exploration baskets.

The boys found some goodies in their baskets today that drove us to the local pond. Walking sticks, nets, magnifying glasses, nature notebooks, guide books, sunprint paper and more were tucked into baskets to celebrate getting OUTSIDE again this spring.


We have all been a bit under the weather, but wanted to get some sunshine and fresh air after many days of cold and wet.


We wandered where the boys could test their new walking sticks as well as practice cast and use their new nets on ... frogs? Fish? Nets are fun for exploring and observation, before letting things go.


There is not much green around here with our really late spring ... trees are mostly bare, fields are brown, and the only green is the bit of grass. So being right by the water was nice. Tufts of neon green and the ridiculously loud singing of the frogs! Woo hoo!


The boys found their favorite spot to cast and hang out. Of course it is the steepest spot of the whole pond area, and within minutes of me taking these photos,


in fact in about 1.3 seconds from here, A slid down the gravel hill while trying to get some algae in his net and SPLASH!!!!! Brrrrrrrrr!!! A doesn't much like wearing cold soaked algae coated shoes (I had extra clothes so he could change out of soaked slimy pants, but not shoes), so we headed home after a bit. ;)


We have many more pond adventures to come, I'm sure! We have some more cold and rainy days heading our way, but we are happy after having some sunshine. And we have have a few baskets of goodies when the sun returns.


.

boldly colored.

For a few years we have dyed eggs using natural materials such as beets, cabbage, onion skins, and coffee. It is fun to see what kind of colors we can get using things we have at home. This year, however, the boys both gave me 'the look' and obviously wanted to do something different. While we usually dye our eggs for the spring equinox, pretty much any time is a good excuse to play with eggs and colors, in my opinion!


I found Greek egg coloring packets at a local Italian deli, and knew we had to try them. They looked super intense, AND there was red (a traditional Greek Easter egg color), my favorite color. Using regular 'egg' cups I combined the powders with vinegar and water and we were off. The boys used oil pastels and wax resist crayons to color the eggs first, and then soaked them in the colors. Oh, and yes the colors were indeed deep and bold. We mixed red and blue for purple and it was so dark it almost looked black. That was of course the favorite, in addition to the deep red ones.


After the boys were done I just couldn't bring myself to pour all that rich color down the drain, so we found a few blank silk scarves and dunked them in the pots for awhile to see what we would get.



We now have a few brightly colored silks - perfect for spring!