Just a Walk in the Park

This summer, we've been trying to do a lot of fun little day trips.  What's the cheapest day trip you can find?  Parks.  And if you're not from PA, let me tell you, you are missing out on some amazing state and county parks!  Andy grew up just down the road from where we now live, so he's quite familiar with all that the state and (local) county park systems have to offer.  So this Saturday, when Ellie let us sleep in until a quarter after 8 (seriously!) we decided to take off and visit another favorite of his.  We actually took a short trip to this park waaaaaay back when we were dating (yeah, that's what we did on dates), but haven't been back since.  Turns out that it was butterfly weekend, so it was a perfect day to go!

First, inside the HUMONGOUS nature center, there was an informational session about caterpillars and worms and how they become butterflies and moths.  There were a LOT of different live caterpillars on display that the kids were allowed to look at up close and even touch! 

Ellie, being only 2.5, got bored of that pretty quickly though, so we headed outside to take a bit of a hike and see what kinds of wildlife we could find.

Well, our hike was fun and eventful (we lost Ellie's sunglasses somewhere along the trail and Andy had to double-back for them) but we didn't see any wildlife.  Bummer.  So we came back to the nature center and sat on the lawn and ate our picnic lunch.

My cell phone camera is awful, but I loved her "pebbles" hair-do!!

And then we headed off on what the staff called a "storybook walk."  I had no idea what that was, but it turned out awesome!  

Basically, pages of a book about butterflies (The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That series) were laminated and posted at intervals along a trail.  It was SO cute!  When you came to a fork in the trail, you had to look down both options and see where your 'trail marker' was so that you stayed on the right path.  The best part is, that even our 2.5 year old got it!  We'd get to a fork and she'd look one way and then the other and then spot the pages and take off with absolute certainty that she hadn't lost the trail. There was  SO much learning going on that the teacher in me was just giddy!

The trail took us past a lot of fun places too!  Like a pond, where we finally saw...

A TURTLE!!!!

Afterwards, we took a little walk through the sensory garden, which was full of wildflowers.  And you know what that means this time of year??  BUTTERFLIES!  Here are some of my favorite shots of the butterflies that we saw...

By this time, we were thoroughly hot and sweaty, but not ready to go home yet, so we went inside to see what all the nature center had to offer.  I have to say, it is one of the nicest nature centers I've been to!  

There were more turtles to see...

This girl LOVES turtles!

And two areas that were set up specifically for kid exploration...

And then there's a whole giant room of wild game specimens, set up museum-style with habitat dioramas and everything!  Here's the last picture of the day - Ellie posing with an actual elephant tusk...

We had SO much fun on this park trip - I can't believe it didn't cost us a thing!  We will definitely be going back.  If you're anywhere near the central PA area and you haven't yet visited Nixon Park (part of the York County Park System) you are missing out.  I can't recommend it more highly - especially for homeschooling families.  It's not like a typical state park where you can bring your pets or bikes and go and explore - pets and bikes are actually not permitted on any of the trails.  This park is dedicated to wildlife and nature education - and they do a fabulous job at it!  Check out the park website here and the nature center specifics here for more information.  And no - no one asked me to give a review or for my opinion or anything like that.  I just loved it so much, I couldn't keep it to myself :-)

Gardens, Bunnies, and Fireflies, Oh My!

Over the winter, Andy decided that we just HAD to have a garden this summer.  He thought and planned and bought all sorts of seeds and picked out the perfect spot in the yard for a nice little garden.  And then when he went to borrow the tiller from his dad, he said, "Why not just have it here??"  My Father-in-Law has a wonderfully huge lot (almost 5 acres, though most of it is wooded) out in the country just 5 minutes away.  He's got lots (and LOTS) of gardening experience.  He's retired, so he's got time on his hands to help out in return for a share of the produce.  But he's also got a habit of going way overboard when it comes to food.  He grew up in a very large family, and still doesn't know how to cook for any less than 15.  It's great for church meals and holidays - not so great when it's just the four of us sitting down to dinner!  Well at least we always end up with leftovers, so we don't complain too much.  And so the garden project grew.  And it grew and grew and grew.    Andy and Ellie usually go over to help take care of it on Tuesday nights, but they really wanted me to finally come see it, so last weekend we made an evening of it...

Here's a distance shot of the garden...

Look at all that glorious corn!  My freezer is going to be STOCKED this winter!

Whatchya lookin' at?

Oooh, the world's tiniest watermelon!

Pumpkin bud.

One of Ellie's favorite pasttimes at Grampy's house is chasing bunnies.

Like I said, his property is mostly wooded, so he's got lots and lots of wildlife.  And with a garden like that, there's NO shortage of adorable little bunny rabbits.  One night she even stumbled upon a nest of babies!

Grampy's also got quite the green thumb for flowers!

As the sun went down, we decided to try some firefly catching...

Feelin' pretty excited about the hunt!

Eventually she got so good that the fireflies were catching HER!

So proud of her catch!  Don't worry, we let them go when we got home.

Hope your summer is shaping up as nicely as ours is! :-)



PS - here's a sneak peek of my next DIY project....

Marvelous Mother's Day

Caution: This post contains a boat-load of pictures.  You might want to go do something productive while it loads.

Mother's Day was like a month ago, but I've discovered that I'm not a fantastic blogger and am just now getting around to telling you anything about it.  We've kind of fallen into a routine of doing things for celebratory occassions (like Mother's Day, Anniversary, Etc.) instead of giving things.  Christmas and birthdays excluded, of course!  So anyway, we decided to go to a (somewhat) local state park and have a play day.  This was a common past time of ours before we had Ellie, but we had kind of stopped doing it since she came around.  It was so fun and refreshing to get out and explore again!  Plus, Ellie got to go on her very first hike and loved it.  Fun for the whole family!  So what made it special for me, as my mother's day 'gift'?  I was told I was allowed to take as many pictures as I wanted.  Does my man know me well, or what?!  Anyway, here's just a few of the several hundred that I took...

Picnic Lunch

Just a little swingset fun!

Slide hair!

Climber girl!  No hesitation, no help, just straight to the top!

Family picture next to the historical furnace.

She saw some guys on top and decided we needed to climb up there too!  (There was a ramp on the backside)

Then she saw a trail and took off hiking toward this waterfall!  That one's got no fear whatsoever.

Treasures

Family picture by an old log cabin

Time for a creek hike!

Picking up rocks to make splashes.

Came home to the cherry trees dropping all their petals.

Mommy, raining flowers!!

At church on Sunday, every woman and girl in the congregation was given a carnation and Ellie decided to give hers to her Grammy McDee.  This was her first visit and it was really special for both of them...

Coming up soon, our anniversary/family birthday adventure!