Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Birds

I heard somewhere today that one of 'the secrets of happiness is to find beauty in small things in nature".  I think it's so true.  I love it that my kids and I can spend days discovering little miracles of this life.  Plants and animals, stars and clouds.  One of the favorite games we play as we drive is to try to find animals or anything at all in the sky.  We look at the clouds and tell each other what we see.  It's so fun.  They are so imaginative.  We also stop our truck in the middle of the farmer's field at night to show our kids the stars.  We are fortunate to live in a place where we can still see the stars.  

Yesterday, We had amazing bird sightings right in front of our house.  We saw Bohemian Waxwings and Western Tanagers.  Yes, I am turning into bit of a *geek.   We use our Birds of Alberta book to discover and keep track of what we see.  Kids are always eager to enter their discoveries in their 'nature books'.  I really thought they did a fantastic job.  Maya's getting quite good at adding details.  I quite like Mona's chubby Tanager.....very lovable.  

4 comments:

Burdr said...

Great idea! It's "buteful"!!!

Di said...

I love the pictures! When I was a child we had the big 5 to spot here in Scotland - I cannot remember what they all were but one was a golden eagle another a capercaillie and I think a third was an otter. The prze to the child that spotted it first went a £5 (were talking 30 years ago) book token to buy some nature books with. I remember spotting a golden eagle whilst on the Isle of Arran and having so much fun in the bookstore chosing books. Obviously, it had to be something pretty rare and only happened the first time but it was a great idea to keep us looking in the countryside!

Delynne said...

she draws great birds!! (I have to get that book!)

Molly said...

i love that you live in a place where you can still see stars. one of my short term goals is to drive the kids somewhere very dark one of these nights (when it clears up) so we can star gaze. absolutely love your little list of happiness - my list would look quite similar.