have lots of memories for years to come...

From the top of the Fire Tower...

As you can see, many of the leaves have gone through their brilliantly colored phase to the mostly brown phase (those are technical terms, don't ya know).  But the landscape is no less stunning because of it.

One of my favorite places in the park is the Tom's Run area.

There is a lovely little stream that empties into the Clarion River.

And lots of fun bridges to run across.

 

Paths to take into the Cathedral Forest area - an area of old growth forest.

Just beautiful.

You shall not pass!!!!!  (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Everyone had a great time.

Nature Hike

I'm back!  I've been feeling overwhelmed with everything, so I thought we would take an afternoon and head over to our local organic farm for a nature hike.  They have a few trails going through the woods there.  It's so lovely and peaceful.

We set off down the trail.

One by one.

With our nature bags, set for some exploring.

Following up the rear?  Our very own woodland flower fairy.  I picked up this cute little costume at our local thrift store.  Sweetpea has been wearing it ever since.  Woodland flower fairies always always need their butterfly rain boots.  Even if there is not one single chance of rain.

We wound through the woods, sometimes happy, sometimes not quite so.  Hooking up with the dirt road, we headed back to the pumpkin and corn fields.  It was a scorcher that day - up at 90 - and everyone was hot and tired.  But they were troupers. 

On our way back, we turned aside to do a little more exploring

with munch and our flower fairy leading the way.

Lots of time was spent studying this small grove of trees...

looking for magical creatures, interesting bugs, and noteworthy plants.

While I sat back here and took it all in.

You can probably just barely make them out in the picture.  I was set to guard the food and bags from any ferocious being that came along wanting a granola bar.

We left the farm that day with a bag of butternuts, a green cabbage, several armfuls of field corn for decorating and projects, and another adventure under our belts.

Summer's Simple Things - Scavenger Hunts

Life (ok, really my sister-in-law) handed me a bowl of

elderberries.  So, naturally, I set off to make some jam.  If you have ever cleaned elderberries, you know what long process it can be.  And how messy.  Definitely a task to be done outside.  But if your kids were outside with you all morning picking blueberries, then they know how hot it was.  So they need a little encouragement.  It was evening, and hence it was cooling down.  From my long lost bag of tricks, I pulled out the scavenger hunt.  They were game.

I gave each of them a basket.

And an age appropriate list of items.  Sweetpea, being only just 3, was asked to find a stevia leaf (her favorite go to herb in the herb garden) and a yellow flower.  Boy's list was a little bit longer - a yellow flower, 2 different edible leaves, a red raspberry (if he could find one), and a tree leaf.

Of course, he had to take a snack along with him on this long journey.

Munch had a longer list still - an edible leaf, an edible flower, a pink flower with a long stem (I wanted one for a vase), an evergreen needle, a deciduous tree leaf, a ripe tomato, and a jewel weed seed pod - NOT broken.

Each time they returned with their basket full of findings, I gave them another list.  This can be a great teaching tool.  You can ask the kids to find anything they might be learning about.  Anything to teach them more in depth information about their environment.  You could even turn this into a picture scavenger hunt.  Give the kid a camera and ask them to photograph all kinds of things - a bug on a plant, a worm in the ground, a maple tree, an interesting stick, the veins of a leaf, 2 leaves with different vein structures, the bark of 2 different trees,....   It's so much fun to come up with things for them to find.

Inevitably, this kind of adventure sparks the interest for another kind of adventure.

A road trip.

Yikes!!!  Sweetpea is driving!  Slow down, sweetie.

I don't know if you can tell what's going on here.  But the entire time Sweetpea was running down the driveway full steam with a loaded wagon chasing her, Boy was keeping up with her and sticking his foot under the wheel of the wagon.  Speed bumps I can only presume.  Since I had already put down the camera and happened to be making tremendous progress on those elderberries, my hands were again covered with sticky purple juice.  It took me a bit of time to get the camera out, and I only was able to catch the action on the way back up the driveway.  Not quite as impressive of a picture, but fun nevertheless.

What fun things are you doing this summer?  Join Kim over at The Inadvertent Farmer for more Summer's Simple Things!!  It really is a lot of fun!!!

Summer's Simple Things - Nature Bags

For Christmas last year, I put together nature bags as a gift for each of my kids.  The kids love them.  When you put together a bag for exploring nature, you should keep a few things in mind, such as the child's age, how much you think they can comfortably carry, and what they like to do outside.  You can put in some basic supplies (I had soooo much fun doing this) and then let them add to or remove things according to their whims.

Munch's bag (she's 10) looks like this.

I used an old field bag we acquired from someone.  It has lots and lots of great pockets (I love pockets!).  She has some Peterson's fields guides for birds, wildflowers, and caterpillars (I highly recommend Peterson's, they are wonderful!), an animal tracks pamphlet, compass, see through ruler, colored pencils, magnifying glass, notebook, regular pencil and eraser, water bottle, bandaids, alcohol wipes, and an orange carabiner. 

Boy's (who is 6) changes daily.  Right now his looks like this.

For his, I used an old newspaper bag and relined the inside with canvas so I could add in lots of cool pockets.  His has a couple field guides for trees and insects, a magnifying glass, compass, notebooks, colored pencils, a water bottle, and ... ahem... some plastic dinosaurs.  All the important stuff for my fun loving 6 year old!

My littlest Sweetpea rarely carries hers, unless she is wanting to be like one of her older siblings.  But her's (she'll be 3 on Friday) looks like this.

Just the basics for her - a notebook and fun monkey pencil, a magnifying glass, and a hanky.  I made her bag out of the bottom of a ripped up pair of girls jeans and braided shoe laces for the handle.

I tuck in a granola bar or a container full of nuts when they are heading out the door.

Join Kim for some more summer time stuff and her Summer's Simple Things series!!!