Wiltondale Picnic for Dulaney Day N3s

We joined up with the boys and their pals from Dulaney Day for a picnic and fun at Wiltondale Park.

We had to get a pic of Kaya, Connor's 1st Crush!!!

Connor with Hadley, who called him Tweety Bird, which he will still giggle about.

Jackson and his gal, Maggie.  We've been catching up with Maggie at the Y pool and having lots of fun.  Our best moment of the picnic was when Jackson turned to Maggie and said "bye Mags, see you soon."

Brooke giving Connor a push. 

We missed Ellie this year!!! 

What a fun picnic. We are going to miss the Mrs. Beach and the boys' friends at Dulaney Day.

Spring Field Trip at Cromwell Park : The Stream

Before heading in to the stream, the kids were given some information on what was about to happen.  They were informed of what they would be looking for and the proper method for checking for the specimens, they were released to the stream.

Further instruction was provided and nothing was about to prepare a parent acting as a chaperone for what was about to happen next.  Note: the flyer that came home explaining the trip, hinted that the children "may" get wet.  

Prior to Sunday, the boys didn't have rain boots and Michael shrugged me off on the need.  Luckily, I was adamant about the need for them.  There was no way that I could have imagined how wet that they were going to be.

Hadley got in, got wet and walked away after slipping on a rock.  She and Warren were quick to leave the wet scene.

Connor was all smiles when he was in the water but it was a totally different story once it was time to exit the water.  He was incredibly upset about the sand buildup and was begging me to take his rain boots off but we didn't have a spare pair of shoes.  It was definitely a parenting test. 

There was a lot of straining but nothing was found.  Despite not finding anything, they had a good time until they realized that they were not going to dry off as quickly as they wanted.  We did get lucky that the stream was our last exploration of the morning.  I couldn't imagine having to explore the other habitats as wet as the boys were. 

Spring Field Trip at Cromwell Park : The Meadow

We moved on to the meadow.  The leader provided us with instruction on what the kids needed to do, including proper technique, and what we were looking for.  There were large nets with poles that were almost double the size of the kids.  The idea was to swoop on top of the grass to find the insects and bugs living in this habitat. 

Apparently, Celia needed to get up close with Jackson for the instructions....

After receiving instructions, they were off.

It took awhile to locate any type of specimen but it eventually happened.  Once they found something, they were beaming with pride and sharing it among their classmates.  There is nothing cuter than watching your kids getting excited about finding an insect and sharing it with a friend. 

 

As we were nearing the end of the time in our meadow, we all started to realize how sunny it actually was.  The kids were taking off jackets and rolling up pants.  It was such a beautiful day to search for bugs and insects in the meadow.

The leader helped pull out the insects and bugs and helped the group identify what we found.

Spring Field Trip at Cromwell Park : The field

After breaking in to a smaller group, our leader provided some detailed instructions for what we were looking for and the various places that we could find what we were looking for.  She even handed out specimen boxes to store our findings as we would be sharing with the group.

On the search!

Jackson was definitely following instructions and was even lifting heavy logs to find some specimens to share with his friends. 

Campbell and Jackson working together. 

A big thanks to Maggie's dad for digging in the dirt and helping make sure that everyone's specimen boxes had something to share. 

And once you have found your bugs and insects, you have to share them with your friends.  

Spring Field Trip at Cromwell Park : Departure from DDS and arrival

We arrived at school and were given name tags and car assignments. The kids played while the teachers organized all the essentials before it was time to leave.

We arrived at the park and were given some information about safety and what we were going to see.  

We all moved along for further instruction about the field and habitats.

After burning off some energy on the run to the next leader to provide instruction, we walked into the field to get some more information about bugs and insects and habitats.  The kids had a lot of answers to the questions being asked as they were working on insects and bugs this month.