Gardening

I am exhausted.  The kids and I worked on planting flowers around our mailbox.  I figured that was a small area and it would get me motivated to do the rest of the yard.  Well it might have had the opposite effect.  That small area took most of the afternoon and boy am I tired!  No wonder my grandmother stayed so thin all of her life!  She loves to garden and finds it therapeutic.  I was hoping to have some of her green thumb and wish that I enjoyed it half as much as she does.  Maybe it will become more enjoyable once my back gets used to the bending over and my arm muscles are built up from pulling weeds.  One can always dream:) 

On the other hand we did have a great time digging, finding all of the insects, playing in the mud, getting dirty from head to toe and then playing in the water!  I wish I would have taken my camera outside and taken a before and after picture.  We are excited to see our flowers appear!

These are our sunflowers from last year.  We are going to make a playhouse with sunflowers this year.  Looking forward to that project…I think:) 

Skater Boy

Yesterday at the park, Ryan was playing on a skateboard.  He has never done this before.  He was a natural!  Check out his moves!

 

Here he was using all of his strength to power this hand held excavator. 

Best Friends

With A Friend
By: Vivian Gould
I can talk with a friend
and walk with a friend
and share my umbrella in the rain.
I can play with a friend
and stay with a friend
and learn with a friend
and explain.
I can eat with a friend
and compete with a friend
and even sometimes disagree.
I can ride with a friend
and take pride with a friend.
A friend can mean so much to me!

These two are the best of friends.  I looked back yesterday and this was what a saw.  Two cute boys holding hands.  Sometimes they laugh and goof off, sometimes they fight and argue, but all in all they are great friends. 

Field Trip to Great Harvest Bread Company

Today we went to visit the Great Harvest Bread Company to see how bread is made.  The lady who led the field trip was so great with the kids! 

We got to taste lots of yummy bread while we were there!

First the lady read us a book about making bread! We learned about the five ingredients of good bread…wheat flour, water, honey, yeast and salt. Most of the store breads have a lot of preservatives. 

  

She showed us how to shake the wheat to get the grains.

We got to collect the grains and put them into a container.

The yeast smelled like stinky feet. 

This is the mill that they used to grind the wheat.

Here is the mixer that they used to mix all of the ingredients.

We got to roll out our own bread dough.

This is the huge oven where they cook the bread.  There are 8 shelves in the oven.  Each shelf holds 6 pans of bread.  They can fit up to five loaves on each pan which equals 240 loaves of bread that can be baked at one time. 

Thanks Great Harvest Bread Company for a fun field trip! 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Yesterday we had a St. Patrick’s Day Party with friends.     

We first read a book and made bracelets with green beads.  We learned that the color of Ireland was green.

We ate yummy cupcakes colored green.

We played outside in the water and mud to work off all of the extra sugar!

We made collages with tissue paper and confetti.  We also talked about parades in Ireland.  The kids had a parade.   Later we had pizza and green sprinkled cookies.  I love that we have another family to homeschool with!  We have so much fun learning together!