The kids love being outside and exploring, but our urban backyard near a busy street limits their freedom quite a bit here at home.They poked sticks in the pond...
collected pine cones and floated them in the stream...
and ran around to their hearts' content!
We even caught a small newt near the pond. After everyone examined it, we returned him to the water where he would be safe from little fingers. Becca still affectionately talks about the "nude" we found!On Saturday evening, despite the slight, misty drizzle, my dad suggested going on a "bear hunt" referencing one of the kids' favorite books. The kids jumped up and down excitedly, as I snapped raincoats and my dad passed out flashlights.
We walked back past the pond and into the woods, which largely consist of widely spaced evergreen trees and acres of rhododendrons. The kids ran ahead, shining their flashlights behind trees and under bushes, looking for bears.
The closest they got to a bear was a "scary" old rusty pipe that they thought was a bear until they ran up and touched it. Good thing we didn't expect to find any real bears!The next morning, my mom pulled out two kits for planting sunflower seeds. We filled the pots with dirt, and the kids put seeds in the little holes we made and then soaked the soil with water. Even Becca joined in the fun. My parents and I each took a pot home to sprout, and then we will plant the sunflowers in our yards once they are big enough.
We always hate leaving, but we had a beautiful drive home. The clouds looked spectacular, and at one rest stop, the sun peeked through the clouds in the middle of a brief rainstorm and created the most beautiful rainbow. Ben yelled, excitedly, "A rainbow tells us about God's love!" I am glad to know that he is learning from our family Bible time and from Sunday School... and that he gets the important ideas and not just the stories.
About an hour from home the snow started... perhaps spring has not quite arrived after all!
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