slotted spooning

The child uses a slotted spoon
to separate tiny ants (plastic!)
from a bowl of rice...

How satisfying!
(AND good fine motor control & problem solving practice)

Whoa, Nelly! Has she gone back to work?! Fakeout! Tee hee...
No, I was going through some pictures, and I found these from the end of the school year. This activity is sort of a twist on transferring with a spoon - and it was a huge hit with the children. I think I got this idea from The Wonder Years, but that would have been many moons ago.

I'm totally inspired to set up some variations of this activity for next school year!

hello garden,

I just wanted to let you know,

I really appreciate the hard work you've been doing lately...

It's not easy being a flower - especially in Montana.
It's hot and dry during the day, and it's cold at night.
Sometimes it gets so windy your tall stems break,
and I find you wilted on the ground.

And then there's me, your "keeper" - aka your "gardener."
(I've never claimed to be perfect.)
I don't water you as often as I should...

I don't pull the weeds competing for your dry, rocky chunk of earth.

And yet you continue to grow - at least until it snows again.

Thanks :)

brown bear, brown bear

what do you see?

I see a bear across
the creek from me!

(just far enough away
to appreciate his
handsomeness)

maybe...

Maybe these plants will survive... are there any house plant aficionados out there? I have to admit, I've been terrarium-obsessed these past few weeks... ever since I read this post on Design*Sponge and this post on Urban Organica.

Didn't we make these as kids?

I've been falling asleep at night to fantasies of

miniature gardens tucked here and there in my home.

I put pea gravel in the bottom of the dishes,
but is that enough drainage for a plant?

Oh! Don't tell me! (Unless it's good news...)

glamping: part 2

**Of course there's a Part 2! Did you really think I could haul my you-know-what 23 miles in one day?!?! Actually, I'm pretty surprised I was able to do it in two (my you-know-what is VERY sore)! Oh yeah, the title of this post is not entirely accurate because I think we were too greasy/stinky/funky to qualify as "glampers" on day 2 - we were also out of boxed wine.**

Backpacking through the Crazy Mountains
with Hubs and Rosie C.W.

Day 2: Trespass Creek to Cottonwood Creek Trail Head

We woke up to this

started walking (if I wasn't wearing a backpack, this would have been a good meadow for some Sound-of-Music-style frolicking)

and then realized we had to hike up and over another steep mountain pass,
but this time with thunder rumbling in the sky.

Um, yeah, we RAN (I refuse to die by lightning strike)
pretty much the entire way back to the car.
I did stop for a millisecond to take a picture of the goats.
(I'd been looking for goats the whole trip)






















It started pouring as soon as we got in the car. We breathed a sigh of relief, and gobbled up several slices of slimy pepperoni. (Waste not, want not! It wouldn't have tasted as good anywhere else but at that moment anyway!)