my garden

I planted many thing this year rows of organic squash, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes and watermelon and here is what I have so far.... one beautiful penny sized watermelon!

isn't just so he cute, kids say it's just the perfect size for their fairies. Well besides being an apparent Fairy gardener I hope we actually get to eat a big juicy watermelon sometime this summer.

I'm still crossing my fingers on the potatoes.

Roller Skating 101

Little E was so excited to try roller skating again so we put on the knee pads, elbow pads, gloves, helmet and well a pillow for her booty and after all that she was still able to move her way down the sidewalk , big Sis was there to lend a hand but Little E after a few falls was off and skating laughing as she skated unassisted all the way home.

 

that a way E!

This week's Blog lovin'

What's more cool than this:

 At imaginechildhood.com they believe that children should experience the world through their own eyes, ears, fingers, and toes. That direct interaction with nature is the best way to learn about the world, and that open-ended imaginative play is the best way to learn about what it could be. Part community forum, part storefront, imaginechildhood.com is a place where parents and kids can find their own definition of childhood.

for the how to on making your own fishing pole

go here:

Imagine childhood

Composting paper towels

I get a lot of comments and questions when my friends see throwing paper towel in the compost so I thought I'd spend a few moments on my paper towel obsession.

Yes I use paper towel and I love them , so to feel better about my paper towel usage I throw them in the compost right with the food and yard clippings. The comment I get the most is "I didn't know you can do that" , well either did I until one day I just started throwing them in, they're made from 100% recycled paper so I figured why not and never looked back. The paper towel takes about 1-3 months to decompose depending on how hungry the bugs and critters riffling through the compost are and the amount of rain.

Here's a list of thing that can go into your compost:
Leaves, lawn clipping, old hay, sawdust, straw, cornstalks, plants and plant parts from vegetable gardens or flower beds can all be composted, other things that can also be composted are cool ashes, eggshells, coffee grounds and filters, fruit and vegetable scraps, newspaper, paper towels and napkins, cardboard rolls from paper towels and toilet tissue.

If you have any other items that are easily composted please leave a comment. Thanks

Happy Father's Day, George.

Here's how my morning conversation went:

me "Wy are you crying"

AP"cause Sophia said george washington is dead"

me "well he is"

AP "that's not fair i wanted to make him a fathers day present"

me "well he was the father of our country thats very nice of you"

AP  "why'd he die?"

me  "he got really old and died along time ago before you were born"

AP  "well now i'm not making anyone a card for fathers day, i just liked george washington"

me  "i'm sorry sweety, you can still make him a card and we'll send in to the president"

AP "well i'm still mad that george washington is dead"

My poor little guy has been crying all morning  on the couch his blanket over his head I guess death is really hard understand when you're only 5 even when happened over 200 years ago.

Happy Father's Day to all, even dead Presidents!

This week's Blog lovin'

I heart this stationary and her blog!

visit here:

 Simplesong

I'd rather be?

Nothings worse than opening your windows to the smell of oil it's like living in a mechanics shop except there's no escape from it , the damage here from the Deepwater Horizon spill has been really getting to me lately and I don't know how longer I can live with this change of lifestyle so when I found this it struck a cord with me today.

* courtesy of the bottom of the ironing basket

messy eater #4

I'm sure Little E isn't the only messy eater and family photos show she's a lot like her big sis Lucy .

Spaghetti and ice cream is more fun than play doh in our house.

Handmade chalkboard

(Sophia and Lucy making drawing silly animals)

I finally finished talking about making the kids a chalkboard and did it! It was easier than I thought and cost less than $20. I always wanted to get one of those old schoolhouse chalkboards like my grandparent had in their basement so their 16 children could practice math and learned to write their ABC's. I have looked everywhere for one and finally came across a school chalkboard from the 1950's at an antique shop down the street but it was sold so I spent a good ten minutes looking it over and jotting down the supplies I would need to build one.

I needed:

masonite board which is now sold as Eucaboard and made from sustainable Eucalyptus,yeah!

oak or pine 3 inch boards for the border

chalkboard paint (comes in black or green , I already had both colors)

sandpaper to lightly scuff the surface of the Eucaboard to allow the paint to adhere

I used screws to attach the board to the frame on the back side.

and four screws through the frame on all for corners to attach to the wall.

The kids couldn't wait to draw all over it, even before I was able to hang it up.

(Lucy writing I love Mommy)

I am so glad to get it finish and perfect timing too now that Little E and her brother are hard at work learning to write their ABC's . We just love homeschooling and I can't get enough of watching them grow and learn, Lucy should be able to do some really big math problems on that board!

The Drifters

The kids and I went on an adventure searching the shores of Mobile Bay looking for the right pieces of driftwood we were very lucky not to encounter any oil today and just enjoy the time at the water, unlike yesterday at the Bon Secour wildlife refuge where we had to watch every step we took but I still ended up bringing oil back home with us, yuck.

Heigh Ho , Heigh Ho it's off to finding driftwood we go.......

Now the hard part, really it was a lot harder to nail pieces of wood together than I thought.

and look at all the tools it took to make a beautiful birthday present for their Great-Nanna.

Front

Back

HAPPY 77th Birthday! 

Pancake Party Day!

Twelve girls loaded up plates of pancakes topped with fresh fruit, sprinkles in every color, fresh whipped cream, homemade ice cream; raspberry, blueberry ,maple and apple cinnamon syrups and consumed more sugar than humanely possible, yum!?

Twelve little girls and all you can eat pancake breakfast makes for a really fun time!

and what better to burn off the sugar than running pancake flipping relay races.

They've already started planning another.