The fresh air is good for us and keeps us healthy.

Hey Kiddo-I Love Dirt and I hope you do too.

Actually, I Love Dirt is the name of a book I bought. It’s 52 activities to help parents and kids discover the wonders of nature.

The book is divided into seasons and weeks—one activity for every week. This weekend we worked on one from the fall chapters. Number 28: Time Out. Time Out means time outside away from the TV, computer and air conditioner (although this weekend was cool—in the 70s). The point is to do things outside that you normally do inside like story time, meal time, play time, in the car, hopscotch and hula hoops and jump ropes. We didn’t get to all of those, but that’s okay. We’ll start slow and work our way up.

Friday night we went to First Friday in downtown Canton and played catch for about half an hour and then walked around the crowds and visited some of the shops. After one of the hottest Augusts I can remember (days spent mostly at the pool), it was nice to get outside and not sweat buckets.

Saturday we drove with the windows open (but only for about 15 minutes—it’s really windy at 50 MPH). Then on Sunday we spent a couple of hours at Boetler Park--your favorite. We walked the path and stopped at a park bench to read The Glove of Darth Vader (a Star Wars universe book). While we walked there were grass hoppers everywhere, and we saw several butterflies, and a couple of your Moodah friends (white moths).

On the playground you met some new friends and chased them around and then, as usual, refused to leave. You never want to leave the park—you just want to play and play and play. We’ll be back, I tell you, back soon. Before we leave you try to set up a date with the blond-haired little girl. “Come back the next time they’re open, okay?” You tell her. “You come back and we’ll come back too, okay?”

We’ll be back, kiddo. I promise.

I love you,
Dad