More Footprints

We found more footprints on our walk Tuesday afternoon.
These are our fat squirrel trying to get more food from our trashcan.


These, we think, must show a great bird feast, with whatever they ate sitting in the middle, and the crazy hopping and positioning to get near enough to it.

Reminds me of the Princess Bride, on the Cliffs of Insanity, when the Prince waltzes around, tracing the footprints and explaining what must have happened there - a giant, a sword fight,..... :)

Mysteries...

When we went outside to play today, we found several sets of footprints in the snow and are planning on copying them into our nature journals after naps and trying to figure out who they might belong to. Isn't snow fun??!!

Maybe a cat (on our driveway)?


A squirrel (next to our trash cans)?


A house sparrow or other bird (next to our front bushes)??

How the Squirrel Got His Tail by Katy and Darsie Foreman

In the spirit of Kipling (and after reading How the Camel Got His Hump, How the Whale Got His Throat, and How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin), here is a story the girls made up today:

Once upon a time a long time ago there was a squirrel with a long skinny tail. He always hung upside down from a tree branch and stole animals’ food when they went under the tree. The animals got very angry at the squirrel, so they called a genie and they told him their problem. The genie went to the squirrel’s tree and the squirrel took his food! Well, the genie gave the squirrel a bushy tail so that he couldn’t hang upside down anymore. And that’s how the squirrel got his bushy tail!

She Did It!!

Katy came into our room yesterday morning while Matt and I were reading our Bibles, and she decided that she wanted to read something, too. So, she went into her room and came back with "The Foot Book" and said that she was going to try to read it. Then, she sat down in our glider, opened the book and proceeded to read the whole thing! By herself! every now and then she wold stop on an unfamiliar word and ask what it was, but she was able to sound them all out by herself, and after a while we realized that she was sounding them our without even asking us anymore! It was very exciting to hear her read, of her own volition and to realize that it is beginning to click with her! Praise God for His faithfulness in answering our prayers for her! I can't wait until she can read her Bible!

Westward....

While Matt was gone on the youth retreat this past week, we created another covered wagon and ate a campfire dinner (pancakes and eggs) under it. The girls were happily entertained for days with the wagon (and I have to say, it was a joy to finally take it down and have my living room back!). Who knew pool noodles were so useful to have around?!