Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Who is your best friend?

My mom got Nala a little purple leapfrog 'laptop.'  I find it ridiculous and obnoxious but Nala likes it.  The laptop speaks and asks questions like, "What animal starts with M?"  It also asks, "Who is your best friend?"

Nala answers, "Mommy and Daddy and Kaio."

Kaio answers, "Nala."

When I hear that it tears me a bit in my belly. When the kids were in daycare and full time school their 'bestfriends' were classmates.  Now, they are each other.  It scares me a bit to be keeping their peer circle in the family.  Best friends are so amazing and fill a very different role than brother, sister, mom, or dad.  I don't want them to be missing out on that.  But I also think it may still be too early to matter.  I hope I'm making the right decision keeping them home with me.



Mari's first day at his new job.  It's a bit farther away than the last.  He took the bus and was gone all day long.  Kids and I had a good time throughout the day.  

Look mama, soap and water make bubbles 

I finally got the courage to create an art corner for the kids.  I ordered a little bit of everything from discountschoolsupply.com and so far things have been going well and there has not been an eruption of mess all over the floor.  Nala is really enjoying creating art work.  I'm loving her creativity.


And Kaio's been obsessed with Angry Birds, drawing and building mixed media Angry Birds art.


I put the kids to bed and caught Kaio reading Nala a book.  So cute!!!


Sunday night they were racing a 'track' through the house with their racing numbers.




Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Our Dysfunctional Family Outing in Baltimore

My awesome car averages 55 miles to the gal hwy.  Howeva, it's a VW, which means the service is $$$.  Luckily a friend and fellow VW owner clued me in to a shop outside of town that will do certified work for way less than the dealership.  He also showed me a website to buy the parts and take to the shop.  I ended up saving over a GRAND on my last service.

But we had to drive almost to Baltimore.

Well when life throws you lemons...

Spend the day tooling around Baltimore.

Mari was between jobs and had the day off.  We got to spend some "quality" time together.

Don't let the pictures fool you.  Although it looks like we're having a good time, we're really bickering and whining pretty much constantly.

Which made me wonder: are we one of those dysfunctional families that spends their vacations arguing and fighting with each other?




 We had to leave this playground quick cause Mari though some guy with a crowbar wanted to rob us.


 We found beer outdoors overlooking the harbor.  Nala colored the side of the place mat with activities.  Kaio flipped his over and drew on the blank side.  Then they switched.

 Having a dysfunctional family doesn't seem so bad when you've got brew and sun.
 And crab soup.
 And trains and pirate ships.

Can we go home now please?




Saturday, February 25, 2012

Time to Plan Your Butterfly Garden

Tend to your garden and butterflies will come.  Since planting cornflower in the front yard we've been blessed with visits from many beautiful tiger swallowtails.  This year I did a bit of research into what other types of native species we could plant to attract even more beauty.  Claude Moore Farm in Sterling, VA had complied some info exactly on this topic.  Here's what I found.

To create a really rocking butterfly garden you need both host plants (for the larvae to house eggs and caterpillars to eat after hatching) and nectar sources (for the butterflies to drink).  Both host and nectar plants are essential.  Each species of butterfly likes different plants.  Here are 10 plants that are assured to lure those pretty creatures in:

1. Butterfly Bush (Buddleia)
2. Milkweed or Butterfly Weed (Asclepias)  (host and nectar for Monarchs)
3. Purple Cornflower (Echinacea Purpurea)
4. Zinnia - single flower preferred
5. Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia Rotundifolia) or Coreopsis
6. New England Aster (Aster - novae angliae)
7. Parsley, Green Fennel, Rue or Dill
8. Joe-Pye Weed (Eupatorium purpureum)
 9. Red and White Clover (this is also a great grass alternative)

10. Dogbane (Apolynum)

And for even more info, here's a great book on Attracting Butterflies and Hummingbirds to Your Backyard.

Give the little butterflies some shelter from wind by planting trees, or offering a Butterfly House.  Add some large rocks for them to sun bath and warm up.  Create an area for them to drink water by filling a jar cap with water, sand, and some twigs for them to perch on.

Then you can join a butterfly society and make a contribution to science by sharing your butterfly observations.




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