I googled around this last week to try to find a place where the children and I had not yet explored. When my boys were little guys, they used to go over to Blandford Nature Center with their dad and walk the trails every now and then. So, I decided we would drive on out to the nature center to see what we could see.
For this summer season, Amway has donated "field backpacks" containing interesting nature stuff in it. For example, if you chose the "bug backpack" there was a little insect book, some magnifying glasses, some bug houses, etc. that you could use on the trails to enhance your nature experience. These backpacks had to be given back when your hike was finished, so we grabbed three good-looking backpacks and set out to discover …
However, first of all we were inside the Visitor's Center where they have a small wing of disabled animals who have been living at Blandford since they were found injured. We got to meet several owls who had been hit by cars, who could no longer fly. We really liked this fat barn owl! Isn't he beautiful?
This is a side view of the same owl. All of them have been given names, quite clever ones actually. But I neglected to write the names down, and I have the most terrible memory! However, one little owl's name was "Dr. Who" and Emma got a bang out of that name because she watches a TV show by that same name.
We got to see snakes ...
And later that afternoon, we met a gentleman with his grandson who told us they were walking one of the trails and came upon a brown snake eating a chipmunk! He even had a picture of the gruesome thing to show us!
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This is Matthew inside an old barn
There is a beautiful barn owl who lives here! |
Meet "Bob" who is naturally a bobcat. Believe it or not, many years ago a family got this bobcat as a baby, had it neutered and de-clawed and made it into a family pet! I think they lived in Cincinnati. As "Bob" grew bigger and bigger, the neighbors complained about them having a WILD animal and so the city made them get rid of it. So Bob lives at Blandford Nature Center. Since this bobcat had been fed since it was an infant, he doesn't know how to hunt; plus, he doesn't have any claws to defend himself!
As the children got into their backpacks, they discovered that two of the backpacks had field glasses … rather NICE field glasses! They had so much fun with them.
Sadly, Matthew's backpack did not have any binoculars … so we had to do a bit of sharing so that he could experience how fun it was to SEE far away stuff up close!
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| Christopher spotted this little tree frog on our hike. |
The only negative about being in the woods this time of year is … mosquitos. Yuck. Thankfully, I brought bug spray; but even with us being sprayed, those mosquitos were quite hungry.
We cut short our hike because we simply were tired of being … eaten!
Emma was so enthralled with these field glass that she declared she simply MUST own a pair of her own some time in the future, and she made me promise to look them up on the internet when I got home so that I could tell her how much money she was going to have to save up!
On our way out of the Visitor's Center, Christopher discovered these amazingly great finger puppets. They are soft and beautifully made, and they were really really reasonably priced; and if you know me at all, you know that I simply cannot resist a cute finger puppet.
So these three sweet grandchildren, picked out a finger puppet for themselves. Emma and Chris ended up with the very same squirrel finger puppet. Christopher named his pupped George Lopez (!), but Emma declared that hers was a french girl and needed a french name. We talked it over and she decided that Isabel (or Izzy for short) would be a good name for her squirrel. She says she is going to put a ribbon on her tail so that it won't get mixed up with George Lopez. Matthew chose a beautiful little chipmunk whom he promptly named Theo ~ and he was entirely enthralled with him!
I have this day now deep in my memory … my heart is full of happiness remembering the smiles, the laughter, the JOY of our nature adventure. God is so good, isn't He?
2 comments:
I always love seeing all the fun of your Saturday adventures. Seeing their squirrel puppets (and LOVING both of the names they choose), reminded me to tell you that you must read Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo with them. Ulysses is a squirrel that gets sucked into a vacuum, and accidentally turned into a superhero. Who writes poetry. And whom Flora's mother, the arch nemesis, is determined must be gotten rid of in the woods. It's hilarious and sweet and a nearly perfect read-aloud. There are both girl and boy characters, and a superhero squirrel. How could it go wrong? Forgive me if I've recommended it before. It won the Newberry this year, with good reason. =)
Oh my word, this is great Shelley! I'm not sure if you recommended this to me before or not! I'll definitely write it down and get it. We're really into the Narnia series right now and have just finished the second book because we read them in the correct order, beginning with "The Magician's Nephew" and then "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." We hope to begin "The Horse and His Boy" this week. The children are loving this series so much … and me too! But Flora and Ulysses sounds perfect for them … and great future read! :) Thank you!
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