A Very Muddy Henry's Ark and Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

Last Wednesday, we headed out to Henry's Ark for the first time this spring. I didn't anticipate how wet and muddy everything would (still) be, but we managed to stay pretty clean, except for our shoes:

 Trying to avoid the puddles

He kind of froze as we were walking, unsure where to step. I tried to get him to follow me, but that only worked for so long. :)

 Lewis found the resident cat who withstood petting for a few seconds, before running off.

 :)

Lewis, stealing carrots from the goat. He'd give one to the goat and then eat one himself.

 :)

  Reaching up high to feed the big elk

That day after nap (hence the PJs), we headed outside to look for bugs. The Bergstroms had gotten him some bug-themed gifts for his 2nd birthday, but he wasn't really into looking at smaller/finer things last summer. They'd gotten him a Roly-Poly Playground, which is a little plastic dome with a bug-sized playground inside, and Lewis wanted to use it now that Juni (and Auntie Schwee) taught us proper bug-seeking techniques. I've found a couple of more bug playgrounds on clearance, so he has three domes now. It is a good thing, too, because he found uses for all three of them. One was the Worm Dome, another the Dead Bug Dome, and the other was for everything else. :)

Found a roly-poly!

Under a brick, just as you said, Auntie Schwee!

 My sweet boy :) 

Placing one of the two dead bugs we found--the exoskeletons from a locust and a beetle

It was a pretty successful first outing...the locust was especially exciting for me because it reminded me of looking for bugs as a kid at Grandma Lou's house and finding one on her tree out front. We also found a couple of tiny worms (centipedes?) and one lone earthworm. He seemed to really enjoy searching for them and then watching them 'play' in their domes--at one point he screamed out, 'THE WORM IS CLIMBING UP THE SLIDE!!!' and proceeded to crack up. I'm sure we will do this many more times this spring and summer.