Easter Weekend

 

 

It's been a wonderful weekend. The sun was shining and we had lots of time with family. For a week before we have been working on special little things for this weekend. A has been painting eggs of all sorts, she made a wreath for our door, we planted some flowers seeds and I busied myself with stitching felt eggs and dying eggs with natural dyes.

I do feel bad that I didn't get to hand make something for my children's baskets. I decided to keep them simple. I got each of them a little story book, sidewalk chalk, homemade playdough with a spring cookie cutter, bubbles, a silly straw and I was so glad to find some organic, fair trade dark chocolate bunnies. Even with these fun little things, their favorite item this to play with this weekend were the baskets and the wool felt Easter eggs I made a few years ago. They have been hiding and finding eggs all weekend.

We closed our weekend with a beautiful and delicious dinner with my parents. My children love their grandparents so much so a dinner with them any time is special. We dressed up, used the nice plates and made all those amazing dishes that are too time consuming to make on weeknights. I'm looking at these pictures and smiling. It was such a lovely weekend.

Learning Lifecycles

It's spring and new life is popping up everywhere. It was the perfect time to start talking about life cycles. A is very interested in nature and biology so this grabbed her attention immediately. We frequently visit the butterfly gardens in town and observe chrysalis there. We also have chicks we are observing go through the changes to chicken. We have painted lady larvae we will be raising coming next month and we are hoping to raise a couple tadpoles to frogs as well. It's such a fascinating topic. There are so many processes of development in nature.

 We made sure to stop by the library and stock up on books to help us answer all our life cycle questions. While information books are really helpful, I was glad to find some story books that we could read a bedtime that tied into what we had been discussing. Hurry and the Monarch and Tale of a Tadpole were great stories for us and beautifully illustrated.

One more place we are observing life cycles is in the garden. Seeds are sprouting, bulbs we planted in the fall are blooming, trees are blossoming. I asked A to draw me a life cycle and she drew the life cycle of a tree. On the left under the dirt is a green seed (like the green acorns we find in September) that has sprouted, then it becomes a seedling before finally growing into a tree. She made sure to tell me about the sun and how the plants need the sun. I love when she shares her knowledge with me.

Round One

This weekend we brought home our first pair of chicks. We are planning to get a couple different breeds this year so we have to pick them up from different farms. These are a pair of Columbia Rock chicks. Needless to say, they were instantly adored. We don't have a lot of space for a cage of chicks, especially a place where small hands can't grab at them, so our chicks call the laundry room home. It's warm and it's the only room in the house with a gate. Little F likes to just sit with by their cage. I'm really proud of how gentle he is. He can be really rough with the grown chickens but he's been very sweet to the chicks.

Anew

Yes, it's still grey most days but the temperature is rising and spring is making itself known. There is something so magical about this time of year. There are new buds on the trees, the smell of blossoms in the air, crocuses popping up everywhere and the cheery yellow of daffodils all around. Now if we could have a bit more sun so it's not so muddy out, it would be perfect!