Earth Day Walk

In celebration of Earth Day on Tuesday, the kids and I went for a 1/2 hour walk around our block to collect garbage. I have to say that we are such a dirty and trashy society!! The kids each filled up a Wegman's grocery bag with tons of garbage. I think that we could have probably gotten more but we had some time constraints. It amazes me the amount and things that we found. Potter put a broom (!) in his bag along with an old sock and tons of empty bottles, and Molly found lots of wrappers and straws. We did go by a bus stop on Main Street and that produced a great deal of what we picked up. Why are there not more public garbage cans?? Isn't this something that would keep things cleaner? Anyway, the kids had a great time, at some points arguing over who got to pick up a certain piece of trash. They want to do this more often; how can you say no to that?

Potter and Molly in the sprinkler

Molly and Potter also enjoy playing in the sprinkler. Caleb, not so much yet!!

More backyard fun with the swings

Potter and Molly *love* the swing!

Kids in the backyard.....start of summer!!

Caleb learns how much fun it can be to get soaking wet at the water table. He also isn't very discriminating and will drink the water from here too. We need to work on correcting that!

Potter and Molly love to twist up the swings and then twirl wildly around thousands of times. It makes me dizzy watching them.

Fun with friends at Arnold Park

Annie, Emma, Sean, Adam, Potter and Molly in the giant sandbox at Arnold Park. This sandbox is so cool, there are 4 built in excavators that the kids can use to dig huge holes.
Caleb giggles as he contemplates going down the slide again.


Cathy winds up and gives Caleb and Laurie good pushes on the swings.


Chasing the bubbles in the grass.


More fun in the big sandbox. We forgot extra shovels, but thankfully, there were community ones there for sharing.

More Round Top pictures

This is our 'secret' path up on Round Top.


Once we had hiked up to Round Top, we took a minute to look at the view, that sadly, I did not photograph for posting here. There is then a smaller hill that you climb up to get to the picnic tables, pavillions, and playground. The kids raced up ahead of me and Dave and this is what they found. The looks on their faces were priceless, and their sadness gave way when we let them romp all over the picnic tables instead. (see post below). I called the Broome County parks department that afternoon and the lady assured me that new equipment would be in place by Memorial Weekend. We'll see about that!

Hiking up Round Top

This past week was spring break for Potter and Molly. On Monday, Dave stayed home from work in the morning and we all hiked up to Round Top Park, which is just a block away from our house. The old driving road is now a path that you can go up to the top of the park and then you've got a gorgeous view of Endicott, the Susquehanna River, and part of Vestal. Since the leaves on the trees have not really come out in any big way yet, there is more to see that isn't blocked by the foliage. This huge log has been there forever and is always a favorite climbing toy for the kids. The dancing on the picnic tables was our way of creating playground equipment when none was to be had. (See post directly above this one). The weather was just right, a cool morning with lots of sunshine and blue skies. Good exercise and a great way to start off the week of vacation.

Saying goodbye to our friend, Sparkle

This afternoon, we said goodbye to our pet hermit crab Sparkle, who died last weekend after not surviving through his molting phase. Potter decided that Sparkle would be happy in a garden, surrounded by the bee balm, where we could visit him. Using Great Granddad's World War I fox hole shovel (for which we are grateful to Granddad for giving us recently), Potter dug a grave for Sparkle, had a small ceremony, and placed him at rest. We will miss Sparkle who was a very active and happy crab!!



Potter digs Sparkle's grave with Great-Granddad's WWI shovel.

Potter placing Sparkle in his grave.



Prayer time for Sparkle.


Potter wrapping Sparkle up. (A bit out of order)



Sparkle's marker in the garden of bee balm.

We enjoy a nice day outside....

This was from last weekend (April 6th). It was nice the whole weekend and the kids got some much needed outside time.

Caleb is 18 months

They were so cute, I couldn't pick just one!

Potter's poetry recitation at school

Potter's school hosted it's 16th annual poetry presentation today at school. Potter's poem was titled 'Loose Tooth', by Jill Eggleton. He is getting so much better as speaking slowly and making good eye contact with the audience. It was a great job!