Meet Theo.

Introducing...Theo the Turtle. He was sitting in the middle of our lawn this morning.We think he's quite special.
He's pretty darn big too!Ella decided she'd like to play with him. And because her favorite things to do right now is dump water, Theo got lots of water dumped on him.
She was quite intrigued by him, "Hello little turtle," she would say. We did lots of touching...his shell, his feet, his nose, his head, his belly. And then she tried to get him to crawl into her bucket.
Poor little guy. He put up with a lot. So we returned him to his home.I'll admit. There have been days (quite recent days) when I've cursed this yard of ours that needs so much work. But I really am grateful for our land! Thus far this spring we have:

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  caught toads, frogs and snakes.


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  trapped tadpoles, raised them into frogs and released them.


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  caught (and accidentally de-tailed) a salamander...sorry little buddy!


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  seen a mama deer and her tiny tiny fawn strolling through.
  daily, watched happy little bunnies that munch on our clover and let us get very close to them.


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  seen more birds than I've ever seen in my life.


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  watched the squirrels and chipmunks frolic...even right across our deck (Ella's loves it...I'm teacher her to scare them away...you should hear her roar at them...HILARIOUS!)


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  And today we got to meet and play with Theo.

I LOVE that Ella loves animals and all things outdoors. I LOVE that she is not afraid of them. In fact my motto has always been, "Go ahead! Touch it!" and so she does, with such wonderful curiosity surrounding her new discoveries. I LOVE teaching her about all of these things and continually seeing the world afresh through her eyes!