Day 786 - We're Going on a Bear Hunt!

Happy continued pandemic everyone! Everyone continuing to do ok? I'm fine, thanks for asking.

While there's a lot of bad things about a pandemic (chief among them being the actual disease), one of the worst is that there's just nothing to do! Also, when I say nothing, I mean nothing! The library? Closed. The zoo? Unless you're an animal or a caretaker, no admittance. The grocery store? Come on, like I'm going to take the kids there right now! The playground? Oddly enough, that is off-limits as well. 

As you can see, there really aren't a ton of fun activities left for us to do that are outside of the house. Luckily, we live in a neighborhood full of people that are more creative than me and in all of their awesomeness, provided me with a fun activity that I could use to keep my kids occupied. That fun activity being a bear hunt.

Before people get panicked and begin to envision an escaped bear terrorizing neighborhoods during a pandemic, I need to say that's not an accurate description of this particular bear hunt. Instead, think more along the lines of We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen. Just so I can practice my old book report skills, the main plot of this book involves five children and their dog going on yes, a bear hunt. Regardless of the terrain, the six explorers bravely continue on until they finally discover the bear. However, they quickly learn that finding a bear is not all it's cracked up to be.

To briefly explain our neighborhood's version of a bear hunt, many houses have placed stuffed teddy bears in their window or around their house allowing families to wander around the neighborhood and count how bears they can find. Just to give an example of what our house has done, I actually placed five bears in our front windows. Three are in our top half-window, serenely looking out over the yard. The other two have found themselves in quite the scary situation as they are "dangling" from our curtain rod. As I like to envision it, one bear lost his balance and fell causing the other bear to leap out to catch him. However, the two find themselves dangerously dangling from a great height like some kind of bear-themed Mission: Impossible film. 

Hold on, bears!!!

Yesterday, with the weather being unbelievably nice, I decided it was time for me to load the kids up in the wagon to bravely venture out on a bear hunt. Actually, my desire had been for Ellie to walk so that Ethan could ride in the wagon alone. Instead, I ended up pulling nearly 60 pounds around the neighborhood in a wagon that just happens to have way too short of a handle for my height. We first made our way up to North Oak before turning around and heading towards our cul-de-sac. The first bears we passed were our own, but fortunately, there were many more to come. 

Ellie did pull her weight for a little while...

First, we stumbled across a panda bear peeking out of his window at the street that lied before him. A couple of houses down the street, we found yet another panda bear staring out a window. The lone difference was that this one was accompanied by her cub. As we looped the cul-de-sac, we stumbled across the "bear cave" to end all "bear caves". There were two bears hanging in a tree, another two taking naps in flower pots, and even one guarding the mailbox! While those were the last bears we would see, I still think that our bear hunt was a rousing success.

One might even say that it was "bear-y" great. Oh wow, that was bad. Really, really bad. Please forgive me. #DaddyWrite