Backyard Camping {Wordless Wednesday}

The pics are pretty blurry, but what can I do with children who move and a little digital camera in the dark?! Just know we had LOTS of fun!!!

Got the tent...

... and the food.

Here's the entertainment!

Gotta check everyone for a bellybutton. (Just learned about why they're there and that everyone has one...)

Running off the sugary marshmallows!

Being goofy like Brother.

Time to play games in the tent!

Time to sleep... Zzzzzzzz...

Fun Outside Before Nap Time

We've had some truly beautiful weather the last few days. Really - it's been around 80°F, partly cloudy, nice and breezy... just perfect for hanging around outside. We've been going for long walks, heading to the park to play, having picnics by the river, gardening... just everything you could imagine. However, when it gets close to nap time, I don't like to be too far from home. If Little Guy is late on his nap, all hell breaks loose in the form of screaming and kicking tantrums over things like waiting to cross the street because a car is coming. He just completely loses it when he's tired. I also don't want him getting too messy (gardening) because that means he'll have to get cleaned up before he heads to bed. Quick showers do not exist in his world. He loves showering and will stay in there for however long we'll let him. Quick rinses lead to the same kicking and screaming tantrums as the over-tiredness does. SO, what do we do when the weather's beautiful and nap time is near?

We "Build" Roads!

I grab a book or some sewing, he grabs ten cars, and we head out to the patio. We draw the roads, train tracks, grass, and water. It takes no more than ten minutes to do the drawing. Sometimes, we find some sticks, stones, grass, etc. and add make buildings, fields, etc. It all depends on how much time we have. Once the roads are finished, I can sit back and enjoy being outside. Little Guy spends some down-time with his vehicles. And, we don't miss one second of the weather!

He's got John Lennon playing through the headphones. We have a playlist on my MP3 for his sleepy-time music. It's so funny to hear him belt out a line or two now and then!

Had to add some dirt for the digger trucks!

What do you do for some quiet fun outside before nap time?

I'd love some more ideas!

Shout! {Music in the Park}

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This is only about 1/3 of the crowd that showed up!

Remember how I started writing regular posts about our Music in the Park outdoor concerts? (Yeah, I should never try to do things like this - I almost never complete them!) Anyway, the one concert that I look forward to most took place a week and a half ago! My family knows that it is mandatory to attend this concert and no one ever makes excuses to skip out.

MANDATORY! Guess who the most enthusiastic one was...

Who was playing, you ask? It was a Beatles tribute band called Shout! (if you're ever in Michigan, check to see if these guys are playing near you.) Little Guy's favorite DVD all summer has been Yellow Submarine (I swear, we sometimes have it playing 2-3 times a day. I hate to admit this, but I'm kinda getting sick of it!) Oh, and ever since he was just a few days old, we've used a CD I made of John Lennon's slower songs to put him to sleep every night. Just seeing that kid's face when he saw the group on stage was worth going down to the park. He was actually star-struck!

Little Guy's Musical hero - John Lennon!

Shout! played three sets - each with different costumes. The first was the Fab Four black suits and Beatles haircuts, the second was the Sergeant Pepper's outfits, and finally (this was new) they came out dressed as the Beatles were on the cover of Abby Road - Paul was even barefoot!

Needless to say, we all ended up having an amazing time. Little Guy even got into the fun by repeatedly requesting "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" at the top of his lungs between songs. They even played one of my favorites - Rain. There's one line at the end of that song that is recorded backward on the track. They got it perfectly! Oh, and I have to brag - I managed to impress both my sons when I showed them I knew all the words to "I Am the Walrus" (goo-goo-ga-joob!)

By the time the group was through, we were all thoroughly exhausted. It was a hot and humid night and, with the crowd that was there, the little bit of breeze we had wasn't noticeable. Unfortunately, we had to stay a little longer than expected. You see, as I was packing up our stuff, I looked around and saw a ton of trash laying everywhere. I couldn't believe the mess that was left behind. It's not as if there were no trash cans - they were everywhere! So, much to the kids' dismay, we stayed and cleaned up the best we could. I know the park has workers that would come the next day, but I just couldn't leave it like that. The park is on the river, which leads to Lake Erie. We were expecting rain and wind overnight, so I could just imagine how much of the mess would be blow away. Anyway, we did our good deed and even managed to make a few bucks - cans and bottles are worth $0.10 each when you recycle them in Michigan!

Not cool... I'm very disappointed in the people who live in our community.

Stay tuned - This weekend we will be attending the yearly River Raisin Jazz Festival and Fine Arts Fair!!! Three days of music and art! I can't wait...

Keeping A Busy Guy Happy When It's HOT Out

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Yep, it's hot outside! Even with the sauna-like heat and humidity, I'm still going to say that I like summer best and this type of heat wave is to be expected at least once a year. I can live with it, but I'm not sure Little Guy can. We've had to keep him inside during the day, as the heat index has regularly been hitting the upper 90's and has gotten over 110 degrees F a few times in the last week and a half. Add 75% or higher humidity and you've got a catastrophe waiting to happen with this kid. He's like Forrest Gump - he MUST run everywhere. It's hard to wrangle him up for a drink of water. He just loves being free. I swear, the kid giggles the entire time we go for walks or to the park, only stopping when he wants to tell us something. You could pick him up off the ground and his feet would still be going.

When he doesn't get his daily outings, he can become a handful of trouble. He's got so much pent up energy that he needs to release that it can turn into fury. He just doesn't know what to do with himself. He'll end up hitting, throwing things, having tantrums over the simplest things... it's a nightmare. So, hubby and I decided to alter the whole family's timetable. We've been putting Little Guy to bed around midnight rather than 9:30pm. We stay up until 1 or 2am to get some alone time. Little Guy usually doesn't wake up until 9-9:30 in the morning now, instead of his usual 7am. Strangely, nap time has only moved back a little bit, but it's lasting longer (YES!)

What do we do while we're up so much later? We go for walks and head to the park! On our walks, we encounter lots of interesting creatures that you just don't see during the day. Little Guy and I have been looking for moths and other insects (and arachnids!) in trees, on lampposts, in bushes, and on our own porch. Check out some of what we found in just one night (the first three pics are of a moth that was about 3 inches long!):

My husband says he said his name is "Irving"

These guys remind me of Murano glass beads.

I've seen this type moth in some amazing colors - from brown like a leaf to fluorescent purple. They all are the same size with the same shape. Someday, I'll find out what they are.

In addition to our walks (or Little Guy's "runs"), we've been hitting the park. I've been having a ton of fun taking pictures blind - it's so dark there that it's really hard to see anything, especially through the lens of my camera. As you can see, the flash can be a blinding surprise!

Sometimes I caught some pretty cool photos by just pointing and hitting the button!

There are some drawbacks to taking a little one to a very dark park - if he's running faster than you, he can disappear into the night. I shot the above pic in hopes that the flash would show us where he went. Oh, and there are wild animals at the park. Little Guy was running toward the shelter, where people picnic. It has a nice trash can filled with all kids of leftover goodies that attract animals. Just as he got to the shelter, I saw the shadow of a small animal scurrying away. Then we noticed something... n odor. It was a skunk and Little Guy had surprised him. I took off like a bat out of hell toward the shelter, screaming, "STOP!!!" at the top of my lungs at 11:30 at night. I grabbed up Little Guy, praying that he'd still smell like citronella oil and NOT Eau d' Pepe La Pew. He was fine. That's when I noticed that every house across the street from the park had its lights on and people were mulling around on their porches and front yards. Oops - guess the screaming must've woke a few people up. After this incident, we kept Little Guy in MUCH closer range! 

Looking at the stars.

 We also took advantage of the lack of players on the tennis courts. Now here was a place that was partially lit and fenced in - our little freebird couldn't get too far away from us! He loved throwing his ball and chasing after it. Plus, we didn't have to run after him. We managed to sit down, drink our ice water, and talk! Oh, and I want to mention that, when we got home on the night these photos were taken, we checked the Weather Channel - the heat index, at 11:45pm, was 90 degrees!

So, what do you do when it's too hot for your little ones to get outside and burn off some energy??? 

***I just want to add here that the really cool bug shirt little guy is wearing is from Tea Collection - it's a prize I won from a giveaway on Abby Approved! Isn't it awesome?!

Swallowtail Butterfly {#SmartSummerChallenge - Week 3}

A while back, I mentioned that I had a few caterpillars on my dill plants in the garden. There were three until a really strong storm hit - two of them just couldn't hold on to the plant and, if you know your dill, the leaves don't really make for great protection. After the storm, we brought the last caterpillar inside and set him up in our butterfly pavilion.

Kind of out of focus, but you get the idea!

The kids and I had Swallowtails last summer in little quart jars all over the kitchen, so we knew a little about them. But, just for a refresher, we all headed to the library. My oldest was put in charge of finding information on Swallowtails - what they eat, how long it takes them to go through their stages, etc. Little Guy and I hit the juvenile section in search of some children's books about the life stages of butterflies in general.

Being that this is the age of technology, my oldest ignored the stacks and hit the computers. Within five minutes, he had a few pages printed out that had everything we'd need to know about our new little friend and even a few coloring pages for his little brother. Little Guy and I found our books rather easily, too. They were being featured that week on a display table, so we didn't have to go far! We found a book about the life cycles of insects, one about butterflies, and one about the differences between butterflies and moths.

We loved this book - I even learned some new things!

While Little Guy let our newly dubbed "Hank" crawl on his fingers and a stick, my oldest read all about how to care for him. His three favorite foods were plentiful in our garden: Parsley, dill, and carrot tops. So, we put Hank back into the pavilion and harvested him some lunch. Once he realized that there was food in there with him, Hank went at it. We watched him eat for a very long time - this guy didn't stop! We observed that he preferred the parsley over the other two options and theorized that it was because it was sturdier and could hold his weight more easily. The kids eventually got bored watching Hank make a glutton of himself and wandered off to do their own things. After nap time, we checked on Hanks and found that he was out of food! So, we filled his vase up again - this time with so much that I was expecting to have to throw most of it away the next morning.

Can you see the little thread he made to hold himself to the stick toward the top?

We woke up to find that all of the leaves had been mowed down and Hank had disappeared. My oldest was kind of in a panic, "How did he get out? AH! What if the cat finds him?!" We searched the water in the vase, the zippers were all securely closed, but we checked all around the room. Then, Little Guy yelled, "Peek-A-Boo! I find Hank!" He was pointing into the pavilion, toward the top. Hank had already become a chrysalis! I can't believe that a 2 1/2 year old was able to notice this before me or my teen. Not only did he notice, but I am still amazed that he knew that our bright green and black caterpillar with yellow spots had become the little greenish package hanging from a stick. How cool is that?!

So, we waited. And waited. It takes an average of 10 to 14 days for the butterfly to emerge. Ours took 20 days! I'm guessing that it is because we had a week of very hot weather and I had the sir conditioner on all day, every day. Maybe Hank thought it was fall. Anyway, for some reason, on day 20, I woke up at 4am needing a glass of water (not normal!) As I was sipping on my water, I took a peek at Hank, hoping today would be the day. Even in the semi-dark, I could see that his chrysalis had turned almost black. According to the oldest's research, this meant that a new butterfly was going to emerge very soon!

The new Hank!

By the time we were all awake the next morning, we had a butterfly! The kids and I watched as Hank's wings slowly unfurled and as he got used to his proboscis (he kept unrolling it and rolling it back up.) We put some pieces of orange onto skewers and dipped them in sugar water for him. After a few hours of just getting used to the new Hank, he tried out his wings. I'm glad we have the big pavilion because he was able to fly around a little without banging into everything. He landed on an orange and both of the kids knew he was tasting it with his feet. We watched in wonder as Hank had his first taste of sugary orange. It was pretty cool! We celebrated by making orange smoothies and drinking them with straws, just like Hank! We decided to let Hank go the next morning. My oldest checked the weather report and said it would be perfect - mostly sunny, a little breezy, and around 80 degrees.

 So, we took him outside and it was quite obvious that Hank was ready to go. He hit the top of the pavilion and tried his best to find a way out. My oldest wanted to be the cameraman, so Little Guy and I worked on letting Hank free.

We were trying to get him to crawl on Little Guy's hand, but Hank didn't want anything to do with us! He squeezed past our hands and flew out. My oldest wasn't ready, so he missed getting a good picture. We did get to watch Hank flutter around for a few minutes before he headed into the woods behind the house. I'm hoping he'll be back to sample some of the flowers in our garden!

I wanted you to see what they look like up close and, since Hank didn't feel like cooperating... these are last year's models. They are Black Swallowtail Butterflies.

We learned quite a bit about butterflies from this experience. Their life cycle, how much one little caterpillar can eat, that they poop (of great interest to my potty-training Little Guy!), how butterflies eat, and that these are great pollinators. The pollinators part is another lesson we learned about and I'm hoping to get a post up about that, too, very soon!

Oh, THIS is My Subject! {Smart Summer Challenge - Week 3}

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You'll never guess what this week's Smart Summer Challenge topic is...

Give up???

BACKYARD SCIENCE!

I know - it's just perfect for me! I'm a naturalist at heart and love pointing out all of the different things like bugs, plants, animal behaviors, etc. to my kids. My little guy knows which leaves in our garden he can eat (the herbs) and which are dangerous. He can name most of the insects he comes across. My oldest, who I still point things out to, is constantly saying, "I know, Mom!" But, when he thinks I'm not paying attention, I overhear him being all smarty-pants to his friends and telling them these little factoids I've passed on to him. Pretty cool, huh?


Since I'm kind of like the Queen of Backyard Science around here, I'm stuck on what I should write about. It seems like every time we step outside, a science lesson commences. It's so common that I don't really feel as if this stuff is post-worthy. I guess I'll have to wing it... And all of you lovely readers may have to put up with a ton of posts from me this week. I tend to procrastinate - a LOT - so, my plan is to type up whatever we did ASAP and post. Maybe that will work. Trust me - it'll only be for one week - next Monday, it'll be a new theme!


Here are some of my ideas of the things we do nearly every day and what I might try to elaborate on for the kids this week:

• While hanging laundry, we can talk about heat from the sun, wind, and how both lead to evaporation.
• We are seed-savers. I often tell my little one about how pollination from insects makes it possible for seeds to even appear. Maybe while we're harvesting some seeds this week, we can take the time to sit back and discover just which insects in our yard do the most pollinating.
• One thing that I have yet to do with Little Guy is show him how a magnifying glass can be used to concentrate the sunlight into a powerful fire-starter. Not sure if it's something I'm willing to show my extremely boisterous and often unruly toddler... BUT, I'm thinking that my oldest might be interested in trying a little wood-burning artwork with a magnifying glass and a few Popsicle sticks.
• When we pull weeds this week, I would like to save a few and go over the different parts of a plant. I have a few out there that have flowered and began to go to seed. They would be perfect. Plus there are the roots, etc. 
• There's always the age-old Queen Anne's Lace in the dyed water experiment to show how water travels up the stem to the flowers. I wonder how it would work if we did one with the roots and one that was cut... Sound like a great comparison experiment!

OK, I think I have more than enough to write about. I'm not sure if we'll get to them all, or if I'll find something different to do. We'll see what the week brings us. Oh! I just remembered! We have storms coming this week - could do something on weather, and how about the bleaching properties of the sun, and lightning bugs and the moon... 

            and... 

                       and...

Interested in joining in the Smart Summer Challenge? Check out THIS POST to see what it's all about and how to join. Hey, there are even prizes to be won! Not that I wouldn't be doing this anyway - it's fun! - but hey, PRIZES make it even more enjoyable, you know?!

Did I Just See ELVIS?! {Music in the Park #2}

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So, last week was a huge disappointment in the Music in the Park department. As we walked to the park, I watched the skies with trepidation. They were cloudy when we left the house to go see the Saline Fiddlers, a teen group of string-instumrnt-playing virtuosos. Ten minutes later, when we were about half-way there, the clouds turned black and the temperature dropped a good 15 degrees. We turned around and went home. Nothing like being 20 minutes away from home without shelter and on foot - with a toddler!

But, last night made up for it. The weather was beautiful! It was 80 degrees out, a little humid, and a nice 10 MPH wind blowing to keep everything good and comfortable. I mad a yummy picnic with Little Guy consisting of fruit salad and veggie sandwiches earlier in the afternoon. Hubby was actually excited to go (usually, he goes, but lets me know it's because I'm making him - ugh!)  Our walk there was fun, and Little Guy even managed to let us take breaks to enjoy the river!

The park was filled! Everyone and their brother showed up! (See the little spot Hubby staked out for us in the foreground, on the right? The guy in the brown shirt!)

When we got there, Elvis was already revved up and gyrating! Did you know we have our very own Elvis in residence? Here's a good story: Elvis' daughter is the same age as my oldest. When he first started school (second grade), he came home one day cheezed off at me and his dad. "YOU SAID ELVIS WAS DEAD! YOU LIED TO ME! HE CAME TO SCHOOL TODAY AND PICKED UP A_____! HE'S NOT DEAD!!!" Little did we know, but "Elvis" lived less than a block away from our own home. It took a LOT of explaining to my then 6 year-old about impersonators and tributes!




Now, I'm not really an Elvis fan, but this guy is GREAT! His real name is Sherman Arnold and he really does get the crowd going. Who doesn't like a nice rendition of "Love Me Tender" once in a while, right? The females (and a few males!) in the audience had their "knickers twitchin'", as my friend, Tiny Temper, would say. He didn't stay up on stage, where it was safe, he was in the audience, singing to women, young and old, nearly the entire length of his set. Little guy just wasn't sure what to make of it, but, apparently, rockabilly isn't on his list of favorite music!

Gotta love the irony of the "Do Not Enter" sign and Hubby actually trying to get Little Guy not to enter!

Rather than dancing, he was busy making new friends on the playground. now, I have to mention that, until last night, he never really played with the other kids. He played alongside them. So, he crossed a "developmental milestone" as he played with his new friends! He played tag - both as "It" and as the "Target", he played catch, he raced, he even helped someone who had been pushed down by an older kid. That last one needs some work - he tried to "help" his friend by beating up on the bully - a little girl who was about 7. (Hey, she was a brat and deserved it, but Little Guy, at 2.5, was no match!) I am glad I was close and was able to direct his attention to the hurt kid and how to be empathetic and helpful, rather than retaliatory!

 Now, the second act of the evening was one I had been looking forward to since I first saw them on the calendar, way back when there was still snow on the ground: THE BLUES BROTHERS! OK, I have to tell you, my dad loves The Blues Brothers - my entire childhood was filled with quotes from the movie, watching the movie, singing the songs... you get the picture. I mean, even now, he dresses up with a friend of his and shows up a parties to do the act. Not for money - for fun. The car chase scene in the movie is one that, as soon as VCR's came out and we had one, my brother played over and over.

When the music started, Little Guy ditched his new friends and made his way toward the stage... mesmerized and bopping his little butt t the beat! Yep, he's definitely got the gene! And these guys were good. They didn't have a back-up band, so the music was all pre-recorded with scenes from the movie dubbed in. Little Guy was shocked (and a little proud, I hope) that his mama knew ALL the words to ALL the movie lines and ALL the songs! He especially loved "Rawhide" because he has a special dance of his own that we call the "Roll-It" - in the style of The Hustle. This was the first year that these guys have played our little community outdoor concerts. I sure hope they come back next year!

These guys had some fantastic choreography and dance moves.

Hubby "enjoying" the music!