A Balmy 55 Degrees!

We had to get outside on a day like today, especially since it is supposed to rain/snow tonight and then be arctically (a word??) cold the next several days again. So, we headed to a park near us and walked along the frozen creek for a bit. The assignment, in addition to just enjoying being outside, was to practice walking quietly and listening and then to come up with one word to describe what we heard, two words to describe what we saw and three words to describe how we felt (thanks to Barb at the Handbook of Nature Study blog!). The girls and Liam all had a great time. It was wonderful to be outside!!

Our list:

One word to describe what we heard:
Katy: caw-caw-caw
Darsie: chick-a-dee-dee-dee
Mary: awakening (ice melting, birds calling, leaves rustling)

Two words to describe what we saw:
Katy: water coming (she wanted to say water coming out of a hole, but that was too many words, so she shortened it to this)
Darsie: the feathers (a pile of feathers on the path)
Mary: winter snow

Three words to describe what we felt:
Katy: I felt chilly!
Darsie: warm and tired
Mary: I love outside!

Darsie's list of what she thought she might see on our walk:
a tree, a creek, leaves (not sure what the grid-looking pictures are).

And Katy's ideas:
tree, ladybug, butterfly, cherry and acorn.

Liam was just glad to be outside and walking around on non-icy surfaces.
He LOVED it!

Part of the creek where the ice had melted a bit.
It was a wonderful sound to hear the water running!

A friendly jogger stopped and asked us if we would like our picture taken, so here it is. :)
(I'm sure Sarah Beth or Sara K. would do the same thing. :) )

The creek was still pretty frozen. I showed the girls how to pick up icy snow balls and lob them onto the creek and watch them explode. They loved it!

Isn't she beautiful??!!

So is she!!!!

And look at this cutie!

A view from the path....

The waterfall had huge chunks of ice hanging off of it, and the creek above it was pretty frozen!

The ruins of an old house built in the 1700's. It was a tenant house, had two doors leading into separate rooms on the first floor. The upstairs had a separate exit door called the funeral door for when someone died in bed and had to be taken out. Apparently, the front staircases were too narrow to carry a coffin down, so they put in another door that opened to the outside to get it out that way. Interesting....

This video is just to show how interested Liam was in the creek. If you listen carefully, you can hear him say "ice" and "bye water". I also had to get a video of him calling the girls by name, because you can actually tell the difference between their names now when he says them. "Da da" for Darsie and "Day dee" for Katy.



And what are the kids doing now as I post this? Liam is sleeping and the girls are outside without jackets (though I did make them leave on the long-sleeved t-shirts under their short-sleeved ones) playing in the remaining snow and enjoying the swingset. There will be lots of mud and wetness when they come in, I suspect!