An Early Earth Day Outing (Say that 5x Fast!)

We packed our comfy shoes, camera and bird guide as we headed outdoors this weekend.  We were rewarded with beautiful weather and a barn swallow sighting.  Not just this nest that Henry found, but an actual barn swallow--which to my embarrassment, I identified as a bluebird at first.  Apparently I'm not the quick study I thought I was when it comes to this wildlife stuff.

Once I handed over the bird watching guide, there was no getting it back from Henry.  He took off to study it in peace while his brother ran around pretending to play laser tag with a new friend.

There were lots of volunteers on hand  from the conservation district.  Near the barn, live music was provided for those parents whose children allowed them to sit down.  I could barely hear it from where we were roaming but it seemed to draw a crowd.

Liam's favorite part of the day was making his own reusable bag from a t-shirt.  A wonderful volunteer helped him.  A similar tutorial can be found on here on leethal.net  The only difference is that instead of gathering the bottom in two sections, we made six cuts equally spaced along the hem (three in the front and three in the back).  Then we gathered a front section with a back section three times.  Try it!  All you need is an old shirt, scissors and a safety pin.  Did you know that the average family acquires 500 plastic bags each year?

That looks something like this (in case you were wondering)

For the record, I haven't accepted a plastic bag from a store since I took this photo three days ago.  Happy Earth Day!