Two favorites

My favorite kid question this week:

We were driving to NYC this week taking home our friends Kat and baby Kaesun when Abigail asked if the Empire State building was the tallest in the world.  I said no but it used to be.  That's when Tristan asked, "How did it get smaller, mama?"  Love it!

My favorite picture this week:

Abigail holding baby Kaesun.  She couldn't get enough of him even when he was crying. 

peace

This week in the garden

Our first cucumber!  Oh, and don't mind that ghost in the garden.  She is quite tame.  We have two cucumber plants that Tristan brought home from preschool at the end of the year.  They really were an afterthought.  I didn't have a place to plant them and Matt's mom suggested planting them at the edge of the garden and letting them trail down the side.  That has worked perfectly.  They are happy trailing along the ground and we are happy eating them.

And the squash is plentiful.  Although not from our garden, we were overwhelmed blessed this week with squash from two of our neighbors gardens.  What to do with almost a dozen squash and two kids who don't like it?  Blanch and freeze, that's what!  The kids each took turns washing, even cutting (very supervised) with a sharp knife, I did the blanching, then they gave the squash an ice bath and packed it away in freezer bags.  Abigail worked on her penmanship by marking and dating the bags.  Tristan worked on counting and fine motor skills by counting the bags for each batch and actually getting the cut up slippery squash into the bags.

So far this year we are stocked up on strawberry freezer jam, blueberries, and squash.  It is getting pretty full in there...I think some of the dead animals need to go...

peace

Taking flight

Warning :  This post is image heavy!!  

The following picture montage is the emergence of one of the butterflies from its chrysalis.  If you look carefully, you can see the butterfly pull itself out of the chrysalis and the wings actually expand as its blood-like fluid pumps into its wings for the first time.  This butterfly was the only one we happened to see emerge and I was awestruck.

This week in the garden

Lettuce!

 

We harvested our first crop of lettuce this past weekend (only about a quarter of what is growing) and it was so delicious.  We had a fantastic salad all from our garden of lettuce, peas, and green beans.  And yes, the kids ate it too.  With ranch dressing.  But still they ate it.

I could become seriously addicted to gardening (in a really good way, I swear!). 

Also, not related to our garden but connected in my mind because it is growing outside, I saw the Blue Bead Lilly's, whose flower picture I posted in the spring, fruit which is blue, surprise, surprise.  Next day?  Gone.  These woods sure are full of busy little critters.

peace

ps pictures of the butterflies' progress coming soon (and I promise they are good!).

Big night

Last night the kids slept in a tent for the first time.  At the end of August we are camping in Acadia National Park for a week and seeing that this is the first time the kids will be camping, we decided we needed a few test runs. 

They did great.  Just the two of them slept in the tent together because it was our tent before we had children and is too small for 4, tight for 3.  And well, neither of us were all that excited about squeezing in there.  Matt and the dog slept on the porch to be close by.

The kids got ready for bed in the house, we read stories together in the tent, tucked them in, and then did chores while they fell asleep.  I was expecting giggling and horsing around and/or some "mom, I am scared" but there was none of that.  Tristan fell asleep almost immediately, Abigail took a bit longer but with no problems.  I think it helps that they share a room and sleep next to each other every night.  There was no novelty in snuggling next to each other. 

I loved watching Tristan's eyes as we were reading stories and it was getting darker outside.  He just kept looking from side to side like he wasn't quite expecting the darkness.  We kept the rain fly off until after they fell asleep so they could see the stars.  Matt had also lit the tikki torches on the back porch and put on the uplight in the yard so they could see the familiar surroundings even though it was dark.

There was a 2 am wet bed that we had to clean up and then I (lucky me!) spent the rest of the night in the tent with them but they went right back to sleep.  It is 7:23 am and they are still sleeping!  That doesn't always happen even when they sleep in their own bed.

First test?  Success!

peace