Card Making

Emily loves to do crafts, and they can entertain her quietly for ages! (Oh how I wish Jacob could do the same.) I got her this little kit when we were at the Crayola Factory, way back in February. Now that school is out, it's perfect for "quiet time" when Jane is napping.

She could do it all entirely herself. We both recommend it.
Not available on the Crayola site anymore, find one here.
(For some reason, I can't get it to link right to the kit - go to products, and then search on card kit.) OR, if you live in Utah I'm sure you can get tons of these supplies at a craft or scrapbooking store & make your own kit.

Last Day of School

The last day of school was on Friday. I am SO looking forward to this summer. I love summer, and getting my kids back! I love that we can do fun stuff, and I can spend some time (never as much as I want) teaching them things I want them to learn - things we don't have time for during the school year.

I admit, I got a little teary at Emily's class breakfast and then taking her home on her last day. Emily's school is just kindergarten & first grade - so next year she'll be at a new school. She has had such a positive experience at school, had great teachers, and learned a lot. I also really liked that it was all just little kids on the bus, and playground - nice and safe. Now she'll have to be with "big, bad 5th graders." She'll go to the same school Rebekah went to for 5th grade, and I'm sure it will be fine - it's just another growing up transition for me to adjust to.

Here she is starting kindergarten.
(Look at little Jake too, with his "silky". Jane was only a few months old, and I would have been holding her!)
and getting on the bus for the 1st time.

TWO YEARS LATER

Here they are waiting for the bus on her last day of first grade. She's got new teeth, is taller, her hair is longer & the backpack seems to fit her better - but she's still sweet Emy with her infectious grin.

Thank-you Eugene & Santina for taking her to school & back safely every day.

I'm proud of you, big girl.

Thanks for the great year Mrs R!

Dance Recital

I am SO breaking Rebekah's "no blogging about me, or posting pictures of me" rule!
C'mon, she has her own blog now - it's gotta be OK, right?

(Link to her on my sidebar.)

Rebekah took ballroom dance this year, and really enjoyed it. It was a very small class - bek's friend, Camilla - bek's other friend Patrick and Patrick's younger brother & sister. (One of them had to dance with the teacher all the time, since there were only 2 boys.)

Her recital was on the 22nd. Since it was on a Sunday, the kids & I went to the dress rehearsal the Wednesday before, and just Rick went to the actual recital (plus the tickets were $30 each - free for the dress rehearsal.)

Here's the snazzy group! Patrick's Mom took this picture (I forgot my camera.) She wants to take it again next year, but I'm thinking we might try a bigger class at one of the studio's in the city.

Way to go bek - you're living out Grandma's dream of being a great ballroom dancer!

Worms

I really wanted to stop using chemical fertilizers on our gardens. I haven't used any on the vegetable gardens, ever - but also wanted to stop using them on the lawn and flowers. I use the grass clippings in the compost - which I then use to fertilize the vegetable garden, plus I just didn't want to add to the mass chemicals going into the water table.

We REALLY love our garden and work hard to make it lovely, so what to do?
The solution - worms! Worms are the means by which organic farmers fertilize. They lay "eggs" every 30 days, and travel very slowly. They are the very best thing for soil. This info is from the Uncle Jim's worm farm website -

Here's How The Worms Do It

1. They make burrows and tunnels that let water and nutrients reach plants root systems. Red Wrigglers are best at this for lawns and gardens because they work close to the surface. Whereas, night crawlers may go down five feet or more to find a home. This burrowing loosens the soil and aerates it.
2. Worms eat and digest their body weight every day, producing a 100% natural fertilizer know as castings.
3. Worms castings are:
   • 5 Times Richer In Nitrogen
   • 7 Times Richer In Phosphates
   • 11 Times Richer In Potash than the average top soil

So, back in May we ordered 5,000 worms and spread them throughout our flower beds, vegetable garden and lawn. I didn't ever get around to posting these (it was around the time of the computer crash.) We've been working in the garden a lot lately, so I thought I'd post them now.

So here are the little gardeners, they arrived in this box in the mail.
Inside the box they were in a nice mulch mix in a muslin bag.

The kids thought they'd make great pets.

Emily only held them when they were still in the bag.

I took a few at a time, and placed them randomly in the newly turned soil. Right before they arrived we emptied the compost bin and Rick rotor-tilled it into the vegetable garden.

Jacob had the time of his life helping me let them free.

Once they were lightly covered with soil, we left them alone and hoped for the best. I was worried about them dying but every time I work in the garden now, I find lots of worms! The soil quality in our veggie patch is the worst but the sun there is the best - so we don't want to move it. We're constantly working on improving the soil quality, and I think I might order a few hundred more for that area. This is where we let a bunch go in the shade garden in the front.

I'm really pleased with how everything is working out. Here are the chemical free results!

Thanks worms!

To order some for yourself, go here.

Collecting Eggs at Stone Barns

It's really important to me that my kids have a good understanding of where their food comes from. I like them to know how we get it and to distinguish quality from junk / garbage. To that end, I love to take them to Stone Barns whenever we can. I LOVE everything there, and would move in, in a heartbeat if I had the chance. You know you live in a city when you pay money & sign your kids up for a farm chore!

Walking up the hill to the chickens ...

... passing the newly shorn sheep (& lambs) on the way

These look just like the chickens we had when I was growing up. They are a Rhode Island red cross. We lived in England, so I'm not sure if they were exactly the same, but just the fact that they looked like them brought back happy memories.

I caught one & held her for the kids to touch her. (Ignore my hair - it's hot & humid here!)

Collecting eggs.

The basket full.

Running in the fields.

The geese.

We told Jacob a thousand times not to touch the fence (it's electric), but of course, he did. It's not a big charge - but he still seemed surprised (moral of the story - listen to your parents.)

The pigs.

Bunny. They used to raise rabbits for the restaurant, but don't anymore. Not sure why - no demand? This one is just a pet. This rabbit probably eats better than us!

We ended with lunch at the cafe. The restaurant is AMAZING, but pricey. The cafe is really great, delicious, and much much cheaper. A great place for the family to lunch.

Madagascar

Last Friday (after Emily's moving up ceremony), we went to the new Madagascar exhibit at the Bronx Zoo.
Our family LOVES the movie Madagascar, and we quote it all the time .. I think it may not have been as popular with other people, because we get weird looks when we do. We've even adopted "New York, New York" as our family song, (Rick gave me a snow globe of Manhattan that played it when we were dating.)
When someone's in a bad mod I say "I'm thinking of a song .. it's a wonderful song." It either makes them laugh - or just makes them madder.

We were really looking forward to the opening of this exhibit. It's not very big - but is wonderful, and showcases some of the diverse life found on this island. Ring-tailed lemurs have been Emily's favorite land animal since she was about 3. So great to see them in real life.

I loved this lizard - his colors are so bright he almost looks fake.

There are several interactive things for the kids to do.

Jacob really liked this one. It was pretty cool, it made the different lemur sounds they make to warn of different predators (who knew they did that??) as you turned the dial.

Fossa (pronounced FOO-sa). Not at all what I was expecting. Less like a small cat, and longer - more like a ferret. Their tails are also much longer than I imagined, and they seem quite agile.

Isn't the bump on Jane's head (from the last zoo trip) healing nicely?

The we stopped into the children's zoo. Jacob spent almost the whole time stalking peacocks - determined to touch one. I love how focussed he is once he gets his mind set on something. I've never seen him move so slowly or carefully! I hope he can apply that to his school work in the future!

He was so happy when he finally did touch the tail feathers of one.

Emily loved feeding the goats.

Jane was scared at first, but Rebekah helped her be brave - and then she loved it.

Man, I love the zoo. Money well spent on our membership, if you ask me.