Easter etc.

      I'm sitting down for a few minutes to take a break after scrubbing down the patio in the blazing hot sun. Things have been very busy around here lately.  Pregnant and functioning at about 50% anyway, I've had a sick little girl with a double ear infection, Easter and an upcoming birthday party to get ready for.  My youngest's ears have apparently fallen victim to days of fun in the new pool. Unfortunately, the birthday party is for her, the antibiotic she's on is slow to work and her party is a pool party.  After missing all outside Easter festivities including church Sunday morning, hopefully, her ears will feel well enough to go in the pool for her party. The Doctor okay-ed it but said she needs to put a few drops of a mixture of vinegar and alcohol afterward which she is not crazy about.  So we got through Easter,  lots of sleepless nights with a feverish, congested little girl and things seem to be coming together for the party tomorrow. The pool is up, the trampoline is up, the yard is clean, the patio is clean, we bought some sod and mulch to cover most of the sandy places and the yard looks remarkably nice after my last post.  Now,  if I can just get my to do list done today we should be all set.

Here's a little of what we've been up to the last little while..............

   Relaxing with some books after the pool

 Tiger Butterfly sucking nectar from the Pentas

 Sleepy kitty

                                         Coloring Easter Eggs...........

 

Oldest's 

 Middle's

Youngest's

 She missed the egg hunt at church because she 

was sick, so her brother and sister made her 

her own at home.........

 Checking the loot

Since she was trying to expand her web  

the entire length of our patio, it became 

apparent that is was time for the spider 

queen to move to another location.  At first 

my daughter didn't want to move her but 

when someone walked through her web 

every day, breaking it, she realized it was 

necessary.  The spider queen has now been 

happily relocated to the a bush in the 

front yard.

Musings on a Backyard

The grass is always greener on the other side......

In my case, this old adage is actually very true. My backyard neighbor has a perfect yard. Lawn is not something you can take for granted where we live. It takes time, money, sprinklers and usually a professional crew, but his is always full, thick, weed-free and the perfect shade of green. Ours is not. Ours is sparse, dry and mostly weeds. The sprinklers don't cover the whole yard, that is, when they are working, which is sporadic, so parts of our "lawn" are sand. My poor husband spends countless hours working on the sprinklers which break again as soon as they are fixed. When they're not working, the grass dies and we're left with lots of sand. Then, the dog (and sometimes, the kids) dig holes so when the sprinklers are working and the weeds start growing again, our yard is nice and lumpy. I won't even go into all the overgrown trees, shrubs and vines that we can never keep up with.

Between, balls, bats, dirt encrusted Barbies, dog toys and lots of tacky plastic kids furniture, our yard is almost always cluttered. Throw in chip bags, freezer pop wrappers, forgotten cups, plates, spoons, scissors, STEAK KNIVES (I'm never sure why), every pair of shoes my daughter owns, countless frog and bug habitats and you have a real mess. I try to keep up with it, but they can mess it up way faster than I can keep up, usually while I'm busy cleaning the inside of the house. I often look through my dirty, disheveled, dry, weedy yard at my neighbor's and wish mine were as neat and green as his.

I spoke to my backyard neighbor the other day for the first time, other than an occasional wave. My kids play with the kids in the yard next to his and he was angry because they were using his yard as a go between rather than walk all the way around the block. He was relatively polite but essentially he is a grumpy old man who doesn't like kids (or dogs) very much. He complained that he doesn't want kids in his yard because they mess up the grass and break his sprinkler heads. He went on to explain that that's why he doesn't let his step kids play in the backyard. If they play in the backyard, not only will they damage his perfect yard but they will attract other children which can only lead to further damage. So, in his mind, keeping children locked up inside is a perfectly reasonable way to ensure enviable nice, green grass....nice green grass that only my family can see......nice green grass that is never enjoyed by anyone. Suddenly I wasn't envious.

My yard is often messy but it is enjoyed, a lot! We have a little butterfly garden that we love to tend. We can watch butterflies suck nectar through their straw-like tongues. We've watched and nurtured countless bugs and caterpillars. We have a little patio we made ourselves. It's not beautiful, but it gets used constantly. We have a little table and chairs. They're not the nice, comfy patio furniture I dream of but they're used. I eat breakfast on the patio almost every morning. We use it to eat dinner, play games, carve pumpkins, dye eggs, play with play-dough, read stories and have camp fires. We have a sand box, a very weathered swing set, a playhouse, as of just recently, a cheap unattractive above ground pool and my kids have just saved enough money to buy a trampoline. None of these things add to the visual appeal of my backyard at all, they definitely take away from it. But, judging by the amount of neighbor kids in my backyard on a regular basis, they definitely add to its overall appeal. Yes, my backyard is messy and weedy but, my backyard is fun. My backyard is busy. My backyard is full and happy and enjoyed. I'll take that over perfectly green unused grass any day!

The Spider Queen

        My youngest has been particularly captivated by this spider lately.  After observing it, she declared that she is a queen spider because she has a beautiful crown.  While her "crown" is actually her rump, I'd much rather view this regal spider through the eyes of my daughter. We had a storm the other day and she and her web were blown off the Mexican Petunia she calls home. We noticed later, that she had just relocated to a position closer to the ground. This home turned out to be temporary since, a few days later, she was back, with a new web, in her original location. There is also a princess who is smaller and a different shade, on another bush and we recently discovered a tiny baby princess a few flowers down. Gardens can be incredibly interesting places!

A Day at the Musuem

 You know it's going to be a good day when you wake up to this.........

    Once a month, the History and Art Museums have a family day and, while we don't go every month, we try to go as much as possible. Even after years of going, the kids usually look forward to it every month. Rarely do they choose not to go.  This time, we took a  friend with us who had never been there before. It was fun watching the kids take her through a "tour" of the History Museum pointing out different exhibits. It was interesting to see all the different facts they've picked up and remembered over the years and which pieces of information have held interest for each of them. The pirate costumes are always a big hit and a siege against poor unsuspecting sailors usually follows. The trolley car with seats that can be adjusted to face forward or backward is exciting and always fun. Then there is the Miccossukee, Everglades exhibit where they pretend to pound grain, and cook vegetables under a shelter made from palm fronds. Another favorite is the early settlers exhibit where they don aprons, bonnets and straw hats, play with old fashioned toys and pretend to wash clothes. We've gone so often that most of these activities hold little interest for them anymore. These days, we usually stay long enough for the craft and then move on unless there is an interesting tour or something new. Showing it off to their friend however, we revisited all of these places and I got a special glimpse of the History Museum through the eyes of my kids.

 

      The craft of the day was beaded jewelry like the early native people used. We learned that they don't know much about the early cultures but what they have found is beaded jewelry that they used as currency and for social status.

Then it was across the plaza to the Art Museum......

........with lots of games and things to do.

 And, of course, arts and crafts............

     They made sand art, buttons and windsocks. Then, it was across the plaza again, to the library and back to the car, only a few minutes after my parking ran out. 

Bugs, Bubblegum and Prosthetic Noses

   What cool things can you learn about when you're not stuck in a sterile classroom practicing your standardized testing skills 7 hours a day? Well, how to make prosthetic body parts, the art of stage make-up, and the mechanics of a bubble gum machine just to name a few. Yesterday, my son spent a good part of the day taking apart the bubble gum machine to figure it out and experimenting with various ways to make it work. His very unethical motivation being to try to get free candy from the ones at the mall, of course. My older daughter, the film maker, has been experimenting with different stage make-up techniques. When she wasn't working writing her latest screen play, a mystery, she made herself look like an old woman, next she made herself bloody and gross and today, she figured out how to make a prosthetic nose using glue, playdough and make-up. A few days ago she filmed a horror movie that had every kid in the neighborhood screaming bloody murder in my backyard.

Female nose

 Male nose

    What has my youngest been up to this whole time? She's been busy earning her driver's license. She passed her test, administered by my older two, who made very authentic looking licenses, complete with pictures,  for her and her friend.  She submitted lots of paper work to me so that she could adopt twins and it was her experiments with glue that led to the prosthetic nose discovery. She's played with magnetic words, helped me transplant some Mexican Heather to a new spot in the garden and, of course, caught about 100 (her words) tickle bugs.

 Other fun things with glue. 

We're hoping they make cool sun catchers when they dry.

.....and my son made these, which would be much 

cooler if it wasn't MY candy he used to make it with!