Collecting Walk

What is it about this time of year that makes us want to go out and collect things? Last fall we went for a nature walk, Foard holding a bucket and Stella in her stroller. This year she got a bucket too!

They took their collecting jobs very seriously. The boy is really into leaves right now, and he found some good yellow and red looking ones. He also found lots of rocks (heavy), crabs, sticks and a few acorns. And there was plenty of time to stop and rest and observe things around him, like the tide coming in.

Stella didn't put much in her bucket, but she pointed out things across the Wando River ("boat! boat! moon! moon!") and covered herself in dirt. She loved it.

After the walk the little collectors played in the water in the Daniel Island children's park and swung on the shore of the Wando, watching local fishermen pull in their catch. 

We may make these sweet little animals with our findings, or we may be content to just count them and arrange them. We'll be doing lots of activities like this now that the weather is getting cooler. And I will need to keep them busy, since it's only September 12th and Foard is already asking if its Halloween time yet and when we can get our Christmas tree.

All of our little beauties in the bucket.

Nature Walk

Here is a bit from our Monday. Sometimes it's hard to get outside. So I gave him a bucket and told him we were going to look for things to put in it. We found crabs, acorns, shells, and roots from this tree, which fell into the water. At the end he dumped it all back out and together we counted 23 things. 

The end.

Bicycles and a Tree House

After a difficult week of parenting (skipped naps, our preschooler eating toothpaste and then vomiting all over the house, early mornings and lots of tantrums), Andy and I needed some time to escape from our children. It was his brilliant idea to hop on our bikes and head for the tree house. A tree house and bicycles may seem like a strange way for adults to escape from children, but actually it was the perfect way to spend an evening. With our children with a sitter we packed a picnic and settled in among the branches to sip some wine, listen to the marsh sounds, and watch the boats come in from an afternoon at sea.

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We aren't sure who built this place, but it sits on the shore of the Wando river on Daniel Island. With nothing to do and a view that looked something like the picture below, it was easy to remember why we moved to Charleston, why we live on Daniel Island, and most importantly, why we married each other. 

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And since Daniel Island is so incredibly bike friendly we were able to bike home much, much later, maybe a little tipsy from the wine, with no worries about our safety. But not before stopping off here for a nightcap.