Monday, April 27, 2009

Lesson in Nature

Staying at home with the kids has been so wonderful and I am so thankful for this opportunity. The best part is random and spontaneous life lessons, such as early this morning {Lil' was still in her jammies} when we saw a turtle crossing the parking lot in front of our home. Lilly and I quickly put on our shoes and ran out to see this little fella make his way to the woods.

My animal identification skills are pretty limited so I am not sure what kind of turtle this was but let me tell you that the picture does not do justice to how bright yellow it's head was. I have never seen such a bright color on a turtle before, pretty amazing.

The turtle was very tolerant of my picture taking and Lilly's excitement, he continued his hike across the lot despite us. Once he reached the edge of the woods a huge gust of wind came through and that little guy pulled his arms, legs and head in with lightening speed. I was excited to see this happen because it gave me the opportunity to explain to Lilly about a turtle shell and the fascinating mode of protection they have.

Lilly imitated the turtle pulling in to it's shell while we waited for it to make it's way to the woods... ...here she is a frog... while we waited...

...here she is a bird... while we waited...

...here is a Blue Jay's nest we found... while we waited...

...and finally the new friend we'd made found his way through the woods and into a small creek. What an truly unique opportunity for a lesson in Nature!

4 comments:

  1. That is awesome! We back to woods and can see so many creatures just from our back windows. We get turtles, deer, chipmunks, tons of birds, squirrels and we've even seen wild turkeys!

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  2. How fun! We sailed 'leaf boats' in our new pond behind our house this morning and identified red and yellow tulips in the neighbors yard while on our 'nature' walk looking at the very swollen Pine River.

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  3. How cool is that! the pictures of the surroundings are so neat too. Lilly was so adorable waiting for that turtle =)

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  4. Wow! That must have been a great experience for your little girl to see! I found it funny all that you did while you waited. Makes sense! ;)

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