Green Belly Button Club

Last year the kids started the Green Belly Button Club. To join, you have to eat some dirt, run around the circle 5 times, and drink a cup of water in one drink. As exclusive as it sounds (and as much as that sounds like a hazing ritual), they actually very quickly adapt the joining requirements to whoever wants to join (littler kids can walk around the circle once; the dirt being eaten is just a speck, and most kids just get it in the course of their time there; and the cup of water has as much water as you think you might be able to drink). 

Eugene captured some of the club members who decided to go all the way and actually decorate their belly buttons green! (more pictures by Eugene)

Easter Egg Hunt

Another highlight of the week was the easter egg hunt. Several families came just for the hunt, and were treated to perfect weather and ducklings!!! Our neighbor's had just started taking delivery of 400 peking ducklings and brought some up to add to the fun.

These pictures are all by the talented Eugene Chan. So lucky to get his view of the events!

(adults hard at work preparing the hunt; kids hard at work enjoying the hunt; ducklings hard at work being ducklings)

Corner Hike

We took a couple hikes up to the corner, where there's another tiny pond. The hike is short, but very very steep. The views are fantastic, and the pond is fun and filled with tadpoles.

Paddling on the Pond

On a separate trip to the pond, we took Clara's inflatable boat/raft. The kids paddled around for a while and enjoyed figuring out the paddles. The trip was stopped short by some excess drama from a neighbor, but that's a story for another time.

Frog Legs

One of the highlights of this trip was ... frog legs! Clara and Zach came up with a scheme to hunt and eat some frogs on the farm. They researched how to do the hunt, and even researched how invasive these bullfrogs are (in case anyone was feeling bad about killing them). And they succeeded! Frogs were hunted ("gigged"), and killed (which was much harder than expected), and skinned, and cooked, and finally even eaten! Not bad!

 

We also found tadpoles and much smaller frogs up at the corner pond. We hold out a tiny little bit of hope that these are actual native frogs, but understand that it's incredibly unlikely. They're probably just younger. 

Friends at the Pond

The kids discovered a fun, partially submerged log that was perfect for sitting upon, and challenging each other to walk across. I'm pretty sure Molly was the only one to actually fall in. :)

Putting people to work

We also put some friends to work: putting a roof on the loo, building a chair from scraps, not to mention all the work Duff did on the barn!!