Nature Center

I tried to plan fun, different things this summer. One of those was visiting the Nature Center. We went for a little toddler class: one was called music and movement earlier in the summer, and we went to one this month about Mud. It was fun for Sophie. First we looked for bugs and dug around in the dirt and sand. Then we went out where there were big pots of mud and there were pretend worms hidden and we got to get all messy and muddy looking for them. Sophie did not like the mud part. As soon as she'd touch it, she would rub her hands together to get the mud off. It was kind of funny to see the girls be much more cautious about getting dirty and the boys just dug right in and were such a mess. Sophie's favorite part was the was off the worms bucket (a big sand pail full of water - this girl loves water). She spent most of the time playing in it.

She was a good helper, she gathered all the clean worms for the teacher. After that we got cleaned up, saw some fish, a tortoise, and some birds and talked about making houses with mud, then read a few stories and made treats with pudding, oreo mud, and a candy worm! Sophie only ate the worm, ha!

A few weeks later we went for a nature walk on our own. First we visited the birds. They have an owl, hawk, and an eagle among some others. Sophie loved looking at the birds. The Owl even hooted for her and she thought that was cool! Then, she was talking "eagle" and it was actually pretty cool. She'd talk in her jibber-jabberish and the Eagle would cock his head and make noises back to her. She liked it and didn't want to leave the Eagle's cage. The day was so hot so our nature walk wasn't as fun as I hoped. I started with Sophie in the Beco but we were both so hot and miserable.

So since the trail was really nice I let her walk and she loved it. She'd stomp on things, pick leaves up, and brush past the trees and bushes as we went past. We saw a few birds and a big marshy pond. It was fun in the shade, but near the end of the trail we were in the direct sunlight and it was so hot! Poor Sophie was flushed and super grumpy - I blame the heat!

I just love my Sophie so much! She is so much fun and I love to do new things and see her reactions to thing we take for granted. We saw a deer and she thought it was so cool! It paused for a long time to look at us then jumped off and she was super excited. Having a daughter is the best thing in the world! I just love that girl!