Last weekend, Legomaniac was triple-booked with a soccer game, cub scout event, and birthday party, so we missed the game, and left the scout go-cart derby early to get to the party late. Walking through the park in a hurry, we went around the lake and saw on of the swans apparently one her nest. I hope we'll have time to go back and see how she's doing and maybe see the goslings soon.

I clipped this factoid somewhere:

"Bet you didn’t know that New York City is the greenest city in America. NYC has 52,938 acres of park/open space out of 197,696 total acres (26.8%)."

Maybe it's not so crazy after all to love the big city and love nature, too.

And there's more:

If you think small things like using energy-efficient light bulbs don't mean much, think again!

Replacing just 3 of the ordinary light bulbs in your home with a compact fluorescent bulb saves an average of $60 per year in energy costs and reduces your carbon footprint by 300 pounds. If everyone in the U.S. replaced just one household bulb with a compact fluorescent, it would save enough energy to light 2.5 million homes.

This "recent photo" of kids tubing from the Lapland Lake website is our gang. Legomaniac is on the left in the yellow coat. He just lost a front tooth.

Here's a link to a National Wildlife Federation article on the benefits of letting kids experience nature: SEVERAL STUDIES in recent years have shown that children who grow up exposed to nature reap psychological, emotional and physical rewards from that connection...."

Because it’s fun! Not to mention healthy, relaxing, educational, and they love it. Because it provides quiet time, a chance to see new things, and instills a lifelong love of nature, enthusiasm for new experiences, self-confidence and responsibility. Legomaniac and Scoobymaniac have been camping since they were babies and enjoyed every minute.

Creatures we've seen in 2006:

huge Polyphemus moth (in our doorway)
huge bullfrog (Prospect Park bandshell during a heavy rain)
young raccoon (Prospect Park at 3rd St)
praying mantis (Bergen St stoop)

Welcome to our kids’ camping blog!

We’ve created this blog to share our adventures outdoors with our family and friends and anyone who is interested in camping with kids. We'll post stories about camping with kids, enjoying nature with kids, and finding nature in the city.

Thanks for visiting! We hope you enjoy it.

We camped with friends at a group site off Dennytown Road in Fahnestock from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon. This was planned as a trip for families from our school, but not many came because of a dubious weather report. In fact, there was just a bit of rain during the night and it was otherwise fine. The kids had a blast, as usual.

Camping at Hickory Run State Park in the Poconos area off Rt 80.

Friday 5/29/04

Packing with a lot of recriminations, and got going an hour or two later than we hoped. I forgot the toys and Legomaniac's fishing gear except for the pole. There was traffic leaving NYC (Holland tunnel), and a thunderstorm/downpour on Rt 80, but the PA portion of the drive was nice & scenic.