The house is straightened, laundry mostly done, homework done and I have a little bit of time before I need to go work on supper. So... that means I can sit down and blog pictures that I have had in a folder for a bit while I listen to a Christmas CD. (You go ahead and laugh or be aghast that I'm listening to Christmas music but it's going to sneak up on you and be here before you know it and then you aren't going to be in the Christmas spirit and be ready for it.) :-)
At the end of September, Kaelyn's class went on a field trip to the Environmental Studies Center in Jensen Beach. Every time Kaelyn has gone on a field trip and there have been 2 or 3 other moms that have gone along as volunteers, Kaelyn has told me later that she wishes I could go with them. So I filled out the paper work and did the background check in order to be able to volunteer (and mostly, so that I could go on her field trip). For the first time in years, I rode on a hot, noisy school bus. Actually, it was [mostly] fun and I was glad that I was able to go along.
We all went into one of the classrooms first and learned a little lesson and then the kids got to walk around and look at and touch the various items on display. There were a ton of stuffed animals, animal skulls, live animals in tanks and a couple of guessing games around the room.
Kaelyn and her teacher, Mrs. Primus, looking at something together.
Kay with a turtle shell.
We went across the street to the Indian River next. I couldn't resist taking a picture of all these birds. It was such a pretty sight in the early morning sun.
The goal of our being on the beach by the river was to catch worms and a particular kind of insect to feed the various kinds of fish back at the environmental center. Our ?hostess? for the field trip, put down a special trap to catch the bugs but the kids had to dig in the sand for the worms. I happily took pictures and didn't get involved in digging in the sand OR catching worms. ;-)
Ross (in the foreground) and Kaelyn digging away.
Kaelyn and Jack
Kaelyn REALLY wanted to put a worm in the bucket that her teacher was holding. She also REALLY didn't want to touch a worm. :-) She had dropped a couple off her "shovel" already in her efforts to carry them over to the bucket without having to actually hold one. She finally got one onto the shovel and over to the bucket. This is one of her other teachers (a full-time aide), Mrs. Cooper.
Manny and Kaelyn carrying the crate of shovels back to the buildings.
We went into the part of the center where they had lots of aquariums and "touch tanks". The fish were all very thankful for our worm-digging, bug-catching efforts. They didn't actually say so but I determined that to be the case from the way they devoured the creepy, crawlies as she put them in the tanks. :-)
And this was probably my favorite thing that we saw/did that day. Our guide... (Okay, I really don't know what to call her. For all practical purposes, she was a teacher but so as not to be confused with Kaelyn's regular teachers, I'll keep using random terms to describe her.)... used a net to catch a puffer fish from one of the tanks. I'm pretty sure that I would not have known what it was just from seeing it swimming around under the water because it just looked like a typical fish to me. Once she caught it, she held it in her hand and rubbed its belly a certain way to get it to puff up. It was the funniest thing ever but also so cool. I've seen lots of pictures and heard these described but I'm not sure that I have ever seen one go from looking like a normal fish to puffing up like this.
(The student that you can see just to the right of her was so amused by this! He just kept giggling and giggling and was having a little bit of trouble controlling himself. He just wanted to reach out and touch it and they weren't supposed to be touching it.) :-D
The fish started to go back to normal as soon as she put it back down into the water but after a few seconds, it started to puff up again on its own. She said it was probably because it was still afraid because of everyone being around the tank still.
So I was worried that this post would be boring but as I look at the various pictures again, I realize it might not be as boring to you all as I thought so I think I will go ahead and post the last half of the pictures also. Hopefully sooner than later.
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