Lemon Trees

Alexa was making a batch of lemonade today. She decided she should save the seeds and try to grow her own lemon tree. You know to kind of cut out the middle man and move along her lemonade production. Now I feel strongly in inquiry based science. You want to know something go ahead and set up and experiment and see how it works. So I always encourage them, within reason, to conduct little experiments. Who am I to squelch her dreams of picking her own lemons by the knowledge that Vermont's winters would kill off any kind of citrus tree? Let's just cross that bridge when we come to it shall we?

Here she is planting her seeds and setting them out to grow.

Who knows?

Maybe we will grow a tree.

Frog Hunting

It was hard to tell today how the weather was going to turn out. It seemed that it was likely to rain and the forecast called for thunderstorms. As a result we weren't sure how far to venture from home. In the end it never rained at all, but not having the power of hind sight we opted for a trip down to the Intervale to catch some frogs. Never fear ours is strictly a catch and release operation. The girls were well equipped for their adventure. They brought nets and a bucket to observe them in after they were caught. In total they caught five frogs and had a turtle sighting.

This was their favorite frog. He was the smallest and apparently the best behaved.

End of the Summer reading Program

Wednesday evening was the celebration to end the summer reading program. They had a celebration on the library lawn and gave out the certificates and had the drawing for the prizes. Both girls found friends soon after we arrived and abandoned me. Alexa at least appeared to miss me as she kept running over to check in and drink my water.
Chloe did occasionally wave in my direction, but other than that pretended she didn't know me. I am OK with that as I feel it is good to assert your independence in safe areas. I did take a picture from afar and you can pick her out in the middle there.

Neither of the girls won one of the big prizes, but the did get some prizes attached to their certificates. They included a free bagel, chocolate, and book from various businesses on Church street. The next day we planned to head down so they could get their stuff. When we got home Chloe couldn't wait to dive into her new book.

Alexa started eating the bagel and then moved on to the chocolate.

Hey, we all have our priorities right?

Mixing It Up

In my quest to make sure that the girls spend at least some time outside doing something active each day, I decided to mix things up a bit. we are trying out roller skating/blading. I had Chloe test out my Rollerblades the other day. She had fun with them, so I got her a pair of her own. That way the skates are not four sizes too big for her. We went the park down the street to use the basketball court as a training ground.
I may have layered her up with a few too much protective gear, but one can never be too cautious.

Alexa has this old pair of roller skates that fit on over your shoes. She barely fits into them anymore, but she was happy.

The park has the nice perk of letting them climb around the playground after they get tired of skating.

My apologies that it has taken a few days to get this posted- blogger would not load the pictures yesterday for some reason.

Happy Meals

I have taken to arranging the girls lunch plates in creative patterns. Chloe asked me yesterday if I was feeling creative. I guess that is it. I don't know why I suddenly started arranging the strawberries around the edge of the plates or sliced the grilled cheese to make it look like a pinwheel around the bowl of blueberries. It amused me, and it made them laugh. Which was enough of a reason as any to keep going. Today I created these...Chloe named them happy meals. So there you have it. Our version of the happy meal. with the added benefit of actually being good for you to eat.

Biking Adventures

Our bike ride today took us to Oakledge Park. We biked down a trail that we hadn't been on a before and discovered this cute little beach. It had lovely views of Burlington
and nice rock built grills.There were rocks to climb on
and a little exploring to be done.
Our best find was the tree.
You can see on this plaque that it has been around since the signing of the Constitution.

Alexa has been reading the Giving Tree a lot lately and felt the tree needed a hug.

I mean over two hundred years is a long time to hang around this planet. Chloe thought about hugging it too but found a visitor are she approached it.

He was enjoying the view too I think.

Dragon Boat Races

The girls and I stopped by the Dragon Boat Races at Waterfront Park today on our bike ride. The enjoyed a snack and watching the boats. It is an extremely festive atmosphere as the teams dance to music as part of their warm ups and the costumes some people wear are really funny.

Alexa wandered down the rocks for a closer look.

Leddy Beach

In keeping with our theme this summer the girls and I went to the beach today. Today we tried out the beach at Leddy Park. I haven't been to this one before and was just reminded of its existence by another mom the other day. While it is a bit of a walk carrying beach stuff to get down to the beach it is quite lovely. It is really shallow a long way out and wonderfully sandy. There was the added adventure of climbing on the pile of snow behind the ice arena on the way back to the car.

I mean how often do you get to swim in the lake and climb on the snow pile all in one day?

Adventures with Alexa

Chloe was invited to play at a friend's house today. So that left Alexa and I with about six hours to entertain ourselves. We decided to take a long bike ride out to Airport Park in Colchester. We packed our trusty bike with snacks and headed out. It is about seven and a half miles from our house to the park. The majority of the ride is on the bike path. Which makes for a lovely trip. We parked our bike in the shade of a tree... and ate some snack.Got a little swinging in

and some climbing
and ate some more snack.

Before heading back home making it a thirteen mile round trip ride.

Rodents

I am not a fan of rodents. By that I mean I can't stand them. They have been know to send me shrieking in horror as I race to get away from them. So it with some sense of irony that I tell you about a new rodent that I have allowed to enter my house willingly. Meet Whitey.
Chloe's new pet guinea pig. She decided some time ago that she wanted to save up her money to buy a guinea pig. To be fair I though the odds were good that she would give up the idea. Especially when we went to the pet store and discovered that they cost $35.00. Chloe has a hard time not spending money. She spends her allowance constantly by wasting fifty cents here a dollar there. She loves to acquire odd trinkets with no real purpose in mind. So I really though that it was a slim chance that she would have the dedication to save for as long as was needed. Well she proved me wrong. I have to say I am really proud of her. When I decided a few months ago to post a chore chart and connect any money the kids get to the amount of jobs they complete around the house I wasn't sure how it would pan out. I have a strong belief though that kids should learn very early the value of a dollar. It is not a lesson they can learn when constantly pestering adults to buy them things. So I turned off the Mommy fund for all things that they desire and now they have to buy it with their own money. I am starting to see them notice when something costs too much, when something isn't really worth them spending money on it, and the idea of working towards a goal. It has been good.

And now Chloe will add to her responsibilities caring for an animal. I hope to see that bring on its own set of responsibilities too.