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The Colors in Nature on a Walk around the Neighborhood

After playing with our senses in our own yard the other day, Hazel and I took a walk around the neighborhood. She wanted to ride in her stroller which didn't bother me since I could get more exercise in. We decided to look and see what colors we could see in nature as we walked around our neighborhood. I didn't start taking pictures of what we saw until the last part of the walk, but here are a few things we saw.
Yellow Dandelions
Blue Vinca
Yellow, White, Pink and Red Flowers
White Flowering Trees
Pale Purple Flowers
Yellow and Orange Daffodils
Pink/Purple Azalea
Pink and White Flowering Tree
Red Tree and Yellow Bush
White barked birch tree
Orange and Red Pansies and Purple and Blue Violas
Grey Fur
Pink Flowers
Blue Sky
Yellow Forsythia and Pink Cherry Blossoms


We also discussed all the green and brown we saw everywhere and every shade of green.

Then we drew in our journal a day or so later remembering what we saw.
Hazel loves having me draw with her. I tried to label whatever we drew, but didn't get them all. I think the red and green on the last page was a car with eyes.


Some books to go with this walk... Rainbow Sheep by Kim Chatel and What Does Bunny See? by Linda Sue Park.

What have you been doing outside?

Happy Family Times #4

We are having beautiful weather this week so on Saturday afternoon when Daddy returned from hanging with the guys, we decided to go get some ice cream. We have a local place, Richardson's Ice Cream,  that makes homemade ice cream and sells their own milk. They have cows and other animals as well. We headed there. It takes 15-20 minutes to get there and tired Hazel fell asleep in the car, but we woke her when we got there.
Hazel wanted an ice cream cone, so she got one. I think this is the first time I have seen her eat an ice cream cone. I'm not sure if my mother-in-law has given them to her or not though. She made a bit of a mess around her face, hands and shirt, but had fun. She didn't want it all so Daddy ate the rest of it. After eating the ice cream we headed over to see the cows and animals.
They have a fenced in section right behind the ice cream stand/market where they have the older calves. It was a bit crowded there so we headed over to see the baby ones first.

The babies have their own little houses and have a section where they stay for the first eight weeks (I think that is what the sign said). Then a small part of their area has the chickens and turkeys. The rooster was roaming free around the cows and outside the hen house.
Daddy finished his and Hazel's ice cream and joined us while we were looking at the birds.

The crowd that was at the older calves came over so we switched spots with them and checked out the older ones. They also had some goats (looks likes kids to me) there.
Then we headed over to the cow barn. The first part is reserved for the very pregnant cows who will give birth in the next few weeks.
Then there are the rest of the adult cows. Most of them seemed to be sleeping.
Then we headed back to see the babies and chickens.

And the male turkey was out strutting himself to impress the female.

We looked for a quarter so Hazel could feed the animals, but we didn't have any. Oh, well. Next time. It was a fun family time and we always love their ice cream!

Now it is your turn to share how your family has spent some quality time lately.



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Adventures Outside Using our Senses and Imaginations


We spent much of the day outside on Saturday. Hazel has decided that the stuffed llama I got for my first Mother's Day (Heifer fundraiser--Buy a Llama for Your Mama) is a dog and it is Ducky's dog to be exact. Well she has me tie a string on to it as a leash and she drags it all over the place inside and out. Above she is running with Doggy. She would do this and then say Mommy needs to take a break now Doggy and come sit with me for a few minutes and then be off again.

As I have posted we are taking a class at Drumlin Farms on using our senses around the farm in the spring. This week we discussed sight. So today while outside we decided to pay attention to our senses. The first thing we always discuss is the sky--at least ever since we read Blue Sky by Audrey Wood. This book just shows different skies and labels them like blue sky, cloud sky, rainbow sky, etc. So now we always notice the sky and label it. Today was definitely a blue sky day.

Then we got to see a bird's nest--a sparrow's nest to be exact. We have a sparrow family that always nests on our house. So I pointed out the nest to Hazel today.
We also saw and heard lots of birds especially after we filled the birdfeeder.
Taking an idea from Living and Learning at Home (I featured this at Sharing Saturday this week), we drew pictures of what we saw, what we heard and what we felt today. I labeled all of our pictures so we would know what they were--especially Hazel's.
Hazel decided to go barefoot so she felt the grass on her feet as well as the woodchips. She didn't like the feeling of the woodchips.
She had fun filling the birdfeeder and carried the birdseed bag herself. She also liked walking on her stumps in her bare feet. I thought it would hurt, but apparently it didn't.
When we talked about what we see she mentioned the clothesline. I guess that is because we hung the clothes out when we first came outside.  Here are the pages from our journal.

 Then it was lunch time, so we had lunch outside.
Nothing like bringing in another sense to the day. Daddy wasn't home so he wasn't there to complain about having to eat outside. Hazel really wanted to so we went for it. After lunch she wanted to go for a walk. She decided she wanted to go in her stroller. I'll share in another post about our walk.  Then when we got back, Hazel was still a bit tired so we made her a place to rest.
After resting she wanted to play train. So we took the train to the zoo.
Hazel spots a red kangaroo out the train window...apparently we are visiting her pen pal in Australia.
She warned me it would be a long train ride and thought I should bring a book. I won a giveaway over at This Cosy Life which included a book, so I grabbed it.
I read the first chapter aloud with many interruptions to ask "Are we there yet?" per Hazel's request. Then she wanted to hear the first chapter again. Then I read the second chapter and at the end of it we were there and got off the train.
Then she played hide and seek with the sun. The sun went behind some clouds and she asked me where it was. I told her it was playing hide and seek so she went off to seek it. When it came back out she claimed to have found it. Then she went to hide from the sun.
I guess since she is in shade she is hiding from it.
Hazel's Talking Electric Toothbrush--or at least that is what she said it is

Next the chalk came out. She had fun drawing and then asked me to make 3 hopscotches for her. One for her, one for me and one for Daddy. She told me what to put in each box. She also drew two squares. It is the first time her squares actually looked squarish.

Then Mr. and Mrs. Mallard came for a visit. (Hazel had been asking me all day if they would.) We fed them some bread.
Hazel loves feeding them!
They were still out there when Daddy came home so we fed them some more. In fact they may be nesting out there. They seemed to not like us seeing them in one part of the brook.
After that we went out for ice cream--but I'll share that for Tuesday's Happy Family Times post. Hope you had a great weekend!!