First Picnic of the Year

The weather has taken a turn for the better!!!! Yay!!! We can go outside, open the windows, breathe in that fresh spring scent.

Yesterday a picnic was in order!

We have a pond near our house with a rustic-looking shelter. The kids love to play in the woods surrounding the pond.
David was certainly enjoying himself:

Collecting stones:

Finding bits and pieces:

We're wondering if our pond now houses a beaver! We saw possible evidence in a number of places:

Half way through our visit we heard a terrific honking noise and saw a bunch of Canada geese arrive at the pond. I think we might have another nest this year!

I did convince the children to finally eat:

At which point the geese decided to swim to our side of the pond. I was just glad they didn't decide to hop up the bank and bully us.

The kids discovered a deer skeleton, which they were pretty excited about (I'll spare you the picture) and had all kinds of fun playing in the woods. Oh to be a carefree child prancing about in the brush:

As we turned to leave, look what we saw -- how cute!!

The forecast says we'll be enjoying this warm weather at least for another 4 days. I can't wait!

Mr. Frog

Back at the pond the other evening we discovered Mr. Frog. He was very green and nice and big. I was happy to find him. But, he didn't seem to want to move, even when prodded lightly with a stick. Fed up, he finally turned on the stick and tried to attack it. So much for a jumping frog.

We could find no sign of the Geese, and I'm beginning to worry that Papa and Mama Goose were scared away from their nest. I hope we find out otherwise. Maybe their babies hatched and they took them away somewhere else.

And then, checking on our nest, I was very disappointed to discover this:

It appears that someone came and ate the little blue egg that was in the nest. Maybe next time we will find some happier news in the woods.