Visit to Nana and Papa Bear's House

The entourage was very excited to visit Nana and Papa Bear, especially since we got to take Daddy with us this time! Even Aunt S managed to get to town that weekend, so we got to visit with her too. Nana found some great Richard Scarry's books for them in addition to all the Berenstein Bear books they always pore over when we visit, and the girls were also excited about acquiring a trio of law enforcement vehicles (two police cars and an MP truck) from the garage sale being held next door one morning. The weather was gorgeous, so we got to spend lots of time outside. Nana and Papa Bear live on a lake, and we got to see/do all kinds of fun things: identify trees behind the house (leaf samples ended up in our journal), watch a flock of turkeys and find their dropped feathers later, feed and attempt to pet ducks, check on a huge spider with a perfect orb web on the bushes and speculate about what might be on his menu for lunch, watch a school of minnows at the edge of the lake, and go for a hayride along the lake--checking out a variety of plants and critters along the way. Of course, many of these things or photos of them ended up in our nature journal, which the girls continue to be excited about creating and sharing with people.

Nana and Papa Bear work from home and we came at a very busy time, so Thursday morning we decided to make ourselves scarce and take advantage of our zoo membership that would get us into "Nana and Papa Bear's zoo" for free. We made it a very low stress adventure, finding the favorite animals (like zebras, leopards, monkeys, and flamingos) and visiting the petting zoo. All three girls did actually pet the animals (goats and donkeys) this time! They even took off chasing one poor goat around the yard. We also had time to explore the playground: this zoo has a really cool one--a massive wooden structure with mazelike walkways, huge twisty slides, and rope bridges.

Monkey wanted a picture of her and her current favorite animal, a "leopard"
(technically, that's a lynx in the background, but she decided it was close enough).

The entourage with a very obliging goat

For two other mornings, we headed to a local park where Daddy and Aunt S could go running (I opted for a morning run through the neighborhood beforehand) and the entourage could play on the playground. While this playground wasn't as large as the zoo one it was the same style and the girls loved it, especially since we had it mostly to ourselves the first time. The second time was more crowded, and Monkey and Bug had to figure out how to deal with an 8ish-year-old boy who desperately wanted them to play war games with him (Monkey, Bug, and the boy were the only non-toddlers on the playground). We tried to convince them to play along--Daddy even pretended to arm them with fairy swords and arm cannons--but they weren't interested. They did, however, do a good job of sticking together and trying to find ways to get away from him (for example, crawling through a tunnel they didn't think he'd fit in).

Somewhere in this maze of playground architecture are my children
(don't worry I could hear them at the time; I just can't locate them in the photo).

As usual no visit with Nana is complete without some shopping! Monkey and Bug are very excited about the additions to their fall/winter wardrobe. Goose just got some new PJs, but we'll be breaking out the hand-me-downs at home and she'll be just as thrilled with those. The highlight purchase: fedoras and purses. They followed their typical patterns: Bug wanted a zebra print fedora and a purple purse, Monkey wanted the leopard print fedora and pink purse, and Goose went for the sparkles with a shimmery purple hat and a silver bag.

We couldn't resist a visit to our favorite huge used bookstore. The entourage got to pick out a couple of picture books including a Dr. Seuss book we'd never heard of, I Wish that I Had Duck Feet, and we found a new "project book" to add to our collection (Monkey and Bug have loved flipping through a couple of arts and crafts book and finding projects we have the supplies for). For my own reading, I found books by Mary Hood and Charlotte Mason, two prominent homeschool educators who I keep running across and loving their thoughts or activities. Daddy also came home with a stack of books, although we both agreed we're not sure when we'll find the time to read them!

We used to live in the same area as Nana and Papa Bear, so we also got to visit with some friends while we were in town. This was a lot of fun for Daddy and I, but of course, the entourage doesn't remember them. They were, however, extremely well-behaved during a dinner out and earned themselves a trip to the Lego store. As we were winding down at dinner, Bug started getting antsy, but had the self-awareness to quietly inform me that we needed to leave soon or she wouldn't be able to handle it anymore. We took her at her word and had a great time at the "sticking blocks store," which had a disappointingly small number of Legos out to play with but lots of cool creations to see.