Village Park and Parfrey's Glen

After picking up our taste of Wisconsin at Mousehouse Cheesehaus, we stopped at Village Park in Waunakee to eat our food and then play.

Samson suddenly decided that he was ready to sit up, and did so himself. All the better to eat the sticks and leaves, my dear!

Willow in the background, happy baby on the grass ground.

Tommy offered to take a picture of me with my baby. He's looking at the picture with me now and laughing, "Ooops! I accidentally got my finger in front of the camera!"

 And now, because he is learning to read, he read what I wrote and is laughing hysterically. It's actually nice that my kid can now read over my shoulder!

Momma and her boys!

This park had several willows. As previously stated in my Quarry Hill post, I love willows! I've honestly never seen so many before.

I found a willow branch on the ground and Tommy was thrilled to pretend to fish with it.

Seriously, such a gorgeous park!

There were several bridges crossing the meandering stream.

I love it when Samson grabs our faces! That means love!

I seriously never get enough of this boy's face!

On Wednesday morning we set out for Parfrey's Glen. It was a luscious drive of rolling green hills, autumn leaves, red barns and silos, and many twists and turns in the roads. All very different from what we're used to.

The glen floor was a maze of intertwined tree roots.

So many trees!

We were able to take the double stroller until a stream crossing. Thora did a great job walking when she had to abandon her stroller!

Samson is always a good cuddle buddy.

I love how my kids love to help each other.

We saw fun rock formations at the end of the trail. 

"Give her the finger!" --Shad

And a booty shot, of course...

Continuing the path to Mordor...

This was where the trail ended with a sign saying to feel free to proceed and enjoy the rest of the glen, but at your own risk upon leaving the maintained trail. This would be a great spot for a date, or for Shad and I to take the big two...if only we lived nearby! Hmmm...

Some other hikers offered to take a picture of us.

Water running down the rocks.

Shad took Katie and Tommy out onto the rocks a little way.

Best friends!

Seriously, we'd love to come back and explore this more.

When my aunt Emily got home from work that day, we told her we had gone to Parfrey's Glen. She was shocked and wondered why my uncle Aaron hadn't told us to go to Devil's Lake. All the good stuff at the glen is off the trail; until then you're walking in just a forest. I told her that may be true, and to her it may be just a forest, but to us, coming from Kansas, it was a forest! Perspective.

Summer Science

People are always interested in what I do for homeschooling, especially when I say that we haven't even started any curriculum yet. We read, talk, play and explore. This summer we picked off my Science board on Pinterest and had loads of fun. Simple activity: pour baking soda into a cake pan (or a high chair tray), dye white vinegar. Simple, easy, cheap. I already had the droppers.

Little scientist at work! Or play :)

Thora tried eating the baking soda. She didn't like it at all, but that still didn't stop her from trying it about 5 more times.

When Dancy was done, I had fun pouring the vinegar out into her pan.

Tom and Katie got artistic with their pans. Tommy made a moonscape.

Katie made a volcano.

* * *

Science activity #2: Magnifying glasses.

Inspired by Sid the Science Kid on Netflix, I bought the kids magnifying glasses at Dollar General. Hooray for $1 science tools, because that's all they need at this age. We can invest in higher quality items later.

And then we took them with us for a walk to the library. Oh, the wonders they found magnifying everything along the way, as well as inside the library! On the way home, we collected things for them to bring to the table to continue being scientists while I made lunch.

And when they had questions, they asked questions. And if I didn't have answers, we googled them. 

Science RULES!

Thank you, Bill.

But really, last month we had a HUGE influx of ladybugs...although they seemed a little different than the ones we're used to. Perhaps a different breed? Regardless, we had tons everywhere outside and they infiltrated our house as well. Some found their way into the energy-efficient lightbulb in my oven hood vent, and there died. What's exciting about that is that the light bleached them. Check it out:

Nature

September 28: Nature happened on my doorstep today. This little lady dropped her egg sack on my door frame. Thought it'd be a good place, I guess. I watched some of the process as I came back in from hanging laundry out to dry. Interesting to watch the contractions in her abdomen.

I have read so much about praying mantises in these two weeks! Mantids mate in the fall when the weather starts to cool off. The egg sack is called an ootheca. The mother, when laying her eggs, produces a foam to coat them. The foam then hardens, and the female takes off. Some species stick around to protect the ootheca from such predators as wasps and grasshoppers, but I didn't get that kind. She's either a Praying Mantis, or a Carolina Mantis. Those are the two species that we have here in Kansas. I'm really not sure when to expect the eggs to hatch. Some sites said 4-8 weeks, depending on the temperature; others said hatching occurs in spring. Perhaps the difference in information is regarding whether the hatching is occurring in nature, or captivity. Either way, I've been keeping my door latched shut to try to prevent a household takeover. Oh, and about the said wasp and grasshopper predators--no joke! They have been all over! The wasps hang out on my porch, while the grasshoppers have filled my yard and we constantly see pairs of them mating. Someone is gearing up for a feast!