Science FUNdaMENTALS

Sunday morning was a frosty memory that required the mind to wonder over past camping trips with warm coffee and early morning fires that mingle with the relaxing atmosphere that is the outdoors. Once the morning chill was removed by the late spring sun we were packed and head north for a hike. Lisa had a race, but the kids and I spent the early morning working on comparative anatomy in the forearms of animals as seemingly diverse as porpoises, bats, horses and humans. Sophia has a great deal of fun reading through my various biology books and both kids got into the ideas of feeling their bones and tendons in their arms. Merrick petered out after starting his day cheerfully but at the ridiculously early hour of 5 am, and missed out on our early morning science experiment on the kitchen floor. Sophia was wondering about the sun spot on the kitchen floor, so with a piece of tape stuck to the kitchen floor we tracked the sun/shadow movement as a function of time--she was really impressed at how fast the sun spot was moving and we had some time to pose some initial hypothesis.
With the kids dressed in their woodland gear and the peanut butter sandwiches in the backpack we headed to the Oconto forest for a hike. We hiked a new trail and found a series of small ponds, none of which held any tadpoles, and multiple areas of blossoming strawberries. The wintergreen was still conspicuous enough for Sophia to find and chew, although when offered to Merrick he just replied "No, I have gum." I was unsure if this was irony or the situation or a juxtaposition of antiquity vs. modernity at any rate, it was cute. We had a nice lunch break in a sunny area with a breeze that was enough to keep the early mosquito hatch away from our granola bars. Merrick ate his granola bars while walking often wandering off the trail to fall, each time hollering to me, "I fall down, I know stay on trail" only to be followed by him running past me on the narrow blackberry lined trails say "Here I am , I am coming, being polite." Sophia, to her credit, continued to talk about the quiteness of the woods. It was a really good trip in the woods with the kids, they had fun and we even found a new plant (the kids are knealing next to the new plant). We even found some mushrooms that I was 98% sure were morels--the 2% was enough reason to leave them in the woods rather than saute them for supper. A little botany, a little mycology.

Spring is Rushing Head-Long towards Summer

We have been busy with general spring things although much of which has been around the house. The kids and I got the garden planted a few weeks ago. With the recent rains the potatoes (blue, Russian fingerlings and white) peas, and beans are starting to come up. The kids also have their own garden plots planted. We spent an afternoon making four cedar boxes and preping the boxes with compost and soil and then went to the local Fleet-Farm and they picked out their seeds to plant. I lost track of what all the bought but I believe it was corn, watermelons, and some peas. That was the second rainy garage weekend, although each of the kids did get new rain boots and jackets so that we could still hang out, outside. They now have matching lady-bug rain coats. Merrick spent the day at day care telling his teachers that I also had lady-bug rain coat, so when I picked him up his teachers really wanted to see me in my lady-bug rain coat, complete with PVC antennae on the hood. The First rainy weekend was spent building several trellis for the new hops plants and then staining them with oil based stain. This was a mess but they had their rain coats on so that is about as good of a smock as you can get. Sophia seems to have a birthday party to attend every weekend and is playing soccer two nights a week so that is keeping us hopping. She is at the bottom of the age range in soccer this year and not as dominant as she was last year. She is enjoying it a great deal however and gets excited about playing each week--although the half-hour of playground time after the game combined with Soccer Mom's required treats might play a role as well.
On the third rainy weekend in a row we drove down to Appleton to go to the children's museum and that was enjoyable as touching is encouraged and the kids were able to play inside of a massive heart and the local herpetology club was there so all of the kids were touching and wearing variety of snakes. Merrick has also nearly mastered the game of Fungo, and has a remarkable ability to toss a ball to himself and then hit it with the bat. He even has a respectable percentage of hitting the ball when it is pitched to him. Most of the weekday evenings have been pleasant and we are spending as much time outside as possible given the time constraints of supper and bedtime. The birds are coming to the feeders regularly and the kids know most of them as individual species, and Merrick does a pretty good Mourning Dove. Some of the warmer evenings have allowed us to play the acoustics outside and added a video of Merrick's version of Knockin' on Heaven's Door. The yard has also seen the addition of a wood framed fence, another garage kid project, to keep Merrick from wandering over to the neighbors house. This is not a good look, but it is functional until a more permenant cedar one is built.