The Sanderson Crew 5: Nature's Nook

Did you ever feel like you just found your "nook". Something you love or you are good at. Maybe it is somewhere you feel at ease. I love being outside in the woods with my kids. I love watching them explore. We have a new favorite spot in our town to explore in the woods that is also conveniently located across from Craig's workplace. We love this new area. It has hills, fallen trees to climb, meadows, creeks to splash in, and floating bridges to walk across. We have spotted woodpeckers, owls, deer, wild turkeys, and a whole array of other birds and squirrels.

So when I saw a sign up advertising a kids program out there I said "sign us up!" And it was AWESOME. Completely took me by surprise and blew away my expectations.

We picked up one of Isaac's friends, Jack to come along, so there were 5 boys and 3 moms there today. We arrived to freshly brewed coffee for the moms and some play time for the boys to explore the Nature center which had some pretty cool stuff to explore: skeletons and furs of animals, a board with sounds of different bird calls, a stuffed Mountain Lion (I am a little freaked out about meeting one of these on the trails so I have been carrying a hatchet with me when we hike....a little weird I know...but if you see a news story about a mom who defends herself and three kids from a mountain lion attack with a dull hatchet you will know who they are talking about).

Then it was time for some songs and stories. Ms. Denise is sooooo good with the kids. She sang some songs about nature and then prepped them for going outside by looking at a book and talking about the signs of spring time. I can definitely tell she is passionate about what she does.

Ms. Denise getting the boys to hike together (not an easy feat I tell you!)

Little explorers holding hands:

The boys did this the entire time we were hiking. Whenever we came to a bench they would park it along the bench. This one they started to look for insects....but found worms instead!! We had some happy boys!

Group HUG!!

Great picture of sitting on the bench and Wyatt playing a favorite game.....let's throw burrs on each other and watch them stick. Gave us a good opportunity to talk about how plants spread their seeds!

Looking inside a walnut:

This was Caleb. He has been extremely ~~clingy~~ cuddly this past week and a half. He has only been happy when held. Teeth maybe? He was content to ride on my shoulders for the duration of the morning.

One of my favorite things that Denise did was have the boys stop and close their eyes and listen, feel, and smell their surroundings. This is challenging with 4 and 5 year old boys but they did it! And it caused them to listen better throughout the duration of the hike so we were able to tune in and hear things that we sometimes miss. Like woodpeckers and wild turkeys! This picture is after we heard the "gobble gobble" of a wild turkey and the boys decided to be wild turkeys as well....