Earth Day Exploration

I have been seriously slacking when it comes to keeping up with this blog.  I apologize.  Life has just been so busy in the Miller household!!

Anyway...Happy Earth Day!  Earth Day is my favorite non-holiday holiday.  Seriously. 

Earth Day in Minnesota is generally cool and overcast.  Although today started out promising sunshine, we completed our activities still with chilly breezes and cloudy skies.  Clouds or no clouds, we still celebrated our Earth with nature-friendly activities!


Seed Bombs:

Using the idea and round-about recipe from this blog, Eli and I made seed bombs.  I ran to Target this morning to get the supplies, and while I was bummed that they only had the grey colored natural clay (and running to Wal-Mart would have been a major waste of gas) I was pleasantly surprised that they were giving out free re-useable bags in honor of Earth Day!  Score!!!

So our supplies looked like this:

We mixed the entire tub of clay with something like 1 1/2 cups of soil/compost and a plethora of seeds:  Wildflowers, Spinach, Parsley, and Basil.  I figure something pretty to look at and a little treat for our furry friends, too.  (Note, the seed packs for the greens are organic, which also means non-GMO.  Take that Monsanto.)













We mixed and mixed, getting wonderfully dirty.

Then we rolled the mixture into small balls to dry.

I plan to distribute quite a few of these bombs along our neighborhood trails, and package the rest up for party favors for Lucy's birthday.


Nature Hunt and Garbage Pick-up:

I have always felt that our community is pretty clean.  It just seems like our city really cares about cleaning up litter or just not littering to begin with.  Eli and I took a walk to do a nature-based scavenger hunt and clean up garbage while we were out.  We took two garbage bags with us.  I had not anticipated even filling up one, so I was extremely shocked when we filled up BOTH and really should have brought another one or two more because we had to leave so much trash laying about!  Super sad. 

The Nature Hunt was gleaned from this idea for an Earth Day Hunt.  We filled a notebook with tree rubbings, drawings of flowers we found, wild birds and animals along the trail, and pictures of items that were red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.  Can you believe that even this early in spring we found everything on our list? 
Here are some of our finds:

Beautiful red baby pine cones!

Pretty pink buds that change into white flowers!

Taking time to spread some seeds. : )

To top the day off, Eli made an Earth Day Pledge and we created a coffee filter watercolor Earth. 

What a wonderful way to spend Earth Day!