Fall stuff

We have been so busy the last two weeks finally getting out and enjoying the leaves and the cooler weather. September was a bust with lots and lots of rain. We broke the record for most rain fall for the month.

Sid is loving her 2 wheeler and can't get enough riding in. We have it in the back of the van for any riding opportunity. She met her friend Tristan at the park last week and they were both tearing around on their bikes. Watching them brought back a lot of childhood memories.
Tristan and Sid get along really well. They share a lot of similar interests in science and especially fossil hunting. Here Tristan shows us the fossil he just found while Sid shows off her newest additions to her rock collection.

Later in the week we met up with Magda and Isabella for a walk on the old Quarry trail. The girls just thrive in the woods. They can play for hours and hours if the weather cooperates.

Buttercup the cat (aka Sidney) catches cat tails.

Tame deer which will be hand fed when it gets colder and there is less food around for them. Bread is a favorite so we will be back once the snow hits.

This is me walking into a patch of sun. It was beautiful and warm. The girls where holding on to the back of my backpack pretending to be my tail. Magda took all the pictures on the forest walk, and she took the pictures at the butterfly exhibit too. Thanks for such great shots Magda!!!

Carleton University had their annual butterfly expo which is free and gives people anopportunity to see and interact with south American butterflies. A homeschooling mom organized a group trip for us so we had a lesson in butterfly biology before the children went into the greenhouses to see the butterflies. It was very interesting and Sidney was excited to share with the group that she gets to watch the Magic School Bus while mom takes her shower! This was relevant based only on the fact that they were talking about a MSB episode, Butterfly and the Bog beast. Out of the mouth of babes!! We learnt that butterflies have ears on their wings, smell with their antenna and taste with their feet. Also, a caterpillar turns into total goo before it turns into a butterfly while in its chrysalis. ewwwwwww

Checking out cocoons (moths) and chrysalis' (butterflies)

Bellafly

Sidafly

I love this picture that Magda took. Check out the tongue all rolled up!

Getting ready for Thanksgiving! Sid uses a hot glue gun for the first time. We took a piece of faux leather and some artificial leaves. Using a glue gun we glued the leaves around the outside to create a custom made hot plate for our table.

Ta DA!

We also worked hard to make this garland of leaves which were waxed but they didn't last all that much longer. We wrote things we were thankful for on each one and hung them near our table.

Grandpa Bill and Grandmama have returned from the cottage so we got together on Thanksgiving Sunday for a wonderful family get together. The cousins played, and played and played some more. We barely even saw Sid for 5 hours. We will be returning this weekend for another family due with Ken's cousins from Montreal. Sid can't wait!

On Thanksgiving Monday we had a big turkey dinner and invited Uncle Rick and Sid's best friend and family over. Uncle Rick couldn't make it but Isabella, Magda and Dave joined us to dine on turkey, stuffing, cranberries, squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, salad, pumpkin pie and Magda brought an apple crumble. Delicious!!! The girls played up a storm and we saw very little of them for hours. We were having so much fun, I forgot to take out my camera but I did get this one shot of the girls having a tea party with all their stuffed animal friends.

Wednesday was back to the woods to enjoy more of the beautiful weather with Isabella, Magda, Tesling, Terra, and Luna and two leaders from the Maccoun Junior Field Naturalist Club. I am working with Barbara and Rob to put together a Jr. Jr. field naturalists club for kids 4 to 7. This was a meet and greet and an opportunity to learn so many things from these two. We had a really great time and hope they will meet up with us again soon.

YAY, the woods!!!! Mccoun rules... no picking up sticks and hey, lets get off this path and travel through the woods. How cool!

Here Sid is collecting slugs. We found out that they were not native, they originally came from Europe (earthworms too!!), they also have a breathing hole on the right side of their head. We learnt that millipedes are herbivores and centipedes are carnivores!

Here Rob is collecting and showing the kids snail shells.

Female black capped chickadee. Black is brighter and shinier on the males


Male nuthatch. Shiny black on head, female is more gray blue on head. We saw Juncos and white breasted nuthatches too! Plus a porcupine den and a deer scratch (a piece of earth scraped up by the buck then they urinate on it to let everyone know there are there).

When I got home I discovered that Rupert, our guest dale, decided he needed to locate the sheep and alpacas he could smell in my felting basket..... grumble, grumble, grumble.....

Now we are getting ready for Halloween. Today we made a Batik owl. First I drew him in pencil and then Sid and I outlined him in heavy black crayon. Next we coloured him in with heavy crayon leaving no white marks. Next, we crinkled the picture into a ball and unwrapped it x 6.

Last step was to paint it with a watered down black paint and dab off right away to create an old weathered looking batik picture. We repeated the steps to create a moon. We cut the owl and moon out and pasted it on black construction paper. Here is the final project. We are both really pleased with how it turned out!
One other cool craft was our Mummy and Daddy ;) We cut people shapes out of file folder material and glued toilet paper strips to them. Add black eyes and presto.... a spooooooky picture oh and it is 3d!

Off to Pink Lake tomorrow if the weather cooperates then a cool science fun fest at NRC this weekend. You know pictures will follow soon.