What can you grow in just a 12" cube?

THIS!

Back in May when we finally started gardening at this house, I never expected to dig out almost 5 lbs of potatoes from ONE square. Quinn's blue potatoes just loved their spot in his square foot garden. He planted 4 potato plants which promptly took root and spilled beautifully over the sides of the box.  This weekend we decided it was time to harvest the long awaited potatoes.  When we pulled the 1st few out it was so exciting to see such big potatoes. After the 5th potato, we couldn't believe how many potatoes we had dug out. By the 20th one we were just hoping to find them all!

When I asked him if I could take his picture with his potatoes today, he responded "Sure! I already have my pose picked out." Who knew gardening could teach kids good eating habits with a side of self esteem and accomplishment?

Summer Finale

As always, I think summer will be this fabulously endless event with time to spare... I am sure we will be bored.  As it turns out, we are never bored, always busy, and rushing to catch up at the last minute. The collage above is of the last flings of summer before we are all back to school. The kids and I had a great trip to the state capital followed by a date at Starbucks, I had a great night of snacks, laughs, drinks and singing with friends and Nolan had a back to school date with his friend Anna at the zoo. 

After squeezing all the fun into the last few weeks of summer that we could, we headed back to school. 

Nolan headed off to kindergarten this year. He is so excited to spend the year with his friends from preschool again and go to what he thinks of as a party every day. The photo below shows the last image we saw of Nolan as we waved good bye.. it may not be a party for him after all. :)

Quinn started 2nd grade and is apprehensive this year. He had a hard year last year and while I think the summer fun has softened the blow a little, he is still a little raw from 1st grade. His teacher, Mrs. Reyes, seems detemined to help him have a great year so we will take it one day at a time and hope for a better year.

I am back to teaching now as well. I am excited to see all the happy faces come through the door in the morning eager to have fun with all their friends. I love it when learning is all about fun and everything is new and exciting. The 5 days a week is an adjustment but I love being back in the classroom.

Happy back to structure, madness, cooler weather and school everyone!

The Creative Genius of Invention Camp

Each year our kids get to pick one and only one week long summer camp to attend. They are learning to pick wisely. Quinn's choice was made very easy this year by the little flier that came home bearing the title "Invention Camp". To make it more exciting (at least to us) the camp was sponsored by the US Patent and Trademark Office.  He has spent the last 5 days tearing apart small appliances, duct taping recyclables into robots, making flying pigs out of paper cups, and making roller coasters out of pipe insulation. Today was the open house and he was so proud to take the family on a tour of all the exciting inventions.  We exited the building with 1 mock patent for the newly invented battle droid seen above and 1 happy little boy.

Toothless- Finally!

About 10 min. after we laid Quinn down tonight, we heard little feet running like mad down the stairs. THIS is what all the ruckus was about... "MY TOOTH CAME OUT!!" He was so excited. Quinn is the only child in his 1st grade class who had not lost a tooth by the end of the school year and so when he turned up with a "wiggler" 2 weeks ago, he was pretty excited. He quickly ran to get Nolan up so he could show off the gaping hole which he can proudly squeeze his tongue out through. Nolan's response was typical. "Quinn, when you die before me because you are older and go up to heaven, I will always have this tooth to remember you by. You are the best big brother in the whole world. I am so proud of you."

Estes Park Extravaganza

 

On the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, we sadly said goodbye to Poppa and headed out for Estes Park, Colorado. As Poppa headed back to the 100 degree heat of Texas, we headed for the cool dry air of the mountains. After skirting a tornado in Eastern Colorado we arrived at the YMCA of the Rockies with a little daylight to spare. The boys immediately gravitated to the huge boulder right outside our cabin and that is where they spent all of their free time during our stay. 

After some much needed rest, we decided to brave a mountain hike with both the boys. For those of you who have ever been around them both at the same time you might say "Have you lost your minds!?"  Possibly.  It could be that we were just adjusting to the altitude and the blindness that the beauty of the mountains brings to us or possibly we HAD just lost our minds but we did it anyway. It was fabulous. We all made it to the top of Bible Point in one piece and it was well worth it. At the top is a memorial to a man who spent much of his time there. Part of the memorial is a mailbox containing notebooks, pens, a Bible, and an invitation to leave a note. Quinn wrote "I love Bible Point".  What more needs to be said? 

 

The best thing about the YMCA of the Rockies is that they have a daycamp for the children.The boys spent 2 days of their vacation tooling around the Y camp with other kids their age and over enthusiastic college age camp counselors. They loved it and don't tell but WE loved having 2 days to ourselves as well. We spend one entire day on an 8 mile hike into Rocky Mountain National Park through alpine lakes, waterfalls and boulder fields.  Something we used to do almost once a week before we moved to corn country and had kids.

The last day that we were there the kids turned in their Junior Ranger booklets that they had been dutifully filling out all week to receive their official Rocky Mountain National Park Junior Ranger badges. These look especially amazing on their official Junior Ranger Vests Grammy brought them from the Grand Canyon. After that, Nolan told everyone, and I mean EVERYONE that we saw,  "Guess What?! My brother and I have became official Junior Rangers!"  Most of them were as proud of him as he was of himself.

If you ask each family member what their favorite part of our vacation was this is what you will hear:

Quinn: "Everything but especially going to Bible Point!" 

Nolan: "Getting my official Park Ranger Badge & making my rubber band gun at the craft center "

Jim: "Hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park."

Karen: "Being in the mountains, hiking, and not using a hair dryer all week."

Movin' on Up...

For the last 2 weeks Quinn has been counting the days until he moves from Tiger Cub to Wolf Cub in scouting. He has gone as far as asking if it was bath night because he "needs to look nice for his ceremony!". Today, he informed us that the squirrels are going crazy outside "because they know a wolf is here now".  The much anticipated ceremony arrived and to Quinn's delight, several family members were there to watch it unfold.
Instead of an orange kerchief, he now wears yellow. Instead of a tiger, he now wears a wolf insignia on his belt. These may sound like minor differences to you but to his 7 year old...it is so much more. He truly loves scouts and is so proud of his new rank. Way to go little wolf cub, we are proud of you too.

Fun Saturday in the Sun

Back during our beautiful April weather, Jim built both of the boys each a beautiful square foot garden box. I got one too but mine is much bigger. We have all had fun planning what we will plant and where we will plant it in our own boxes. Nolan's picture shows the 1st harvest of the year from his box, radishes. Quinn says it tastes really good "as long as I have chips to go with it". Nolan says "It is the best thing I have tasted in the whole world."    Quinn hasn't harvested anything yet but his potatoes are well on their way which pleases him greatly.  I love gardening and I am thrilled that my kiddos are getting into it too.

This picture was just too cute not to share- it has nothing to do with gardening. ;)