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Basketball, Baby Chicks, and Snakes

We are only 3 days into spring break, and I have a lot to report already!

The girls have been busy with basketball camp each morning from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. They are enjoying it so far, but it is hard work--especially for Makayla, who is among the youngest in the group. A former University of Iowa player and a coach (I can't remember from where) are teaching this week-long basketball clinic. They are nice guys and the girls are enjoying themselves.

On Monday and Tuesday we picked the girls up from basketball and had a picnic at two different parks. The weather was around 70 the first two days of the week, so we stayed outside as much as possible. We played at the park and when we were at home, I worked in the yard and vacuumed the van. They were also able to have friends over and go to friends' houses. The kids have loved playing with their friends and being outside, but we have all been worn out by evening.
Today has been a little more relaxing as the weather has cooled off a little and we decided to take a break from playing with friends. After I picked the girls up from basketball, we headed over to the bank to see baby chicks. The Hills Bank branch in Coralville is fairly large. They have a middle area with a tractor on display along with a play area for the kids. By the play area, they had a little incubator/pen where they had about 20 chicken eggs. Most of the eggs hatched on Sunday, so we went to see the little chicks. Andrew and Ricky got T-shirts (they were out of the larger sizes for the girls). Their shirts say, "I saw the baby chicks at Hills Bank."
Later this afternoon, while Andrew was napping, the kids spent a couple of hours exploring the woods behind our house. Because it is spring, the weather is warm enough to be outside, but the weeds are not yet out of control. Normally, the kids can't get very far back into the woods because of all the vegitation, but right now they can get around back there easily. They discovered an old, half-built treehouse, a deer carcass (which I already knew about--that's a story for another post, I think), lot of different animal footprints (deer, turkey, geese, possum, and others), and a snake.
They enjoyed being "scientists" and "explorers." I'm not sure what to think about their expedition. I'm glad they had fun together enjoying nature, but I'm also a little grossed out by the nature that they found.


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