May 18

F IS FOR FLOWER, G IS FOR GARDEN:

started out with just Lydia this morning - 

Noah Websters (she is rocking at this!!!) and

Dick and Jane 

wrote out as many short 'e' words as we could squeeze from her attention span.

checked out some flower poems on line

wrote our own flower poem:

Dandelions are pretty

I want to pick them

When I spell 'dandelions' I sound very witty

Dandelions are better with the stem

They have very pretty seeds

Maybe they like to fall on me?

Samantha's turn:

and then there was Samantha.

who had an 'accident' in the middle of her picture.

which made mommy need to take a break because mommy is so over these 'accidents'

grrr....

we did get it written, at least:

If a flower is purple, you pick it.

You smell it, blow it and pick it.

The purple flower is by my house.

It smells like grape.

The purple flowers are my favorite.

They are irises.

They look like marigolds.

I love them.

after a break we came back, fininshed the flower picture

worked on her version of Noah Webster and Dick and Jane.

the attention spans are short this morning due to a new hunk of iron and plastic in the back yard - 

so, after we worked a little, chores and school - we played.

May 15

a little reading - various books.

a little writing practice for all in the living room floor - whatever came to their minds!

Hello Kitty, their names, etc...

and then off to garage sale and clean out for our own garage sale!

and that was about all we got accomplished ;-)

May 14

started the day with our Noah Webster's Reader

and a dab of Clifford easy readers

checked on our celery experiment - they are LOVING this!

not pictured but much loved are the holes at the base of the celery where you can see exactly how the water is traveling up to the leaves.

outside to rub the bark, with paper and crayons, on three different trees

talked about the differences and the patterns

Off to the last day of gymnastics for the season and then lunch with our favorite Daddy at Burger Kinger.

home.

Lydia, Nora and Samantha (for about 30 sec's) collected as many 'helicopters' out of our vegetable garden as we could and discussed why we didn't want these seedlings to steal all the nutrients our vegetables needed.

more discussion about what a flower or garden needs to grow.

a fight broke out between Nora and Sophie which triggered nap time!

Lydia is practicing more handwriting in more dollar section workbooks

mama is blogging too much

up and adam to cut up our celery and see what's inside!!!!

(and then eat it, of course!!!)

great conversation about how the leaves get water from the 'tubes' inside the celery.

and then, in a moment of weakness the other day at Wally World, I bought worms.

the girls love them...they go with our F is for Flowers and G is for Gardens and boy was it a hit!

worms and their poop - boy oh boy.

(and I am praying that the robins, who have a nest on our house, will be eating these the moment we are away!!!)

May 13

F is for Flowers/G is for Garden

(just decided that those needed to be combined and we'll just stretch the two all across May)

How Plants Eat Water Experiment:

off to friends house to play so mama could get a much needed hair cut

home to check the celery - nothing.

mama cut the bottoms wrong - oops.

recut the celery.

lunch, nap, nap, nap!!!

Lydia practiced hand writting during nap.

gotta love those dollar section work books!

not sure why that morning was tiring, but it was!?

Dick and Jane (a TON of these!), I Spy, Golden Alphabet book - all some of our fav's!

outside to dissect 2 more kinds of flowers - a marigold and delphinium.

Lydia is WAY into the parts and LOVES finding the seeds!

so precious.

Bike riding, dinner, hang out with sistas'....

more books with mama and story telling with daddy.

good night!

May 12

F is for FLOWERS

photosynthesis experiment

build two terrariums.

one goes in the sun, the other one hides in the dark.

after a few days we'll be able to see the affects of the sun on a growing plant.

Samantha chose tomatoes and Lydia chose carrots.

fitting.  those are their favorite veggies ;-)

photosynthesis explained to a little one:  the plant uses the sun to make food for itself.

more planting of flowers and herbs.

on to the park!

tire swings are a great way to test velocity - head up is slow, head down is fast!!!

just ask Lydia and Samantha.

rolling down hills are also a great way to test velocity.

just ask mommy....err....after her stomach settles back down anyway....it's been a while since I rolled down a hill

lunch, Pete's dragon, nap time

Lydia is sorting laundry for mama and working on some alphabet books to keep her occupied during nap time.

...and the thunder rolled in to wake everyone up early from nap.

nothing a little Madagascar couldn't handle.

into the kitchen to bake,

because that just seems the right thing to do in a rain storm.

Rocky Road Cake Mix Cookies

1 Devil's food cake mix

1 egg

1/4 c. oil

1/4 c. water

choco chips, nuts, marshmallows

mix it all up

roll 'em up

drop 'em

bake 'em at 350 for 15 min.

yum.

the thunder stopped and out we went, white skirt and all, celebrating just how yummy these flowers must think the rain is!

shower, dinner, books, bed.

and that's a wrap.

May 11

F IS FOR FLOWER

thank you to whoever planted those Irises who know how long ago!

male parts, female parts, petals, stem, leaves....that's as far as we got!

making dye out of the petals.

dandelions are also being tested out as we speak!

a little Noah Websters Reader.

a walk and 'tag' with a BUNCH of squirrels who sure looked like they wanted us to play with them.

books, books and more books with the little ones.

story telling and pretending to all be mommies at lunch time.

nap time!

wrapped the day up with 

Grass Heads 

(potting soil, grass seed, socks, glue, buttons, rubber bands, water and sunshine - we'll have some hairy heads in a few days)

after dinner a shopping trip for the weeks groceries and more F is for Flower activities!!!

what a precious day.

everyone is in the bath and headed to bed - including the mama.