Ada's Sunflowers

I wrote a post, One Little Seed a while back outlining some work we did with sunflowers.  Ada and Tony planted some sunflowers last spring and we saved some of the seeds.  Ada took it upon herself to plant some this spring in the strawberry garden.  Look what happened!

 And since it was such a hot day, we hopped in the pool too :)

We literally were jumping in just after this and splashing.  I think the girls like it when it's wicked hot so they can splash me with water and I actually like it! 

Notice her babies are floating in their little floaties.  She's explaining to me that it's so "they don't go too deep."

Hunting lesson... I think

While sitting at the kitchen table today eating my lunch I saw 2 hawks land on the Ash tree next to our driveway.  I watched for a minute and when it didn't look like they were going anywhere I grabbed the camera and went outside.

Baby is standing.  Adult is in the bottom of the shot checking me out.

Both standing looking up at the birds in the tree.

Looking up at the other birds in the tree.  

Adult

I'm pretty sure it was a parent child hunting lesson.  They stayed for about 2 hours in this tree.  At a certain point the baby (on the right in the above picture) laid down on the branch.

They just stayed there while all the other birds in the tree went bananas.  I started to wonder if they were just trying to stress them out so they would be easier prey?  I took a bunch more pics with Ada when she woke up.  She refers to them as "our hawks"- adorable.

Just so you can see how not wild this area is.  They are in the tree right above my car.  If you look close and follow the bottom right branch the adult is standing just before it gets green.  The baby is on the second big branch up from the trunk towards the right about 5 ft. from the trunk, laying down.

Adult

I couldn't help thinking as I saw them there about how animal babies learn things.  Our human babies learn by imitation of course but we can communicate so much with language.  I was thinking about trying to teach our babies how to feed themselves without talking and at first this task seemed daunting...then we went outside to the garden.   Emma watched her sister picking cherry tomatoes then just went at it.  She didn't need "instructions".

Yes, we told Emma that the red ripe tomatoes were better to eat than the green ones.  But she needed to test this anyway. 

Handing me the green one (Ada gave it to the chicks)

YUM!

A weekend for Mama

I have been working on a post for weeks that speaks of the awesomeness of my husband.  It's still coming.  In the meantime I will note that one of the awesome things he has done for me lately is take the children on vacation...without me.  Alone.  In our house.  For 2 nights and 2 days.  AMAZING!

I have been able to tackle some big projects as well as watch a ton of tv while doing it:)

I did accomplish a switcharoo to our art cabinet to include a bunch of Olympic themed trays.

Bookmarks to color from activity village.

Coloring page from abcteach.

Collage tray.  I put gold and silver and "bronze" in here as well as red white and blue.  We haven't done one of these for months so I know Ada will be excited.  The spoon is for the colored rice.

Stamps and glitter- USA and red white and blue...GO TEAM USA!

And made a Pinterest inspired "toy" for the girls as well.

I still have 2 boxes of paperwork to go through, but the craft closet has finally had it's much needed face lift.

Before (I took this months ago when I wanted to get this job done)....

And after months I finally covered boxes with contact paper (instead of the fabric I had planned on) and wrote on them with sharpies (instead of the little labels I had planned on making)...and it is wonderful!

The floor is clean and you can close the closet doors and walk through the room without stepping over piles.  I have one empty box on the shelf so I have a little room to grow.  I'm so psyched!


I got the hallway painted and hung up some of the girl's artwork in those little glass clip frames and I did my best to hang them in a straight line.  I had toyed with the idea of painting a stripe of a different color down the hall, but I like this MUCH better!

I didn't specifically take a before picture, but I have one from when Ada had us put up a "gate" each night to keep the "alligators" out of her room.

It was the same color as our living room.  Not a bad color, just a little dark for a hallway.

Most of the pieces are Ada's, but there are a few of Emma's.  The walls are the same color as the kitchen- pale honey.  It's bright and cheery and pretty neutral.  Mostly though- it feels like our house.  Once our bedroom is painted I'll feel like the house is "done" as far as paint goes.

My favorite one is the middle one here.  One night Ada was talking about her "friend" James.  It was clear to us that this was an imaginary friend so we asked Ada to draw a picture of him.  This is what she drew, then said, "This is James.  He is tall."  I love this girl!

These ones are hung horizontally and are 8 x 11.

These are on the oposite wall and are hung vertically and are 4 x 6

A wonderful weekend indeed.  Thanks to my fantastic husband for facilitating it!  I feel refreshed and ready to play with these kids all week long!!

***************UPDATE***********

The new stuff was a hit.  The diaper box-gone car toy was the first thing Ada noticed and was all into it.  We went to the beach and camping and parked in the garage.  She doesn't always play with things the way I envision so I was thrilled that this one worked out. Emma woke up and joined in too :)

After breakfast Ada changed into a ballerina and we did some artwork.

Ada working on a collage (she loved using the colored rice).  She made a shark.  Used rice for the body, puff ball for the head and tinfoil for teeth.  

The collages here are Emma's.  The bookmark on the left is Em and Ada's is on the right.  

Cooper's Hawk

Just got some confirmation that our hawk is a Cooper's Hawk.  Turns out it was the male who built the nest this spring and as we suspected he has been doing most of the hunting for the family.  I'm convinced now that the picture in the last post was one of the 2 babies as I have now seen each of them on little flights and I am astonished that they have grown so quickly.

I tried to relay to Ada how special it is that we have been able to see this process so closely and that most people never get so see wild birds like this.  She is totally unimpressed.  This is the first time I have ever seen such a thing.  When I feel frustrated that she doesn't seem to care about these birds as much as I do I must remember how my mom must have felt when I rolled my eyes as she dragged me outside with a sleeping bag to sit in the yard and watch a meteor shower or to see King Tut at the MOS.  Kids don't really understand that these moments won't happen again necessarily and just how special they are.  I suppose it's up to the adults to realize for them and to create the opportunity to appreciate the special things in life... even if they don't really get it until they're grown up.

Hawk sighting for today

This hawk was out on a low limb in the front yard.  It looks smaller but I don't think it could possibly be one of the babies.  I'm thinking it was the male- I really need to learn more about birds!!

I had spotted him while I was in the front yard watering the gardens and ran in to grab the camera.  The girls decided to come out too.

And, this is the front garden that has produced our dinner...

Eggplant Parm!!!!

It's brutally hot today and I needed to get the chickens outside so I made a makeshift area for them to get some fresh air.  The coop looks awesome and is nearly ready for a coat of paint, and the chicks are nearly big enough for their new home.  For now, this will do during the day.

And Books could not care less about these little ladies.

Go Team USA

I have tried and failed many times this year to do a seasonal/ themed project ahead of time.  Here I will tout a success.  First thing you should know, is that I love the Olympics.  Not sure why, but I have always enjoyed watching the games on television and I am greatly looking forward to watching the opening ceremonies next week.  My hope is that I can convince Ada that they are wicked cool so she is excited enough to watch them with me a bit.

I decided our front window artscape (I don't know how else to say that, but as I wrote that you can rest assured I rolled my own eyes at myself) would be the best place.  Ada and I looked at some images of the Olympic rings, we talked about what the games are, and we watched some footage of gymnastics and of Michael Phelps from Beijing.  She was on board.

While Ada was watching a show "by herself, like a big kid" Emma and I got the rings drawn out on butcher paper with pot lids.

We had lunch and since I was feeling in the spirit, I made as much of a USA themed lunch as I could come up with.

Eggs (Ada request) with star toast, red tomatos from the garden, and a blueberry smoothie

Luckily Ada woke up first and we got right to work on the rings.  We looked at some Google images then she decided to do blue first.  We gathered blue materials from the art supplies and got to work.

Emma woke up and ate snack in the kitchen while we worked on yellow...

Then red...

Ada started on green...

Emma finished her snack and they both worked on the second green ring...

Finally the black ring.  We don't have a ton of different black things, so we used some black duct tape to mix it up...

Let them dry.  Cut them out (Ada cut the outside and I cut the inside).  Glue the pieces together.  Since we wanted a mirror image we glued red to blue and yellow to green.  Cut a slit in each ring and put them together while looking at an image on Google to check our work.  Ada and I taped the rings back together where they had ben cut.  Then taped it in the window.

The finished product is one of my favorite things we've done!

Sorry about the glare, but you get the idea :)