Painted Ladies

Last summer several of my friends mentioned on Facebook that they raised butterflies and it sounded like something the kids would enjoy. Our caterpillars arrived on May 7th. The kids were so excited. The Tumbleweed took on the task of recording their growth using a string of beads on a magic wand. She kept careful watch, recording the changes.

After a little more than a week, we had 5 chrysalids which the Tumbleweed eagerly took to school to show her class. It took a little less than a week before they hatched. Wouldn't you know we missed all the hatchings?!?

After waiting until the last butterfly hatched (3 days after the first), we took them to the back yard to release. The Tumbleweed really wanted one to land on her hand. While we didn't think it would happen, we tried to coach her to get one to sit on her finger. Guess what?!? One sat on her finger for about 5 minutes! She was so elated, and says "The butterfly looked right into my eyes!"

Family Day

To kick off Memorial Day weekend, we headed up to New Hampshire to visit the Eagle's cousin. On the way up we stopped to find a letterbox. This was our first letterboxing hike with all four of us. The Eagle got to christen his log book, and we all got to stretch our legs a bit after being the car for a long time.

And I got a picture of myself letterboxing ;)



At his cousin's, the kids had fun playing on the new swingset and splashing in the water on the dock.

Summer Vacation... Already!?!

While "summer" is technically still weeks away, the Tumbleweed is finished with school so vacation is upon us. With more than three full months before school starts again, I have been working on ideas to keep learning through out the summer.

I know the kids will be busy doing our usual MOMS Club activities, attending camps, and heading to playgrounds, parks and zoos, but I decided to come up with a list of activities to occupy the kids on rainy days, during car trips or to involve them more in some of the daily activities. As ideas can often do, the list evolved into more than just a list as I divided the activities into themes...

I put a couple nights into creating a binder with everything in it so the Tumbleweed would know exactly where to find things to do. Each theme has 9 categories - Handwriting, Math, Vocabulary, Reading, Writing, Craft, Puzzle, Collecting and Field Trip. And when the 9 activities have been completed in a category, she gets a butterfly patch to sew on her sun hat.

Needless to say, she is very excited! I showed her the book for the first time this morning and she has been finding things to do all day... maybe I shouldn't have showed her everything at once!

Last Day of School 2010

The Tumbleweed wrapped up Montessori Kindergarten this week. It was not without its bumps, but she learned a lot and had lots of fun.

Last Friday, we got to see her sing "God Bless America", "This Land Is Your Land" and "This Little Light of Mine" with her schoolmates at Parents Night. She had been practicing for several weeks, and really sung her heart out on stage!

Monday was Field Day and the weather was perfect. The Dandelion tagged along with the Tumbleweed and the "Periwinkle" team as they did three-legged races, tug of war and jumped on the giant bouncers. They both had a great time.

She was very sad on the last two days that she would not see many of her friends at school next year, but I do know that she is very excited to move on to full day school in the fall!

Author Club

After reading a story last night, the Tumbleweed decided that she is going to start an "Author Club" just like the kids in the book. Of course, she forgot until bedtime tonight. "We need to go shopping for a notebook tomorrow!" she says. Not realizing what I was getting into, I pointed out that she already had a notebook in her desk drawer that she could use.

As I read the Dandelion's stories, she found a pencil and got to work. By the time I came in she said, ""Mommy, you don't have to read me a story - I am going to write one." Deciding not to stifle her creativity, I let her work while gathered some laundry. Occasionally, she asked me to spell a word. Twenty minutes later she says, "How do you spell 'chapter'? This is going to be a very long book, so it may take all night!"

Since there is no need for a 5 year old to pull an all-nighter, I stopped her there and asked if she would read the story. It is called "The Cat and the Dog?"... "Where the ? means it is a mystery"

Here is what Page 1 looks like:


The Cat and the Dog, as read by the Tumbleweed:

(Page 1)

The cat is good. The dog is naughty. One summer day, the cat and the dog were picking raspberries.

Wait, not the dog! Not the dog!

Wait a minute, where is the dog? The dog?


(Page 2) [Written: Hi was eating som rasbarys What the rasbarys]

He was eating some raspberries. What? The raspberries!

(Page 3) [Written: Hi is in timowte]

He is in timeout.

(Page 4) [Written: The naxt day thay went fo a wak]

The next day they went for a walk.

(Page 5) [Written: The dog ranaway the got lost and got lost in a prickers* and thorn* bosh] *I spelled prickers & thorn for her.

The dog ran away. The dog got lost and got lost in a prickers and thorn bush.

(Page 6)

1 Chapter
Prickers & Thorn Bush


And that is where I stopped her for the night. Stay tuned to find out what happens to the dog in the prickers & thorn bush.

Organizing Week

Last week we had a great guest speaker at our MOMS Club Monthly Social. She came and spoke to us about organizing, specifically tips for toys and mail. She was quick to point out that if you organize a little every day, it doesn't take a lot of time. Guilty. As life has gotten busier & busier, something had to get cut from the day and around here the "paper jungle" has taken over.

Another key message from the presentation was that the kids need to learn about organizing. I asked the Tumbleweed if she could think of something we could organize and we would do a project this weekend. I thought she would suggest something like "books" or "my doll clothes" or something like that. Nope. She said, "I can think of a lot of things, I think we need a whole week!"

To kick off "Organizing Week", I thought we should tackle a project that would easily illustrate the process for her. We decided on the "girly things" in her desk drawers. We spent about a half hour sorting pony tail holders, headbands, bracelets, necklaces, etc. It probably would have been faster, but the Dandelion ran the stroller through the piles as we were almost done. After assessing what we might need, we went to Walmart and found organizers that would hold the items. She was excited to put everything back in the drawers with a special place for each thing. Tomorrow we will make labels so she doesn't forget where everything goes!




So with renewed motivation, I am ready to tackle the clutter. Baby Step #1 - I cleaned off my desk and sorted everything. Well, the stuff that actually belonged on the desk - which was about 25% of what was actually on the desk. Baby Step # 2 is going to be using my new system for the rest of the week. After that I will decide the next step ;)

For more about our guest speaker, check out Love Your Space Organizing

His First Mile

The Dandelion finally got to do his first race! He has been asking whenever we watch the Tumbleweed or Eagle race if he can do one too. Today the kids (and I) ran in the Sutton Family Fitness Kids Race. It was a 1 mile run around the schools, and despite the challenge of running past the playgrounds and not being able to play on them, the kids did great. I ran with the Dandelion, who finished in 12 minutes and 10 seconds. The Tumbleweed was ahead of us the whole way and finished in 8 minutes and 35 seconds.

They were very proud of their ribbons!

Related post --- Her First Mile

The Magic Chair Strikes Again!

Remember the saga of the magic chairs...



Well, despite the fact that I actually completed a scrapbook page about them, the story continues. This morning the Dandelion snuck off to visit Daddy at work, which is currently in the basement, while I did the Tumbleweed's hair. Of course that required a little help from one of the famous magic chairs...

Patience

I am attempting to teach the Tumbleweed patience. As parents know, kids are not good at waiting. Instant gratification is what they want - and they aren't shy about it. Anyway, as my patience for demands and whining is wearing thin, I am trying to show the Tumbleweed that "good things come to those who wait."

What are we waiting for? Hummingbirds! After spotting a hummingbird checking out our bird feeder yesterday, we went and got a special feeder and a hanging fuschia plant.


We set them up after dinner, and settled in to watch. The Dandelion only lasted about a minute (no surprise), the Tumbleweed sat with a camera watching the usual birds for about 20 minutes before giving up, and I waited another 10 minutes --- and guess what? A hummingbird came! I would love to have pictures to show for it, but my camera picked the absolute wrong time to malfunction [I have to send it back to Canon for service - argh]. We hope to see our hummingbird more tomorrow, but patience is a must. Will the Tumbleweed have the patience to wait? I wonder...

*Additionally, we noted that moving the birdfeeders around deterred the grackles & cowbirds, but the little birds all found their way to the new locations.

Tri Sprouts Triathlon

In typical fashion, the Eagle has spread his love for triathlon a little further again this year. Since he started doing triathlons in 2006, he has gotten numerous friends and family members involved in the sport. Beating him to finishing the first race of the season... the Tumbleweed!

Today she competed in the Tri Sprouts Kids Triathlon - her first triathlon - in the pouring rain! With the iffy weather, 50s and rainy, we weren't really sure how the race would go - but she really handled it like a pro.

She started off with a 50 meter swim in the pool. She was excited to wear her new pink swim goggles and just to be safe, we had her wear her swim bubbles (she can swim the length of the pool without them, but we didn't want there to be any problems with the crowd of kids in the pool). She also elected to take a noodle from one of the volunteers, so the swim was really no trouble for her. She even finished ahead of the 8 year old boy sharing her lane, which I believe was the thing she was most proud of all day ;)


After putting on a few layers of clothes in transition, no small task in the rain, she was ready to go out on the bike. It was raining pretty steadily at this point, so I was a bit nervous sending her off for a mile ride where I couldn't see her - especially since she had never ridden without training wheels in the rain! But a little while later she returned, with a look of determination on her face...


After dropping off her bike, she headed out on the run --- with her helmet on. She was definitely cold and did NOT want to take it off. A short while later, we easily picked her out on her way back. The Dandelion gave her some big cheers as she rounded the bend to the finish chute.


When she emerged from the crowd, she was beaming with her new medal. She was cold, but it didn't seem to bother her with her new winning confidence. She couldn't wait to talk to anyone she could about her race! We are so proud of her!


She can't wait to do another race --- which is challenging, because most Kids Triathlons are for ages 7 & up. We found one of the only ones that allows 5 year olds, but we'll keep looking if it is something she loves :)

And with that the 2010 race season is underway... next weekend: Lions Spring Sprint.

Our "Unscheduled" Schedule

Two months ago, after several weeks with alternating sick kids/mom, I decided not to register for any classes at the Y for a session. After taking numerous fantastic classes, we had missed several classes during the winter session, due to illness or other commitments, and it just seemed like a good time for a break. But what would we do with our time if we weren't sick?!? We usually went to the Y 2-3 times a week, often with the kids and I attending overlapping classes and/or playing in the gym/NAZ.

Well, we had no problem filling our time. MOMS Club activities, trips to the Ecotarium, Messy Fingers @ the Library, Beginning Years Family Network playgroups and, recently, playground trips filled our days right back in. It has been a little more challenging adjusting to our new "irregular" mornings (as opposed to knowing exactly what we were doing every morning for two months), but overall my fear that we would be sitting at home twiddling our thumbs has not been realized. [Go ahead, laugh at the thought that I would be twiddling my thumbs].

However, I am now facing another "scheduling crossroads" - Summer Vacation. As of pick-up today, the Tumbleweed has exactly 2 weeks of school left! And while the "lack" of scheduled morning activities has been working, I am a little worried about having nothing official scheduled during the day.

So I guess that boils down to: I have 2 weeks to get my act together and figure out a way to manage the summer!

Garden Update: Berries

The garden is coming along nicely so far this year.

The "original" garden, planted in 2007, is maturing. I thinned the tiger lilies, columbine and daisies, moving them to new locations around the yard. The lilies and lupines are looking good, and the bleeding heart has come up this year, no buds just yet (there are some on the one in the front yard though!).

The "expansion" garden, started in May 2008 and never completely planted, has some good things going for it. The blueberry bush I planted last year, which seemed practically dead after the hail storm last May, has blossomed - which still gives me hope that it will bear fruit.


The strawberries have multiplied like weeds - from 2 plants last year to probably 15 plants with flowers (and many more others).


And then there is the part that I have tried to grow wildflowers in for the past two years... well, I think there are a few wildflowers growing --- or possibly they're just weeds. Right now I think that I will be trying to move the wildflowers out and, after lots of soil preparation, moving the vegetable seedlings I have started in the house in.

And that brings me to the new gardens next to the new swingset... we'll see. One garden is planted with new plants the kids picked out - pansies, a white bleeding heart, yellow mini poppies, some transplanted daisies and some iris bulbs. No signs of the iris bulbs, but otherwise it is going well. The other garden is having trouble with weeds. The transplanted tiger lilies and columbine seem to be taking hold, but not exactly thriving just yet. And I haven't seen signs of bulbs I planted there (gladiola and dahlia), but that isn't really a surprise.

We have some more landscaping in the plans this year, hopefully fixing the "yellow & purple hill" (that is, it is so covered in dandelions and violets that the Tumbleweed claims it is 'impossible' to walk down it because you'll step on the flowers). But mostly I am hoping that the gardens bloom & grow and don't get out of hand by July, as they have in previous years. Green thumbs crossed!

Whirly World and Park of Toys

Sometimes "kid-speak" is so funny you don't want to tell them the correct pronunciation. Sometimes they won't believe you.

The Tumbleweed likes to call the local playground "Whirly World", it is really "Woolie World" after the school mascot, the "Woolies". We've tried correcting her recently, after letting her say it wrong for a year or so, but "Whirly" just makes sense to her because there are lots of things that spin. So "Whirly World" it is.

This morning, the Dandelion had a new one. I told him we were heading off to Purgatory Chasm to go letterboxing. He went running to his room and returned with a stuffed toy and said, "Can I bring Pablo to Park of Toys?" Too cute! I think we are in a little trouble when we get there and there is no "Park of Toys"!

This comes on the heels of the Dandelion's latest word mix-up, which has been landing him in trouble. About two weeks ago, he started expressing his anger by hitting. But not just hitting, by telling the person he was mad at "I'm going to hit you now!" Well after about a week of being punished for hitting & punching. He has changed his warning. Now when he gets mad he says, "I'm mad! I am going to punish you now", and then he punches you. Needless to say, he has been sitting timeout a lot, but at least he seems to be listening to the reasons why.

Our Hitchhiker

After listening to the Tumbleweed beg & plead to do more letterboxing all weekend, we finally had a chance to go this morning. We had attempted to head over to Purgatory Chasm on Friday afternoon to do a little treasure hunting, only to find that everyone else had the same idea. Okay, maybe they weren't all letterboxing, but every parking lot was filled. This had lead to one heck of a tantrum, so we took a letterboxing break over the weekend.

This morning, we went to the practically empty park and made our way to Charley's Loop in search of a couple of letterboxes. Drat, foiled again. Charley's Loop was chained off? Plan B - back to the car for a different set of clues and off we went.

It was a relatively uneventful hike, with the Tumbleweed leading the way and finding the boxes. The Dandelion brought up the rear, but didn't need much extra coaxing this time - he even inked his own stamp and "stamped in" on his own while the Tumbleweed & I were doing other things one of the times. There were two clues in this set of letterboxes, and in the second box a surprise...


We picked up a "Hitchhiker"! That's a letterbox that travels from box to box. I guess we were meant to take that trail today. The kids & I were super excited to find our first hitchhiker and are looking forward to selecting a good box to send it on its way again.

Crabs & Creepy Crawlers

Despite being school vacation week, there was a lot of learning to be done this week. It began with letterboxing and ended with planting new gardens around the swingset, but in the middle the kids got to attend some special events to learn about some unusual critters.

On Wednesday, we stopped by the Millbury Library for a special presentation by the New England Aquarium about Tidepools. The Tumbleweed was completely fascinated. She checked out the shark jaws, whale tooth, mussels, and finally hung out at the Spider Crab tank. She was so interested that the Dandelion and I left her there to look for some books. When we came back about 15 minutes later, she was excited to report that she had gotten to hold the Spider Crab "out of the tank!" [the tank had been labled "touch under the water only", but the handlers saw that she was so interested that they let her hold it.] No picture of that though, but she was so proud and made sure to tell me "everyone said I was courageous. Can we get a tank for our house?".


Then on Saturday, before the first soccer game of the season, we stopped at the Tumbleweed's school for a special event called "The Bug Club". There was a guest speaker with all kinds of bugs & critters including roaches, a tarantula, an iguana, a salamander, frogs, scorpions & snakes. The Dandelion repeated his dislike of spiders (not sure where it is coming from, but he says he is "afraid of spiders"), and didn't really want to sit and take part. The Tumbleweed soaked it all in. She said her favorite was the salamander, Spot, until the frogs came out, and then those were her favorites. No surprise there - she held a tree frog two years ago when a similar program came to her other school.


Our adventures with little critters continues next week as Messy Fingers explores Frogs on Tuesday.

They're Ba-ack...

I was right, the Red Lily Beetles are back. I had really been hoping that all of my hard work to get rid of them last year would have meant we were through with them forever, but we're not.


Fortunately, I am a month ahead of last year and have already killed 8 (3 pair while they were mating) and there are no signs of eggs or larvae [yet]. I am hopeful that this year's battle will easier than last year.

On the plus side, things are starting to bloom. I planted this Bleeding Heart root last year, but it didn't grow. I am so pleased to see it's first bud.

Treasure Hunting

Over the weekend, I read about Letterboxing on a friend's blog. I guess I was interrupted and left that page open on my computer because later that day, the Tumbleweed pulled me over the computer and asked what her friend was doing (the little girl was in the photos on the blog). We checked out a few links and talked a little about Letterboxing, and of course she wanted to go "right now!"

There was a little preparation necessary, so a few days later we went in search of our first letterbox in Grafton. The kids were really excited to use their new stamps and I was pretty excited to see the stamps we would find (for now we are using store bought stamps, but many hidden letterboxes have hand carved stamps). We chose a pretty easy one for our first one (ie - once I drove us there & parked there were only a couple of clues to follow). The Tumbleweed found it quickly. After we had stamped everything and rehidden, we climbed back in the car and the Tumbleweed said, "let's do another, and another, and another" (this is a frequent quote of hers - once she likes something she just wants to keep doing it!).

So off we went in search of another one that was nearby. It was a little tougher, in that there was a little more of a hike (with a few muddy spots) and a few more clues to follow. But the kids followed the instructions and found the hiding spot (the Dandelion was mostly following his big sister, but he was interested). Midway through the stamping process he did start to wander a bit, so I need to work a little more on speeding up the stamping and/or keeping him busier.


All in all, it was a good afternoon. The kids are talking about going again (the Tumbleweed also really wants to hide some "for my friends to find"), and I have checked into more places to find letterboxes. I have found that they are all over the place, and often in the same parks that the Eagle's triathlons take place in. Perhaps we will be able to do some letterboxing when he is out racing.

Adventures In Cooking - Meatballs

Would you believe that I have never made meatballs before? Well, maybe you would. Anyway, I tried a new recipe (with a little variation based on what was in the cupboards) from my favorite kids food magazine - Taste of Home's Fun Food. The Dandelion slept through dinner, but everyone else gave it a thumbs up.

Meatball Skillet Meal
with slight changes

Ingredients:

1/3 c quick cooking oats
2 T finely chopped green pepper
2 T finely chopped onion
2 T dried chives
1 t dried basil
1 t dried oregano
1/2 t dried thyme
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper

1 lb ground turkey

half bag of carrot chips
remainder of pepper & onion, sliced
1 can (14.5 oz) of diced tomatoes

4 cups rice

Directions:

1- Start cooking rice.

2- To "finely chop" pepper & onion, I used the magic bullet. They are less conspicuous that way.

3- mix the first 9 ingredients together. Crumble ground turkey over and mix well. Shape into 1 1/4 inch balls.

4- over medium heat cook meatballs until no longer pink; drain. Add carrots, peppers & onions; cook uncovered for 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in tomatoes; heat through.

Serve over rice. Makes 6 servings.

iPad Mornings

After getting back from a business trip late on Friday, the Eagle spent some quality time with the kids in the morning. As I peeked in to check on them they were playing "GlowBurst", a game where you have to touch the numbers in order from least to most as quick as you can, on the Eagle's new iPad. The Tumbleweed did great, until the higher level threw in negative numbers. The Dandelion had some help with which numbers needed to be touched and when, but once the Eagle told him he was able to find them on his own, albeit slowly. I certainly can support math games.


Later the Eagle downloaded a Toy Story app, and they played until the battery got low. There were numerous requests for more iPad from both kids. Sorry kids, even I don't get to play with it that much!

Special Person Day

The Tumbleweed's school held their "Special Person Day" this week. Since she attends every day, she actually had two Special Person Days. The Eagle was away on business so I attended the first and Nana came for the second. Thankfully, I found a friend willing to pick the Dandelion up, take him to her house, and meet us in a parking lot to drop him off or would not have been able to go. A huge thanks to Danielle!

I arrived at school at the designated time with all of the other parents to hear the daily songs and the kids reciting the US presidents. Then everyone went in their own directions to show what they like to do at school. The Tumbleweed did some painting, play-doh & coloring - no surprise there. Finally I convinced her to show me something with the "Montessori Materials". I don't really know what it was called, but she showed me something where she counted sticks :)

The highlight for me though was at the end of class, when they were just about hand out Thank You cards to the guests, that the teacher chose her to stand in the middle of the circle to read the inside of the card to everyone. She didn't hesitate and read the card out loud to a crowded room. This was the perfect way to show how far she has come from the beginning of the school year.



PS - Special Person Day was also Pajama Day, which I was reminded of at playgroup that morning and had to go home to get them! It really was a crazy day.