Julie's Day

While my parents were here in mid-February, they kept each of the girls home for a day.  As part of his whole plan to get them out in nature, he started talking up going to battlefields.  Seriously, he would say something about maybe going to a battlefield during the week, and the girls would shout "Yay!"

It was pretty all week, but Julie did make it out for a hike at a battlefield.  (Of course, Julie was the only one that wasn't terrified on our nature walk.)

Using her new compass.

After lunch, they went bowling.  I seriously never even considered bowling.  I figured they were too young.  I'd see Groupons for bowling and think "maybe in a few years."  But she loved it!

Random

Just a random collection of moments for tonight...

Story time with grandma and papa.  I believe that's the Little Critter Valentine book.

Papa got word of our nature hike, and particularly of Emma and Rebecca's  reaction to "nature."  He has come up with a multi-step plan for acclimating them.  This was step 1:  making maps of our yard (grandma is helping Rebecca below).  He also bought them compasses (they've learned about compasses in school, but never had seen or used a real one).  Unfortunately, it was kind of wet all week, so there are still a few steps that need to be completed in the action plan.

Grandma and Papa took the girls to Ollie's (as I mentioned in yesterday's post) and came home with all sorts of ... stuff.  Books, pinwheels, and apparently a whole selection of Mardi Gras paraphernalia.  Emma *loves* this mask.  She also has this gold plastic necklace with a giant crown on it (seriously, the crown is about the size of that mask).  It's the funniest piece of bling I've ever seen.  I don't think I managed to get a picture of it, though.

They also went to Taco Bell (which Rebecca now calls "Cow Bell") and got some watches.  

And one more Raskog cart from IKEA.  I seriously didn't have it together for 5 minutes when I saw this.

Which of course is reminiscent of this.

Forced Nature Hike

So, on Sunday of that warm weekend back in January, we needed to get out of the house.  We decided (well, to be clear, Greg and I decided) to go to a new nature park that opened just up the road from our house.  For how close it is, we really haven't been there much.  There's a pretty good stretch of trail that's paved, so we used to take the strollers out there to walk through.

So, we get there and everything is fine.  We park and get out of the car.  Start walking down the path.  And, as soon as we can't see the car anymore, Emma freaked out.  I'm not entirely sure what was so scary, but eventually what I think we got out of her was that there were no people around.  I guess that makes sense, but I was not expecting it.  Becca fed off her fear, and started to get upset, too.  Julie was perfectly fine.

From here on out, this will be known as Emma's "I hate nature" face.

And - proud parenting moment - we threatened to leave them there while we took Julie on a hike.  That was seriously what it took.  And even then, it looked like this:

I can't remember why they were covering their ears.  Something freaking them out.  Julie was out in front leading the way.  Occasionally, Emma would yell at Julie for getting too far ahead.

After about 15 minutes (and a quick consultation with the trail map via iPhone), we realized we were heading in the wrong direction if we wanted to go find the big bridge.   And I don't think Emma and Rebecca let go of Greg's hands until we got to the bridge.

And that was enough nature for one day.  We headed out of the woods at a different spot than we went in.  As we were walking, Emma started saying her feet were tired and she couldn't walk anymore.  And then she saw the playground

The part of the park closest to the road used to be a minor league baseball stadium, and they've put in new little league fields.  I really had no idea this park was there, but it was really nice.

One of my favorite pictures of Becca

If only they knew what real teeter totters were like ...

No no no no no

What is that? Why, that would be a snake.

In our back yard. Yesterday.

A good 3 ft long.

And yes, this picture was taken from the safety of the kitchen.

Gives me the shivers.

Though, by all accounts, there's a 99% chance it's a non-poisonous black snake taking care of even nastier stuff in the yard.

But still.

It's a snake.

And I'm always going to be wondering where it is.