May 11

It began as it so often does... in a big puppy pile.
With plenty of squeals and squeezes and "Hey, scoot over... that's my spot."
In that warm pile of pointy little elbows we began planning our day.

Up and at 'em, then.

"Mom. You know the modeling clay? The white stuff?"
"The light stuff?"
"Yeah. I want to make a t-rex. I don't have very many in my sandbox, so I want to make some."
Awesome.
"Of course. I'll go get it."
We sat down on the back patio to sculpt, and Mama enjoyed a glass of tea and a lemon bar (or two) for her breakfast.
How lovely is that?

Maddie sculpted a bit, and then helped Daddy to water the garden.A fine beginning....

After another round of sculpting (Madeleine stuffed his dinosaur into my glass of tea), and a bit of chalk play (we have quite the collection of "Madeleines" now - that's what she calls them- in front of our house)
we got ready to go.
To Fishing, then.
Up the canyon we went... adventuring.

We found little woolly lambssprings filled with watercress
a killdeer
and a sandy beach (that was waaaaay to Civilized for us).
We found a lovely winding brook
and a caterpillar
and then another one.
We ventured a bit further down the road
and stopped for some fishing.Mama got to show the children the pussy willowsAnd Trevelyn had his first fly casting lesson of the season.
We saw snakes
and dead mice (??- dead, but not eaten much)
and got out the sketch pad and acrylics for a little while.

After adventuring over the mountain, we made our way to Swaner Eco Center.There were not any trails that we could take, but we saw
swallows
red-winged blackbirds
yellow-headed blackbirds
and we climbed to the observation tower and spotted a sandhill crane sitting on a nest.
Eventually we climbed down the stairs and down from the mountain to settle in at home.

Where two of us headed for our computers, and one of us showed her Daddy the way to her dollhouse for a few minutes of play.
We sent Daddy off to pick us up a pizza

and then we headed out for a little neighborhood bike ride.(Because, you know.... we've been trapped inside all day...)

It's now 8:41, and it looks like we're up for a little Pecos Bill....
Where's the icecream?
G'night, then.