Monday, August 20, 2012
The Sweetness of Summer
On my bike ride a few days ago, I felt the first chill in the early morning. Is summer really leaving? The heat and bugs and lingering sunlight make it seem almost eternal. Now that I realize it is ending I feel almost sad. This was the season when the kids were young and happy and so blissfully free. Does this time really end?
Saturday, August 18, 2012
More Mushrooms
Our yard keeps sprouting giant mushrooms. Reuben and Miriam fashion them into shields. Running around with stick swords and mushroom shields, they look like fairy folk. 
Thursday, August 16, 2012
In the beginning
Reuben being the insightfully manipulative individual that he is, begged me each morning to not make him go to school but "let's all go to the dinosaur museum together!"
When he saw me wavering he quickly added, "And the art museum! I want to see all the beautiful paintings with you." Clever.
So when his week of summer school ended we headed back to the museums.
At the natural history museum, I love walking through the dioramas of the ancient earth. Reuben has developed a fondness for the giant eurypterid model and insist we stop by and say hi each visit. He's also become taken with the mass extinction events. One interesting thing I learned, the Permian-Triassic extinction, the largest, may have been caused by an asteroid but since the earth's sea floor is renewed almost every 200 million it's possible that the impact site was long ago subducted. Since the earth's surface is 70% ocean it's more likely an asteroid would hit water than landmass. Although now I'm wondering if the Earth has always maintained the same land to ocean ratio. Anyone know? Asteroid or not, the big die off did leave evidence that one way or another way too much carbon dioxide got into the atmosphere and things unraveled in a very ugly way from there.
Back at the museums, we stumbled upon a free kids program at the National Gallery. A docent reads a fiction book that relates to the art in the gallery, discusses the art, then the kids do a related craft For Free. I'd like to pretend I'm the type of parent that knows about these things and signs up but I'm not. We really just walked in and were kindly invited to stay.
When he saw me wavering he quickly added, "And the art museum! I want to see all the beautiful paintings with you." Clever.
So when his week of summer school ended we headed back to the museums.
At the natural history museum, I love walking through the dioramas of the ancient earth. Reuben has developed a fondness for the giant eurypterid model and insist we stop by and say hi each visit. He's also become taken with the mass extinction events. One interesting thing I learned, the Permian-Triassic extinction, the largest, may have been caused by an asteroid but since the earth's sea floor is renewed almost every 200 million it's possible that the impact site was long ago subducted. Since the earth's surface is 70% ocean it's more likely an asteroid would hit water than landmass. Although now I'm wondering if the Earth has always maintained the same land to ocean ratio. Anyone know? Asteroid or not, the big die off did leave evidence that one way or another way too much carbon dioxide got into the atmosphere and things unraveled in a very ugly way from there.
Back at the museums, we stumbled upon a free kids program at the National Gallery. A docent reads a fiction book that relates to the art in the gallery, discusses the art, then the kids do a related craft For Free. I'd like to pretend I'm the type of parent that knows about these things and signs up but I'm not. We really just walked in and were kindly invited to stay.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Montgomery Agriculture Fair
Today the kids and I visited the fair. We watched the 4-H intermediate goat show. If you don't know I've been wanting a goat for the last couple years after reading the book Goat Song by Brad Kessler. I know it's an extremely romantic depiction of animal husbandry but I'm still enchanted.
Afterwards we walked through the sheep, cow, poultry, rabbit, and pig barns.
We caught a raptor show which had some awesome stories about great horned owls, which are super aggressive, knocking hunters out of their own deer stands and stealing pet chihuahuas. And I thought I couldn't like owls anymore than I did already. Best animals ever.
From there we sat in on a draft horse show, visited the bee keepers, and chatted with the master gardeners. Reuben and Miriam both agreed watching the baby chicks hatch in the incubator was their favorite thing to see.
And while I was tempted to leave with a goat or at least a few of the fluffy chicks, we only spent $2.50 for a bottle of water. I love the fair!
Miriam was at the fair too but running around so fast that I never caught her in a picture.
Afterwards we walked through the sheep, cow, poultry, rabbit, and pig barns.
We caught a raptor show which had some awesome stories about great horned owls, which are super aggressive, knocking hunters out of their own deer stands and stealing pet chihuahuas. And I thought I couldn't like owls anymore than I did already. Best animals ever.
From there we sat in on a draft horse show, visited the bee keepers, and chatted with the master gardeners. Reuben and Miriam both agreed watching the baby chicks hatch in the incubator was their favorite thing to see.
And while I was tempted to leave with a goat or at least a few of the fluffy chicks, we only spent $2.50 for a bottle of water. I love the fair!
Miriam was at the fair too but running around so fast that I never caught her in a picture.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Little Friends
Reuben and Miriam can't decide if it is more fun to feed the sparrows or chase them, so they do both in turns. 
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Pao de Quijo
We like to walk around the farmer's market Saturday mornings. There is a Brazilian bakery tent that sells pao de quijo (Brazilian cheese bread). Here's a picture of Miriam about 20 seconds after I handed her a fist sized roll. 
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Birthday Treat
I fully intended to deposit all of Miri's birthday money in her college savings account. Then on an errand at the bike shop, she found "my cat hat!!" and danced around with such glee, I couldn't resist.
She's been wearing it everywhere: in the house, walking around outside, riding in the car. If you can't tell it's a solid bike helmet (the brand is razskull) so maybe she's more protected. Ok I know, it was totally irrational.
Reuben is terribly jealous. We'll see if I go equally soft come November.
She's been wearing it everywhere: in the house, walking around outside, riding in the car. If you can't tell it's a solid bike helmet (the brand is razskull) so maybe she's more protected. Ok I know, it was totally irrational.
Reuben is terribly jealous. We'll see if I go equally soft come November.
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