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!

Easter Weekend

We had a wonderful Easter Weekend - we got to spend a lot of time with family and even celebrate a big milestone :-)

Morning hugs:

Dyeing eggs:

Uh-oh!

Date night!

Carousel ride:

Sixty-five Years!!!

Sunday school:

Beach time:

Easter dinner:

Egg Hunt

Happy Easter!  Last weekend, we took the kids to our favorite farm for a hayride and egg hunt.  The hayride seemed a little long since it was pretty darn cold outside but it afforded us a view of the orchards and fields where our CSA produce will come from this summer :-)

The promise of eggs and/or candy kept the kids motivated:

The egg hunt was pretty simple:  the Easter Bunny stumbled on his way to the farm and his basket of eggs spilled everywhere!  In his basket were five colors of plastic eggs - red, orange, yellow, green, and blue.  Each child was asked to find ONE of each color and bring them back to the farmer so that the farmer could bring the eggs back to the Bunny.  Sean set off at record pace and Clare took her time...

Sorting out the eggs before receiving a good bag of prizes for her "help!"

The kids celebrate their hard work:

A peek at the strawberry fields under white tarp.  The farmer told us that strawberries used to be called redberries and were kept warm in the fields under a layer of straw.  Now, the berries are kept warm under a layer of white tarp - the farmer asked if we should call them "white tarp-berries?" And the kids in the crowd gave a hearty "No!"

After the chilly hayride back to the farm store, we took the kids inside to sit with the Easter Bunny:

And on the car ride home, Clare got into her prize bag and decorated herself with stickers :-)