a little more nature study than we expected

Thursday afternoon we drove over to the local nature center for Mary's first meeting with the local homeschool American Heritage Girls. A Catholic version of Girl Scouts, the group has about 30 girls and after only a few minutes of hiding behind me she started chatting in a circle with several new friends. I checked to be sure what time we needed to return and took the rest of the crew off on a little nature walk. We hiked up, we hiked down, I carried Timmy, Will carried Timmy. We spotted a deer, not a rare site in suburban Maryland where we often see them chomping on the azaleas in the backyard.

When we finally got back to the snack tables Will took off toward the car with my tote bag, only to return with 2 homemade light sabers. "Where is my bag?" I asked casually. "Uh-oh." Of course it was locked in the van along with the keys. After deliberating for a bit, I borrowed one of the mom's cell phone and called Tim. He said he would leave work early and after writing down the directions he promised to be there within an hour.

"There are a lot worse places to be stranded," I kept reassuring the other moms as the story was passed around and they asked me if I needed any help, "I could be on the side of the Beltway." We spent the next 45 minutes in the center itself, watching turtles and snakes, playing on the computer game, and doing puzzles. It might have been a little longer field trip than I anticipated but all ended well, and the kids learned something. I just hope they also learned to be a little less careless with the keys.