Salamander hunting

My brother scheduled a nature class for Wesley and Mikayla today. We went to a local park and got to search for salamanders!! It was so neat and the kids really enjoyed it. The class was an hour long and we got to look under logs to find them! It was actually a great learning experience for me, too, because I didn't have a lot of knowledge about salamanders. Please know that they are NOT reptiles like lizards...they are amphibians and they have no scales. :) I even held one! That is a LARGE step for me because normally things like that literally gross me out. ha!! That is my hand in the picture.....they were really light! Mikayla was VERY into it. She was down on her hands and knees digging in the leaves to try and find some. She found a lot of snails and some other creatures. I was proud of her for not being scared. Wesley loved it, too, but he was not on his hands and knees much. He was absorbing it in a different way. He told me tonight he'd love to do it again. It was a really fun morning and something I can take back to the classroom as well!! :)

After the nature class we went to get my pictures developed, ate lunch, ran by Walmart and the birdseed store for my brother before coming home to scrapbook! I was helping my brother get his trip pages done. I got a few pages for Christmas done. I find that my Christmas pages are not as ornate because there are so many at that time. That doesn't bother me...I'm just ready to get those done. Honestly, the pictures and words will speak for themselves. :) While we scrapbooked I had some CD's on from Ronnie Milsap to Disney songs and my brother and I sang most of them at the top of our lungs. hee hee...

The kids spent all afternoon outside helping Steve around the yard. He was driving a small tractor around and spreading some mulch my Dad had brought him. Wesley and Mikayla took turns helping him "drive" it and they had a blast. They also helped him stack wood. I enjoyed looking out the window watching them.

I now have to get them ready for bed and read some stories. After that I am going to grade papers by the fire. That was the *only* set back to not being at school all day yesterday...I couldn't get those tests graded during my time I have while the kids go to a special. Oh well...my day with my children was MUCH more fun! :)

Enough rambling. Off to read to the kiddos. Have a great one! (Try to see if you can find salamanders in YOUR yard...they like wet places! hee hee....)