Everglades National Park

Everglades National Park: Our backyard National Park. We went camping in Long Pine Key camp area and  then hiked the Anhinga Trail. There are so many birds and alligators around now. The ones on the Anhinga trail don't seem to be too afraid of humans either.

Double Crested Cormorant

Turkey Vulture

Alligators

Female Anhinga

Caterpillar

We found this caterpillar, and have not been able to identify it. I suggested feeding it to the chickens, but Cowgirl objected, so we let it go.

Girl Scouts caroling

Our scout troup went caroling at a nursing home. Everyone was very appreciative, even if the girls were a tad bit off. It's kind of sad to see how much some of the people want contact with younger people.

Keeping track of schoolwork

I found an online school tracker - http://www.homeschoolskedtrack.com It's been really helpful. I've entered the previous lessons and future lessons in some topics. Then each day I can see what we're supposed to do in the various subjects. If we don't get to a topic, it rolls over to the next day. And I can project into the future to see when we'll finish. So far it looks like the middle of July for most things.

Boca Raton Holiday Parade

It's that time of year, parades abound. We did the Boca Raton Holiday Parade with Roots and Shoots.  Flying behind her is the Sunny the peace dove.

Penguin Pajama party

We went to Motes Marine Lab for the Penguin Pajama Party. Motes brought in some black footed penguins for a few months. It was a fun time, even if we slept on the floor next to a bunch of fishes. I was a little disappointed we didn't sleep next to the penguins, but they were outside and it was cold. It's a pretty cool place, they also have other marine rescues like manatees and a dolphin that they are taking care of. 

Trying out a fish net

Rudy is the curious one!

Coaster and Oswald

Feeding time

Hi, I'm South!

Camping with cousins

We went over to the west coast of Florida. We're camping at Oscar Scherer State Park for a night with my cousin and his daughter, and then tomorrow we'll be doing the Penguin Pajama Party. Usually he goes camping with us sans children, but since we are relatively close to his home, he decided to try a first camping trip for his older child. I think the playground was perfectly located, they could play without much monitoring from us. And there were several families with kids there, so Cowgirl made new friends. But that's not as good, since she then proceeded to play with the other kids more just because they're they same age.

He finally is using his big tent!

The park had a fish painting activity

Playground right across from our site.

Geocaching hike with a new friend.