Free Painting

We used Q-Tips to create our own paintings yesterday.

I found it particularly interesting that most of the kids actually drew things.  Often times the kids will mix the colors all together in a blob.  It's fun to see what the mixed colors create.

The paintings were full of bright colors!

They painted for a long time.  30 minutes is a very long time to spend on an activity for a preschooler.

They were proud of their art!

Aiden asked for a pencil instead and drew Mario 64 stuff.  He spent an hour on it.  This is not the final result.

He was proud of his art!

I LOVE this Ninja Turtle.  Awesome!

 ♫ Now playing at Henle House: Material Girl by Madonna.  ♫

Tent City/In The Flower Garden

The kids were not interested in working at the table, so out we went.  We got out the tents for the day.  See the girl in the center?  She carries that broken old cash register with her everywhere she goes when we are outside, every day.  I don't know why, she just carries it with her.

For a long time, I couldn't see anyone.  Just happy sounds.

Tents are so wonderful, especially when they fold up easily for storage.  We don't get them out every day, and that makes it so that when we DO, the kids are overjoyed.

They played in them all morning, and into the early evening.  I like that they are in them out of the sunshine.  

In the flower garden, these sunflowers are stealing the show!  I didn't have much luck with my Mammoth Sunflowers this year.  So many of the seeds didn't ever germinate, and several that did were killed by slugs.  Evil slugs of death.  There are four Mammoth Sunflowers that are still climbing towards the sky and threatening to bloom.  I love this variety above that shoots buds out everywhere.  I can't remember the name of this type, but my kids gave me the seeds for Mother's Day.

This old watering can served well all summer as a pot for a ground cover. 

This Dahlia looked dead for most of the summer, and I noticed some blooms on it yesterday.  

I think these might be Lupine?  More seeds from Mother's Day.  They look pretty strong, and I hope they will return in the Spring and maybe flower.

Another variety of sunflowers that are blooming.

I love that the Chicks and the Spanish Moss have greeted each other.  I have been taking Spanish Moss from the front garden and transplanting it in the back garden under the trellis.   Lucky for me, some of it had a small Chick in it that I hadn't noticed and it is now growing beautifully in the back garden.

The Sweet Peas are taking off later than usual.  They smell so wonderful!  I am so thankful that God has allowed me the time to take care of a garden.  

This beautiful Clematis is blooming a second time in the back yard. 

♥♥♥Happy Thursday!♥♥♥

Let's Go See The Tree

 "Let's go see what the giant tree looks like all dressed for summer!"  We wandered down the street again.

 I love that this group of kids does such a great job walking in line. 

 "Here it is!"

 "Yay!  Run!"

 We walked around to the back side of the tree.  The kids noticed that there weren't any leaves changing yet.

 We did notice some seeds.  We call these "helicopters". 

 Thank you God for such a beautiful tree!  I'm glad the kids enjoy popping down to visit the tree.  It was their idea.

 "Bye, tree!"

 The tree sits on church grounds, and tucked away behind the church is a great little park. 

 "Hooray, I see the park!"

 I was glad that it was shady.  It was very hot yesterday.  Remember when we came to this park on purpose early in the summer because it was sunny instead of in the shade?  My how times change. 

 Gasp-- what a wonderful surprise to find these beautiful leaves changing!!

 This photo makes me laugh.  He was checking out the tree leaves.

 A genuine laugh!  Awesome!

 I tried to teach these little guys to swing on their stomachs so they could play without my having to push them.  Self sufficiency is a good thing.

 I have to monitor the tire swing to prevent upset stomachs.  I will never forget the summer when a girl vomited in the tree next to the play ground because of heat and too much spinning on the tire swing.  You can't really tell how hot it was just by looking at this photo, but were it not for the shade, they would have all been covered in sweat.

 I brought this beauty home with me.

 "Take a picture, Mom!"  Aiden was enjoying the swing. 

 The girls enjoyed the teeter totter.

I enjoyed the view.  A hawk was soaring around.  Do hawks and eagles usually soar around each other's territory?  We have two eagles who live in the trees in the left of the photo.  They hatched two babies this year.  I see them all soaring around quite often.

We took the back way home, our house is just up ahead.  I will never get tired of taking photos of the kids walking in a line.  Sorry!

We stopped to take a close look at the apple tree.  This one is much shorter than ours, so the kids got to see the apples up close.

"Bye, park.  Bye, apple tree!"  Saying goodbye can really help with transition.  There are no negotiations about when it's time to do something at Henle House.  We usually tell whatever the activity is "goodbye" so the kids can have some finality.  It makes my life just a little bit easier.

After a hosing down in the afternoon, they enjoyed frozen Go-Gurts.  It was a fabulous day!

♥♥♥Happy Wednesday!♥♥♥

Paper Garden

The hot air balloons are always floating over our house because we are next to Blackmans Lake.  It is still exciting, nearly EVERY time.  We can hear the heat as it shoots up into the balloon.  I took this sometime last week, but this morning there were two balloons above us.  

I have been cleaning out magazines.  I have a short attention span when it comes to magazine subscriptions.  It's usually Country Gardens, HGTV and or Taste Of Home magazines that I subscribe to.  The Country Gardens magazines are great for creating garden collages.

Since not all of the kids here can use scissors safely, I spent some morning time cutting out pretty photos of gardens.  I also looked for people enjoying the gardens, garden chairs, watering cans and supplies, veggies and animals that might visit the garden.  

The kids enjoy when they get to pick and choose what they like.

The older kids used scissors to search for and cut out their own pictures.

We talked about who likes to visit a garden. "Worms!"  "Bugs!"  "Butterflies!"  I reminded them that moles also like the garden, cats enjoy it, birds, squirrels, even deer.  They were surprised.

We talked about how not everyone has a garden, and not everyone enjoys having a garden.  We all have our own hobbies.  I love to look at the garden.  Not just my own, either.  Here is Snohomish when I go on my walk, there are so many beautiful gardens to enjoy along the way.

I encouraged the kids to fill up the paper as much as possible.

I was happy that they even chose to use the photos of people enjoying or working in the gardens.  Working in them is just as much fun for me as watching them grow.

It was a simple project, and much more useful than just tossing the magazines in the recycle bin.

We had a string of beautiful gardens!

Something glorious arrived-- my first Scholastic order in two years.  My favorite thing about Scholastic is when they offer paperback books for $1.00.  I usually order enough of those to give one to each preschooler.  Plus, when I order, it earns me some points that I can use towards a future order.  Children's books are so wonderful!  I think that reading stories with the kids in group time is my favorite part of my work day.  I probably order more books for the Autumn season than any other.  The prices just can't be beat, and I love that they just arrive at my door.  Hooray for Scholastic!!

♥♥♥Happy Tuesday!♥♥♥