Nature Outing 4-24-14

Usually we go on nature walks with a group of friends but I felt like it needed to just be us (me and the kids) for the day. So, with lunch packed and shoes on most of us, we headed out to a park about 10 minutes away to see some tadpoles, and anything else that might be near the creek/stream. 

 I'm pretty sure this is a female Pacific Forktail Damselfly

 I think it was looking at me.

 I'm sure I was a sight to see. I had Blake in my ergo on my back and I was pretty much lying on the rocky ground trying to get a nice close up of this damselfly. I was actually able to get pretty close to it too. This was not shot with a zoom lens!

 Kiera asked me to take pictures of some flowers.

 Nathan found a pine cone and wanted me to take a picture of it.

 More flowers Kiera asked me to take a picture of.

 We saw a couple Flame Skimmer Dragonflies but they wouldn't stop long enough for me to get a good picture of them.

 There were a ton of tadpoles! We were hoping to see some with legs but we did see some pretty fat ones looking just about ready to go through more metamorphosis. I'm going to try to take the kids back there next week to see.

After we walked the stream we went over to the picnic tables and had some tamales that I had cooked yesterday. With how our kids eat I could have brought the whole bag and they would have devoured them!
I got to read to them from our Story Bible (I love that they ask me to keep reading after each chapter!) and then we played and journaled and saw a couple red tailed hawks. It was a nice day! I love spending time with our kids!

Easter Morning on the Beach 4-20-14

Today is our little Blake's 2nd birthday! I really can't believe I gave birth to this sweet little person already two years ago! I'm going to read his birth story to reminisce and you can read it too if you like here.

 Look of focus

 I was trying to get him to look at me but he was very focused on playing with the sand.

 He loves to do whatever the kids are doing. Kiera pretends Blake is her baby and I asked her if he does what she tells him to do and she said,"Y es, except for nap time, he fights me when it's nap time." haha oh she's such a little mama.

 Blake has been talking so much more but not all of it is understandable (we say he speaks Blakish) so he just walks up to that person and grabs their hand to take them where he wants them to go, outside is usually the main place he wants to go.

 Oh and water. He loves the water!

Happy birthday to our sweet Baby Blake! You are an awesome little person and we love you!

Backyard Kite Flying 3-28-14

The kids were given $5 each from their grandma while we were at the store. Nathan and Domenic bought kits and Kiera bought herself a lunch box. They were excited about the change they received almost as much as their item that they were able to purchase with their own money.

 This one makes me laugh. :)

 Love his expression!

 We stop for rollie pollies around here.

Forgot to mention that Blake chose to buy a bouncy soccer ball with his money. You might have noticed, we do not lack for soccer balls in our back yard.

Tidepool Town Discoveries 3-13-14

A couple weeks back we met our nature study group at the tidepools. It was an absolutely beautiful day. We didn't find any star fish, we did spot the usual limpets, hermit crabs, sea snails, purple sea urchins.

We found 1 red sea urchin! Didn't have my camera on me to take a picture but Kiera and I our journals.

One of the mom's found this neat bone(?) while searching the tidepools.

Fortunately for us there was a nice docent walking around and she said she didn't know what it was but someone had mentioned the chest bone of a bird. Hmmm, interesting. So I came home and googled bird sternum and found very similar bones. She said she had originally thought a ray, but then her theory behind cartilage deteriorating didn't support that very well.

Pelican's!