Spring Break

Sean had the Monday and Tuesday after Easter off for Spring Break - thanks to all the snow we'd had this winter, Sean had to go back to school Wednesday instead of having the whole week off.  Monday was a beautiful day and we sprang Clare out of school after lunchtime so we could go on an adventure!  I took them to a wildlife refuge in Medford.

Our first stop at the refuge was the reptile room.  We saw many tanks with slithery, slimy creatures such as this little corn snake:

Sean examined this chart of snakes and was sad that an anaconda was not depicted...

After we'd had our fill of reptiles, we went outside to go see the animals and go on a hike.

Pretty views of the lake:

Turtles on a fallen tree:

The first animal we saw was this bald eagle named Orion - the kids were very impressed...

...and inspired!

A red-tailed hawk:

Clare consults the map - she loves to hold the map when we go places!

We walked around looking at more animals when we came upon this American Crow.  She's a very social bird and likes to greet visitors with a cry of "Awwww HELLO!"  The kids were delighted by this and spent a very long time talking back to the crow and trying to get her to say hello to them again.

After awhile, I was able to tear them away from their new crow friend and we watched a keeper play with a racoon...

... and we admired this cute little fox:

Their second favorite animal was this barred owl - Sean liked that we couldn't really see where the owl's face is.

After we visited with all the animals, we went on a little hike on one of the trails.  We started out on a .75 mile trail and I was a little uncertain that the kids would want to hike that long but the refuge had a clever idea - make the trail a storywalk!  They accomplished this by setting out photocopies of a storybook at intervals along the trail.  So we got to hike and read "Owl Moon" by Jane Yolen.  The book is about a father and child setting out late one night to go "owling" and they end up spotting an owl!

There were also fun facts about owls dispersed throughout the trail:

I stopped the kids and asked them to pose - Clare was not in the mood, despite Sean's best efforts to get her to smile :-)

After our hike, the kids said they were hot and hungry.  Well, the where's the best place to fix that?  Rita's!!

And where's the best place to work off a water ice?  The town playground, of course :-)

Hooray for Spring Break!

First Day of Spring

We started the first day of Spring 2015 by pulling on snowpants and playing outside in the newly fallen snow:

The kids went down the snow slide again and again and again.

Later, I took Sean to a birthday party at an indoor fun place with a skating rink, arcade, bouncy house, and an insane jungle gym.  Sean gave roller skating a try - we went around the rink one time before he decided he wanted to go over to the jungle gym with his friends.

We played a couple of games of air hockey, too :-)

After the party, Sean and I came back home to Clare and Daddy.  The four of us went for a walk to soak up some of the warm sun.  When we got back, the kids wanted to ride the bikes, so we got out their bikes and rode down to the little waterfall and enjoyed the sun setting down on the first day of Spring!

Outside

The weather is so nice out after school these days, so we've been playing at the playground, blowing bubbles, riding bikes, and playing with chalk.  I drew this Yoda for the kids and I was pretty pleased with it and of course, Sean had a great story to go along with it...

"Yoda is flying above our heads and he is coming to our house to bring us presents! Yoda has a walking stick and a 'light-saver' and he will use it against all our enemies!"

After we finished up with chalk on this particular afternoon, we rode bikes down to the creek to see what's going on at the "waterfall."  Sean and Clare made a game of throwing as many sweet gum balls as they could gather into the creek.

The kids really like to come here - they like to look around, throw things into the water, and play hide-and-go-seek.  This is a neat spot in our neighborhood - I even used to take Pepper for a break on long walks on hot days. I'd sit on some rocks and Pepper would work up the courage to try to wade into the water.  

Hide-and-go-seek... Clare is hiding:

Throwing more sweet gum balls:

When we'd had enough of the creek and the woods, Sean hopped back on his bike and Clare trotted along with him while I carried her bike all the way home.