Into the Woods

Today we ventured out into the woods in search of woodland creatures.  Before we left, we made a tasty treat for the birds (and most likely a few squirrels).  In the food processor we combined a cup of almonds with a few drizzles of oil and honey.

Then Eva helped coat two pinecones with the mixture.

(I had tied the strings on before adding the nut butter)
We also made a list of animals we might see while walking through the woods and brought along a crayon to add tally marks as we saw them.

Eva even wore her new squirrel shirt.  (Yes, I am one of those moms who buys clothes for her kid based on the themes she has planned- I'm nuts, I know!)

Then we were off to explore in the woods!

We ended up seeing a ton of squirrels, only one bird (but we heard a bunch) and even came face-to-face with this little fellow.

But no groundhogs on this trip.

Eva found the perfect tree to hang our bird treats in.

And we left a sunflower head full of seeds for them as well (our farmer's market was selling them for 25¢ so we snagged one to bring along on our adventure).

The ground was really wet from all the rain we received yesterday so we decided to wait to have our picnic in the woods but I think Eva had fun nonetheless.

 

Hedgehog Love

I know I've mentioned before that Eva is a hedgehog fan but I thought I'd share some of her hedgehog love with you today.  This is the source of the hedgehog obsession- her stuffed hedgie.  She has slept with this little guy every night since she was about six months old.  He has traveled to Grammy and Papa's, NYC and even stayed with her when she was hospitalized for a few weeks last year.  They are inseparable.

Last year she asked to be a hedgehog for Halloween and she was the cutest one I've ever seen.

When I saw Jill over at Meet the Dubiens had made a hand and foot print hedgehog, I knew we had to make one too.  The body of the hedgehog is Eva's foot.

Then her handprints became the quills.

Another cute little hedgehog!

Looking for a Moose

We got this book at the library today and cute can only begin to describe it!  It has a wonderful, sing-songy rhythm to it and Eva was so engrossed in looking for the moose.  I'm betting this book will be read several times this week.  After reading it we made our own moose.  To begin, I traced Eva's hands and a foot on two shades of brown paper and cut them out.  

Then Eva glued them onto a piece of green paper to make a moose head.

We added some googly eyes, 

 a sticker nose and Eva drew a mouth on.

I added the word "Moose" to the bottom of the picture as Eva is beginning to recognize initial sounds and loves to see how different words look.  (She was quick to point out that moose starts like mommy and mouse, and that it has two o's like boo- enough to make this former literacy specialist swell with pride!)

Forest Friends

This week we are heading into the woods to explore our forest friends.  Eva has been a long time fan of hedgehogs so they will get some attention along with squirrels, chipmunks, moose and deer.  We may even hang out with some bears.

Crafts
Hand and Footprint Hedgehog- when I saw this over on Meet the Dubiens I knew we had to make one too

Pinecone Bird Feeders- these yummy concoctions should definitely make us some feathered friends

Hands and Foot Moose- we'll trace our hands and feet to make an antlered buddy

Activities
Hike in the Woods- we'll head into the local "woods" to look for forest friends and leave some treats for them

Bear Picnic- walking in the woods can make you hungry so we'll have a picnic with some of our favorite bears

Squirrel Balancing- those squirrels are experts at running along tree branches and telephone wires so we will watch them and see if we can balance as well as they can

Cooking
Nut Butter- squirrels love nuts and so do we, so we'll make some almond butter and use it on sandwiches for our picnic

Songs
Gray Squirrel- hear it here

Books