nature camp

The girls had their first "camp" experience last week. We drove down to Nana's Monday, Wednesday and Friday for "Tadpole Camp", a nature camp for 1 and 2 year olds at Riverbend Nature Center.

On Monday we explored the prairie. The girls looked closely at long grass, short grass, wild flowers, plants, bugs, dragonflies, and even little frogs. Little Pie picked herself a clover flower and put it up to her nose to smell the entire morning. Little Bird was really impressed with all of the yellow flowers and the "teeny tiny" frog the instructor found for the kids to look at. I think they learned a lot!

On Wednesday we were instructed to wear clothes that could get wet and/or muddy so the girls put on a pair of last year's shorts and their "old" shoes. We first explored a pond by laying on our tummies on the dock and looking in to see what we could find. Then the kids explored the pond more closely by examining little buckets of pond water and using plastic spoons to try and scoop up different bugs to look at more closely. We then headed down to a stream where the kids used shovels to dig in the mud and moved rocks and logs to build "bridges" over the stream. (I think I might have had more fun with the bridge building since the girls preferred walking through the stream instead of over the bridges).

Friday was extremely hot so we were all glad to be in the shade looking for slugs. The kids were told to look under rocks and logs to see what they could find. We found a lot of slugs and worms and various bugs. Little Bird almost  held a slug in her hand but changed her mind at the last minute. Little Pie kept her distance and only looked from a far!

 

It was fun to explore nature but I think the girls had more fun going to Nana's three days in one week and playing with their toys at her house, watering her flowers (probably their most favorite thing to do), and running around her backyard. We are just glad they had such a fun week!