A Beautiful Day for a Family Hike

The weather has been just beautiful so we had to get out and enjoy it. We go to playgrounds all the time so today we wanted to do something different. So we got out the trails map for our town and picked a new trail to explore.

We started out with a picnic lunch at the lake at Leonard Johns Park. When we finished our lunch, Nicholas noticed some trash quite a bit away from us. He was upset that someone had littered at the park and asked if he could go pick it up. Of course we let him but we gave him some napkins to use to pick it up to keep his hands clean. I'm so proud of him for being so environmentally conscious!



We saw tons of red-eared slider turtles in the lake as well as the creek that our trail followed.



We also found this big spider! Ewww!



We also passed fields of wildflowers. When I knew the type of flower, I would tell Nicholas what I knew about it. Unfortunately there were some varieties on the hike that I didn't recognize and we had forgotten to bring our journal with us to help identify them.



Our trail brought us to Parker Square Park which has a nice little pond and lots of trees so we stopped to have a snack and rehydrate. Nicholas got a little silly.





We found a place to park bicycles but Nicholas had other ideas for it.



He asked Stuart to pick him up and let him ride on the "camel"!



Then he sat down and pretended to be a race car driver! What an imagination!



Along our walk, we had seen several magnolia trees. I had talked to Nicholas about the big leaves and pretty flowers on the trees as well as how they keep their green leaves on all year round. Later he found a magnolia leaf on the ground and asked me why the magnolia leaf was brown when I had told him that they stayed green all year long. I was proud of him for identifying the leaf on his own and also for his good question. So we talked some more about leaves and why they might fall from a tree and turn brown.



Nicholas picked this pretty wildflower for me. How sweet!



We found this interesting growth on the tops of some tree leaves. We aren't sure what it is. I've seen spores on the undersides of leaves but I'm not sure if this is a spore or not. Nicholas decided that it is a "bug catcher grabber".



Along our walk back to the car, Nicholas noticed this heart on the sidewalk. He told me, "That's here because I love you!" This boy sure knows how to melt a mommy's heart :)



Nicholas ran ahead of us a little way but then decided that he needed a break and stopped right where he was. What?! Did we finally wear out a four year old boy? I didn't think it was possible!



I got ahead of the boys at one point and hid next to a bush. Stuart knew where I was but Nicholas had not noticed. He looked for me for a little bit but quickly found me. I like this picture I caught of him looking into the little opening by the bush when he found me.

We're off to the garden center

Today our educational playgroup met at a local garden center where the owner met with us to teach us all about plants and gardening.

We learned the difference in "soil" and "dirt". We learned about seeds and sprouting. We learned about the importance of roots.



Nicholas loved learning about Elephant Ears. He was amazed that this plant really looked like the ears of an elephant!



After all the "learning" was done, there was some running around among the plants, exploring the fish pond, looking for the resident cat named "Patches", and some all around fun.

Flowers and Frontier Days

Nicholas and I met some friends at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. What fun! It's a great excuse to get outdoors and it's a fun way to learn about nature and the environment. We love it!

We met everyone at the entrance to the Texas Native Forest Boardwalk. The kids love playing in this pretend giant log (and the moms love the photo opportunity!).





The boardwalk is full of neat interactive stations where the children can learn about birds, plants, and bugs.







Next, we sat among some flowers and a little pond to have our snack. You really can't look anywhere here and not find a pretty patch of flowers or a beautifully designed piece of landscape.







Nicholas enjoyed hunting for bugs along our walk through the gardens. What boy doesn't?!



Of course, as always, there had to be a little bit of running along our adventure. And, as always, Nicholas is leading the pack!



Nicholas is fascinated with fish tanks so we had to spend some time looking at these fish that were located outside the Conservatory.



All children love to touch things so it's nice to have outdoor art work that is rugged and indestructible. The kids loved banging on this outdoor sculpture. It is made of hollow metal and they enjoyed the ringing sound it made.



Next, we headed up the street to the stockyards. They were having a special event called Frontier Days and there was even more activity and people dressed in old western wear than usual.

Nicholas kept talking about wanting to go to the pretend jail that he likes so much and he was so disappointed to see that it was really locked up and he couldn't go in it.

We first stopped at Riscky's BBQ for lunch. The children were more interested in riding the little horse rides than eating!



Next we went around and talked with some of the people in the Frontier Days exhibits. We learned about teepees and old forts. We talked to a wonderful lady who told us about how people used to wash their clothes by hand and women often traveled with the military and made money by washing clothes for the servicemen. We got to look at some antique irons that held hot coals for heat, and we even got to watch a real blacksmith at work. Then we stopped and listened to some western music.













Every now and then there was a cannon that would get fired. We never quite figured out the time interval but if we learned that if we saw the man at the cannon raise his arm in the air then we had better cover our ears. It was neat to watch but boy was it loud!





Nicholas found some frontier toys for sale and he wanted to get this hand carved wooden sword and sheath. But I didn't want to have to worry about him swinging it around the whole time we were at the stockyards so we had to pass on it. He really seemed to like playing with it though.



We walked around some just looking at the unusual exhibits but Nicholas still got excited over those little horse rides!











At this point it was about 3:00 in the afternoon. All of our friends had decided to head home but we wanted to hang out until 4:00 so we could watch the cattle drive down Exchange Street. So we wandered and played some more until 4:00.











Not surprising but about 5 minutes after we were on the road heading home, Nicholas was fast asleep. It was a long day, having fun with friends, and enjoying the sunshine. We were both tired but happy.