National Scavenger Hunt Day

Bella keeps track of random daily holidays and today was national scavenger hunt day so she wanted to do some.  I thought it was a great idea.  She set up a hunt in the house that culminated at the tv for some family Mario Kart on the Nintendo Switch.  I set up a scavenger hunt in the woods behind Stevenson HS.  I gave them a list of things to find such as "something that makes you happy," "something beautiful,"  "something that smells good,"  etc.  We had a lot of fun walking around in the forest, observing and looking for things.  I let each kid use a phone and they took pictures of everything and we looked through them when we got home.  Benjamin took a picture of a jogger on the trail for "mammal."  Bella took a pictures of me and Peter for "something that makes you happy."  Christian took a picture of Benjamin for "something that smells good."  So, there was a bit of cheating, but overall they found good stuff. :)   They just did an awful lot of complaining about the heat.  It was 85 degrees and you'd think it was over 100.  They complained almost nonstop about "it's sooo hot!  I hate it!"   I have some real Eskimo children.   I was disappointed to see how few wild flowers remained.  It's amazing how quickly the ground cover comes and goes when the canopy comes in.

The sad part of today was how incredibly bitten up Peter became.  When we got home from the forest, I sat Peter in his high chair to feed him.  He started vigorously scratching his head.  That's when I noticed it was covered in bites.  He'd gotten about 7 bug bites on his head - the only place on him that hadn't been covered in clothes.  I felt so bad for him.  I laid a cool cloth over his head and wipes his hair and face.  That seemed to help a little.  After I fed him, I took him in the back yard to join the other kids who'd decided to turn on the hose on the trampoline and jump.  Peter and I sat down in the grass beside the trampoline to watch.  About two minutes later, he started to shriek and scream like he was being pinched.  I picked him up and looked but I didn't see anything.  I thought he'd stop screaming, but he didn't.  He kept shrieking intermittently, every few seconds, like he was still being pinched.  So I rushed him inside and stripped off his clothes.  He was covered in bug bites!!  He had 8 bites on his back and neck and two on his stomach.  I didn't see any bugs, but somehow they'd gotten him even through his clothes!  We'd only been our for a few minutes and I hadn't gotten anything!  I felt so bad for him.  He was very itchy, but his screaming stopped after I'd stripped his clothes.  It was just so disappointing that I couldn't even be outside with him.  Gorgeous weather, but Peter and I just watched from inside the house after that.  I don't know what it was that bit him, but I really hope he won't always be this sensitive.  I didn't see anything in the forest or get a single bite myself (usually I get tons) but they sure found him.  Poor little guy.