Favorite Things Friday

I'm heading out to my favorite weekend of the year!

I'm going to Allegheny State Park for our annual family camping trip. We have been going to Allegheny for a Columbus Day family picnic for close to 30 years. We started out with about 20 aunts and cousins and now it is just my kids and granddaughters. Five years ago we decided to spend the weekend and we all love it!

Butterfly Festival

Jerzie and I went to the local Audubon Butterfly Festival last weekend. The first thing we saw when we entered the butterfly room was flowers everywhere! Huge vases of all the blooms that monarchs feed on.
There were butterflies everywhere! Volunteers were catching them in nets to be tagged, tagging them, showing how to hold them or just walking around giving a closeup view to anyone who wanted to see. Jerzie loved watching everything going on but was not interested in holding one.

There are 2 tagged butterflies on this bouquet.

How many butterflies do you see in this picture?
There are 5 but one is really hidden below the cone flower on the right.

There were several crafts for the kids. After putting together a butterfly puzzle and a huge floor bug puzzle, Jerzie decided to make a caterpillar from a paper chain.

Of course, Jerzie had to put on a puppet show before we left, one of her favorite things to do there.

We had a great time and I hope to take both girls next year!

Scrabble

My daughter, daughter-in-law and I try to do a craft every Christmas and this is what we did this year.

I asked a couple girlfriends that do garage sales to be on the lookout for old Scrabble games. We found them for $2.00 to 25 cents. My son tore apart some pallets that were thrown away at work and my son-in-law cut them into pieces.

We all dug into our stashes, both girls scrapbook, and just had fun!

We used watered down paint for stain and scrap paper or cloth ribbon for the backgrounds.

Jerzie even made some. She made the snow one for Mommy and the star one is in her and her sister's room. She also made them for her teachers and a Bah Humbug one for Daddy.

We had a great time with these because we could really be creative. All together we made over 40! They were a big hit!

I'm planning to make some for my shop. Would you be interested?

Guess!

Can you guess from this picture what we did this weekend?

The girls stayed overnight Sat and we made cut out cookies just for them.

We had a great time!

The girls were really into it as you can tell.

Mommy came over on Sunday and we made 5 more kinds. The girls put frosting and much sugar on their cookies.

Another Favorite Photo Subject

Columbus Day weekend at Allegheny State Park

Chris and Laurie at Thunder Rocks

Content in the woods.

Time for a rest with Uncle Chris

Smiths at Thunder Mountain.

Coloring and helping Daddy eat his breakfast.

Nap? Yea right!

Fun in the leaves.

Can you see me now?

Throwing stones.

Don't get wet! Right!

Time to go home.

Storytellers

For over 30 years my cousins and my family have gone to Allegheny State Park on Columbus Day for a picnic. We always went, rain or shine, or even sometimes snow! We would bring tons of food and kids friends. We built a huge fire in a pavilion fireplace to keep us and the food warm but it also dried clothes that some how got wet in the creek.

A lot of my cousin's kids moved away but my kids kept coming as adults.
A few years ago we decided to stay for the weekend, something we had talked about for years.

The first year we rented 1 cabin for 5 adults, a baby and a rottweiler. The next year we got 2 cabins!

Because of the cold and the girls we now get cabins with electricity. We are leaving on Friday.

We always walk the creek on Columbus Day and have our picnic at the same pavilion.

This pic is Jerzie with Uncle Chris and Daddy.

We look forward to this weekend all year. So many of our family traditions have had to end but we intend to keep this one going for ever!

To read more Storyteller stories stop over Shannon's place.

Enchanted Forest

Last night I took the girls to our local Audubon's Enchanted Forrest. It was a little rainy but we had a great time anyway. They have some trails thru the woods lined with candles in milk jugs. A 'firefly' with a lantern leads us along the path, stopping along the way to learn about some animals.

The first was a wood cockroach. They have some characteristics of house roaches but are very good for fertilization of the soil. They can go without food for 30 days, without their head for 5 (they breath thru their body) and although they can see from every direction because of a thousand lenses in their eyes, they can't see red. Too much cockroach information?

We saw a bear that told us he was afraid of butterflies and that he could run 30 miles an hour. He also said he eats way more vegetation than he does animals. Mostly he likes people garbage because he doesn't have to work hard to get it!

Next was a star nose mole. There are actually tentacles on the end of it's nose. This type mole, unlike it's cousins, can even go under water. Payton seemed to think this was a bird!

This 'frog' is what we call peepers. In our area, we know spring is here when we hear their peeping noise at night. The male makes the sound as a part of the mating ritual. They are only about an inch long so we rarely see them in the woods.

Lastly we saw a couple very cute mice. One is a deer mouse and the other a wood mouse. They were picking on each other about who was the best type of mouse. This seemed to be Payton's favorite because she was scared of all but these and the frog. Jerzie couldn't pick a favorite but she was disappointed we didn't see the Monarch Butterfly this year. She kept asking Payton if she liked it.
As usual, it was a great time at the Audubon!

Turtles!

My Sweeties and I went to turtle day at the local Audubon yesterday.

We saw lots of different turtles, some in water and some on land.

Notice Jerzie's hands behind her back, no touching for her. Payton didn't even want to touch which is unusual.

Some of the turtles were huge.

Hello there!

Polk-a-dot legs.

Milton, the resident box turtle.

Do you know why they are called box turtles? They have a 2 part bottom with a 'hinge' so they can close their shell up tight.

We even got to make turtles.

A fun afternoon was had by all!