Summer's Bounty

Jay's tomato plant has produced a bumper crop of lovely tomatoes!

He's been sharing them with Bee and their Littlest Pet Shop animals.

Magnetic Poem

Saw this on the fridge today:

Our Favorite Things - #1

Several months ago we bought the Radio Theatre production of The Chronicles of Narnia on cd to listen to in the car (we "read" a lot of books this way as we spend a lot of time in the car going to various activities). We've enjoyed all of the stories immensely, but I was moved to post about it after listening to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader on our way to the library yesterday. Without ruining the story for those who don't know it, there was a certain part of the story that had us all absolutely riveted! The kids have been dying to go somewhere today just so we can listen to it some more.
We don't listen to them only in the car - we have found that listening to them at night with the lights turned down (or by candlelight) makes the stories even more magical. With a cup of something warm to drink in your hands, life doesn't get much better!

Silly Book Titles

We saw these on the Bruce Coville website and thought they were pretty funny:


Joe Wins at a Track Meet by C. Howie Runns

How to Succeed in School by Rita Book

Foot Coverings by Susan Socks

Falling Trees by Tim Burr

Downpour! by Wayne Dwops

Chased By A Werewolf by Claude Bottom

The Vampire's Victim by E. Drew Blood

The Bad-Tempered Werewolf by Claudia Armoff

Creature From Mars by A. Lee-En

Monsters I Have Known by O. Pen Jaw

French Overpopulation by Francis Crowded

Cooper's Hawk

Bee took this photo awhile ago of what we think is a Cooper's Hawk (any birders out there that can confirm this?). It landed in the tree in front of our house while they were out playing one day, and she was quick to grab the camera. We thought we'd post it today because we saw him scare the daylights out of a Junco this morning while we were in the yard. The poor little bird flew like a rocket headlong into the Laurel at the back of our garden, and the hawk flew off looking like he could care less.
We feel so lucky when we get to see things like this even in the middle of the city!

Sewing Project

This smashing backpack is the latest project that the very crafty Bee made with her equally crafty grandma.
The model is Rachel, her "Just Like You" American Girl doll. Her other dolls (Jess and Elizabeth) will be getting their own backpacks shortly.

First Harvest

Jay was thrilled to harvest his very first cherry tomato of the season today (it's the first tomato of the whole garden, actually!). I'm told it was very yummy.

Slime Mold

We discovered this weird stuff in our garden awhile ago. It was the brightest French's Mustard yellow - bizarre. Thanks to a fellow blogger, we found out that it's actually something called slime mold.
This is what we found out about it (thanks to Wikipedia):

"It has been observed that they can find their way through mazes by spreading out and choosing the shortest path, an interesting example of information processing without a nervous system."

and this:

"In 2006, researchers at the University of Southampton and the University of Kobe reported that they had built a six-legged robot whose movement was remotely controlled by a Physarum slime mould. The mould directed the robot into a dark corner most similar to its natural habitat." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slime_mould)

This is what it looked like the next day:

And the day after that:

Pretty cool stuff!!

Great Homeschooling Article

Minding your own
July 13, 2006

Stefanie Mohsennia is a librarian, a self-described "sit down, read and write type." She liked school and did very well. But as a parent, she began to see that her son's learning style differed from hers; she became concerned the school would be unable to answer his needs.

Basics, like the structure of the school day, interfered. Mohsennia said her seven-year-old son "would not be interested in math at 8 or 9 a.m. in the morning."

"Why sacrifice his love of learning?" she asks.

She took a big step and decided to home-school her son. But ironically, to home-school, she had to leave her home.

Mohsennia relocated to Canada from her native Germany, where home education is legally verboten.

Home-schooling is legal everywhere in Canada. Mohsennia's son joins the 80,000 kids estimated by the Canadian Centre for Home Education who are being home-educated as the movement to teach your own grows steadily.

To read the full article, click here.

Ladybug Lifecycle

We've got masses of ladybugs in our yard this year, and have managed to get some good photos of ladybug reproduction. We saw these two beetles mating in the corn and bean patch.

Here is a cluster of eggs that we found on a cosmo leaf.
Below is a photo of a ladybug larva (this is what they look like after they've hatched out of the eggs). They apparently molt a few times before pupating and becoming beetles. Just look at him chowing down on all those fat, juicy aphids (their favorite snack).

Next are two photos of pupae that we found.

And finally, a brand new ladybug newly emerged from his pupa!