Rockwood Reservation

We did a little shopping a few weeks ago. Ben said anyone that wanted this shirt could get one. Evie and Kiersten both took him up on it.

I think they have pretty good taste. I may have spotted this shirt, but they both REALLY wanted it.

Though Kara was not keen to get in on the parental flattery, she did get a shirt to match with Evie, and even coordinated to wear it the same day. Evie was so worried Kara would forget since she gets up an hour and a half earlier, and leaves before Evie wakes up for school. So she was relieved to see her outside at recess in the appropriate attire. Strangely, I can't figure out where we were when I took this picture. 

Evie begged me to go to her first grade field trip at Rockwood Reservation. I didn't want to go at all, and told her that, but she finally talked me into it with those big blue eyes. It was a cooler day, but not so bad. It was right after a lot of rain, so the kids did not get to wade around and dig for creatures in the creek. Imagine my disappointment. 

The creatures were pre-caught, and waiting in the classroom for the kids to observe. They really enjoyed getting a close up look. This jar magnifier thing was leaky, so that was a bit of an adventure trying to see fish, and get them back to the tank before the water ran out. 

They enjoyed seeing the turtles and frogs in the big tank. Evie really liked Peanut the turtle. It grew up with a soda ring around it's waist, so its shell grew in a peanut shape and remained that way after the ring was removed. (Do turtles have a waist? hmmm)

I enjoyed the hike. We didn't see many animals with our loud group of kids, but it was a nice walk. It was very exciting for them to have to navigate around the puddles.

Too much cute right here. 

Evie insisted on wearing her gloves, because she's Evie. 

Lastly, we went to the lake to see what we could get in our nets. They caught tadpoles, salamanders, etc. It is a fish-less lake.

Notice that broken board up top that one of the parents stepped through. I was glad that it wasn't me!

I was surprised Evie was willing to hold the salamander. I guess because of the gloves she was ok. She declined to hold most things anyway. 

I love the look on Evie's face! She caught a water scorpion, which was a water version of a stick bug. When the naturalist showed her, she screamed, took a swipe at him and ran away. Her friends were excited to hold it, though. 

Hard to see behind the glass is a Smoky the Bear statue that talks to the kids. They were impressed with him. 

It warmed up by lunch time, and they all had a great time running around. 

We missed 4 days of school due to rain/flooding, so Kiersten had a few sleepovers. Here is the one picture I got of her playing twister with her buddy. They were having a pretty silly time of it. 

I also had to take a picture of the contract Evie wrote up when I told her Uncle Evan was coming to stay the night. She was asking me how to spell words, and I got curious what she was up to, so I finally peeked over her shoulder and had a good laugh. Evan was nice enough to sign it when he got here. "If you sign this contract you will be avele (able) to stay for the night. Here are the rules. No screaming. No running. You got it. Ok then we are excited for you to be staying. We hope you have fun with us. Your (you're) probably going to. I hope you have a good time with us. Lets have lots of fun together. I'm excited for you." Then there is a line at the bottom for his "signacher". I just love when they do things like this.

And there is a fun picture of her ready to brave the rain for a trip to the store. Don't we all have those fairy wing kind of days sometimes?