Daddy's Day Off

Greg was home from work yesterday, and it was a glorious day! We spent the morning at Reedy Creek Nature Preserve. We visited the Nature Center first, and then took a walk on the Dragonfly Pond Trail.

The boys were so enthusiastic, and very good little hikers. Mark and I hung back and checked out the leaves...

while Greg and Nathan scouted out the path ahead.

The pond was a wonderful, quiet spot with beautiful hardwoods surrounding it.



The boys kept running back and forth from a gravel area to the pond, tossing their pebbles in.


After the hike, the boys played on large xylophones set up among the trees.


I think we have found our new favorite outdoor adventure, and it's only 30 minutes from home!

Birthday Boys

Happy birthday, Nathan and Mark! Gram and Gramp were our special guests for the birthday weekend. There was a lot of excitement and happy laughter and a living room full of family and gifts.

Nathan and Charlie got to sit at the big boys' table in the den.


Everybody loved the party horns!




Mark and his cake...


And Nathan with his, strawberry chocolate (by request)!


They had been practicing blowing out their candles for weeks...even that morning, they were running around holding gourds on their heads pretending the gourds were candles. Silly boys. I don't have any pictures of that, but you can use your imagination.

They liked eating the cake.



Opening gifts was big fun...and getting to spend the rest of the weekend with Gram and Gramp was truly the icing on the cake.

Squirrels

Nathan's inner squirrel has come out to play. Beatrix Potter's Timmy Tiptoes has spawned much of this activity. Last week, we took some leftover walnuts outside and both boys hid them for the squirrels.

Yesterday I was pulling out some of my fall decorations and we found a bag of nuts. I happily folded clothes while Nathan sorted them. Mark played along for a little bit, but he really liked snuggling under Daddy's cuddly blanket and lying on Daddy's pillow on the couch.




I love it when we discover the fun in something so simple.