Mysterious Chimney

 We live on just under three acres. Not a huge amoount of property, but somehow I had never noticed this: what appears to be a chimney poking up out of the ground at the top of a hill! In my defense, this area is covered with undergrowth and blocked by trees much of the year...

Obviously, this is the perfect fun story starter! (Unless you have seen or read "It", in which case it would be a different kind of story.) Here is what the kids came up with.

Shane

One day, I went for a walk with Mom. We saw a chimney in the ground. I looked in and I leaned too far and I fell down, down, down!

When I landed, I saw a whole bunch of kittens that tried to eat me. I climbed the chimney and the followed me. I went up our chimney and then they tried to follow me but they could not because my Dad started a fire in the fireplace. The end.

(Okay, maybe Shane was thinking of It after all.)

Logan

At the top of the hill next to our garden is a chimney. Inside of the chimney are some little gremlins. 

Whenever the gremlins get turned to slime they reappear there in the little gremlin prison. Then the little troll guards yell, “We got another one!” 

Then the troll king comes and says, “Good job, but there are still twenty more. Once we get them we will release them at night time so they can destroy more stuff. Then when they touch light they will come back here and we will do it all over again.”

Sheridan

Up on a hill by our house, there is a chimney that leads down to a house. The house is buried, and only the chimney is above ground.

In the little house that is underground, there is a family of little dwarves. They have a tunnel that leads to our pantry so they can have food. They probably don't think we know about the hole, because they covered it up with a wooden plank, but we know it's there because every time we step there it wobbles, and it isn't like the other boards.

So, yeah...we are neighbors with dwarves who have a secret tunnel to steal food from our pantry. But we are fine with it because we have plenty, and it's not like the dwarves can just go to Walmart and buy food!! So we let them have some of the food.

Treasure Hunt

We had been tossing around the idea of some sort of hike or picnic today, then last night out of the blue our friend Mr. F. messaged that he had set up a scavenger hunt for the kids on a local trail! What a fabulous thing to do, and such perfect timing!

We didn't tell the kids anything about the hunt, just the hike. We packed our backpacks and set off, warning them to watch for rattle snakes. 

These holes were a bit too tiny for snakes, so we're going to say ants. 

A heart!

When we got to the spot where Mr. F. had told us to start. I told the kids I thought I saw something go under the flat rock. Remembering the snake warnings, they all backed away! Logan got brave, though, and lifted the rock to find...

A clue! The hunt was on, and the kids immediately spotted the dead tree in the distance.

Sheridan's turn to retrieve this one.

Ooh, we had to count steps! She was very excited, as she was wearing the (fake) Fitbit she got for her birthday.

Some cool plants along the way...

Christopher's turn...big yucca above the old board!

But there were TWO piles of three rocks. What happened if he chose the wrong one? Was there a trap??? His siblings, of course, came up with all sorts of dire predictions...

...so he leaned in close and spotted the paper sticking out of the first one. Then, of course, he lifted the other anyway. No booby traps - much disappointment.

The next clue said to look for the alligator head.

Do you see it? He's kind of smiling, so we deemed it safe to approach.

For the next clue we had to walk until two telephone poles became one.

Can you see the second behind this one? No? Must be the right spot!

Next clue: Turn around and follow the trail of seashells (now how did THOSE get there?)

Treasure!!

Very much so!

Fossils, pyrite, serpentine, petrified wood...SO COOL!!!

We explored them for a few minutes, then put them in Mom's backpack for safe keeping, and finished the rest of the trail.

Shane spotted these cactus plants clinging to the edge.

Do you see the turtle?

Spidey hidey hole

Hmm...Mr. F.? Were you here too? We left it for others to find!

The lighting doesn't do it justice - pretty rich red striped rock!

 Snack break! (And time to look at the rocks some more)

The yucca flowers have died off, but the seed pods are starting to look like pickles!

We started seeing signs Mr. F. had been busier than we thought.

We had our treasure, so we left these for others to find!

I don't think he put any up there, Sheridan.

Another not-a-good-picture, but those three rocks were a bit shinier than the others in the area!

Who might be living in there?

Hmm...

 Now this one we think arrived here naturally, but the shape was cool!

As was the shape of these little wispy plants.

Cool rock AND pottery!

 Almost missed these!

Spot for Brer Rabbit to hide:

Water break! And perhaps a little more sunscreen for Grace.

Scared up a lizard or two

Then back to the car just as it started getting really hot! Thank you SO MUCH Mr. F. for a fabulous start to the day! If anyone needs us, we will be poring over some rock books...

Fairy House (kid brag)

While Mike and I worked on home repairs (post coming) all last week, Sheridan and Logan came up with a project of their own. They spent three solid days on it. I have never seen them cooperate for that long before!

A very special young lady was turning ten Saturday, and I had already gone out and purchased a gift. She loves fairies, though, and the kids got it into their heads that she needed a fairy house. They asked me for a box, and I gave them some leftover blue paint and free run of the craft materials.



This was all them! I didn't give them any direction or ideas, they just looked at what they had available, and thought things up. The only assistance I gave was cutting the door and window holes at their direction. Here is the finished product:

Fairies need glitter!

Of course, they had to make furniture, too.

Sheridan had sewn pillows for both beds (adult and baby sized!), but the cats stole them, and we can't find them anywhere! Pom-poms worked just as well. And then we locked the house in a closet.

Table and chairs:

Even artwork on the walls:

Of course, they need books to read, too!

This one is titled "The Little Fairy". The Gingerbread Man gets a cameo too! The birthday girl seemed to like it, and her little brother was seen playing with it few minutes later. Hopefully her parents will forgive the glitter some day...