Skeletons from an owl pellet!

This fit so well with our science this week on bones. It was a way to throw in some nature study in a sense. They were pretty thrilled with it! These came from Amazon there are three different ones. damian did the starling bird, Fox the mole and Skyler the vole. She loves anything mouse like! I am sure they would be way grosser to do the ones you find outside. My kids did search our barn though of course!!

 I will say there was no way my kids or me for that matter had the patience to put te skeletons together though. I am kinda glad I couldn't imagine that! They did have fun with them and liked picking out different bones comparing them to our skeletons.

After they were done I put the bones in muffin cups and bagged them to hang in our nature area!! The kids thought it cool to have skeletons hanging on their wall.

Hunting For Fall

The children and I decided to hunt for Fall by doing a Fall scavenger hunt at the park. Right off the bat we could see the first most well known sign of course LEAVES!!! Leaves everywhere and different colored at that!

While it has been cold in the mornings the afternoons have still been warm. I love this time not too hot not too cold. It is perfect outside weather. My kids and I all hate heat so in summer we are in alot lol. We were hunting for moss covered sticks, pinecones, fallen seeds and nuts anything that signals Fall has come.


I absolutely love the picture of the three of them in the river! They were so sweet crossing putting Skyler Bay in the middle in case she needed help. They can be be so sweet at times.

We also saw squirrels gathering nuts but they were not exactly posing for the camera today. We found plenty of holes and burrows and thought about all the different animals that could be living there. Of course according to Skyler the homes were all for rabbits. We tried really hard to find an abandoned nest but for some reason we just couldn't, which is pretty weird as we always find one this time of year.




They really liked all the pieces of branches that were covered in moss as well as the bracken mushrooms. My kids have a thing for bracken mushrooms. They call them steps for the animals to climb.

Well we gathered up all the goodies we found and made a We Found Fall Centerpiece for our dining room table, Skyler was in awe of the teeny tiny pinecone we found. Last year it was all about who could find the biggest this year it was all about tiny. I am sure as the season goes on they will add to this. They love finding treasures outside and displaying them. For more pics of our fun walk you can go here.

Some nature added in our week (week 3 of school)

I would like to say up front this is not my picture! I found it on google images. My son brought a little guy just like this and put him in the butterfly habitat well, our day went on and that evening when we were going to take a picture and let him go he had already decided to turn into a cocoon!! I searched him and found he is a Agraulis vanillae. You can find more about him here.  I will say the cocoon looks very odd but just like the information pictures so that must be a normal thing.

They are finally butterflies!!

Sadly not a great picture! These guys were just not cooperating well. They kept flapping those wings so everything is a huge blur. They are monarchs in case you didn't know. They were really friendly even letting the kids pick them up and everything but they just would not be still enough for a clear picture. As always the kids loved doing it and the next day they all flew to freedom. As soon as they were let go Fox and Skyler Bay both said, "mom when can we do it again"? They really love this!!

We are raising caterpillats!

For my daughters birthday a wonderful homeschool mom sent her a butterfly habitat and a few days ago our caterpillars arrived! As you can see they were allready pretty big when they got here.

Today they have already spun into their cocoons. So we had to transfer them to the habitat. We have done this several times before and my kids still love it! They are just amazed that they spin and come out something totally different.

They have been put in their little habitat and the kids will start counting down until they see butterflies!

More Irony from Mother Nature

So the mouse was gone!! It is celebration time of course. My evil cat did his job and I was free to return all the silverwear to the drawers. I was happy. I guess Mother Nature decided that I had to pay for the crime of offing one of her creatures. As if my guilt was not enough or somethng right? I don't like hurting anything but I can't stand the creatures in my house free ya know. About four something this morning a little of baby mice ran into my schoolroom squeaking for their mother as loud as possible. Little bitty things that didn't know not to run right to my cat. He got 4 and the boys rescued these....

So I am guessing since my cat took out their mother I now have these little guys to tend too. They are cute. My children are in love with them. That is irony for you. My "baby" killed their mom so now I have her babies. I buy traps so my cat finally gets the mouse. Oh well what can you do really?

Irony...

When your cat catches a caught mouse! The cats are not doing their job so to speak so you guy buy some traps because you see your awesome mouser is failing miserably at this mouse. You buy traps and Nope nothing. Can't catch anything with those either. Finally you get some glue traps. Yes they are not the best thing but neither is having mice roaming free in your house either. Can we say gross. As a child I had pet mice they lived in cages and I played with them. I have great memories of these pets. But not as these icky things using my silverwear drawers as a restroom GRRRRRRR! Well onto the glue traps. My parents also gave me some huges rat sized things as well. These suckers are like 3 glue traps in one. They are huge.

I guess my cat was a bit angry these things replacing him and all. See I have an evil cat, his name is Hush. He is not social, hates children and most everyone else as well. So he is not prejudice he hates us all equally. He is a wonderful mouser. The best so I figured this mouse must be the mouse king or something to get away this long. So on with the catching a caught mouse....

I was just rudely woke up to what I was positive was the noisiest intruder possible I heard chairs being tossed over, crashing noises LOUD! I was walking through a dark house armed with my cell and a can of pepper spray to find my evil cat Howling at the top of his lungs thrashing all over my school room. You would have thought a herd of wild animals was in there. It took me a second to figure out what was going on, Evil caught a mouse!! Note to Evil don't catch mice on glue traps Yeah evil cat, mouse, glue trap use your imagination.

He hissed and yowled like a crazed animal. It was on the bottom of all his paws stuck up the side of one leg. I finally got it off with said mouse attatched. The cat hissed and tried to smack me. He has walked around all day hissing at everyone and you hear the sticky sound with every step he takes. I love my animals and am glad to know that he can open drawers which is where the trap had been.