Weekend Fun

I really need to track down a new battery charger for my camera. I lost it in August. Which means I haven't taken a single photo in over 7 months? Loser. Failure. Lazy. (So, since I have no recent photos to share, the following pictures have been borrowed from friends or found on Google images. No photo credits here. )

The last couple of Saturdays we have gotten out and explored a bit. On the 12th we followed a little hand drawn map from my therapist- Judi McI.- to a very very very cool bald eagles' nest just 20 or so minutes from our house. The map wasn't exact so we had some fun exploring the surrounding woods by foot and by Rover. The kids had tons of fun using the binoculars to look for the eagles. They also loved sitting on my lap 'driving' on some of the back roads. (I think if you asked them what the highlight of the trip for them was- that would be it. I have fond memories of doing that very same thing on my dad's lap when I was their age.) Here are some amazing shots from Judi's camera:

We also had fun last Saturday at MapleFest at the Red Oak Nature Center in Batavia. They had demonstrations on how real maple syrup is made. Abby got to carry the sap collection bucket from the nature classroom out to the tree. She loved that. Colby and Abby both had a turn "tapping", not BANGING the hammer against the tap. So now we know 1) that ants love to party in the sap buckets, 2) sap from the tree tastes like water- we've tried it! 3) you can tap the same trees for generations, 4) how to build your fire for even heat distribution in your evaporator, & 5) the best grade that a Maple Syrup can be given is actually an "F" - not an A! (F for Fancy). Giving the kids a little NH culture way out here in Chicago. :)