Greening Sam and Avery

Day 327: a great ride

Country roads...

 
a city park...

 
and a stop to explore and play...

 
 
 
all add up to a great ride!

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The Nitty Gritty!

Snacks, drinks, a well planned route and stops along the way are all things we use to keep our little ones content in the carriage. I would love to know what other bikers use. How long can your little ones last in the carriage? How old did you keep them in there together? Our girls are getting pretty cramped in there but Sam is still to young for most of the ride behind, tandum style bikes which we are hoping will be the next step for us. I am hoping we can keep them happy in there for this biking season and then advance to a different setup for next year. Any tandum riders have suggestions or know if younger kids then they recommend can handle it?

Other bikers out there have tips and tricks to share?

Day 297: egg hunting

If your kiddos are like mine we will be hunting for easter eggs for the next few weeks. Now that they have done it once they will want to do an egg hunt everyday. SO, I try to mix it up and add in new ideas to keep the activity fun and challenging.

Today even though our easter egg hunt was indoors we still did some hunting for eggs outdoors. REAL ones!

 
 
We have been finding broken bird eggs around our yard and thought it would be neat to go look for them again today. We have also had a LOT of bird nests popping up around our yard.

Some that are falling out of trees.

 
And then some were built in places that don't really work very well for us and had to be removed.

 
This is an incredibly built nest and though I am sad for the birds that won't get to use it I am also super excited that Sam and I got to take a close up look at how it was so carefully built.

 
Sam had fun looking for the real bird eggs and nests today. Along with a lot of other outside fun!

If you also have kids that love egg hunts try using the game to learn about camouflage. Just like we did with the paper rabbits you can hide the eggs in places that match their color and then have great discussions about which ones were harder to find and why.

If you have access to grasses, straw, sticks and mud you could also build BIG bird nests to hold your plastic eggs. Try and find some birds nests to look at first as examples and then let your kids to to town with the materials making their own.

Hope you all had a Happy Easter and a great weekend!

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The Nitty Gritty!

Just a few more updates for those that might be interested.

The mud kitchen got its first use today and Sam was SO excited.

 
And I am not sure this is what my mom had in mind for her antique kitchen utensils but Sam loved playing with these things today!

 
I put out old pans, cookie sheets, cutting boards and other unusable kitchen items for Sam to play with. She had a blast with it today and actually did not get as muddy as I had expected her too, but since it wasn't that warm she probably did not really want to get that wet. When summer comes and we can hose off after mud play I think she will probably get much messier!

We also got the bird feeders back up and fully filled. The Target paint your own bird feeder that we made is holding up pretty well, it does need to be filled VERY often but is pretty cute when the birds are using it.

 

We also went for a family bike ride, got the first grass cutting of the season taken care of and started working on Sam's water wall (more on that later!). A great outside day!!

Day 276: we saved a fish

Between rain showers today Sam and I took some time to go for a bike ride to the park. She is loving her new bike and starting to really get the hang of it.

Ride there and park play time were pretty uneventful. Just good outdoor play time for both of us.

But the park that we went to has a small pond near by that we decided we needed to walk around. Sam noticed that it was very "dirty". A lot of litter was in and around the water. She asked how it had gotten there and who would clean it up. At which point I made the decision that WE would clean it up. So Sam and I spent about an hour today with a big trash bag (also a piece of liter; rather convenient actually!) picking up all the liter that we could find. She loved finding long sticks for me when the liter was in the water and we couldn't reach it.

I grabbed a plastic bag that had been fully submerged out of the water and threw it up onto the ground behind me. Sam yelled, "MOM the bag is moving!". I looked back and sure enough there was the slightest little movement inside the bag. I reached in and pulled out a small fish about the size of my palm! She was so excited to help me let it go and watch it swim away.

After that the determination on Sam's little face to get every last piece of trash out of the water and check it for trapped animals was pretty incredible. We didn't find anything else.

But we did find LOTS of plastic bags, soda bottle and cans, three tennis balls, a flat soccer ball and many food wrappers of varying kinds. We filled up a pretty big trash bag until I could not close it. Our fingers were starting to get pretty cold so I said it was time to quit and go home.

We only got half way around the small pond.

I have no idea why the pond was so filled with trash. I guess stuff gets blown from the busy street nearby and collects in the ice/snow over the winter. I don't remember ever seeing it this "dirty" before. But I was so proud of Sam for helping me to clean it up. I am sure this is something she will remember and be asking me to do with her again. Plus she has already said we need to go back to the pond with her net!

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The Nitty Gritty!

This was such a great greening moment for us. A true life lesson about helping to protect the things that we enjoy and love, and about giving back to our community and nature.

Have you ever been for a liter walk? Just take a plastic bag (or several) with you the next time you go on a walk around your neighborhood and have your kiddos help you pick up liter as you walk. It always surprises me that when I am actually looking for it there is a lot there. Somehow my eyes don't seem to see it most of the time. It is a great way to teach your kids why we don't liter and that it doesn't just disappear. I also find that doing things like this also helps to make conversations about why liter is bad, why pollution is bad and how we can help come very naturally; they don't need to be forced or read out of a book this way.

Sorry no pictures today. The occasional rain we were having made me very nervous to bring the camera along.

 

Day 268: hike and a bike

The birthday celebration contined today with Nana and Grandpa. We were excited that the sun was shining but not excited that the temps were only in the 20s. But we decided to brave the cold temps for a hike this morning anyway. We bundled up and headed out.

 
 
 
Not much to see on the trail today; birds were pretty quiet, nothing is budding or blooming yet and no wildlife to be found (besides our dogs!). But Sam had fun collecting sticks and rocks to make a pile with when we got back to the bottom. And since this is a hike we have done quite a few other times Sam was excited to show off the view at the top to Nana and Grandpa.

Then when we got back from the hike Sam was given her birthday present from Nana and Grandpa. I have to show off a series of photos that I just think are so fun!

 
 
 
 
And even though we all thought it would take her months to get use to it and grow into it she got right on and started riding!

 
This makes me so excited that in the very near future we can be going for longer walks with her on the bike exploring back roads, parks that are further away and maybe even some other trails in our neighborhood.

It was a cold but great Saturday for us! How was your's?

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The Nitty Gritty!

Need to keep your preschool aged child motivated on a trail? Bring along a dog! The dog has the natural instinct to be a leader and wanting to be in the front of the pack...so does the three year old! The faster Sam would walk the faster Polly would walk and pull on her leash. The faster Polly walked trying to get to the front the faster Sam had to walk to keep her leader position. It was a hilarious battle between the two of them the whole way up the hill. Sam won out in the end but kept us moving at a quick pace the whole time. So, if you need to make some time on a trail bring a dog or borrow one!!

Day 257: a busy day

Yes I did do other things today besides just focusing on trash! HA! Check the post below if you are confused and please join in the conversation!

We got to tour a local cloth diaper "factory". SO COOL! And are super excited to show off these amazing locally made cloth diapers. WITH a GIVEAWAY! Coming soon. While at the cloth diaper tour Sam also had a close encounter with a chicken that was awesome. She was convinced it was trying to climb in our car, pretty sure it was just curious about us but Avery shrieked and it moved away pretty quickly. Great animal encounter.

We are also working on increasing our outdoor time each day. My hope is to have a pretty clean house this spring/summer because the girls and I are spending so much time outside. This means that right now I am working on getting more of their outdoor toys set up, picking up a winter's worth of dog poop (YUCK!) and raking our last bit of snow to make it go away faster. (yes, you read that correctly. I am CRAZY when it comes to the end of the season snow. I hate when it lingers in random piles. So I take a rake and spread it out so it melts faster. Again, yes I know I am crazy!)

Plus we had our gardening supplies delivered today! Landscaping ties, rebar and a big tool shed. Chris and I have to work tonight to get the tool shed put together and then hopefully we will break ground on the garden in the next week or so. Sam loved watched the fork lift bring all the supplies off the truck and into our driveway.

Chris is coming home work a bit early today so we can do family bike ride before dinner! Gotta run and get drinks and snacks ready so we have happy kiddos in the trailer.

Happy Tuesday everyone.

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The Nitty Gritty!
Okay, seriously gotta go. So no more details for ya!

Day 254: nothing but pictures

 
 
 
 

Day 248: biking with kids

I love this blog.

When I started this 248 days ago it was for my girls. It was to pass to them the passion and love for all things related to nature that I have grown up with. But what I am discovering is that it has re-awakened in me my own passion. Made it stronger, more alive and reminded me just how much I NEED to be outside.

It is funny how I had become some complacent, so comfortable in everyday life, okay really I had become lazy. I had forgotten how much getting outside meant to me, how much it re-kindled my spirit and how much it is absolutely the cure to all of my ails.

My children have reminded me.

And the best part is that I don't even need big moutains, raging rivers or wild untouched places. The fresh air in my own backyard and the wonder on the girls eyes when they see something new for the first time is enough. I still long for those wild places, for backpacking, river camping trips and beautiful overlooks and I know someday we will do all of that again as a family. But for now bird watching, walks, exploring the creek and just being outside is awesome.

AND this blog has gotten me in the habit to do something everday! Which is probably the best part.

So today the bikes came down. My husband spent a good portion of the afternoon rearranging the garage, getting bikes and trailers down from hanging and hanging up a stoller that is no longer in use. When all the work was done Sam could not wait to go for a little ride.

The outside temps and the girls still being a bit sick meant that it was going to be a pretty quick ride but that was okay with everyone!

 
The trip went great! We were only out for 30 minutes or so but the girls had a good time and didn't fight with each other too much. Chris and I are excited to start trying longer and longer rides with them.

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The Nitty Gritty!

Do you bike with your kiddos? Trailer or tandem biking? The girls are still too young for most tandem set-ups but I want to start looking into which brands would be the best for us. Any suggestions?

And has anyone used those seats that put the child up in front of the rider? They kind of make me nervous but it also might be a good option for Avery when Sam is old enough to ride on a tandem bike.