We took a trip to the zoo and spent some time with the giraffes!

 Every coat is different, just like human fingerprints. Here, the kids are checking out how soft the giraffe's coat is. A zoo volunteer had a piece for them to touch.

I'm holding a piece of rubber that shows how long the giraffe's tongue is. 18-21 inch tongues!!  The dark color of their tongues protect them from getting sunburned while reaching for leaves on trees.

Both male and female giraffes have two distinct, hair-covered horns called ossicones.

 A giraffe can eat up to 75 pounds of food per day. Giraffes spend most of their day eating because they get just a few leaves in each bite. Their favorite leaves are from the acacia tree. Acacia trees have long thorns that keep most animals from eating the leaves. But those thorns don't stop the giraffes! They use their long tongues to reach and go around the thorns. They also have thick, sticky saliva that coats any thorns they might swallow.

Giraffe's use infrasound ~ low pitched sounds that can't be heard by humans ~  to communicate.  It can travel many miles and even through solid objects. ( buildings ) There was a study done at North Carolina on how giraffe's communicate. A computer was used to see the sound waves ( infrasound ) and then a special program was used to increase the sound so that humans could hear it. Giraffe vouices sound like low drum beats.

Giraffe's eat like cows. They have 4 stomachs and chew their food as cud. YUCK!

 Here we are at the zoo doing some work in our journals, we were joined by another homeschooling family that day.

We had a lovely moth fly in last night when my daughter let one of the cats in. My oldest son caught it in his bug catcher and left him there all night. Then early this morning the kids found another one. We know they are moths b/c of their fat, furry bodies. ( we did a study on butterflies and moths a while back ) Many people think moths are ugly, dirty and lack color -- and while many do lack color, there are ones that are simply beautiful.

Unlike butterflies, who only come out during the day, some moths can be out during the day and night. The Cinnabar and Burnet moths are a couple who venture out during the daylight.

So we had these two guys visit with us and are still visiting with us. They've sat on the kids' hands, sat on their shoulders -- all the while they are finishing up their elections notebooks today. We also drew him in our nature journals.

The neat thing about this moth is that on my daughters hand, the wings were colored, when they went to the flower, they turned brown.

Even little River joined in on the fun.

We haven't had much success identifying them. But we are enjoying them quite a bit!

This furry friend was found in our neighbor's tree last week.

 Isn't he cute?!

Did you know there are 50 different kinds of squirrels?

My children have the best time finding these Woodhouse Toads!

They live in our flower garden and venture out into the cool air after dark.

Yesterday, while taking a walk with my hubby, I spotted this poor guy. ( my daughter went back and took the picture, its kinda blurry )

Perhaps he may have gotten stuck upside down in the 100 degree heat and fried.  His insides seem to have disappeared. He was hollow and very crispy!

On our way home from our bi-weekly trip to Costco, my husband and I spotted this hawk on the side of the road. I saw him as we past; literally he was on the shoulder of our country road. When he didn't move, I thought it might have been a statue. Yea, I know why would it be there?! Right as we passed, my husband said he saw it too. So we decided, even with frozen/cold food, we had to go back! It seemed to have a hurt wing b/c the wing didn't seem to be laying right. We turned around and parked on the opposite side of the road. Hubby goes over to it and sure enough, there is something wrong with his wing. That's what it appeared to be anyway. He didn't even move when hubby was a foot from him. He just sat there and tried to be tough, puffing his feathers/chest. At one point we decided to get a stick and try and usher him away from the road so he wouldn't get run over. The hawk tried extending his wings -- which were truly amazing! What beautiful birds! So we decide  to tear a Burger King cup we had in our van and pour some water in it, it was 100 degrees and the mother in me said, he has to be thirsty! So hubby pushed it slowly in front of him. Then I got to work making phone calls to see if we could get someone to help him. Finally, we did get a hold of the Division of Wildlife and we told them where he was, but we had to get home and get the frozen food or by that time, the semi frozen food, home. Before we left we prayed and asked the Lord to heal and protect this guy.  Once home, we unloaded, dinked around telling the kids what we found and showed them this picture we took on my phone. So of course we had to go back. It was an hour later, so we didn't think it would be there, but we had to see. We returned, no bird, but then we saw it FLYING! He was so low too -- he actually swooped down as if to say something, maybe he recognized our van?! Then he lands in a nearby field and we drive up to greet him. Again, he stays there and never moves. The kids are in awe and Jason and I are praising the Lord for healing his wing!! Hubby decides to get a little closer, but not as close as he was the first time, there was a wire fence between them. At that point the hawk flew away.....landing again in the same field. He seemed to be looking for food.

Anyway, it was a quite an experience! My husband says perhaps the Lord was speaking to us through this b/c it's certainly not an everyday occurrence......we are praying about it.