Fun at home: Hot cross buns, towers of blocks and even strange tracks on the fishtank.  We enjoy our food, in case you had not noticed.  The children are creative with their toys, but mostly just having fun seeing what they can do.  And the children are always observing.  One morning they asked what the strange zig-zag tracks on the fish tank glass were.  We had to stop and think, but decided the large plecostemus (suckerfish) with his back-and-forth cleaning action, fit the bill.  The sunlight early in the morning gave the right lighting to see the tracks fairly clearly.  We also get to see some refraction and "rainbows" from the sunlight coming through the tank.  The house is rarely boring, but just in case, you can always make funny faces!

Inventor D!  The "scavenger" is designed to clean the bayou, and is made almost entirely of reused materials.  Will it work?  Who knows, but it surely shows some creativity and he was proud of his ideas.

A family of cardinals built a nest just outside D's window.  They put up with our coming and going, bikes, trash moving and the kids...  And they have now hatched some little cardinal chicks.  Here is mom sitting patiently on these lovelies.  Her choice was wise - the wisteria grew over the nest while she was setting, making her nearly invisible.  Enjoy!

AgMagic is an agriculture and natural resources show held each spring on the LSU campus.  The AgCenter (Research and Extension) hosts it and Steve assists.  The video shows kids enjoying the autonomous boat demo.  This boat was licensed for commercial production, but the small boat is a nice demo to give young people an idea of how a robotic boat might be used to protect fish or perform other water based tasks.  Schools from around the state send students to the show, primarily pre-K through middle school, to visit, during the week.  The show is open on the weekend for walk-ins, and we went Saturday to visit.  The bugs were fun, crawfish were a hit, but of course, the baby chicks were the best of all...  Agriculture is a major industry in Louisiana, and has some unique aspects in this state.  Louisiana is the top producer of crawfish, alligators, oysters, as well as a major producer of sugar, rice, forest products, sweet potatoes, and other products.  In addition to the agriculture aspects, there is a "body walk" which helps educate about how to take good care of your body - eat well, exercise, don't smoke and other good facts to encourage a healthy lifestyle.  This is particularly important since Louisiana has one of the highest obesity rates in the country.  We are trying not to contribute to this trend.  Enjoy!

Enjoyed our visit to Clarks Creek Natural Area near the border of Mississippi and Louisiana.  This is an area of windblown loess, very fine sediment that hardened into a soft rock or very hard sediment.  This has been worn down over the years by running water that has formed creeks, ravines and some beautiful waterfalls. It is within an hour of home, so we can head up on a weekend day, take a great hike, cool off in the water and then have a picnic or maybe even stop at the 1881 Pond Store for an ice cream on the old wood porch.

More caterpillars

 

I had to put up another picture of the stinging caterpillar because they are so beautiful. They change every few days and get more colorful as they get bigger.   Every one of the children has now been stung this season.
I should do more research on the caterpillar pictured on the bottom.  I just call them the alien caterpillars.  When our oldest started coming in contact with caterpillars I thought this one was harmless - until one morning when she woke with most of her torso and parts of her arms, legs and neck covered in a rash.  I panicked and took her to the doctor where I was calmly told that it is just a virus carried by this caterpillar and there is nothing that can be done except to keep them from itching.  Well, every one of my kids has also had this rash as well, at least I think they are immune once they've had this and they shouldn't get the rash again.

Clark's Creek Hiking on Good Friday

Good Friday is both a thought provoking Christian holiday and an opportunity to appreciate a bit of God's good creation.  We headed to Clark's Creek Natural Area near the Mississippi-Louisiana border.  We have found this little area has about as much vertical relief as any other place in the region.  After the recent rains and hail, we knew the waterfalls would be flowing nicely.  The day started out cool - about 57 F, great hiking weather, although by midday, it was typically warm.  We were tired, wet, muddy and sweaty by the time we returned from our tour of three waterfalls and the rocky streams and hills between.  H and J even walked most of the way, but they both got a good nap on the way home.

Palm Sunday Fun

 We had lots of fun on Palm Sunday. We went Easter egg hunting, had a picnic lunch and went on a pony ride.