Butterfly Biosphere

We're trying to do things again. I took Jet to the Orem and Provo Libraries a couple times since he's participating in "1000 Books Before Kindergarten" program and he's had some prizes to pick up.

He enjoyed looking at the display cases and got really excited when walking between the shelves with all those books. You know we love books in our family... and libraries.

He got a nursery rhyme book and got excited when I read/sang a few to him because he recognized them. Then he enjoyed looking through the book himself.

He also got a kazoo and as soon as I showed him how to use it, he was so happy and enjoyed playing it in the van as well as on a walk around the botany pond and terraced gardens at BYU.

 

As a family we went to the Butterfly Biosphere at Thanksgiving Point. It's been a few years since we've been there. Jet had never been there before. There were so many neat things to see. 

Jet thought it was great when we went in with the butterflies and he could see them flying around (Have you ever seen a see-through butterfly before? It's crazy. And real. They have glasswing butterflies at the Butterfly Biosphere). 

He was not happy, though, when we wouldn't let him touch the one on my finger. Lucky really wanted to hold one so I got it for him but got a few pictures with me first.

Good family activity. Starting to do things... preparing us for a fun Summer of library reading programs. Woohoo.

Cars, Water, Cars, Water

On John James Audubon's Birthday (also known as National Audubon Day) on April 26, Jet and I went out for a walk by the Provo River. We saw some ducks and I saw an American dipper. I love seeing dippers dipping in the water.

At one point we crossed a bridge where there was a barrier between the walking part of the bridge and the driving part. I lifted Jet so he could see the water in the river and he immediately got excited when he could see the cars going by. So we took some time looking back and forth between the cars and the water. Cars, water, cars, water.

A few days later, Jet and I went to the BYU botany pond. I haven't been there for many years, not since they made it the "botany pond." I used to pass it all the time when there was just a duck pond there when I was in college. 

Jet loved seeing the ducks and ducklings and the fence around the pond is the perfect height for a toddler. I saw Jet turning around at one point saying, "Cars, water, cars, water." I realized it was because we were between the pond and the street and he remembered from before. I thought that was pretty cute.

Back to Audubon Day, April 26 was also National Pretzel Day. Jeremy and I made soft pretzels after the kids went to bed (except Jr. Jr. made one pretzel because Jet kept running back to their room so Jr. Jr. kept bringing him back out). Jet of course helped with the dough. He is my baking buddy.

Some of the kids also had crunchy mini pretzels for after school snack.

The next day, April 27, was Babe Ruth Day so we had Baby Ruths after school.

Duck Days

I knew the kids had another day off of school coming up so I put together some ideas of expeditions we could go on like when we went to Dripping Rock but before presenting any ideas I asked the kids if they had anything they wanted to do in particular. Two of them wanted to go to a duck pond and the others didn't have an opinion. Duck pond it was.

Unfortunately when we finally got out, it was closer to evening so we weren't able to stay too long. We got great lighting for Nichole and Jr. to take some pictures while Jr. Jr. and Lucky fed the ducks.

 

You can tell where Lucky is in the back of this picture because of all the ducks headed in his direction.

Jr.: I'm surrounded. 

Among all the mallards/park ducks there was a wood duck. That was fun to see.

It got later so with the promise of coming back the next day we headed home.

 

February 4 was Homemade Soup Day so I heated up leftover taco soup and said the kids could have whatever other leftovers they could find.

 

When Jeremy got home we had a date night. The kids watched a movie in our room while Jeremy and I watched the new Ghostbusters movie that we've been waiting years for. It was supposed to come to theaters in 2020 then everything shut down so it finally was released late last year and Jeremy and I watched it on DVD for date night.

I also made ghost shaped rice crispy treats (made with marshmallows of course). Tee Hee. 

 

The next day we headed back to Paul Ream Wilderness Park where the kids fed the ducks and Jet ran around. February 5 was National Play Outside Day.

 

This is how Jet feeds the ducks. Oats all over his hair and coat.

 

Earlier in the day, Nichole showed us a watercolor picture she did of the wood duck from the park. Fun. She's getting good use of new watercolors she got for Christmas.

 

Also earlier in the day, I celebrated Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. I did not feel guilty about it. When the kids saw me, they all asked and got permission for ice cream, too.

 

So those were our duck days. Then on February 6, I celebrated the anniversary of when Alan Shepard hit golf balls on the moon by playing a golf game on the internet.

By the way, February 6 is also Lame Duck Day but we didn't go back to the park to look for lame ducks.

How to Feed the Ducks in the Winter

A friend told me that the best time to feed the ducks at a certain pond is during the Winter because they're not already full of what people are bringing them throughout the warmer months.
So we did.
One day when we went, Lucky was a little overwhelmed.  As soon as the ducks saw we had food, they crowded around.  And they're almost as big as Lucky.

Another day, we found a different strategy.  Open up the side of the van and throw the food out from there.  The ducks went right up to the van, but they didn't surround Lucky.

Collect Acorns Day

September 16 is Collect Rocks Day.
Before school, I wrote messages on the kids' sandwich and snack bags for them to collect.  "Have a rockin' good day."  "You're a rockstar!"  "You rock!"
After school, I mentioned to Nichole that it was Collect Rocks Day.  She said, "Oh, that's why you had the word 'rock' underlined on all those notes."  I guess she didn't look at the calendar this morning.
While the older kids were at school, Jr. Jr., Lucky, and I went to Highland Glen Park.  We remembered how last year we went on a big walk on Collect Rocks Day.  It has been too rainy lately to make a big walk like that again (didn't want to get caught in the rain too far away from shelter on the walking path) so we stuck to walking around a place where we could get back to the van easily enough if it started raining hard.  The boys had fun at first collecting rocks (we remembered to bring a baggie to put the rocks in since it was such a success last time) but after a while they discovered... ACORNS!

Forget rocks.  Let's collect acorns.  Jr. Jr. started calling the holiday Collect Acorns Day. 
They had a blast with that.  I had a blast watching the terns flying around the pond and diving in to get fish.  And discovering a new bird I did not recognize.  I first heard it while we were on the opposite side of the pond.  Some sort of chittering critter.  Finally when we had walked around to the other side, I saw it sitting in a tree chittering away.

Jeremy later identified it as a belted kingfisher.
You know I like bird watching.  It was a gorgeous morning for it.

Once again we left the rocks and the acorns at the park when we went home.

This evening for Collect Rocks Day, Jeremy had some special presents for the kids.  They unwrapped them and found... rocks.  Well, fossils.  Each child got a group of 6 fossils from the gift shop at the Museum of Ancient Life.

The kids were very interested in them.  Lucky mostly because he could take them out of the container and put them back in again and nobody told him, "Don't touch those.  Put them down."  The other kids enjoyed comparing their fossils to their siblings'.

It was a good day for collecting rocks and acorns and pictures of birds.  I even got some videos of terns diving into the water.