Froggy Comes Home

This year at preschool, they started a Froggy project. Each weekend, someone "wins" Froggy for the weekend. You're supposed to Journal about Froggy's adventures, so away we went.

Froggy always wears his seat belt.

We picked out Strawberry plants for my Topsy Turvy Strawberry Planter!

We got Starbucks.

Froggy loved the park!

But, then Froggy started surfing the web.

And, he drank my best bottle of Moet:(

Apparently, he crashed a bunny wedding after we went to bed.

Devin treasured having the Froggy home last weekend. I can't remember seeing her that excited in a long time.

However, on Monday morning it was time for preschool. Time to take Froggy back. As soon as she woke up, Devin was distraught. She was crying and weepy about having to give Froggy back. I tried come up with an idea, but nothing would stop the the tears.

Eventually, I suggested we stop at Walgreens and see if there was a new Froggy we could take with her to school. Thankfully, we scored the last frog stuffed animal available and she was happy.

Whew.

Movin' On Up

My lovely tomato plants have grown their 2nd set of leaves. 14 little plants made it through my learning curve of seed starting.

I'm putting a lot of trust in Nancy Bubel & this book: The New Seed Starters Handbook


I changed a few things I was doing based on her ideas. First, I removed the heat source. Her opinion (citing several studies) is cooler temps during seedling growth, lead to higher yields. So, once the seeds germinated, I removed the heat mats.




Also, lots of websites suggest 24 hours of light. Nancy suggests 8 hours of darkness leads to better growth and I can already see the difference. (She cites several scientific sources)

Seeds is Sprouting

It's been fun watching the seeds germinate and begin to grow. There has been a good bit of trial and error...I killed off a great crop of Basil seedlings, when I let them dry out overnight. It's nice not to worry though, as 100 Basil seeds cost about $1.50.

I'm most pleased with the tomato seedlings. I have 3 different varieties started. It's time to start looking for the 2nd set of leaves!


Zinnia are best started outside, but I couldn't resist trying to get some going. I plan on placing these in containers and around the home garden.


I found a great website for seeds: Renee's Garden

These are 2 types of Zinnia seeds I couldn't find in our local markets:

"Cool Crayon Mix"


"Raggedy Ann Mix"

"Fun Day"

The last class of each Gymnastics session is, "Fun Day." They get to do their favorite activities and they don't really work on skills. (Which I would be fine with every session, actually)



Dev's favorite of the day...the rings. Fun Day included a BIG drop!

Backing up to get speed:


Take off:


The teacher (Katherine) had to hold her the first few times, so she could get the timing of when to let go.

Eventually, she caught on.


Flashbacks of gym class anyone?


So silly:)


We're just loving every minute with Dev right now. As we close in on 4 years old, we're in a good season. I can't recall the last temper tantrum (from either of us) and she's a doll most of the time. Trips to the grocery store are a blast, as she takes charge of the list & coupons. She'll ask me if something is, "too expensive?"

Bye Bye Winter...don't let the door hit you on the way out

The past month has pretty much looked like this:


Grey, cold and windy. It's nice to have an almost 4-year old around to see the positives in every situation:)


School was out for conferences yesterday, so we did what we used to do every Friday...watch Gaga play tennis. Miss Susan's nursery was a hoppin' place.

See the baby? There were 2! 10 month old twins!




Everyone was busy & I got a good dose of "baby time." They were fun to hold and snuggle and even more fun to walk away from.


The sun was out in the afternoon and 50 degrees feels like 80, so Dev headed outside. We were out of sand, so I gave her this very enriching activity she called, "Paint water."


Yep. It's pretty much putting paint in water and then getting it all over yourself. Also, it's getting upset because your favorite Spongebob shirt has to go in the wash.


It's hard to top "paint water," but pizza making is always a favorite activity of Dev's.

See?


It's, "Texas Pizza." (I thought it was pretty cool she knew the basic shape of Texas from her US puzzle)


Now, for my BIG project.

Between the community garden and my recently completely ripped out front garden, I'm going to need a lot of plants. I plan on dividing some of my old Perennials, but I think (after 10 years) some of the plants are past their prime.

So, starting plants from seed is my new obsession.


After quite a bit of research on line and speaking with a local indoor grow shop, I decided on this set up.


The shelving came from Home Depot, $57.00 for a 4 shelf stand.

The grow lights are hanging from "S" hooks and chains and there are seed warming mats underneath the trays.

So, far I'm trying to start:

-Basil
-Cilantro
-Marigolds
-Pansies
-Tomatoes

Overall, it was about a $200.00 investment. Which seems like a lot, until I remember how fast Perennials and flats of Annuals add up.

This is hard part...waiting for those seeds to germinate. I keep wondering if it's warm enough, if they're wet enough or too wet maybe. Plus, they all have different germination rates.

::Fingers crossed::