Childhood as it should be

Paper boat races, baby ducks, tree climbing and rock skipping. Who could ask for a nicer day?

Fishing

Today was the first 80 degree day of the year here in the Twin Cities, so we decided to blow off our afternoon obligations and go fishing. I'm not going to lie. I'm no expert at fishing. I used to go frequently with my grandparents, aunts and uncles, but I'm pretty sure I took the Isabella approach to fishing and sat there reeling in my hook (Look Mommy, I caught a worm!) and eating cookies for hours on end. In fact my only childhood memory of catching a fish was in Alaska with my Aunt Wendy and Uncle Roger. The fish was big and green and spiky and I was utterly impressed with myself, but for some reason or another it had to be thrown back. That put me off fishing for a while.

Two years ago we attempted ice fishing with the same aunt and uncle and I "got the skunk out of the boat" as Roger said and caught a small sunfish. Of course Cheyenne, who was three at the time, caught one first.

We stopped at Tally's for some bait before heading to the dock. For some reason Isabella has a fondness lately for colouring her nose black. I don't know why. Just ignore it.

It was not a novel idea, but fishing seems like a great way to meet friends. The kid with the backpack rode up on his bike and started chatting with Zach about various kinds of bait and what he's seen work out here lately. He borrowed some red squid looking thing and spent a little time fishing before heading home. By the time he left we were buddies.

Then there was Jacob and Suzanne, a mom and son team. Jacob is heading to Greece for the summer in a week to do some grad school research and he and his mom were getting in one last day of fishing before his departure. Cheyenne took an instant liking to them.

And their bucket of live minnows. You have to love a girl who can name her bait Anna and still skewer it on a fish hook without batting an eyelash.


Alas, it was a fruitless (or fishless) day, but a nice one. Good company, plenty of sunshine, cookies and minnows. It's what childhood was made for.

Green Hour Digging in the dirt box and other ideas

My friend Martha called today to invite us to spend the afternoon at her place in her wonderfully huge backyard playing in the sandbox, or rather, in the dirtbox, as the sand won't be delivered until Saturday. There is nothing the girls like better than digging in dirt. It always amuses me to watch the seriousness and vigor Cheyenne applies to her task, as though she were working on a project and not merely moving dirt from one place to the other.

Isabella and Christopher are not quite as hardcore.

Cheyenne eventually took a break to look for pictures in the clouds with Daddy.

An proving once again that he understands the minds of small children better than I do, Zach spent a full half hour playing fetch with the kids and their plastic gardening tools. That would never in a million years occur to me, but the kids thought it was great fun and ran until they were absolutely worn out.

As Martha and I sat on the logs by the fire pit watching this madness we chatted about some other ideas for getting the kids outdoors to play, both this year and in the future. Some of my favourites:

-Hiding stuff in the sand and having an archeological dig. This was Martha's bit of brilliance. She used to be an archeology student.

-Getting some friends together for The Great American Backyard Campout. We'd have a bonfire, make some of those hobo pies (also known as pudgy pies), toast some marshmallows and sing some campfire songs. We're participating in this event by camping on our deck this year, as the event occurs right around my due date. I'll be keeping solidarity on the couch.

-Backyard ballistics. Martha has a book about this. Of course, this year the kiddos are too small for this, but hey, they grow up fast, and I know in our circle of friends we'd have no shortage of dad's interested in making a potato cannon or a trebuchet.

-Log rolling. Why not?

Green Hour- Letterboxing at Langton Lake

I think we have found a new family hobby. I've been wanting to try letterboxing for a while and Mother's Day weekend seemed like a good time to give it a go.

Letterboxing is a lot like geocaching, but without the GPS device. People hide a letterbox equipped with a log and stamp in a hidden location and post clues about it on letterboxing websites like Letterboxing North America or Atlas Quest. You print off or copy the clues and head to the specified location with a logbook and stamp of your own. We used a three ring binder for our logbook. In the front half we stuck the printed directions to several letterboxes we want to visit soon and in the back half, we put some blank pages for recording our finds. I cut a stamp out of a new sponge so we could stamp the logbook.

Finally we packed up our "treasure hunting bag" and headed for Langton Lake, which is apparently not far from our house at all. The thrill of discovery hit immediately as we turned in the drive to the lake. I've lived in this area for approximately 23 of my 30 years and, although I have driven past the turn to this park a thousand times I never even knew it was there.



We followed the path to the South side of the lake, to the ruins of an old stone smokehouse, a very interesting discovery in itself.


From there we found the hollow tree, and inside it, the treasure. I think Zach and I were as excited as the girls.

We stamped our book and theirs, stopping to play a while near the ruins. Daddy even showed us how to make a whistle out of an acorn shell. It was a great little adventure, all for the cost of a clean sponge and the gas it took to get to the lake. I think we are hooked!

Green Hour- In Bloom

Last summer, after reading Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv, I discovered www.greenhour.org, a website devoted to getting children out in nature for an hour a day. At the time I was really excited about it and every day I made a conscious effor to do something with the girls outdoors. Then winter hit and my enthusiasm waned. It's hard to be excited about nature when nature is offering up -30 windchills. Snow I can handle, but death-defying cold is another matter entirely.

It is May now and the world once again seems like a kinder, gentler place so Bella and I took advantage of the beautiful weather today to go hunting for flowers with the camera. I hate to admit this, but I only recognize two of the flowers in the photos above, the daffodils and azaleas. In addition to these we found violets, dogwood, tulips and, of course, the ever popular dandelion. My very favourite flowers are coming soon. By the end of the month we'll have lilacs, crabapple blossoms and peonys. Winter is like a battle here and these are the sweet spoils of victory.