This past Thursday, on Earth Day, Logan had his school field trip to the Red Oak Nature Center. Leading up to the trip, the class talked a lot about recycling/reusing/reducing (we “reused” a broken dump truck last week by stacking empty favor boxes on the back where the dump used to be and made it “a toy transporter” <—Logan’s idea). We even did our own Earth Day craft at home using a egg carton container (which, I might add, was itself made of recycled materials).

Here is our craft: We made these last weekend and then took them to the sandbox where we, briefly…until the boys lost interest, made a kingdom of egg-carton people. * Posting note: Brady just wandered into the office with a strawberry and saw this picture. He said, “I made a bug” which reminds me that he did indeed make a bug instead of a person. His had no hair, but pipe cleaner legs sticking out from all around. He took it outside and destroyed it before I could get a picture.

Here are the moms and kids from Logan’s pre-K class meeting up outside the Nature Center building. Both morning and afternoon classes were combined for the field trip which met at noon. It was the first morning in a LONG time that did not necessitate a rush off to anywhere in particular. We pretty much chilled until 11:15 and then headed out with a lunch packed in the car for the trip home. 

My boys waiting to go in: I know it looks like he’s squeezing his head, but Logan is trying to make Brady look at the camera. *Posting note: Brady just wandered in to the office again and said, “look…Brady sleeping!” Now he’s trying to climb on my lap saying “I wanna see down” (which means he wants me to scroll down and show him the other pictures). He is also saying, “I wanna see brudders” (brothers)

There were TONS of cool interactive things inside the main building.

My boys loved the fish room the best (it also had a terrarium with stick bugs in it…shockingly, Logan has a long-time love of stick bugs even thought he’s never seen one. In fact, during the Winter, the kids in his class had to draw a picture of a creature that crawled into their mitten. Logan drew a stick bug.)

After a short video about a cave on the property and a talk which included learning all the sign-language signs for the seasons and weather, we all went on a hike.

Here is the cave with Brady crawling out the small side. There is a BIG entrance and a LITTLE exit…

 

Logan sat on top of the cave for the group picture (second from the right). They are doing “raccoon eyes” for this shot. I usually use mascara and a hot shower, but this works too.

The cave was right by a bank of the Fox River. Shocking that my kids wandered down to find rocks to throw in (this is a standard “activity” at the park near our home, also located on the River)

They super didn’t feel like taking a picture…they were tired and hungry by this point (except Logan I guess). We left right after and hiked back to our car. The boys had PBJs and all but Logan passed out on the way back. I ended up transferring Aiden to his bed for what amounted to the first decent nap he’s taken in at least 9 months (over an hour and a 1/2). This also led to a surprisingly sweet and fun little boy that afternoon…who couldn’t fall asleep until 9ish that night. Why oh why do naps make great kids who stay up too late?!!!

In other news, Brady is borrowing a scooter from our friends down the block until 16-month-old Matthew needs it sometime next Spring. He LOVES it! When it was time to come inside on his first day of scooter riding, he was distraught. He stood just inside the house and yelled into the darkness of the garage (I had closed the outside door on our way back in), “my kooter…my kooter” until I let him bring it in the house. Today was day 3 of scooter riding and he’s already able to balance on the 2-wheeled Razor that Logan rides! Brady: touring the kitchen on his kooter.

And finally, also in Brady news, our little 2-year old has recently earned himself the name of “Pterodactyl”. Whenever he is 1. tired and 2. upset about something, he will look directly at the source of the offence (usually me, daddy or his brothers) and SCREECH really loud. He opens his mouth wide and like shrieks at us. Brian and I have a really hard time not busting out laughing at him…which usually makes him screech again…complete with a little forward nod of the head. I’m sorry…but it’s funny.