Coastal Bend Nature Challenge: Fulton Mansion

*Joey and William will be guests here on the blog as they document our Nature Challenge journey for 2016.

The Challenge: Explore Harriet’s Garden and the yard behind the mansion. Use the plant markers to locate the plants in your mission. Complete the worksheet. Observe the plants and flowers. Sketch your favorite.

After Goose Island State Park, we headed over to Fulton Mansion although we ended up on a very scenic tour because somehow we drove right past it the first time!

J: After a loooong mosquitoey morning at Goose Island State Park, I was glad to go somewhere that we could go inside. First we all ate lunch outside the museum. We all remembered a funny tale from last year’s nature challenge when Andrew accidentally cut up the direction page for a craft inside the museum (Mommy fixed it, so all was well). He just got so carried away with his scissors that he didn’t realize what he was cutting!

W: I ate peanut butter and jelly with some grapes.

J: I ate beef jerky.

W: Then we went into the museum where they told us to head over to the mansion before it closed. I decided to skip the stroller and walk up the stairs by myself.

J: No, silly, we went down the stairs to the basement first!

W: Oh, yeah, remember how neat the the basement was. Remember the dumb waiter?

J: What dumb waiter?

W: The one where you put the food on it and pull it up and it goes upstairs.

J: Oh the dumb waiter. Not the dumb waiter! It must have been nice for the servants to have a whole basement all to themselves.

W: We went upstairs to the main two floors and got to play an I Spy game as we toured the house.

J: My favorite room was probably the bedroom although it would have been fun to go lie on the bed. I played the I Spy downstairs first then I went up the stairs and I was not scared one tiny bit. I played I Spy upstairs and when it was time to come down the stairs, I threw a fit because I was scared. I am scared to go down the stairs because I’m scared of heights.

W: Good thing we don’t have stairs in our house!

J: That’s true, but Daddy didn’t let me sit on the Fulton Mansion’s stairs like I do when I go to Granny and Pappy’s house. Daddy kept urging me down and then I held my hand and he promised not to let me fall so I was able to go down the stairs.

W: Next we headed over to the museum.

J: I definitely loved building that bridge with Andrew!

W: I helped Granny dress the mannequin and I got to dress up as a cowboy! Then we took Granny’s picture with her head on top of the mannequin. It was funny!

J: It was a good thing I brought my Ironman Lego into the museum with me because then I got to help Ironman cross the bridge after I finished building it. I kind of liked watching Granny dress the mannequin even though I don’t get all excited about that kind of girl stuff. I dressed up as a cowboy which was really fun.

W: Then we finally went outside to the grounds to do the Nature Challenge.

J: We had to find the plants and write their scientific name in the garden. My favorite plants were the firecracker plant and Turk’s Cap.

W: Mommy made us all get together at the end so we could have our picture taken. I loved having our picture taken but I did get a little annoyed because Mommy kept saying one more! One more!