Nature Nearby

Critters in our yard:










Also in our yard: Hail. It has been a strange summer, weatherwise. We had a tornado in the area, and several hailstorms too.



A little nature "art": Kev made me this heart:


Critters at Silver Lake:

The Brain at the American Museum of Natural History

On Monday afternoon, we went to Mikro's most favorite place: AMNH. We wanted to see The Brain (or as Kev called it, "The Zombie Food Exhibit", before it closes on August 15th.

All of us learned something new, and there were plenty of hands on activities to keep Mikro's interest. He particularly enjoyed the light table where you try to make connections between neurons, and the stacking blocks puzzle. Kev was annoyingly proficient at the mirror drawing task, which Mikro gave up on, and I failed at miserably on both tries.





Afterwards, Mikro raced around the fountain while Kev and I rested our tired feet. To his great delight, before our timeslot for the Brain exhibit, we had time to tour the reptiles room. Here, on the theme of natural oddities, are a Surinam toad with her young emerging from her back, and Mikro, with a head massager for a hat. He got that, a skeleton model kit, and a "squishy brains" kit at the gift shop...

Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater at Central Park

On Monday, we saw the Secret History of Swedish Cottage at the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater in Central Park with our homeschool group. Mikro really loved the show, especially the gnomes, and was really happy to play in the park afterwards with his best friend.





We roamed the lovely Shakespeare Garden, and saw monarch butterflies galore. After our friends left, we had a picnic lunch, and watched the birds, turtles, dragonflies and other insects near the Turtle Pond.

Peekskill Celebration

Last weekend was the 15th Annual Peekskill Celebration, featuring Dragonboat races, fireworks, a car show, craft fair, live muic and shows, animals from the Yorktown Grange, living history demos and more.