Red Oak Nature Center

The girls and I have picked two projects for this summer. The first is that we are reading books together that take place in the Great Lakes states. Little House, Caddie Woodlawn, Minn of the Mississippi,Paddle-to-the-Sea, and the Mitt and Minn series are some of the titles on our list (feel free to suggest others). MC and I have this hare-brained idea/dream of someday taking the kids on a road trip around the Great Lakes. The trip involves peaches, cheese (to fix the problem caused by the peaches), and wild rice (to fix the cheese...). It also includes bridges, walking across the Mississippi, and saying things like, "Oh, buckets." By the time either one of us can afford this trip, our children will likely have other plans. But we can dream.

Our second summer plan is to take a field trip every week. Only two of them on the list are places that the girls have seen before. We went to Red Oak Nature Center last week (as part of the Great Turtle Adventure, which you will hear about next post.) and my parents unknowingly took them to the Phillips Park Zoo, which was on the list too. From what I hear, the zoo didn't go over so well (there wasn't even a gift shop!), which makes me glad that I wasn't there.
Here are some of our pics from Red Oak. M insisted on having her picture taken with every critter in the place.

A number of our wildlife questions are directed to a gentleman from our church who works for the forestry service. He is a naturalist, wildlife rehabilitator and educator. One of the interesting things that has come about from our conversations is that he has offered to let us keep a gorgeous orange Corn snake as a science experiment. The educator/homeschooling mom side of my brain wants to jump at the opportunity. The descendant-of-Eve side isn't so sure. Of course, J wanted a snake as a pet several years ago and I just saw M and her little cousin carrying toads around the yard, so I'm pretty sure both the girls are on board with the idea. I'll let you know which side of my brain wins.