A Sappy Story

We took a nature hike today at Oregon Ridge and learned how to spot a Maple tree, tap it for sap, and then boil it down into syrup.  We also learned how the Indians boiled it down (by placing the sap in a hollowed out log and then adding in hot stones), how the colonials did it (by boiling it in a kettle over a fire), and how the next generation that came along did it....I forget who they were and how they did it, but their way was close to how it's done today.  After learning all about maple syrup, we headed up to the nature center to play with the turtles and frogs and birds.  Joel manned the camera so all the below are courtesy of him.

Hiking off to look for a maple tree.

 

We bought Hannah a 75 cents bird whistle at the nature center.

 ALSO....I forgot about these pics Eric took earlier in the week.  Atticus came over to play for a bit one afternoon and, much to her delight, Hannah got to feed him his green bean snack.

Aren't they cute snuggling!

Up Close and Personal with the Giraffes

The cool thing about going to the zoo in the winter time is that it's so un-crowded that you feel kinda special, like you've got special back stage passes or something.  Since last week was so warm, we thought a trip to the zoo would be perfect. Turns out Sunday was not that warm, but it was close to 40 which was warm enough.

First we saw the rhinos and zebras.

Then the penguins...Hannah loves birds.

Seeing the giraffes in the giraffe house was pretty amazing; those animals seem so much larger up close than they do when viewing them walking around their yard...

We went to the chimpanzee house next and although the smell was pretty bad initially, the heat was fantastic and the chimps were hysterical so we stayed a while and watched them wrestle with each other and swing from all their ceiling-hanging toys.  I took a bunch of pics but since the chimps are behind glass, there's a glare on all of them....

We heart the zoo.

Tot Trails at Port Discovery

Whatever 24-hour bug I had attacked Eric on Saturday so we left him at home in bed and went to Port Discovery to check out the new Tot Trails exhibit with Adrienne and Kylie instead.  I normally avoid public places on the weekend since that's when the rest of the world is out and about which makes everything take forever and seriously tries my patience, and Port Discovery is no different, but fortunately it's big enough to accommodate the masses without feeling crowded.  We got to the parking garage a few minutes after 10:00 and watched car after family car full of kids pull in after us as we made our way to the elevator.  The ticket line was out the door, but we had our tickets on hold so we skipped right through to the members desk with a huge sigh of relief.

The reason I say all this is because the first thing we noticed (and liked) about the Tot Trails exhibit is how quiet it was.  It must be super insulated or something because the second the door closed behind us there was this quiet calm in spite of there being a number of people there.  Ahhhh! So nice.

Hannah beelined for this giant stuffed sea turtle and immediately carried it over to the fish tank (empty of fish for some reason) to try to put the turtle in the tank.

These sand dune things were pretty cool. There were lots of textured balls to roll up and down the hills and over the bumps.

HoppinTots has this bilibo shell thingys so Hannah knew what to do with it.  I helped her sit down and spin around and relax in the ocean area for a bit.

I think they did a really nice job decorating.  Isn't it pretty?

I always thought these object-filled tube thingys were kinda cool.  The library has them too and leaves them out before story time.  I'm always wondering where I can get some clear plastic tubes like that so I can make my own and have fun filling them with all kinds of cool stuff.  I like how Hannah picked up the one with all the multi-colored balls that kinda match her shirt.

Kylie liked the one full of feathers.

Kylie's favorite part of the exhibit was the sandbox. Once she found it, we couldn't pull her away from it.

Okay, this next part was pretty cool and scored high with me on creativity.  Within the "forest" is a butterfly catching station.  You fill that tube thing in the pic below with a bunch of fabric butterflies (all shown in Hannah's net) and then when you hit the blue button, air blows the butterflies up into the air and all around.  There are four nets on the wall that the kids can use to catch the butterflies.

Tot Trails also had a reading nook, one of those screens that projects on the floor and senses movement (so you can "kick" the leaves and they actually move, like the one at Arundel Mills), puppets, and a great climbing/crawling area in the forest.

After about an hour in Tot Trails, Hannah headed for the door.  Kylie was bummed to leave the sandbox, but she forgot about it pretty quickly when she saw all the other cool exhibits.  Much to my delight, Hannah immediately started climbing up this netted tunnel with zero coaxing from me (the nets in the center are my favorite part).  When she first got on there were some bigger kids ahead of her on the net, and every time the net moved as a result of their moving, Hannah started laughing. It was awesome! I love her fearlessness and sense of adventure!

Once at the top, we walked around and found this tunnel, the same one we went down last time, and went down it again, laughing all the way.

Kylie and Adrienne were right behind us the whole time! I snapped a variety of pics of them, but all are blurry except this one where the color is very orange-y...

The diner was up next and was a big hit with the girls.  They collected food, cooked at the stove, stacked plates, washed their hands in the sink....They've really started to play together kind of cutely.  I mean, not always together, obviously, due to their age, but they're aware of each other now.  If Hannah didn't see Kylie for a few minutes, she'd stop what she was doing, look around, and yell "Ky! Kyyyyy...."

It's easy to lose track of time in that place because there is SO MUCH fun stuff to do! We ended up leaving later than we should have and missed Hannah's sleep window which made it hard for her to wind down, but she eventually passed out.  I'm bummed that we still haven't gotten to take Eric, but having Kylie there totally made up for it!  Anyway, we recently joined the Downtown Baltimore Family Alliance and one of the joining perks is a free 3-month membership to Port Discovery so I imagine we'll have plenty of other opportunities to take Eric.

The Playground...On Thursday, Not Friday

As soon as I turned off my computer last night I realized the giant error in my last post, which was that although we had a great weekend, we did not go to the playground on Friday. The "great" part of the weekend was on pause from Thursday night at 9:00 until 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning.  Friday was the day that I was dead to the world and confined to my room/the bathroom with a crazy stomach bug.  (And Saturday was Eric's day with the bug...)  We did, however, go to the playground on Thursday afternoon when Eric got home from work.  The weather was amazingly spring-like, so we really had no choice but to get out, and since we have no yard, hello playground! I took the camera because I wanted to compare our first trip to the playground this year with her very first trip ever in April of last year.  She was so little then!!!

Hannah Plays Dress Up...With a Changing Table Cover

We just had an awesome weekend--the playground on Friday, Port Discovery on Saturday, and the Zoo this morning--and I've actually got all the photos uploaded and edited, but now late and I'm too tired for a big post.  Instead, here are two photos we took tonight of Hannah playing dress up for the first time.  Please note that the cape-like thing she's wearing is actually a cover for her changing table.  She pulled it out of the drawer this evening and got really frustrated when we couldn't figure out what she wanted us to help her do with it.  On a whim, I wrapped it around her like a cape and wha la! That's what she wanted.  Then she grabbed the SPF 50 sun hat we picked up at Target today, put it on her head, and started making her way down the stairs to the front door.  She likes to pretend to go to work like her daddy. Oh, and yes she is wearing Christmas PJs underneath the "cape;" we're not in the habit of dressing her after her nap if we have no intention of leaving the house.