Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Today, mommy and I got to meet my friends (and their moms) for lunch at Wendy's. And as an extra surprise, Daddy showed up too. After lunch Daddy had to go back to work, but the rest of us went to the Chippewa Nature Center. Mommy and I had never been there before, so we didn't really know what we were going to see.

We headed off down the trail into the woods and ended up at a place called the Homestead. We had to cross a couple of bridges on the way, so we tried to be very, very quiet so we wouldn't wake up the trolls. We saw some old buildings, but didn't get to go inside to see what they were all about because there were some bigger kids there for field trips with their school classes. There were some farm animals that we got to feed. Allie's mom brought apples to cut up and feed the pigs. I liked watching the pigs, but didn't want to get close enough to feed them. There were chickens there, too. Checking out chickens

From there we went to see the cows. When we got to their pen, they were all the way in the back. But Allie's mom had brought a big bag of corn with her, too, and she shook that bag so the cows could see it and they came running right up to the fence as she poured it out on the ground. After the cows ate all the corn we pulled up handfulls of grass and fed them that way. Cows' tongues are very rough and very slimy! Petting cows

When we were all done outside, we went back to Visitor's Center and looked at all kinds of interesting things there. They have a turtle in a water display that looks like it's really real. I thought it was, and mommy did too, for a little while. They had a bunch of things on the counter that we could pick up and look at....from seed pods to animal bones. They also had some things that we could look at under a microscope. That was really neat. We went to the River Overlook and got to watch the river rushing by. They had a telescope set up and we could see into a hole in a tree on the other side of the river. We also went into the Ecosystem Gallery. That was really fun. There is a place in the back where we looked out a window and saw all kinds of birds, squirrels and chipmunks eating and playing. There are all kinds of things to look at and play with.

I had a lot of fun with my friends today.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Today, my class went on a field trip to the Whiting Forest. I had never been there before, so it was pretty exciting. We started out with some stories in front of the big fireplace. Story time

Then we got our coats back on and went outside for a nature walk. On the trail We looked for different leaves, pinecones, pine needles and tried to find a squirrel (which is kind of hard to do with 20 noisy 4 year olds tromping through the woods!).

We saw some pretty silly things out on the trail, too. These two trees had faces! Tree faces

We picked up leaves along the way and then climbed to the top of this tower and dropped them over the railing so we could watch them float back down to the ground. Dropping leaves

I picked out a very special leaf before we got back from our walk. We split into two groups and each group got to take their leaf and run it through a laminating machine so that we can keep it forever. After we were all done, we went back outside and had a quick snack...pretzel rods!

Boy, I never knew that I'd get to do such fun things when I went to school!

Sunday, October 15, 2006

I got to go on a hayride!!! I love hayrides. We got to ride out into the pumpkin field and pick out a pumpkin to take home. I picked a really big one. Daddy had to carry it for me. I can't wait to carve it! (But I don't want to scrape the gooey stuff out.) Hayride -- loading up
After we got back, I tried to milk the cow, but it was too hard. I didn't get very much water into the bucket. If I get to come back next year, maybe I'll be able to milk the cow. Milking a cow
There was also a petting zoo. I got to hold a baby chick Holding a baby chick and I got to hold a kitten Petting a kitten
I got to ride this really fun zoo train . Animal train And I even got to ride a pony! Pony ride
I hope we get to go back there again next year!

Friday, October 13, 2006

We did the coolest thing today at school! We got to go to the Santa House and see Santa Claus!! And it's not even Christmas yet! The Santa House is so much fun. There are all kinds of things to look at. Santa House And can you believe it actually snows inside the Santa House?!? Well, it does! Santa House That's my teacher with snow all over her.

Of course, the best thing is getting to see Santa. He came in and sang some songs with us. And we all got a chance to sit on his lap and talk to him. I got to shake some jingle bells during one of the songs. Santa House

I can't wait until Christmas and Santa comes back to the Santa House!!