Cattail Ducks

The other day I was scouring the internet, searching for an environmentally acceptable way to get rid of all the cattails that are choking up our pond.  I didn't find any miracle solutions. As we already figured, they just have to be dug out with an excavator. But I did come across this nifty little Native American  project for making cattail ducks to float around in the water.

It takes a few tries to get the hang of it.

This is Cole's first attempt at a duck.

He got the hang of it after a couple of tries and a little help.

Heather's duck (with lots of help from Mommy)

The flock, or whatever a group of ducks is called.

Back in the Spring we had real ducks in the pond, but these will have to suffice for now

Blueberry Pie

 Cole has been wanting to make a pie to challenge Wayne's award winning skills.  The other morning, we made a blueberry pie with some hand picked blackberries thrown in for good measure.  Confession: that's a store bought pie crust, but sometimes when you're not entering a contest it's ok to do that.  Below, Cole is giving it a little egg wash so it browns up beautifully in the oven.

Here is the finished product. Doesn't it look pretty? It tasted like summer berry heaven.

Cole got a letter in the mail from his new teacher, Mrs. Dunlavey.  She welcomed him to first grade and mentioned that the class has grown from 7 to 9 students. What a robust little group they are getting to be.

Fun With Jacob

Cousin Jacob came to spend a couple days with us this weekend.  Wayne and Cole were in Star Wars heaven.  As you can see, Jacob brought all his costumes and light sabers with him.  Here is Wayne as Anakin, Jacob as Obi Wan, and Cole as Queen Padme (pronounced Pad-may).

 In the movies, Padme is played by the beautiful Natalie Portman, so I dug out this Halloween wig of long brown hair so Cole could look more like her.

You can see the resemblance.

The van stood in as a space craft.

The actors take a break for lunch. And yes, that is a neanderthal skull in the center of the table. You never know what you'll find at our house...

On Sunday, a break from Star Wars for some go cart racing and miniature golf.

Wayne was all at loose ends yesterday after Jacob went back home.  Complaining of boredom and not knowing what to do with himself.  School in 13 days.

Friends, Science, Nature

To continue our life in the slow lane series...

Cole's school friend, Grant, came over yesterday.  In this photo they're watching a movie they made of themselves doing Star Wars stuff.  They thought they were hilarious on TV.

Grant was reluctant to use the pool. I thought that was strange because kids always love to get in there and splash around. When I gave him a ride home later I discovered why he was so underwhelmed with our little inflatable pool. His family has a full size inground pool.  We can hardly compete with that.

In the science and nature category, Cole and I found this little nest under the apple tree the other day. My best guess is that it's some sort of tree sparrow nest.  The shell fragments are very pale blue with brownish, greyish speckles. That's Cole's hand it's sitting on, so you can see that it's very small.

One of the pear trees is loaded!

I don't know if domestic animals count as science and nature, but just because she doesn't appear on the blog much, and because she certainly does fall into the "friend" category, a photo of our cuddly, purr-factory cat, Patches.

Below, Spike and his jaws of destruction.  We've had him for exactly one year now, and he's helped us get rid of many things around the house. He has managed to turn everything - bicycle helmets, rubber mud boots, stuffed animals, and fire wood to name a few - into itty bitty mulch. If you need something mulched up, and if you don't mind that it's strewn all over your house, driveway, and yard,  just call me up and I'll bring Spike right over.  Oh, and if you need big holes dug in your lawn, he's also an expert at that. Wes loves Spike a lot.

Seriously though, in a few years, when he finally calms down, he's going to be a great dog. He's really smart. His favorite game is "Find Wayne." It can also be called "Find Cole," or "Find Heather." Wayne invented this game after reading a book at school about a search and rescue dog. One of the kids will hide somewhere such as in the raspberry bushes, in the hay field, in a tree, etc. When they're ready I say to Spike, "SPIKE, FIND WAYNE!" or whoever. Spike will immediately drop whatever he's chewing up, stand at alert with ears pricked and do a visual search of the area, before taking off at a gallop, following an air scent to find his hiding playmate.  When he finds him, he circles him a couple of times and then sits there drinking up the praise he receives. I've tried to get a video of this, but when he's on a search he's too fast to follow with the camera.

Speaking of jaws of destruction, check out this little beauty.

 

We've been searching the milkweed plants for a few weeks now for a monarch caterpillar.  Joanie found this one for us while she was mowing her lawn. Talk about very hungry caterpillar, this guy (or gal) went through oodles of milkweed leaves. By the way, I love my camera.

Here he is getting ready to enter the pupa stage.

When we woke up this morning, this is what we found.  I love the colors of a Monarch chrysalis.  This picture doesn't even do it justice.

Until we saw this photo, we didn't even realize how many silk threads attatch the chrysalis so securely to it's perch.  I guess it has to be pretty tough to perservere through wind and rain.

We'll keep you posted on the Story of the Monarch.

Easy Living

Only a few weeks of summer vacation left and we're just taking it easy.

Our day started off with little art - painting on fabric scraps with watercolors.  I set this painting project up to keep the kids busy while I got lunch ready. The problem was that I kept taking pictures and painting with them instead of making lunch.

Wayne declined to take part in this art project because he doesn't like how Cole and Heather get the paints all muddied up in their little pallettes.

I think I'm starting a series here. I'll call it "The Creative Clothes Line."  Heather finished two paintings. Nice girlie, colorful paintings of a butterfly and a flower.

And then there's this. Cole's popculture fusion art, StarWars meets Monster House. Really, he's the nicest, sweetest, gentlest lovebug you could ever meet. I swear.

When they finally got some lunch in their bellies, we headed off to Crystal Lake.

Wayne and Cole working nicely together on something in the sand.

And then a whole crew of boys working nicely together on something in the sand.

Spencer and Heather reunited on the beach.

Hope you all had a fun day.

Catching Up

There's been a lot going on around here this week, so today's post is kind of a mish-mash of photos.  First of all, let's go back to Glover Day this past Saturday.  I was busy in the tie dye tent for most of the day, so I didn't get as many photos as usual, but here's a few.

This year's Glover Day t-shirt was multi colored tie dye, or you could get the white t-shirt and come to my tent and do your own original tie dye. Below, Thomas helps Estelle create her own design.

The kids are lining up for the 2k race. As you can see, it was a very colorful day.

Wayne comes across the finish line.

Not too far behind comes Cole.

Sylvia and Sophia were helping me with the tie dye, while the Burt Porter Band played music in a nearby tent. At one point Sylvia paused and said, "Thant sounds like Sophia playing the violin." We looked over and sure enough, Sophia had joined Burt Porter for a little impromptu jam session. She was great. And by the way, she's 10.

In the days that followed, Wayne and Cole spent lots of time with Jacob at Stuart and Emilie's camp. With all those light sabers whizzing around, it was like being in a Star Wars movie.

Above and below you can see Wayne and Cole's original tie dyes. Isn't Cole the most handsom thing you've seen in your life? Even with a mowhawk.

When I was transferring these photos from my camera to computer, I had a split second where I had to consider whether this was actually Lena or Estelle. Of course, it's Lena seizing the opportunity to climb the steps of the camp.

The other day, we spent some time at Shadow Lake beach.

Cole got buried in the sand.

Heather played in the sand.

I just have to show you my broccoli. I'm so proud of it. It's the only thing that's doing well in our garden. We had some for dinner last night. Wayne kept saying, "This is sooo good."  Even Cole ate some and he's not crazy about broccoli. Wayne and Heather both love it. (You know how I'm always saying, Wayne and Heather are the same, Cole is the different guy in the middle? Case in point.)

And just in case you haven't seen enouhg tie dye in this post - the kids and I tried to use up the leftover dye from Glover Day by making these pillow cases.  Before Glover Day, Wayne and I did a lot of practice shirts and also a lot for display at the tent, not to mention the ones we did a while ago with the kindergarten class. In all that time Wayne has been trying to achieve that perfect spiral design.  He fianlly got it with his pillow case, as you can see on the left.  He was so happy.