Maple Sugaring

I took Vann and Chayce to learn about how maple syrup is made this afternoon.  It was right during Ash's naptime so, he stayed home with Dad and slept.  It was at a Nature Center in a town near us and it was a fun time!  We all learned a lot and they enjoyed exploring the cool stuff they had inside the Nature Center afterwards.  We even came home with some yummy maple syrup!  And of course we had to have pancakes for dinner so we could use it :)

The boys woke up the other morning and immediately started doing origami.  Chaycers is now getting into it too!

Vann made this super cool thing that spins open when you pull on the edges and then closes back up mostly on its own.  He does some pretty intricate designs!

Chaycers made a few hearts and then was working on his I Love You!

These next pics are all from today.  We had a few errands to run this morning.  One stop was to Walgreens to look for a new pair of sunglasses for me...I lost my favorite pair a few months ago.  I was super happy to find they had the exact pair I had before and loved!  PS...it still kills me to not by Oakley's, but they're a bit out of my budget and well if I lose those that's not good.  

Ash liked this pair.  He even wore them the entire time we looked around the store.  Silly boy!

Watching the sap drip out of the tree.

Trying to drill a hole in a log just like they do when they tap the trees.

He was so cute...it was tough for him!

We learned lots of fun stuff...they showed us how they originally made spiles (the thing the sap drips out of) and how they make them now.  How they simmer the sap so it evaporates all the water leaving you with maple syrup.  We learned why maple syrup is not always the same shade of amber.  It depends on when the sap is collected during the season.  The earlier in the season, the lighter it is and the later, the darker it is.  Also did you know it takes 40 gallons of sap to make just 1 gallon of pure maple syrup?!  Kinda cool!  

Everyone there was so helpful and full of information...I loved it!  We got to taste sap straight from the tree...like we caught the drip of sap on our finger!  Then at the end we got to taste some yummy maple syrup!  After that is when we explored all the other fun stuff they had going on.  

Learning about fireflies.

This is kind of a dark picture, but they were checking out different animal skins.  

When we got home the boys got busy doing all of the worksheets they brought home which helped them to remember all of the stuff they learned.  It really was a cool nature center.  I would love to go back for other events that they have.  

Ash is watching Chaycers play this puzzle type game. 

Then the boys headed outside to play ball with Dad.  My poor little Ash went to run after a ball on the driveway, took like one step and tripped on his shoe.  As you can see in the picture below it was a bad fall.  My heart was breaking :(  

My poor sweet boy :(  He not only bonked his head good, he scraped his nose up pretty good too.  This was right after it happened...I got him settled down first of course and he was snuggling on my chest when I took this picture. 

And this was a few hours later.  As you can see he was feeling much better!  Still looks awful though.  He kept pointing to his nose and head saying that he's got big owies.  Yes you sure do buddy.  I hope they heal up quickly!

Snuggled in my bed watching a show.  Love these boys!!