GONE SO FAST

Wow, I can't believe it's been three weeks since I last blogged! I usually try to squeeze in a weekly write-in, but these past few weeks have been busy, busy, busy at our household. Not to mention, we have had quite a ride (weather wise) here in Colorado, with Mother Nature throwing many temper tantrums before settling down. We even got a couple of snow storms thrown in the mix before Spring decided to grace us with her presence.

Despite the weather and schedule challenges, our little family did manage to have some fun in the lovely outdoors. Of course, our fun was a bit restricted, and most of our adventures were in our own backyard, but boy were they fun!!!

Here is a snippet of how our three weeks have been:

 We got some snow overnight, so we decided to "paint" the snow by mixing in some Kool-Aid packets (different flavors gave us different colors), and water in a spray bottle. This is an activity we found in the book "Go Outside"! Of course, by midday, most of the snow started to melt, and only the children's swing-set had snow around it.

 Here they are spraying away. I love how the snow is there canvas!

Of course, it was a matter of time before someone got sprayed in the face! Unfortunately, being the little one, peanut was the first to get it. Poor thing! It's a good thing that it was cherry flavored water!

 Tired of painting snow, my little princess decided she wanted to make us some "PRETTY PIE'! The ingredients: dirt, water, grass, leaves, and of course Kool Aid water! LOL

This is the finished product! Yum , it's Pretty Pie!

 Want some mommy?

 It's really good, I promise! Try it! 

 The kids also dug a big hole in our backyard! And it was not Daddy-approved! Teehee!

They got their clothes really dirty! Not mommy approved...but it's okay.

And they found worms...

...and were so happy with their find!

 
 We also made it to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo located in Colorado Springs, CO.

 We fed some Giraffes!

Hung-out and expressed ourselves!

Looked at some interesting animals.

And rode a pony!

When the temperature got warmer, we started planting wild-flowers to decorate our balcony.

 The princess and peanut helped sprinkled the seeds.

 Peanut took his turn...and yes, you are seeing correctly -- he's wearing his Christmas themed pajamas in Spring. :-)

 They really enjoyed this activity! They are future gardeners!

We finally started to fill our bird-feeder, and subsequently, we are starting to see more wild birds.

Peanut enjoys looking over the greenbelt close to our house.

 Hmm...what am I looking at?

We went out and looked at ducks! We love the ducks!

The princess enjoyed a brisk walk past the duck pond.

We got some more snow. This is the view from our balcony.

 Nothing to do with outdoors, but a fun time nonetheless...our peanut turned two years old!
Here he is blowing the candles on his "Thomas the Tank Engine" themed cake.

He was so happy to have his friends Kiana and Luke join him on his special day!

The Grandmothers (on both sides) chipped-in money to get him this off-road electric truck.

We were all surprised that he instinctively knew how to drive it. So thank you Baba and Abuela!

His expression says it all! The last three weeks have been quite fun, and tiring.

But nothing short of an adventure in our own backyard!

EXCUSE/INTRODUCTION/GOALS

EXCUSE

Well, this blog took a long time to launch, but I did have an excuse: Life!

Sick children, Winter storms, a new relative moving in (who happens to have a disability), and a traveling husband made my regular home schedule a bit challenging these past two months. In life, you have to prioritize, and unfortunately, this lovely blog had to be put at the bottom of my list.

Not to fret, things have calmed down, and now I can share my passion of sharing my family's nature adventures with the beloved people in cyberspace! Hopefully, henceforward, life will not present me with difficult challenges and I will be able to blog, on a regular basis, the collective experiences of my family's outdoor adventures.

INTRODUCTION

With my excuse out of the way, let me introduce my family: My name is Angela, and I'm currently living in Colorado (in a suburb South of Denver). I'm married to a half-Japanese/half-European (German/English), lovely man. We have been together for over 18 years...15 of those married! We have to beautiful children: Princess - a girl, age 4, and Peanut - a boy, age 2. We are a loving family that loves to spend time outside enjoying nature.
Since I'm the main blogger in our family, let me tell you a bit about myself. I was born in the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic, to be precise. My family migrated to New York City when I was 3 years old. Since then, I had studied, worked, married my amazing husband, and lived in the "Big Apple", until I was 25 years old. After only being married a year, my husband's job transfered us to the UK, and we lived in London, for five years. We eventually returned to NYC, and lived there for two years, then moved to San Diego, California for four years, and eventually moved to beautiful Colorado, where we are currently in our fifth year.

Mainly, I consider myself a die-hard New Yorker -- an urbanite.

I was raised in Spanish Harlem, and my parents were very protective, and would hardly ever let me play outside. As new immigrants, they were afraid of letting their young daughter outside, in what they consider a "new world". Of course, now that I'm an adult, and a parent, I absolutely understand their decision, even if it was something that bothered me when I was young. They were very protective, and I love and thank them for being so loving, and caring. I wish my childhood would have been a bit different, but I've understood why they made their decisions.

GOALS

And now I'm a parent.

I have two curly heads, who are funny, energetic, and incredibly smart for their young age. I want to love them, and care for them, the same way my parents did for me. However, I'm going to take it one step further: I'm going to give them the outdoor experiences that I never got to have.

That's actually my main goal in a nutshell.

Nature is a divine gift. There is a beauty, an order, a discipline, that we can find in everything we encounter in the natural world. We see it in the trees, the birds, the flowers, the bubbling brooks, the steady stream of water in a creek, and even the bugs some of us cringe at when come upon them. There is a representation of God (whatever that means to us as an individual), that we cannot ignore. And I want my children to experience it, love it, and to bask in its glory!

And while my goal is to provide this exhilarating experience for my children, my secret goal is that through this blog, I can inspire people out there to provide that same exact experience for their children. So, without any further notice, I will kindly share my family's outdoor adventures, in hopes that my family can inspire yours!



P.S.: Below is my photo essay (no words added or needed), of some of my family's outdoor adventures: