Fall, fall, fall.

I can't enough of fall activities. This weekend we took our annual family outing to Howell's Pumpkin Patch. That place has grown into a mini-state fair! I'm glad people are enjoying them so much! This was the first time I can remember we were there in mid-October and I was sweating in a tank top.

Saving the Earth...right outside our backyard

On a whim today, the boys and I decided to do a mini-clean-up of the pond shoreline near our house. We were down looking for frogs and noticed a lot of (mostly construction-related) trash in the pond and around it. While we were inside getting trash bags, a rake, and washable shoes, Mike came home in time to join us. It became a family affair! It was a nice reason to miss my Farrell's kickboxing class today :)






The mud-caked sheets of tarp we stuffed into the trash bags made them quite heavy to carry; even with brotherly teamwork.





That stuff was mucky! I think our pond could use a dredging.


Bull frog spotting!

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I've been thinking a lot lately about creating family tradition and ritual. I just ordered a book I had added to my wishlist last year before the holidays on that very topic. I'd love it if in addition to a family game night and/or kid-date night, we could add some sort of community service or eco-clean up tradition to our monthly, if not weekly, family schedule. A lot of my ideas don't seem feasible until the kids are older. Volunteering at soup kitchens requires a certain maturity and understanding from the kids, I think. Donating toys is fine but seems to be too abstract. I think the litter pick-up left an impression on Jack. He kept telling Benji, "We're saving the earth, Benj!"

Fall = Welcome Back Nourishing Soups!

before roasting...


after roasting...


final product. yummy yum yummy yum yummy yum yum.

Still lovin the outdoors

We kept with our theme for the weekend and spent more time outdoors today. I drove the boys down to my in-laws' farm. They did some 4-wheeling, hay bale jumping, and pasture perusing. All good fun on a gorgeous, warm fall day.






I thoroughly enjoyed watching the adventures of Gavin and the wooly caterpillar unfold...






Benji got to run free in the pasture with the butterflies, bees, spiders, grasshoppers, and other bugs he loves (oh, and Hawkeye, too):




Oh my, my new insect book has come in handy already. Now that I have a newfound distrust of spiders, I was able to identify all these monsters:





Verdict: Black-and-yellow Argiope spiders, also known as garden spiders. I had to go to Wikipedia to found out that they are not poisonous to humans (why, or WHY does my book not mention the "poisonous" or "not poisonous" part?? First major fault of book.)

Bridget, are you disappointed that I'm brooding over one of your favorite animals?

Neil Smith National Wildlife Refuge & Prairie Learning Center

October 1st! Fall, fall, fall!! Mike works this weekend, and while coming up with activities for the boys and I to do so we can pass the time together, I was fixated on leaving the city and being outside in this gorgeous fall weather. I settled on a short trip to Prairie City to see the Neil Smith National Wildlife Refuge and Prairie Learning Center. It's totally the type of thing my parents took my brother and I to when we were young. I used to hate that. No, not hate it, but it wasn't exactly exciting, either. We visited a lot of state parks and did a lot of bird watching when I was a kid. Now I find myself starting to appreciate that they did that with us. I never completed my dream of becoming a forest ranger and living in the wilderness, but I do have a life-long love for nature. So now I find myself on the same path to indoctrinate my children into a respectful and loving relationship with the earth around them (becoming my parents? Yes, I see that.)

We picnicked outside the learning center, bought some books on identifying local birds, insects, and amphibians (pond watching!), and hiked through prairie. We saw 3 bison, but unfortunately did not pull off any elk sightings. We did see what Benjamin described as a Bird Party, when dozens of small birds flew round and round over our picnic. We also enjoyed chasing lots and lots of bugs.






The way Iowa used to look...before cornfields and cell phone towers dotted the landscape....




Playing at the puppet theatre inside the learning center.