Tractor Day at Pineland Farms

We spent yesterday at Pineland, where it was tractor day at the farm.  We started off our morning by riding a hay wagon pulled by a big John Deere tractor down to the barns where several tractors and tractor attachments were set up in a field for the children to explore!  Jack spent the entire time going from one tractor to the next.  It was a dream come true for him (for those of you who know Jack you can imagine how excited he must have been!).  Grace and Eve also had fun exploring the tractors as well as walking in the fields picking dandelions and blowing dandelion seeds together. Here are some pictures from our unforgettable day at the farm...

Sisters

Recital Week...

We are all so very excited for Grace's ballet recital this Friday evening.  This picture of Grace was taken during one of her rehearsals last week.  Many more pictures to come!

Happy Mother's Day

*our dandelion flower prints*

Today I wish all mothers, especially my own mom and mother-in-law a very Happy Mother's Day. 

Paper Chain

 Every May Bob attends an annual retreat with the board members of his Credit Union.  This year they are going to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  Jack and Grace will be coming with us and as Jack says they are both "extremely excited!"  Grace, Jack and Eve all worked together to make this paper chain, which serves as a visual representation of how many days remain until we leave for our trip.  Each link of the chain represents one day.  Every morning Grace, Jack or Eve removes one link from the chain.  We have been watching our paper chain get shorter and shorter over the past few weeks as our trip gets closer and closer.  We will be leaving on May 27th and returning June 2.  

Dandelion Flower Prints

This week the we enjoyed making dandelion flower prints.  This is something that we have done every spring since Grace was born!  The prints are made by dipping dandelions in yellow paint and stamping them onto paper.  This is one of my favorite projects and the childrens' prints always turn out so beautiful (pictures to come!).

Eve had a grand time with the dandelions this year!  It was so much fun for me to watch Eve with the dandelions.  By the end, Eve looked like one of those beautiful dandelions!!!

Notice Eve's band aid over her eye.  Eve fell into a bin full of blocks earlier this week and received a cut just above her eyebrow.  Eve needed to go to an urgent care center and fortunately Eve's laceration was closed with a type of skin glue and not stitches.  Eve has been quite a little trooper all this week by keeping her band aid on!  

This activity is a favorite of Grace's also.  The moment the dandelions appeared this spring Grace said that she couldn't wait to make the flower prints.

Picking Dandelions

Dandelion week was put on hold yesterday because of the rain.  Here are some pictures of Grace, Jack and Eve on Monday picking dandelions in our yard.  We are thankful that the rain stopped overnight so we could continue our week of dandelion activities today!    

Dandelion Week

All things dandelion at our home this week.  Oh, how we love these little yellow spring "flowers."  Pictures of our dandelion activities to come all this week!

Last Night's Supermoon

Here is a picture that I took of last night's supermoon just as it was getting dark outside.  It was the biggest and brightest full moon of the year.  Grace, Jack and Eve knew that the "supermoon" was coming since we had been talking about it all week.  They were SO excited when I surprised them last night by going into their rooms (after they had been tucked in and gone to bed!) to let them know that they could go outside to see this beautiful site.

Last night's supermoon:  14% bigger, over 30% brighter and approximately 15,000 miles closer to Earth

Our Hike Through the Woods to Cascade Falls

Playing in the Rain

We have had a long stretch of rainy days.  Today as I watched Grace, Jack and Eve happily playing in the rain, splashing in the puddles and making mud pies I thought of the following quote:

"Childhood is that state which ends the moment a puddle is first viewed as an obstacle instead of an opportunity."

Painting Our World

Grace, Jack and Eve painted our Earth as a way to celebrate Earth Day last month.  They used blue & green paint and blue & green glitter to paint our world onto paper plates.  We talked in length about our world - especially how we can protect and preserve our Earth.

Grace's Earth

 Jack's Earth

Eve's Earth

"We only have one earth, so we have to take care of her."
- Senator Gaylord Nelson

Learning About Our World

In preparation for Earth Day last month, we have been studying about our Earth.  Eve has been learning about our world be exploring our globe.  We have been talking about how our world is round -- just like a ball.  Eve loves to turn the globe and to find the colors of the different countries.  One of Eve's new favorite words is "gobe" for globe!

Grace has always loved the book Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney.  Grace has been reading this book since she was two years old.  This book has led us to find our own special place on so many maps!  It is this book that helped bring about Grace's love of geography many years ago -- specifically learning the location of our fifty states (and all of their capitals!) and countries around our world.

Jack loves looking at and learning about maps.  Jack has learned so much about continents, countries, states, capitals, borders, physical features and cultural monuments by exploring maps in detail.

More Earth Day activities to come...