M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i

The mighty heron. Or is that a crane?

You'd think I'd remember as this was less than a week ago. I think..therefore I forget.

Our local nature center had family fun day: Herons.

The island on the Mississippi just outside the building had a heron rookery up until last year when a tornado came thru. Sad. But I think they've re-situated themselves down river a bit. They're moving closer to downtown. Hipster Herons.

We got to learn about them a bit. And color some pictures a couple bit. There is progression with technique. Notice how Roman selected one color for each animal. Green frog, orange fish, purple crab. Taste the rainbow, Craney. Note the egg timer. We brought that from home. I should say ROMAN brought that from home. He likes it. He likes to carry it. He likes to set the time. He likes to hear it ding.  One night he brought it to bed and before tucking him in I took a look at it. 55 minutes to go. "Bad idea, little guy. This is going to scare the trix right out of you when it goes off." He gave me that blank 'thinking' face and let me take it without protest. There wold have been some hootin' and hollering coming from that room if I hadn't. Nothing worse than freaked out half asleep kidlets.

We spied a bunch of bird feeders outside the building.

This bird. Not a clue.

Yellow bellied hickory hound.

Little Bird.

An attempt at a mom and kids picture. Couldn't get one with all 3 of us looking with eyes open. Zo was mostly fixated on her wand's unwinding ribbon. 'Fix it mom!' If I were MacGyver,maybe. I'm not. And BOY is that a cultural reference you won't get.

We went for a little stroll on the park grounds. There's one spot that's treeless, open and full of mulch.. Very depressing. I'd guess this tree was felled by the mighty 'nado..

I love trees.

You might call me a tree-hugger, but you'd probably be wrong.