Wordless Wednesday

Munchie - A New Creation

When we had gone our nature hunt, we looked and looked and looked for monarch caterpillars. They were very hard to find (after searching I don't know how many milkweeds, J gave up - he was tired of looking!) But Z and I didn't and we finally found one - HOORAY! So Munchie came home with us:


We set him up in his new home and fed him some milk weed (which he obviously enjoyed from the mess he left behind:). We continued to feed him for a few days and he then went into his "J" position:

And the next day he became this:


I was really annoyed that we missed this part so we brought him inside after that. I certainly did NOT want to miss him coming out of this!!! Now he was in his chrysallis when we were getting ready to go on vacation and we didn't want to miss him coming out. Sooo....we did what any normal homeschooling family would do....


Yep, we took him along! He was a good traveler - didn't complain, didn't ask how long it would take, didn't ask for a potty break and he didn't mind my loud music either. What more could you ask for in a travel companion?

About five days later while we went out for lunch we came back and ....

TADA....

He came out while we were gone! Sigh.... maybe next time we'll get to see it. Anyways, we didn't want to let him out because the weather was rainy and miserable. So he got to stay with us one more night before we let him go. The following day we let him out. He didn't come out right away so Z pulled the stick out that Munchie was on. I think he was getting a little nervous that something happened to Munchie and that's why he wasn't flying. After awhile he finally fluttered his wings but stayed on the stick. Perhaps he really, really liked his stick? I'm not sure. But eventually he fluttered some more and went a couple inches from the stick:

He stayed there for awhile and fluttered his wings some more for us. We were going out for lunch so we said good bye and wished him well on his journey to Mexico.

His wings were fluttering while I took this picture which is why it's a little blurry. It was really neat to see this new creation.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17

After we returned from vacation, we finished our pages for our nature journal:


Next year I'm going to start looking earlier so maybe we can have more than one. We'll see if I remember - time goes oh so fast!

Nature Study - Outdoor Challenge #1

I've been wanting to use nature study as our science and decided to give it a try this year. It sure wasn't hard to convince the boys. We went out for our nature study walk to a nearby park and found a shelter that was next to a creek. (you know how water is just fascinating for boys :) We found all sorts of things - salamander, crayfish, mushrooms, animal bones and took lots of pictures. Here are a few:

this guy kind of blends in:



We're not sure what left this print but J would like to find out.... (i think he'll be disappointed if it's "just" a dog)
my guess is raccoon for this one...


We're not sure what this is either but we want to find out - poison ivy perhaps? We didn't touch it just to be on the safe side.

Here are the treasures we brought home: The leaves and queen anne's lace are in a book so we can study them and put them in our notebook. The poofy round thing (which came from a tree) and cicada shell are going on our nature shelf.


But this was our best find and, truth be told, it was one of the reasons we went out:

And, of course, Munchie came home with us but more on him in a separate post.

It was a great day to get out and enjoy the outdoors and the boys ask everyday if we can do nature study. Now if they would only ask everyday to do their language arts.....

Wordless Wednesday

Friday Favorites

I always see in blogs Thankful Thursday, Works for me Wednesday or even Wordless Wednesday - I'm know I've seen something for Tuesday but I can't think of it right now. So I thought I'd do my own: Friday Favorites (catchy huh?) . So here we go, these are a few of my favorite things: (hard not to hum the tune from the Sound of Music isn't it?)

1. My husband and boys (really, what kind of wife and mom would I be if I didn't list this?)
2. Roses - they are my absolute favorite flower. Since we have moved into this house, they have given me a rose bush on almost every mother's day!
3. Chocolate peanut butter ice cream. A dairy nearby make the best - lots of hunks of peanut butter, mmmm...)
4. Reading - I love to read!
5. Scrapbooking!!! Although I don't get to it as often as I would like - but that's the way life is sometimes.

So there you have it - a few of my favorite things. Oh, be assured there's more but perhaps I'll save that for another Friday. Enjoy your favorites and have a great day!

Vacation

We returned from our vacation in the Finger Lakes Region on Monday. We had a great time camping. Our site was on a creek which the boys loved! The first thing they did when we parked was take their sneakers off and go in the creek. We did a lot of hiking. Oh, did I mention I forgot my camera? Honestly, how can a person go on vacation and not take their camera?!?!? I still haven't figured it out but that's what I did. My husband placated me by buying 3 disposable cameras. Not the same if you ask me but what could I do? We hiked Taughannock Falls - 215 feet - the highest in NYS. (Picture it in your head....nice and tall and loud!) We hiked at Watkins Glen - 19 water falls there. Walked behind quite a few waterfalls there. (Again, you'll have to picture it in your head :) I liked that hike. We met our neighbors at Buttermilk Falls in Ithaca on Saturday and they brought my camera!!! Hooray, I was so thankful and glad to have my camera! We hiked the falls to the top. As I am soooo out of shape, it was a tough beginning for me. But it eventually got better. And now you no longer have to picture it in your mind....




Z the brave one. He was only one out of four boys who would jump in! So, his Dad joined him.

We also had a couple uninvited visitors .....

eewwww..... he was named Spike and came home with us and released a few days later in the nearby creek.

double eewww! He found his way out of the box and slithered into the bushes. Thank God they came into my husband's path and not mine.

A view of the creek behind our site:

So there you have it - a short recap of our vacation. Now to figure out where to go next year....

Chautauqua Lake

We had a great weekend camping in Chautauqua. It's one of my favorite places to go. The weather was beautiful. We had campfires, ate s'mores and went for walks. We did some hiking at the Jamestown Audubon & Wildlife Sanctuary and saw Liberty the eagle:



The muscles are damaged in her wing and she is unable to survive on her own. What an awesome creature. We also saw frogs playing tag in the lily pads but I couldn't get a picture of that.

After we packed up the camper to come home, the boys decided they wanted to go fishing. So we stopped at the lake . It was a great day for it (although a little windy).

Here's my husband's great catch...

Am I blessed or what?!? (good thing we weren't counting on that for dinner)


Z caught an abundance of fish mostly pumpkin seed and J caught a couple also (I guess he wasn't in the right spot).



After a couples of hours it was time to come home, unpack, put stuff away in the kitchen, put stuff away in the bathroom, put clothes away, clean out the cooler and whatever else. I love to camp but all that packing before and after is not my favorite thing. And then there's all that laundry....