Weekend fun!

We've enjoyed another fun weekend around here. This school year we've been going to some Nature Classes held at the Clemson Extension, Carolina Children's Garden. If nothing else, the boys have picked up on taking care of their environment. We usually take trash bags to pick up trash when we're out doors. Yesterday, we joined one of their programs based on the Great Backyard Bird Count.  They had some expert birders who walked over the gardens with us and we counted the birds we saw. Among them were two (male & female) cardinals, a flock of goldfinches, a white throated sparrow, a few vultures and some robins. The boys played a game against some girls where they tried to guess which bird the volunteer was describing on this chart.

It was a beautiful day to be outside. I love seeing the Carolina blue skies again.

 The boys and some of their friends :)

 Our friends, Pat & Jan joined us for some birding. It's too bad the sun was shining in the wrong direction for this bench. :(

Today we decided to head back to Pooh Park for some geocaching. It wasn't quite as pretty today but we still had fun. We tried to do a three part cache but somebody ran off with clue two. Luckily, we brought along some pretty smart people and we were able to find the cache anyhow.

We only saw five birds today. Three of these guys and two Canadian Geese. The park was so quiet today compared to yesterday.

We even too Hermione with us and she was pretty good. Not that there were many people to bark at anyhow. But, it proves that we might be able to take her out in public again.

 This morning, I spied a sign of spring in my garden. My poor skinny rose bush is starting to grow again! :)

I hope we have a long spring ahead of us before it gets too hot again around here!

Silly boy

I love how Patch will come into a room and makes an announcement. 'Ryan is looking in the same place we found this toy to look for another toy. I don't think he's going to find it!' Then he high-tails it out of the room.

Gotta love him!

I'd post the pictures I took of him on the day he put his jeans on backwards but he asked me not too. Doesn't mean I'm not collecting them in an album to show to any future girlfriends! :D

Happy Valentine's Day!

Or are you one of those that just believes that it's a holiday created by Hallmark and not worth celebrating? My theory is that you should embrace a day to tell your loved ones just how much they mean to you. Even if you tell them every day.

We enjoy attending Nature Classes with Miss Chanda a couple times a month and after this week's class, we had a party for Valentine's Day. Miss Chanda was happy to be included and said she hasn't received so many Valentine's for a lot of years.

This is our awesome group of kids:

(It took a while to get them all in one shot! LOL)

They traded Valentine's Day cards and ate (and we moms ate and ate and ate. ;-) There were a lot of great treats shared!) and then the kids played Nerf, climbed trees, played in the sandbox and ran around having lots of fun.

So, anyhow, Valentine's Day is Monday and I hope you do something fun to say 'I love you' to your favorite Valentine!

Forts and kids stuff

Last weekend was time for fort building...

They camped out in the living room all weekend and we sad to take the forts down on Sunday. They get along so well sometimes, they get into a fight and somebody loses a tooth...

We've been enjoying working at the rental house and having kids in the neighborhood that they can play with. I wish we had some nice kids that lived nearby that they could play with. We probably just need to schedule more play dates with our homeschool friends. :)

Now he has matching holes in his mouth. The tooth was very loose anyhow but he was not happy about the way it came out :(