Outdoor Challenges #16 & 17

We've been enjoying a little break from planned activities but now we are trying to get back into the swing of things with Outdoor Challenge #16 . It is almost too late in our area for planting sunflowers but hopefully this will work out. The kids have been doing some gardening with their grandparents so when I pulled out the supplies they knew exactly what to do. It was fun just sitting back and watching them work. Sam could even read the package of seeds enough to know when to expect them to germinate and bloom. He has become quite the "teacher" for Charlotte and seemed to enjoy instructing her in the process of planting seeds.

I did not plan to do Outdoor Challenge #17 today but the kids wanted to go for a ride in the wagon and take a look at our trees. Sam made some really cool observations. He noted the differences in our leaves texture from when they were budding in the spring and now. He spent quite a bit of time trying to find the creature that was munching on our Elm without success. Charlotte really enjoyed it and picked up quite a bit of new vocabulary today.

Outdoor Challenge #15

We were traveling the Friday that we would have normally done the Outdoor Hour Challenge #15. Nature study helps the miles go by! We id'd our trees that we saw on the way.....Loblolly pines and Southern Magnolia were the ones we saw the most frequently. We counted Egrets that we saw under the Basin Bridge portion of 1-10....37. We realized that yellow Daylillies are a favorite at roadside parks because they were at every single one that we stopped at from Texas to Florida.

Ahh vacation! We spent the week at "The Beach House" on Amelia Island. This is the second time we have stayed at this particular house and I suspect we will head back sometime in the future because we have not explored every nook and cranny of the island. Fabulous place to visit for nature lovers. We of course spent alot of time at the beach. Charlotte's favorite activity was playing in the tide pools. Sam loved it all.....riding wave, flying kits, building sand castles, crawling aroung the sand like a crab from Burgess' Seashore book that we have been reading.

We also spent alot of time exploring Fort Clinch State Park. Florida has the BEST state parks and we usually spend quite a bit of time in them every time we visit. Fort Clinch has a fort that Sam loved, a beach area, a river area, a play ground and hiking trails with real Florida alligators. Yes we did see one but didn't stay to take a picture!



What are these kids looking at?


Red Ear Sliders. We were warned that the was an aligator that has been spotted in this water so we stayed high up on the bridge on today's visit.

Once back home we went to our butterfly garden in hopes to draw some flowers. Sam was absolutely not interested in drawing flowers. I will use the resources that Barb-Harmony Art Mom suggested in Outdoor Hour Challenge #15 to continue drawing in my journal and perhaps Sam will join me.

The butterfly garden is in full-bloom. The flowers are taller than Charlotte. You can barely see Sam in this picture but he is there standing tall trying to see me over the blooms.