Hike

My dad invited us on a hike the first Sunday of May to explore a new trail he had heard of at the Myron and Sonya Glassberg Family Conservation area.  It was a perfect morning for a hike -- lots of sunshine, not too hot, not buggy, the trail was an easy hike, mostly paved with lots of small wildlife to find and explore as well as a running creek, a pond and woods.  There was also a look-out over the Meramec River, but we didn't quite make it far enough to see that this time.  While the hike was picture perfect, unfortunately the kids were a little tired from a fun-filled day before with Grandma and Papa that was finished off with movie night.  Teddy had missed his nap and so he was in particularly rough shape.  I think I carried him at least half the time if not more (he wouldn't let anyone else carry him), and many things upset him (though he wasn't alone in that, Merrill had a few sad moments too...).  Overall I think they had fun though and hopefully my parents don't stop inviting us on hikes!

Millie found this little side path right at the trailhead and so she and Merrill and Teddy took a brief detour to the top

We found LOTS of tadpoles in the puddles on the trail -- I hope they survived until the weekend rains came 'cause early last week was pretty hot and dry.

trying to scoop up some tadpoles to examine

Teddy was not entirely convinced that this creature was going to turn into a frog

The girls loved exploring the creek

Teddy, again, was not so convinced

Pictures never seem to fully capture the beauty of nature...

Stopping to pick wild-flowers -- good thing there were lots!

throwing rocks in the pond/lake was a highlight of the hike for the kids.  We stopped for a break both before we walked around the lake and after... there is a lot of stopping for breaks when you hike with kids.  Where is all of that energy they have during all the moments when we want them to be still and calm?!

gotta have snacks on the trail too (note: Millie got mad at me that morning because I asked her to put leggings on for the hike instead of shorts to protect against scrapes, bugs, etc.  She finally agreed, but decided to put on the most mis-matched outfit she could come up with just to spite me ;)  I just sighed and let it go -- she DID put leggings on)

We certainly weren't going to lose her in the woods ;)

One of Teddy's sad moments -- Merrill had just thrown one of his rock in the lake and none of the other million rocks behind him could possibly replace it.  I think another snack solved the problem

Millie the pioneer girl -- carving rocks with rocks

I do believe that seconds after this picture was taken, Teddy realized he was walking on his own and decided that I needed to be carrying him instead.  He was a tired little boy.  

We just missed the lookout at the top of the hill -- we got side-tracked by a small loop and didn't quite go far enough, but when two of three children need to be carried, it's time to head home.  We'll have to go back again sometime time to check it out.  We actually ran into the area manager on our way down.  He was out hiking with his little girl.  He told us where the lookout was and said that in his opinion it's the prettiest lookout in all the area.  Definitely worth going back for!

Grandma and Papa

Our visit with Grandma and Papa last Saturday included lots of reading, jewelry making, gardening, playing, and even a trip to Grant's Farm.  A fun day all around.

Scott's parents got to see the science project the girls worked on this year when their friend dropped it back at our house after the city-wide judging.  The girls earned a red ribbon for their project and were very proud (as were we!)

We headed to Grant's Farm early Saturday morning and were so glad we did.  Not only did we beat the crowds, but all of animals were up and about -- including the peacocks!  The males were all showing off for the ladies!

no crowds and no lines meant we got to indulge the kids in all Grant's Farm had to offer...

We spent the rest of the day at home enjoying the beautiful spring weather.  Scott and had a chance to run up to Lowe's to get some more flowers for the garden while the kids played.  When we got back I did some planting in my gardens while Kathy helped the girls do some planting in their garden.  We ended our visit with a cookout and dinner on the patio and enjoyed a quiet movie night on the couch after Dave and Kathy headed out.  The kids were pretty wiped out by the end of the night!

Full

Life around here has been full.  I don't like the word 'busy' and the way it is so over-used these days and worn as a badge of honor.  So instead of saying life has been busy around here, I'm going to say it's been full.  In a very good way.  May is just packed with all kinds of fun end of the year school activities, final events for extra-curricular activities, family parties ...  I swear just yesterday it was May first and now we're almost half-way through the month.  Last weekend we had lots of grandparent time with both Scott's parents who stopped by on their way home from Arizona and my parents and this weekend we had lots of family time to celebrate Mother's Day.  In-between we had preparations for teacher appreciation week and a track meet in addition to all of our weekly activities.  It was a fun week and by the time Friday rolled around and I was done with all of the volunteering and crafting and baking and decorating, I didn't know what to do with myself!  All that was left to on my to-do list was to clean up the aftermath of such a full week and that didn't sound like much fun :).  I can never quite decide how 'full' I like life to be.  I had a lot of fun this week with everything that was going on, and it made the week go by REALLY fast ... but ... it made the week go by REALLY fast!  I don't know that I want to speed time up these days.  Thinking ahead to all of the wonderful things on tap for this summer, it seems like the new school year is just around the corner.  I kinda like having a significant amount of unstructured time in life to slow things down; to not always be planning for the next thing or living by the calendar.  But sometimes I also get kinda bored with the lack of structure/things on the calendar.  I guess it's best to just be content with life as it comes -- to enjoy the full moments as much as the quite moments for what they each are able to provide for our family.  No matter how full life gets though, I will always leave a little room at the top to breathe; an extra shelf in the closet if you will that is empty just to know that we have the room to expand if we need to and it won't break us.  ('cause over-flowing does not look pretty on this family!).

Powder Valley with First Grade

I was able to tag along on Millie's field trip to Powder Valley and the Bird Sanctuary last week.  Question, have field trips always entailed the parents being COMPLETELY in charge of a group of kids?!  For many of the field trips I have attended so far in elementary school, I'm given a group of 3 children and then just let loose on my own.  Last fall it was the zoo (wrangling three children, two of whom are not your own and ALL of whom have their own agendas at the zoo for 2 1/2 hours is not an easy job), and last week it was a nature center. For the zoo trip we at least had little packets of questions to help us facilitate the trip, this time we just got to roam around for an hour.  I'm not sure I'm a fan of this type of field trip.  I much prefer the type where our group has a guide and we are responsible for keeping the kids safe and relatively well-behaved, but aren't responsible for educating them on topics we may not know much about.  Millie has also discovered she isn't much of a fan of this type of field trip -- in her eyes I let the other girls do everything they wanted and not her.  She wanted a Millie-Mommy date and wasn't happy to realize she had to share me with friends.  Of course on this particular trip, she wanted to sit in the nature center's library and explore all of the books instead of ACTUALLY going outside to explore on a beautiful day.  I was the mean mom who coerced her into going outside...  All that said, it wasn't a bad trip.  It really was a beautiful spring day, and while the girls were full of energy and all wanted to go in different directions, they were well-behaved and had fun.  The second part of the trip was much easier -- we got to listen to a presentation at the bird sanctuary (though that got a little long for the kids...).  I'll keep volunteering to go on field trips because it means so much to the girls and because I like to be able to get to know the kids in their classes, I just might grumble now and again at how they are run ;).