Category: Outdoor Fun

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Isn’t This a Crazy Spring? The Kids Love It!

  What a wild week weather-wise, wasn’t it? (And how’s that for some alliteration!)  The kids go out to play pretty much every day… and the weather this past week went from this…  to this… critter hunting just a few days later! We spent a long time looking at the creatures the kids found.  The small critter in the middle had all these hairs sticking out of its side that...

Did Every Parent Do This Today? 1

Did Every Parent Do This Today?

With the storm that rolled across the US the past day or two, I wonder how many yards are decorated with snowmen, snow forts and snow angels?!! The kids spent lots of time sledding down our steep hill: The entire family pitched in to make this huge snow fort (it looks more like a snow volcano, doesn’t it?!!): And here are the snowman and snowpets under construction! It sure was...

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The Secret Clubhouse

Did you have a secret clubhouse? I remember mine… it was up at the top of a tall tree in our front yard.  I was around 11 or 12 and I even built a wooden hinged box to place up in the top of the tree to hold my treasures. Yesterday the girls woke me up with breakfast in bed (water, bread and a banana!) and then asked me to...

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Nearsightedness Is on the Rise — Sending Kids Outside May Help Prevent This

We’ve all heard the experts tell us that time outside has huge benefits for kids.  It helps them concentrate and focus in school, boosts learning, helps fight obesity, and is even beneficial for social development. Research has proven that recess is good for kids: “A recent multicenter study of more than 11,000 eight- and nine-year-olds, led by pediatric researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York, showed...

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3 Things I Need From School Break

After a busy semester, there are three things I need: a complete break from our school schedule and routine time for self-reflection time to plan We’re currently on stage 1!! We definitely need time to revitalize and become re-inspired by our studies. I’ve been fortunate to have some good quality time by myself without kids while my in-laws were here to babysit. I spent lots of time at the library...

Fun Outdoor Game: Frisbee Golf 0

Fun Outdoor Game: Frisbee Golf

LD got a really fun game for his birthday that we’ve all been enjoying — Mini Frisbee Golf. It’s a huge hit! The weather’s just about perfect now to spend time outside (not too hot) so we’ve gotten lots and lots of use out of it. The game comes with six colored frisbees (four of each color), so up to six people can play.  We keep our stands pretty close...

Tomato Hornworm with Wasp Eggs 3

Being Eaten From the Inside Out

In the garden last night we found another tomato hornworm which had left a trail of destruction as it ate through much of one of our plants. This time it wasn’t doing so well as wasp eggs had obviously hatched and was eating it from the inside out. Braconid wasps lay their eggs inside the caterpillar. As they hatch they eat their way out, killing the caterpillar in the process....

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Learning from Life: Archaeologist’s Visit and more

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about finding an ‘arrowhead‘ (really a hafted knife point) in the woods right behind our house. Yesterday morning we had the county archaeologist over to survey the site where we found the hafted knife. He examined it closely and said it was most likely a Piscataway Stemmed Point.  We then took him into the woods to show him the site where it...

Arrowheads 2

We Found an Arrowhead!!

I’ve been bursting at the seams to write this post, but wanted to wait til I had more information before sharing our excitement! Can you believe, we found an arrowhead on our property?! Okay, so technically it’s not an arrowhead, more about that in a second.   The first thing we did was start googling to find out more information. I really didn’t know too much about arrowheads. I was...

Northern Green Frog 0

Backyard Nature

This is a Northern Green Frog that took up residence in our little man-made pond. It’s been there for four months. If you’ve been following our blog for a while, you know that we love spending time outdoors. We live nestled down in the woods and have lots of critters and creatures around the creek that cuts through our property and in the woods beyond.   The kids have learned to...

Camping, Hiking and the Legend of Petit Jean 0

Camping, Hiking and the Legend of Petit Jean

I’ve always been an avid camper and backpacker.  I’ve backpacked a number of stretches of the Appalachian Trail and backpacked for nearly a month in the Wind River Range in Wyoming.  Hubby and I hiked quite a bit in the Outback in central Australia, did the Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair overland trek in Tasmania, Australia and even had the opportunity to hike along the Annapurna Trail in Nepal.  All that’s great, but...

Gymnastics Awards 0

Gymnastics Awards

This is just a proud Mama moment. When we moved to the States from Australia, we noticed a gym fairly near where we live.  LD had enjoyed gymnastics overseas and it seemed like a good activity to have the kids in during the heat of summer and cold of winter. It helped fill the ‘phys ed’ part of our homeschool.  Now two years later, the kids all still love their...

Celebrating Father’s Day 0

Celebrating Father’s Day

We celebrated Father’s Day by going camping this weekend. It’s a bit of work getting everything ready, but once we’re out there the time away is so refreshing!  The highlight was a beautiful two-hour hike we did together.  I loved watching Dad teaching the kids to skip rocks.  I have fond memories of doing that with my Dad that as a kid! It was picturesque and peaceful and just a...

Girl Scouts Rock the Mall in Washington D.C. with a Quarter Million People! 4

Girl Scouts Rock the Mall in Washington D.C. with a Quarter Million People!

Today there was a huge event down at the mall in Washington D.C. to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts. DD was a Daisy Scout this past year and we went to the huge celebration with my niece (who is a Junior Girl Scout).  Wow! What an event! They announced that there were an estimated quarter of a million people there!  There were girls of all ages from...