Week 1 of our 30X30 Nature Challenge

Just before May I signed up for the 30X30 Nature Challenge. We always spend a lot of time outdoors but this challenge has increased our time even more then normal. It's fun to head out each day with a task to complete.

DAY 1 of our #30x30challenge. 

We spent over an hour cleaning up fallen branches from the yard. 

 Sierra went for a walk with Sissy Meadow and Loki to the park. 

We found a pedal car on the side of the road and spent another 1/2 hr riding it around the yard! Yeah for outside work and play.

DAY 2 task: Enjoy your morning coffee outside. 

I only drink tea when I am at home but enjoyed this mornings second cup sitting out by the river. This one also is my entry for the #natureselfie contest as I hate having my picture taken so I might as well get it over and done with and complete this weeks contest at the same time as I enjoy my tea.

DAY 3 Investigate bugs. 

We had a wet search and found worms, ant hills under logs, pillbugs, centipedes and a baby snail as well as lots of fungi.

Then we warmed up around the campfire.

 The kids got to explore the fire a bit.

and then they wore out Uncle Mark with play wrestling for what seemed like close to an hour.

DAY 4 Find a quiet spot and listen

We dropped Aayla off at a birthday party, and daddy off to fly then Sierra and I had an 1 1/2 hrs for Mommy & Me time. We found a little trail area which went along an old railway but we came across this river spot that was perfect to just sit and listen. We listened to the water trickle over a fallen log to make a mini waterfall. We listened to the birds signing and the wind rustling the tree branches. We thought it would be the perfect place to come and have a picnic but then we listened to the owners of the property bang up no trespassing signs and had to leave. It was beautiful while it lasted. 

 We moved on and found some wild old fashioned daffodils which I haven't seen since I was a child growing outback of my grandparents house by their river. They brought back wonderful memories.

We also found a lily we had to research when we got home to identify it. It is  Trout Lily. I love it's leaves.

DAY 5 Have a walking meeting

Since we don't work but do homeschool, we took our art outside instead and enjoyed the fresh air and the sounds of the birds signing while we created our art... (as well as a walk to gather pine cones and acorn caps to use in our art).

We made a bunch of pine cone fairies and when the pine cones ran out, they went for another walk to collect more so they could make more. Click the pine cone fairy link above if you'd like to give these sweet fairies a try yourself.

DAY 6 Stop and smell the flowers

We didn't have any luck finding flowers today and we went on two walks. First we walked to the beach playground to play and walked around looking for any wild flowers we could find but we didn't even spot a single dandelion. The water looked gorgeous but the wind was very cold.

In the afternoon we went for a second walk with some friends and all we could find was a couple Tea Berries so we stopped to taste the Tea Berries instead of stopping to smell the flowers.

We had a wonderful two hours exploring the woods with our friends. The kids spent most of the time role-playing Minecraft through cooperative, imaginative play.

 As well as discovering, exploring, playing, being social, cooperating, using imaginations, pushing physical limits, they had sooOooo much plain old fashion fun!

DAY 7 Skip the gym and go for a jog or bike ride

My husband and I lost our bikes a few years ago and we aren't replacing them until the girls are capable of going on actual bike rides. Right now Sierra is just learning to ride her bike with out training wheels. Our driveway has a bit of a dip that she can start at the top of one end, ride to the other end and start again from the top of that dip. So I still went to the gym but I did spend 3 hours outside raking the leaves and then we enjoyed a camp fire and cooked our hot dogs for dinner over it so I think I got my time in nature for today still (FYI We allow our girls to choose to wear a helmet or not when riding in our yard. When we go out on the road it is a requirement).

We've had a fanastic first week partcipating in the 30X30Challenge and look forward to the upcoming tasks.

Did you join?