A Rock Adventure

It's amazing how quickly the weather can change! It was just Monday that we had almost 2 inches of snow on the ground and by Friday we have sure 'nuf Spring weather! It's been cold all week up until yesterday and the last remains of our snowman melted away as we donned short-sleeves and headed out for our first "Rock Adventure" as suggested by Uncle Daniel. That is to say, we were looking for big rocks to turn over so we could observe the bugs and whatever else might be underneath. Of course, Kathleen's Adventure Purse from Aunt Daisy went, too.We had to trek a little ways to get to some good "turning over" rocks. On the way, we discovered a sort of cave made by the vines and trees. The kids had to go past some briars to get in and didn't want to stay very long. I thought it looked like great fun but I didn't want to lug Timothy in there.
They liked the next discovery better. It was a vine hanging down like a swing.The first "rock" we found to turn over was actually a cinder block. We didn't find any bugs.
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Next, Kathleen spotted some deer and racoon tracks. Very cool. Joshua tried to convince us that he'd found a buffalo track.
Then we saw lots of big rocks but I suggested we choose only a few for turning over!

Still no bugs but we did discover an interesting hole under one of them. The shadow kind of hides it in the picture.
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Next, Kathleen found some pottery shards from "back then," as she declared.

And Joshua found some BIG rocks...

and an IBC rootbeer bottle.

Timothy wanted to get in on the action.Then we hit the jackpot when we found a WORM!
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Kathleen never touched it but both of the boys got in on the action.

That was the last of our rock turning for the day. We decided it must be too early in the season for the bugs. We'll go back later this spring or in the summer and check our rocks again. But that wasn't the end of our adventure for the day. Next, we discovered some "mole tracks" where the earth was pushed up from a mole digging underneath.

Then on to a new drainage pipe where the children had recently discovered with some of their friends that it made a good "telephone." One sat at the top and the other down at the bottom and they could easily talk through the pipe with each other. The openings were far enough apart that with the wind blowing the way it was you could barely hear each other yelling without the the pipes.
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We stopped at a couple of big trees next and played there for a while. Kathleen had one casualty which was quickly forgotten. These trees were on the side of a hill and Joshua climbed up and down and around again and again. Timothy even got out of his wagon to play. He tried to eat an acorn and who knows what else!

Last stop on the way home... the playground! It wasn't nearly as much fun as the trees we had just left - so after sliding a few times we called it a day and headed home.Today, Kathleen asked about how to spell "rock." Later she brought her field journal from her Adventure Purse and showed me the following entry.