The Sandy Creek Nature Center

Last week we all went on a field trip with Will’s Kindergarten class and it was SO fun!  It was to the Sandy Creek Nature Center in Athens Ga and we LOVED it.  It was small and low-key but perfect for us since we got to bring the other little boys and every single one of them was into it.

First of all – check out that giant metal sculpture.  Love things like that.

Gas tank ant 🙂

And a bumblebee with a helmet as the head!  Genius!

Once inside, there is a small ‘explorer’ area….it has a few native Georgia critters like turtles and snakes.

Weston asked me to take this photo.  Usually he is my ‘blur’ kid – the one that runs so fast that I never have a picture of him.  But for this photo, he posed and whipped out his best fake smile that makes me laugh.  I think I had an equally creepy fake smile as a kid 🙂  This boy always surprises me….I can’t wait to see what he does next 🙂

I took a picture of a Copperhead so that Jeremy can have a reference.  He thinks all snakes are copperheads 🙂

side note – LJ had a little accident.  He fell on the driveway.  Gravity hurts.  Especially when your brother assists gravity 🙂  Also – I miss his hair.  We took him in for a haircut and it was an unfortunate chain of events.  Now he looks like Llyod Christmas.

The entire class and the parents and siblings all got to attend a classroom demonstration where they had lots of little critters and taught us all different fun facts.  It was so informative and fast so the kids loved it and paid GREAT attention.  Also – a cockroach almost died so that was exciting.

Somebody needs to make a room with snakeskin as the inspiration.  It could be a little boys room.  Snake skin accent wall.  Australian outback signs.  It would be epic.

Then we went on a nature walk.  It was funny because our guide called herself grandma and told the kids that she had no idea what poison ivy looked like so don’t touch any of the plants because it could be it and make you very itchy 🙂  I couldn’t figure out if that was true or just a genius way to get the kids to not touch stuff.  haha!

Also – here is LJ’s fake smile.  He looks like he is working on something….

Max also got banged up this week.  Poor dude.  He is learning to cruise and took a dive in the driveway.  Looks like he might be our last to walk.  We shall see!

There’s grandma telling the kids to be quiet so we can hear the wildlife.  That meant we were quiet for a solid five minutes.  Like I said – genius 🙂

Of course, there was some amazing lighting and so I stayed back and got a mini shoot of Max while Jeremy went with the kiddos.

I highly recommend the Nature Center if you are in Athens and looking for something for the kiddos to do.  I have lived within thirty minutes and never even knew it was there!  ha!

Afterward we hit up a Georgia must – The Varsity.  We still haven’t taken the kids to the REAL Varsity in Atlanta but this was a good reminder of how greasy it is 🙂

I kinda forgot how simple the food was….the menu isn’t big and it all comes with a side of heart attack.  And yes, the onion rings are still my favorite 🙂

On the way home, the kids immediately fell asleep so I got to run into the ReStore to see if there was anything worth buying.  Isn’t this chair adorable?!  I LOVE it.  Like a little too much.  It’s got curves in all the right places.  (name that movie!) Now I just gotta find another spot for a chair 🙂