Greening Sam and Avery

embrace the rain

It has been SO dry for SO long in WI that when the rain shower started you would have thought there was candy falling from the sky my kids were so excited. We celebrated the rain!

The camera didn't come with us because it was actually raining pretty hard on and off. But I did want to share a few of the things that we did on our walk yesterday. 

Of course we looked for, found and jumped in lots of puddles! But the girls also discovered that along the curb there are "little rivers" and they had a blast following the rivers to see where the water would go. (With slightly older kids this could lead to great conversations about how water flows down, what else might be flowing in that drain and where the water in the drain ulitmately goes.)  We walked down to our neighborhood creek to see how much bigger it was with all the rain and to throw things in the water. Unlike normal you could actually see some current in the little stream so the girls had a lot of fun throwing things in on one side of the bridge and then watching them float out the tunnel on the other side. Great floating v. sinking lessons! (Speaking of that, I have been meaning to link up this great post from my sister with an awesome float or sink experiment that they did, oh and check out the SUPER adorable photos she got of my kiddos last week. Just love have a professional photographer in the family!)

Next time it rains at your house be sure to encourage your kids to enjoy the rain, love the rain and even go out and have fun in the rain!!

the rockies with our little ones

There is no way I can sum up this trip in words. Where to start? 

Well, I will start by telling you why you should take your kids where we went!

We backpacked in the Rainbow Lakes area in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. It was a bit tough to find a campsite that wasn't too close to the lakes but once we found one it turned out to be great for the kids. The hike in was super easy for the girls, even carrying their own backpacks. And the campsite was a quick hike away from several different lakes; lots of places to explore! 

And the views from anywhere in the area were just incredible!

And if catching critters is of interest to your little one these lakes are FULL of great critters. We could see leeches, waterboatman and caddisfly nymphs just be looking down into the lake. 

So the setting that Uncle Craig picked was pretty perfect for little ones! 

There was lots of family time, good food, exploring, cousin bonding and reconnecting with the outdoors. 

We did have a bit of weather issues...hail, lightning, thunder and lots of rain.

But knowing what has been happening all around Colorado we were all just fine with the wet weather! Plus it forced all eight of us into one tent for cards and games which led to lots of laughter and fun! 

*This last photo is taken from the top of Mount Evans which we drove up so the kids could really get a sense of what the top of a mountain looks like!

We had a pretty incredible time! 

To see all of our photos from the vacation check out my facebook page. 

a walk my soul required

Since I started this blog (almost two years ago!) we have been getting outside almost daily to play, ride bikes, visit a park, draw with sidewalk chalk, etc. And on a fairly regular basis we have gotten outside for bigger hiking adventures. But for the past few weeks our schedule has just not made room for a hike or any kind of real time away from everything. Time just to be outside, surrounded by nature, and with no noise from traffic or people. I NEEDED to get away, even if just for a little while. 

So we headed to the dog park. Polly needed some time to run too. Or apparently she needed a swim!

And we were not prepared for her to be muddy and wet. To deal with the muddy we sent her into the lake! 

Then we really started our walk to give Polly lots of time to dry off. 

We played spot the bird, picked flowers, chased butterflies, dragonflies and listened to the red winged black birds. 

And I took the opportunity to get some cute pics of the girls.

And then the excitement of throwing rocks in the creek sent the girls running. Sam is just a little bit faster than Avery!

This was a much needed moment in a semi-wild place for our family to just relax and take in some fresh air! 

Hope you got a break this weekend and got away from ...well whatever you needed to get away from. 

our first backyard fire

Happy Friday! Happy June!

Smoke in the eyes is not so fun!

Smores with great friends!

Just a little moment from our outdoor play today!  

MY mother's day

How I wanted to spend today might be a bit different from what other moms did today. But it was an AWESOME day and I did exactly what I wanted to. 

There was water play in our new pool, 

and it was a bit cold but the girls still has a blast!

I tackled a patch of stinging nettles that will hopefully be our pumpkin patch! 

The grass got cut! And I didn't have to do it!

I weeded the strawberry bed and admired the beautiful blooms that have suddenly appeared. 

And we planted a tree! Well, transplanted it really. This small maple tree was in a different part of our yard, being choked out by a larger bush so we decided to try and move it to save it. I don't know if it will make it because we couldn't get a lot of roots, but we will see. 

If this one doesn't make it we have decided we will buy a small tree to put in this spot. We need a bit more shade in our yard and are hoping that we can save this small tree tree and not have to buy one, but we will see. 

We ended the day with a great dinner, reading time and cuddles. 

It was a great outdoor day full of productivity, fun and laughter. What could be better than that?

Hope you all had a great Mother's Day!

gardening report (gardening with kids)

We are in the middle of yard sale/garage sale madness at this house! Five families have dropped off stuff at my house to be sold Thursday through Saturday. The kids (mine plus three other friends) will have a lemonade and cookie stand too! 

But in the midst of pricing, organizing, and setting up to sell all of our junk, I mean slightly used wonderful stuff, we had to do some planting.

First off I just wanted to ask if any gardeners have ever seen Rhubarb that looks this THIS!

Should I harvest it? Is it suppose to flower like that? What do I do with those really long stalks? Any advice you have on harvesting rhubarb would be AWESOME! Please leave a comment. 

Today we planted yellow onions, romaine lettuce, yellow beans and bush beans. The girls had a great time taking turns to plant with their dad. 

 Our method for having the girls help is to hand them a few seeds and then we point to where the seed should go and they put it in. Once all the seeds are planted we work together to push the soil back over the seeds. I imagine this is a pretty common way of having little kids plant row crops.

Sam, at age 4, is already pretty good at handling the smaller seeds (carrots, onions, etc.) but Avery is just on her first planting year to be involved so she just helped with the bigger bean seeds.

Beans are, in my opinion, some of the best plants to grow with young kids. The seeds are big and easy to handle. The seeds sprout fairly quickly so that they don't have to be patient for too long. The beans are easy to pick off and a great immediate snack in the yard. My girls both loved helping to pick the beans last year and I know this year they will get just as into the process.

To see a list of other great plants to grow with your little ones head over here. And be sure to check out the book "Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots"  by Sharon Lovejoy. It is an awesome resource for gardening with kids. 

How is your gardening going so far this year?  And WHAT do I do with my rhubarb?!

watercolors to capture the flowers

Nana's backyard is filled with flowers. 

As described by a four year old there are yellow spikey ones, 

purple ones with five parts,

orange ones that just look like lots of circles, 

and pink hanging down ones. 

So to try and capture all the beautiful flowers in the backyard we got out our watercolors today. And painted out on the deck. 

These are super simple sets, they actually came with coloring books (like Dora and Tinkerbell) but then we save the paints long after the book as all been used up. 

Even though we walked around looking at the flowers, talking about their shapes and colors, Sam did not really translate that onto the page. She wanted to use blue paint, so suddenly there were blue flowers in Nana's backyard! 

Oh well, we had great conversations about the flowers anyway. And painting is always fun. 

Even I got into it!

I have no artistic skills but Sam just loves to see me paint with her. And I always find it very soothing. 

A great way to spend some quality time while Avery was still napping. 

 

bring on the boots

Between taking Sam to school, doing laundry, packing the car and mulitple other tasks Avery and I stole a few minutes to go find some puddles in our boots! 

Our yard did not have the big puddles that it normally does after a storm (woohoo for rain barrels and new landscaping! shhh don't tell the girls that I am preventing their puddles!) BUT that did not stop Avery from hunting for them. 

And possibly the best part of having rain barrels is being able to indulge your daughter when she says "mommy can you make me a river?".  

With not much watering happening in the garden yet I knew we wouldn't run out of water in the rain barrels before the next rain storm. So why not make a river?!  

I mean really, what could be more fun then having your own little river to walk in? 

Our rain barrel makes play in the mud kitchen, water table, creating rivers, puddles and allowing the girls to water whatever they want whenever they want totally possible and for this going green momma comletely guilt free! I love that. 

Have you stomped in a puddle with your little one lately? Why not make your own puddle just for stomping? Get a rain barrel and you can make one whenever you want. 

Just wanted to check in to see if others were keeping up with the 2012 goal of playing outside everyday. We haven't missed a day yet and I am working really hard to make sure our backyard is ready for LOTS of continuous outdoor play this summer. I can't wait to get all my projects done and be able to share with you lots of ideas for backyard outdoor play to fill your summer days! Let me know how your everyday outdoor play is going. 

best earthworm book

If digging for worms is an everyday occurrence at your house too then you have to find this book. An Earthworm's Life by John Himmelman.

The girls and I have been doing a lot of yard work gardening which almost always leads to finding worms, creating worm homes in our buckets and watching lots of worms wiggle in our hands. My girls LOVE worms. So when I was looking through the nonfiction section at the library and found this book I was pretty excited. I didn't know that much about worms so it was a good book for me too!

We like the book because the text is simple and can hold the girl's attention much like a fiction book but has a ton of great information about worms. We learned all about what they do during the winter, what they eat, who they are scared of and how they have babies. Now the girls have a lot more knowledge about these great little treasures that are all over our backyard! 

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The Nitty Gritty!

If you are looking for even more worm fun you can check out our worm learning activities here and our worm game here.    

a wonderful wednesday

Running along a trail in hot pursuit of great natural treasures!

Lots of native wildflowers!

Time to pause for snacks and photos!

Some playground play.

And then taking a closer look at Lake Mendota.

We wore these little ones out!

Awesome outdoor play can do that!!