Our Way of Welcoming Spring

It has become our tradition to visit the Bedford Boys' Ranch every year at the conception of Spring. It started a few years ago as we studied a couple of Five in a Row books: Make Way for Ducklings and The Story About Ping. The main characters in both books are ducks so after reading these stories we had to find some real life ducks to observe.  We enjoyed it so much, that every year the kids ask to do it again.  Spring doesn't seem official until after our visit there.  

We usually start the day off at our favorite Chinese restaurant and end it with ice cream cones, but this year, our day was too full. We weren't able to do Chinese food, but we managed to fit in everything else.

We took our time feeding the ducks and exploring the grounds. The kids found a creek across the street from the pond and a small playground with swings. The boys spent a good deal of time swinging and seeing how far they could jump out of the swings, measuring their success by the footprints in the gravel, while Kristen sought out the shade of the nearby trees and the cool of the creek.