Cabin Fever is at 200% at our house, so when the mercury rose to a balmy 44° on a sunny Saturday we did not hesitate to bundle up and go for an adventure picnic!
You cannot hike on an empty stomach, so the first priority was to make sure everyone was fueled up. We utilized one of the local school fundraiser coupon cards that we purchased last year from a neighbor to get a 16″ sub sandwich for free. Yay! Half of the card cost has been recouped so far.
With our bellies full, we set off in search of adventure and education.
Frugal Boy had fun crossing this little stream and then gave tips to his parents on how they could cross it.
Later on, he made a stream of his own.
And then he made two more streams later in the hike. He’s a regular Niagara Falls!
The hike was interspersed with teaching moments.
Frugal Boy learned that some plants have thorns to keep animals away from them. Thorns hurt. I thought that might be obvious, but sometimes you just have to learn from experience.
We also examined different footprints. Dogs, people, and deer were very common and easy to spot in the muddy conditions. An osage orange provided a nice distraction from tired legs as we kicked it, smelled it, and broke it in half to look at the inside. There were several mole tunnels. I learned today that the surface tunnels that you commonly see where the sod is lifted up is called a runway tunnel and are used for foraging/feeding.
The days are already getting longer and it won’t be long until flowers start blooming in our yard!