Another park, another painting

Another beautiful, sunny, hot day!  I woke fairly early and was eager to start our day.  Alec had another art class where he would be painting the next bird in the series.  He has just been loving these art classes!  We are having fun finding parks, zoos and playgrounds to hang out in while he's at class.
Today we are hoping to find our way to a new nature center.

Alec got to paint a sand piper standing on a post in a marshy field.  Since the whole class finished this painting early the art teacher gave them each a mini canvas that they could draw their own birds onto.  Alec chose to make "the very rare rainbow bird" and a bluebird.  He ran out of time to add all the other embellishments he had planned in his head. But was so excited about class and his ideas that he talked all the way home.

While Alec was busy at art class the other two boys and I drove around looking for a nature center our GPS was guiding us towards.  We ended up at a beautiful park instead.

We were passing the park on our way to the center and decided it looked like fun.  The boys had a good time playing on the slides and climbing on everything.  We found a hidden owl, bear, raccoon, and squirrel carved into the climber.  I had fun walking around reading all the nature signs posted around the playground teaching about trees, mushrooms and birds.

A sample of the signs we saw

It didn't hurt that the park was right on the side of a huge wetlands area with walking trails.  Once the boys got hot in the sun we walked part of the trail and saw turtles, snakes, frogs, red winged black birds, robins, interesting flora and fauna, and watched the water falling over the mini man- made dams.  We heard and caught a small glimpse of the train as it passed on a nearby track and even saw, what we thought was a hawk.  It was such a beautiful area!

We had a nice picnic lunch on the picnic tables and enjoyed the breeze.  Evan has been describing his idea of a park and playground to me for a few days now.

He's my "idea" man and often comes up with things he's going to invent when he gets older.  Sometimes his inventions have already been made like his camper with a motor that you can drive and his robot that will vacuum the house for you.  But oftentimes he comes up with some great invention ideas.

After almost burning his legs on two slides and sweating in the sun these past few days he wants to make an indoor park:

• The park would have a domed glass ceiling like the EPCOT ball that would be glass so you can see the sky but it would keep things cool and keep the heat of the sun out.  
• The windows would open up and fold away on nice days and turn into mirrors at night so that they could reflect the disco lights flashing around.  
• His park would have slides, swings, a large climbing structure and lots of soft cushions in case you fell.  
• He wants to include a large pool with 4 water slides since he likes even numbers.  
• He told me it would also have a large sand so that people could bring toy trucks and things and dig while their brothers and sisters played.  

 I just love listening to him work on and embellish his ideas perfecting his vision and thinking of ways to make it work for everyone.

We really enjoyed our time out in nature.

This butterfly landed right on my back! 

A frog that the boys almost stepped on; before he jumped and startled us all!

Evan decided to pet the frog and worked really hard to name him. 

One of the man- made dams we saw

We had listened to Percy Jackson in the car the whole time we were in the car today and finished our book.  We popped in CD 1 of the next book: The Battle of the Labyrinth.  The boys were excited to be starting a new book and, since this labyrinth has been talked about in other books we've read, they're quite anxious to see what happens.

In all it was a fabulous day and while I have not been loving the long ride to these art classes for Alec each day, I can't deny that we are all having a great time. He gets to learn more about painting and we all get to check out new parks and places.  It's a win- win!