Grass and Goldfish and Sparkly Rocks and Lunchables

 
Last night Sam and I sat on the living room floor and drew water and feathers and snakes and animal fur, adding pictures to the nature checklists we were making.  And this morning when the kids poured out of the car and ran to the trail, Sam and G were quick to point out grass, the first item they could circle on their lists. Sam instructed me that he had to circle the things they found.

"Circle means yes, and X means no," he said.

Sunny blue skies made it tough to find a cloud to count for their checklists, but as the temperature climbed out of the 50's and we started stripping off layers of clothing, the boys ran and circled tree and leaf and bird and flower and rock while they looked at various animal scat and frog bones and milkweed pods and sparkly rocks and wild grass seeds.  The girls snacked on goldfish and apples for a while before playing that irritating toddler game of getting in and out and in and out and in and out of the stroller.  By the time we arrived at the promised "picnic bench" at Delta Point, everyone was ready to sit and snack on the lunchables and juice boxes.  And despite Sam's initial whining about having to walk all the way back and how really, really tired he was, we had fun looking at sparkly rocks and bright green grasshoppers and little bluestem while the girls rode in the stroller and shook bags of goldfish and sang Happy Birthday E.  During the last stretch we let the girls walk again, and we were always rounding up or carrying one of the four kids, but we still managed to enjoy the sunshine and flowers and a great heron perched on a log.  The girls were delightful together, and Kate and I actually got to talk.  By the time we scared up the white egret just before the parking lot, we were all tired and grateful for a fun hike with good friends.  I don't know if E and G made it home awake, but thanks to a stop at The Berry Patch, Sam and Eva made it home and we had a quick lunch before all three of us napped together for the first time in months.