Gardening Again

Before the Massacre

 We got some earth again!  This time on 62nd and Dorchester.  Sight unseen, we were so excited we went out and purchased plants and herbs aplenty.  Then we carted them over to the community garden and found our plot fully in bloom, with bushes of mint, chives, cilantro, onions, leeks, and strawberries.  Sigh.  Sadly, we dug up the fruits of someone else's labor, then replanted our own.  The girls were extremely sad about losing their newly acquired strawberry plants, but were soon distracted by the myriad of worms and creepy crawlies in the dirt.  We couldn't bear to part with the healthy bushes of herbs, so we put them in our trunk and replanted them in our backyard.  Although it's hard to imagine looking at it now, by September, we will be harvesting tomatoes until they are coming out of our ears. 

Digging up Worms

And Digging...

After the Makeover

Green Monsters

Here is a nice post by our co-gardener who will be helping harvest when Baby #3 arrives.

Here are pictures from our last community garden plot 3 years ago.

Retrospective 1: Garfield Park Conservatory 4.22.12

Holland Tulip Festival 2012

Greenwood Commune Goes on Vacation

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a picture of me somewhere in an old photo album at the age of 2, white-blonde, on a sunny day, sitting in the middle of a field of tulips in Holland, MI.  I think I had that image in mind when I suggested to Mike that we visit the Tulip Festival 35 years later, with our own little girls.  Well, we made the trip this weekend, not only with our own kids, but with 6 other neighbors and their 5 children.  We saw not a single tulip.  (They had all bloomed in January.)  It rained.  We didn't even make it to downtown Holland.  But we had a fabulous weekend.  

Douglas Beach, Ho!

 We rented a big house next to a wood that hosted our very own woodpecker and a chorus of peepers.  A large kitchen and a hot tub made it perfect for a vacation with friends.  And, it was just a short walk with the munchkins to get to the beach.

The Descent

Nourit Finding Shells

Oscar Contemplating the Deep Beyond

Ming Ming's Castle

Despite the fact the kids are pictured in bathing suits and playing in the water like it's the middle of a heat wave, an hour later it was too chilly to dine al fresco, so we ate our steak and salmon dinners indoors. 

Convicts or Mimes?  You Decide.

Then, movie night commenced, followed by 6 kids piled into the smallest room for the ultimate sleepover.

There Were 5 in the Bed

Saturday, we braved the rain and visited the Dutch Village.  (It's exactly like the Netherlands.  Honest.)  The kids were really just there for the rides and some shoe shopping.

No Caption Needed

Nelis' Dutch Village

 

Swings at Nelis' Dutch Village (right next to the outlet mall, as seen in the background)

Closest our Feet came to the Tulip Festival

Waiting for Ice Cream in downtown Saugatuck

Work

Nerves of Steel

   

The Castle (or The Hole)

Sand Drawing

Digging with Antoine

We were offered the option to buy this house...

Traipsing Through Saugatuck State Park for our Third Trip to the Beach

Helen and Hugo

This Beach Comes With a Minstrel

Great Weekend!

For more (and better) pictures of the weekend, click over here  And here.  And then here.  And finally, here.

Pee and Poo: What Homeschooling Has Done For My Kid

I'm going to preface this post with two things. The first is that I, as Nourit's parent, do not encourage nor condone potty-talk (except for the times when it's funny. Please note also that this is all from Mike's side of the family.) The second is that this post will probably make her very angry with me in 15 years, but hopefully in 30 years, she'll forgive me. =)

We had just come from our weekly playdate with my homeschooling friends and their kids where the topic of conversation between the three moms was how to teach/encourage writing and spelling. One of my friends has taken the approach of creative spelling, allowing her daughter to sound out words and write them how she imagines, for the sake of freedom of thought. My other friend's son spends time writing 2-3 sentences per day in a journal about his adventures, or the weather - very acceptable and appropriate things. My contribution to the conversation was, "Nourit isn't really even interested in writing, and isn't so motivated to read on her own yet, despite the rich literature we explore together each day." Not a half and hour later I learned how wrong I was. My homeschooled child has just shown me she can independently (and sometimes with the help of her dear friend who shall remain nameless) sound out words and write an entire book, given the right motivation: pee and poo. Here it is, with English subtitles.

The Poo and Pee Book

I shake my butt to 'My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean'
Poop is Ice Cream - Pee is LemonadeI Dance with Poo and the Poo dance with the Pee
I Love Poo and I Love Pee

How to Go Potty

Do You Like Pee and Poo?

It's all there - creative spelling, rhythmic meter, metaphor, literary references, punctuation, chronology and anatomically correct illustrations. I think this could be a best-seller for the potty training set as well as 10 yr old boys.

A Bit About Avi

I feel like Avi has really been growing up in the recent weeks. Oh, sure, she still sucks her thumb and throws wonderful fits, and today I spanked her and made her eat soap, all before noon (and we don't even believe in eating soap!) In between all that, though, she's shown me some increasingly mature behavior.

For instance, she is my little helper these days. She helps me fold the towels (very neatly, I might add) when Nourit runs and hides to get out of it. She spent a good 45 minutes manning the apple peeler/core-er the other day, and it actually helped me! I was able to make the applesauce, wash the dishes, clean out the fridge, all with free child labor (and a smile!) Nourit? Nowhere to be seen...(not that I compare my children.)



Here she is building an almost exact replica of Stonehenge.

And tonight, before bedtime, during a particularly diffuse book on volcanoes (Nourit: "Mommy, I don't even know what they're saying." Mommy: "Yeah, me neither.") Avi, not to be outdone by her older sister (who actually did give me a fairly lengthy and accurate description of a volcano), stopped me and said, "Okay, so I'll tell you what a volcano is. The sun comes down to the earth, it cracks open the earth, and the moon comes down, then there's hot lava coming down in the mooncrust, which is then falling down, and that makes a volcano." Indeed!

Apple Picking 2011

Two days after Nourit's second tooth came out, we deemed it safe to go apple picking. That, and the weather finally shaped up. It was good timing, since the tooth had been loose since July, but waited until the first nice weekend this fall to wiggle out. The tooth-fairy came with a beautiful book, Madlenka, about a little girl whose tooth comes out and she goes around her New York City block to tell her neighbors, which is really like a trip around the world because her neighbors are all from a different country. Kinda like our backyard! If you look closely, you can see the adorable gap in the bottom row of teeth. Nourit, Lucas and Avital

We went to Radke's this year - our first departure from Garwood (although, we did sneak over there afterward to pick up some pumpkins from the pumpkin patch.) It was our neighbors' pick, and a beautiful and quiet orchard. No pony rides, no corn mazes, no crowds, and best of all, no too-loud 80's rock band. Just apples. (About 90lbs less of them since we visited today.)

Oscar, Nourit and Avital