Welcoming Fall

Even though it doesn't look or feel like fall yet, we celebrated the first day of the season by collecting acorns and leaves for a nature weaving.

Green thumbs

Early this spring Sam made a raised vegetable bed on the side of our house. The girls and I planted the seedlings from the seeds we started last winter and a few plants that we bought. We had 3 types of tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash, cantaloupe, watermelon, carrots, radishes, red and white onions, red and yellow peppers, Yukon gold potatoes, and jalapenos. With so many plants, I had high hopes of the girls harvesting huge amounts of vegetables from their garden and giving away the surplus to our friends and neighbors, especially since one of their favorite things to do this spring was to look for earthworms to put in our garden. Whatever wasn't completely eaten by caterpillars or grub worms, was scalded by the sun or just died after several months of not ever growing. The only exceptions were the cantaloupe, which overtook the side yard and produced dozens of the blandest fruit I've ever had, and the jalapeno, that is now taller than the tomatoes and now a hazard for Charlotte. My mom was even in town to witness the big potato harvest when I dug up exactly ONE. I boiled it that night and the girls split it.

Despite the current temperatures in the 90's, we're moving onto our winter crop, and just planted our broccoli, butternut squash, and arugula seedlings. Our spinach and bibb lettuce are still too small to transplant. The girls did a great job "helping," and with our track record, I really don't think it mattered that so many plants were lovingly crushed, ripped, or pulled up to be replanted in a better spot.

Water well

Last week Grace tied her jump rope to a plastic bucket and spend at least a half-hour tying it to the top beam of her swing set, only to be disappointed that it wouldn't pull up and down like she envisioned. Apparently she wanted something similar to Snow White's water/wishing well, so Sam rigged up something for her this weekend...he even found a metal princess pail.

First day of Museum School

Grace had her first day of Museum School at the Museum of Science and History. She will go one morning each week through May 2011. The curriculum is fairly basic, with a different topic each week, ranging from the solar system to crustaceans to reptiles. Her first week's topic was small rodents, and she told me the highlight of her morning was being able to hold pink baby mice, who "still have their eyes closed until they're older and drink milk from their Mommy."
I think it will be a nice transition to kindergarten next year, without going to preschool. She definitely seems glad for the 2 hours on her own...last week at orientation she was disappointed that we were staying with her instead of dropping her off. Madeline, Charlotte, and I plan to play there at the Children's Museum each week while we wait for Grace.

Big walker

Charlotte's move from a crawler to walker has been extremely gradual. She actually began taking several steps on her own almost 2 months ago, and has been able to walk across a room for a month, but she still dropped to her knees to crawl when she wanted to get somewhere quick. This last week she decided to use walking...or running, rather, as her favorite way to get around. She seems like such a big girl now, and I think she feels that way too.

Tropical Storm Hermine

After the rain finally stopped and the water receded, they still wanted to play with their boots and umbrellas.

Labor Day Staycation