Homegrown Herbs

I LOOOOOOVE LOOOOOOVE LOOOOVE fresh herbs! 

Last year I planted several types of herbs - rosemary, thyme, cilantro, basil, lovage, oregano, mint - but I never really knew what to do with them other than smell them. 

Gardening is such a learning process!

This year I am truely learning how to cook with them.

Examples:
Basil = all pastas, egg dishes, & salads
Cilantro = chopped up and put right into the rice while its cooking

Basil and Cilantro

Lovage = (a celery type of smell/taste) put into the pot instead of celery to make vegetable stock


Mint = put leaves right into my ice-tea cup, and the kids like to chew them

Mint is very aggressive - it will take over an area!

I'm still working on new ways to use my herbs:)

Today I used my sisters dehydrator to dry oregano and rosemary and thyme... its sooooooooooooooooo much easier than I thought!



so - u pick some stems, put them in the dehydrator and turn it on!
Wow - it doesn't much easier!
Extra bonus- the house smells amazing



Then I had the kids pull the leaves off the stems and put them in baggies!

TADPOLE UPDATE:

They are getting bigger! I've decided to leave them in the same bucket for now because they are eating the algea growth off the sides of the bucket.

Cute little babies - huh

Wildlife Rescue

The little baby duckling chirped all night - probably calling to its mother... it was very sad!

Soooo I called the Wildlife Rescue first thing in morning and they told me they could take it:)   In fact they had 4 other baby ducklings and they would become a flock together. 

Eddie hugging the duck goodbye

Simone giving the duckling some love

Andre giving his last hug to the duckling

The Rescue Center was really cool -
they even had a small museum

There were trutle shells and eggs and skins and this showcase

This box had examples of animal poop - there was even bee poop!

recycled crayons

I have been saving old crayons for yeeeaaarrrssss...
I always knew that I wanted to make new crayons with them - but I figured it would just make a big mess-
so I kept procrastinating...

Well, we finally did it. 
This morning we unwrapped, broke, and melted many many crayons and YES we created a ginormous mess. 

 But it was fun (and simple) and the crayons turned out cute.

Eli is adding cupcake cake liners to the tin. 
I chose liners because rumor has it -
wax is not easy to clean!

Eddie and Simone are sorting crayons.

Andre is busy peeling labels off crayons.

The crayons are all ready to be put in the oven
(275 degrees) (10 min)
See the mess? It got worse  -



Andre and Eli were putting all the wrappers
 on the Lazy Susan & spinning it...

The finished crayons...
I poured the hot wax into jello molds
(not as scary as it sounds)

Seriously - a duck

Who finds a lone baby duck in their driveway?

Not me...
but my sister-in-law up the street did...

and so now it has a temporary home in our classroom:)

THE DUCKLING IS SOOOOOOO CUTE!
I'm tempted to turn it into a pet?  Who knows...

TADPOLES

As a Science Field Trip we went to the park
to look for animals.

The kids found a toad in the field.

Simone holding an itty bitty toad.



Edison is helping Andre and Eli hold the toad.

 

Since they couldn't bring the toad home,
 they made him a home in the trunk of a tree



Then we went to a large puddle

and found it busy with little tadpoles.

The large puddle

Edison is holding the bucket of tadpoles

We have 11 tadpoles to raise until they turn into frogs...
which means we have 19 animals!

Edison and Andre are checking on the tadpoles...
eventually they will need a bigger home -
oh and they eat boiled lettuce!

More COLORS

Again I will say it...
"I love Garage Sales and Goodwill!!"

I got the colorful counting bears for 50 Cents at a garage sale.

I got the colorful plates (w/ matching cups) at goodwill for 3 dollars.

Eli spent all morning playing with the bears and plates - matching colors and then being silly and mixing them up... he even put the bears to sleep. 
In a few days when I give them to him to play with - I will use the color cups with the bears to make it an all new game:)

Elijah was matching the colors correctly -
for about 5 minutes...
then he started acting silly.

Elijah went and got the blanket because
he wanted the bears to go to sleep:)
How sweet!

Andre couldn't resist - he had to play with the bears too...
Again - after about 5 minutes - they were both acting silly
and the bears were EVERYWHERE

Here is an EASY science experiment...

Cut some white flowers from your garden, or your neighbors, or even from a park...
or you can buy white carnations...

Put them in a vase with some colored water (just add food coloring).  Within a day, the flower will have changed to the color of the water.

This shows kids the purpose of the stem - to bring water up from the roots to the flower.

More Colored Water Fun:

This time I gave the kids eyedroppers and ice cube trays to mix their water with

First - I let Eli play with the water all by himself -
I let him make a great big mess and have fun
(so the big kids could experiment without him)

Let the Experimenting begin...

MAD SCIENTIST Simone

Eddie is clean & tidy  - in this picture

Eli got to check out magnets for the first time -
I had to keep him busy...

Aahhhh - the messes that kids can create...

Lego Mania

I really know how to have fun on a weekend ...
I organized our legos by color while watching Hoarders
and yes - I had a blast doing it!

Simone, Eli, and Eddie playing Legos

Andre decided to switch to the TRIO Blocks
since they are easier to build with

OH - I almost forgot to mention the BIRDS the kids got fot their B-DAYS...
Aang and Katara (from Avatar)
(yes - more animals)