Little Trees

When I mowed I would always run over these - which I thought were weeds. Then one day I looked at them and thought that maybe they were trees, but still 'trimmed them' - now I KNOW these are all trees...but they are Sweetgum trees, which produce these little round balls with spokes on them - not fun to step on. I don't mind having trees in this part of the yard since nothing will grow there - but I would prefer anything but a sweetgum tree. There are a lot of sweetgum trees in our yard.
Here is the start of a pine tree. I tell Chris he should dig up some of these trees and plant them in the front yard. He has told me that the trees are connected to a big root system and if he digs it up, it may not survive. I cannot verify this as I do not know how transplanting trees works - but I do know we have a pine tree in front of a window that we moved and it has survived - Chris says that one was all by its lonesome.








I know it's hard to see in this picture, but this was an ant hill - you can see by the little holes in some of the dirt. We 'died' the ant hill (as Peyton would say) and when they left, we went back to look at it so Peyton could see some of the tunnels and inside of an ant hill.










I have been trying to figure out what tree this is, but without seeing the fruit of the tree, I am having a hard time identifying it. I do know it's a nut tree of some sort - hickory, beech - I just do not know the exact one. There are between 5-9 leaves on each little stem, opposite each other.

I know the homeschool journey is about Peyton, but I need to learn what is around us so I can teach him. I'm so proud that he can identify a few trees by looking at the leaves. He asks me quite often when walking on campus 'What's that tree, mom?' - right now I don't know since I'm just learning, but one day I hope he can ask that and I can give the right answer. ;-)