Family Fun Day!

This morning was so cool outside!  So hard to believe it was in the 50's after a high of over 105 degrees just a couple of days ago!  The boys have all gone out to enjoy the morning outside.  The older ones on their roller blades on the little road in front of the house and Brendan and Michael feeding the fish at the pond.  IT is quiet in the house, so I thought I would write my post this morning.

I wanted to have yesterday's post set aside for Edward's Confirmation/Holy Communion.  I knew talking about our morning activities would be a distraction...not to mention make a long post WAY TOO LONG!!! So, I thought I could share our Saturday morning with you today.

Each fall, SFA sponsors a Nature Fun Day at the Native Plant Center.  It is so much fun for our family because all of the things we love to do are at one big event!

We started our trek around the various stations early in the day...in fact, we were one of the first to arrive at the event.  It is amazing how quickly boys can get ready for the day when they want to do something!

The bird watching booth is so fun because it is, what I like to call, a do-able activity.  Our friend Ruth sets up this booth with paper cutouts of birds that have been marked with a code for several local birds.  The youth are given a set of binoculars (nothing fancy) to go out and bird watch among the trees and shrubs at the center.  The boys always love this activity because she hides them just enough to make it interesting.  And there is always one or two that are a little challenging that force us to go around the path one more time for the elusive bird we just could not find!

At least we are all pointing the same direction, but is it the right way? 

We then made our way to the geo-caching booth.  We have always wanted to take part in this activity but never seem to have the time to make it happen.  Once a year, our friendly forest services representative gives us the opportunity.  He saw us coming and decided to play with us a little.  He asked if we knew anything about GPS devices.  We said yes and he said he found his volunteers for the day and he could leave!  All joking aside, he gave us a GPS and we were on our way to find the treasure.  We quickly learned that the hiding places were not so easy ti find.  Most of these treasures were far into the wooded area along the trails.  The center is located on 42 acres and lots of room to hide prize box.  We had four different coordinates, so with four boys we had to find them all!  I thought it was funny that the prizes matched the boy-Sean found a bookmark with a website about trees, Henry found a poster of nature art pics from our favorite artist, Edward found a frisbee, and Brendan found a book about Smokey the Bear.  It only took us about an hour to make the hike through the woods.  Forgive me for not wanting to go to the next station which was of all things a NATURE HIKE!  I must say that we did enjoy the hike along the trails looking at the various trees and even discovering an unusual spider that was quite camera shy!

The next station was about water pollution in our rivers.  There was a hands-on demonstration showing how the trash dumped in the rivers goes right into the Gulf of Mexico.  The boys were also given a chance to 'help' an animal that had trash wrapped around its body.  Brendan especially enjoys this activity but thinks he can keep the animal once it is free.  SO glad he has not found one of these creatures in real life...can you imagine what kind of zoo we would have at our house if he did?  Lo and behold!  We saw our favorite artist with his very large dog, Buster!  It was a great escape to the next station without a fight to take a stuffed animal home with us!

Bruce was at the tent building station, so the boys got the opportunity to set up a tent.  We learned that the three things to look for in a good camping site are:looking around for a flat surface, look up to avoid falling tree limbs, and look down to avoid rocks & holes and ants & snakes.  I always think it is funny to see a one-man tent.  I want to see the man (person!) who can put one of these tents up alone!  Our tent was supposed to be put up in less than ten minutes.  It took four boys and their Dad (not to mention the help of the activity leader) 30 minutes to put up that tent!  I am so glad the boys were having fun!  I think that activity wore Michael out!  Yet, the boys were still full of energy...on to the next booth!

The next two booths were a good combination...fishing and dutch oven cooking!  The wait for the fishing poles was long but steady.  This gave the boys time to make a S'more and try some dutch cooking before having their turn at casting.  I also had a chance to talk to the Bass Fishing expert about coming to our 4H meeting to talk about fishing and regulations.  Before we left these stations, we found out there would be some blueberry cobbler...we would need to make our way back this direction for sure!

I could not resist a photo opportunity that I had been trying to arrange for several weeks.  The center has the most awesome bench for taking pictures.  It is shaped like a very large butterfly with a nice support on the back.  It was just screaming for me to place Zaira in and what better time than her one month picture!  Can it really be one month since she was born!!!  I think this is going to be a spot we return to often for photos.

While I was taking advantage of Zaira actually being awake for these pictures, the boys were at our all time favorite booth...the Friends of the Forest!  In fact, we normally work at this booth for events.  Our friend, Tamberly, had on her friendliest smile.  We were happy to show off Zaira and talk about how well Amanda (the person who got us interested in this group!) was doing in NYC.  Tamberly was excited to see us because she just learned that she would be in NY for an event called Urban Waters.  She was hoping to meet Amanda when she was there.  She really wants Amanda to meet some of the US Forestry team in that area.  This sounded like a good plan to me!

The boys spent a little time with the snakes they have on display before leaving for the next station without me!  I was still talking to Tamberly about obtaining prizes for our 4H contest.  She was more than happy to help me and gave me so much she had to help me carry everything to the next spot...not finding them there, she went a little farther to the NEXT booth.  We found out that the station prior was for making frozen yogurt.  They arrived just in time to taste but would need to go back to actually make it.

I suppose that was a good enough reason to skip over to the archery booth.  This is another event that the boys really want to participate in for 4H.  We have even tried to start a project in the past but the project leader needs to go to a special training.  So, the boys get to enjoy a little taste of this each year.  If they had it there way, they would stay at this booth for a long time.  Unfortunately, they are usually not the only ones who find this activity fun.  This year was no different.  They got their one shot at the target and we had to move on!  Sean was the best shot of the day, hitting his arrow into the red zone!

We made our way back to the frozen yogurt in time to have the boys churn the new batch.  This gave me the chance to sneak back over to the dutch oven cooking and grab a cup of cobbler!  Yum!  Henry came along with me to snap a shot of Zaira with the red-tailed boa, Romeo, that Amanda loves so much.  I figured I needed to send this to her to let he know I was teaching Zaira at an early age that snakes are OK.  I NEVER would have done this with Amanda!  In the process of getting this picture, Henry found out the booth was short handed and he volunteered to stay and help.  He was glad to be able to hold the snakes for the rest of the day!

When I arrived back at the frozen yogurt booth, the boys were just finishing the batch they started. I was so proud of them...there were a lot of children at the booth.  Even though they made the frozen yogurt, they knew there would not be enough for everyone so they left without taking a sample.  So we made our way to the canoe demonstration instead.  The boys enjoyed learning about the way a canoe maneuvers and boat safety.

Could this really be the last station?  Well, there was that nature hike?  Nah...we needed to get home for lunch anyway.  Actually, there were two more stations we missed.  The boys ran over to play a game called Leave No Trace Behind while I went back for Henry.  And, we completely missed the track booth where the youth were able to create molds of their favorite animal track.  We could have done this but the cast would not have dried in time for us to take them home.  We have done this activity MANY times so it was not terrible to miss but of course, the boys love doing this activity!

As we were heading out, a friend, Cindy, stopped us to show her treasure find of the day...a Luna moth hidden in the bushes!  You just never know what you are going to find when you head outdoors!  This was a great way to spend our morning!  I am so thankful for everyone who worked so hard to make this event happen.  We had a great time and cannot wait for their future events...already on the calendar for sure!  We even had time throughout the day to do a little PR for our own event that will be at the Forest Fest in a couple of weeks.

Well, the boys are starting to drift back into the house.  Time to get back to our other stuff for the day...Michael is trying to finish up his paper for his class...making edits and adding more details...I should probably weed the flowerbeds while it is cool outside...I also want to add Zaira to our cross-stitch family tree...the boys will probably enjoy most of the day outside using their amazing and vivid imaginations.  It is going to be a great day for praising God!