Summer's a comin'!

The weather's warming up, the wind's dying down just a smidge and we're outside.

The robin's nest we've been watching from the window had no eggs in it today - they've hatched! While the parents were gone hunting, Hannah snuck a peek in and got a picture.

Ains found a frog. (though that's Hannah holding it)

And Gray found a huge pile of ants.

Just a small part of our big day.

Now books have been read,

and kids have passed out.

Good night all!

Our first caterpillar-to-moth experience.

Back on July 21, Hannah discovered this little guy in her flower garden.

I was sure that he was going to be a huge, fantastically beautiful butterfly and excitedly looked him up on some very cool butterfly identifying websites. He wasn't on them. So we kept him alive until he went into his cocoon.

Or partway into his cocoon anyway. Look at that. When a caterpillar makes a cocoon that has his butt hanging out, can you say he did a half-assed job?

His butt isn't hanging out of course, but the way he designed his cocoon - sleek on the top, rather form-fitting on the bottom - makes it look like he left it hanging out.

And it moved, too. If you picked him up, that little butt end would flip back and forth. He's been in there for over three weeks. Last week I showed him to my sister and told her that I change his soft grass every few days. I wondered in a half-joking voice if he was really dead, just having 'tremors' (maybe like a chicken's body after the head is removed?), and would be doing this for the next twenty years, and wouldn't that be funny? In a fully-joking-because-my-sister-is-a-nut voice, my sister said that she would think it was funny if I kept changing his grass for the next twenty years.

Tonight, while I was making pancakes, I heard Hannah say "I've never seen that kind of moth before."

Ho-ho! What's this?

Oh, he was gorgeous, just hanging there on that grass. He'd climbed out of the jar and onto the longer grass stems to dry his wings.

I wish I had better pictures, but this camera is just not working properly when it comes to light exposure in the house. I should get it looked at. Sometime.

He was big. As long as my pinkie. We took a few pictures (the ones of him drying out his fully spread out wings didn't turn out at all - his 'under wings' were hot pink - so pretty), inspected him with the magnifying glass (sucker had HUGE eyes), and then when his wings started doing a furious 'flying in place' type of movement, we ran him outside to the patch of weeds in the flower garden that he was found in. He took off (have I mentioned that he was quite big?) and Hannah cried about missing him for a few moments.

We're lucky she saw him when she did. We almost missed him altogether. After how strange I thought he was *in* his cocoon, to change his grass tomorrow and have him missing would have been even more strange. I do wish that I'd have noticed him sooner so that we could have done some actual gentle measurements and maybe had a better chance at getting good pictures, but that's the adult-homeschooling-parent in me talking. My little girl was thrilled by what she did get.

ETA:

Jessi asked in the comments what was left of his cocoon - I'm really glad she asked because I'd forgotten to look. I went and dug through the dry grass and the brown shell was there, with a white milky substance inside. I could manipulate the tail end and stretch it out quite a ways. Very cool.

My friend Lindsay fixed the pictures up for me. You can check out her pictures here and here. Much clearer. Thank you Lindsay!

Visitors and owl pellets.

I had two friends from college visit today with their kids. This made Hannah's day, week, and, possibly, month.
That child suffers having a hermit for a mother.

Ainsley was friendly, but aloof, staying on the porch or in my lap the entire time.

That child takes after her mother.

Grayson surprised me by not only playing with Shannon, but even climbing onto her lap.

She wouldn't let me take a picture of him in her lap. She has a thing about pictures. Even when she's cutting my girl's hair, I have to crop her out. She's gorgeous. Why are we women so hard on ourselves?

And I got to meet this girl - older by years than the last time I saw her, so almost a whole different person - who is absolutely charming.

She informed me that she can talk to cats. She uses her ears and her hands. So sweet, and it appears that she's correct. She got one of the little nearly-feral kittens to cuddle up in her lap and purr like it was her momma stroking her.

But the visit had its awkward moment. After they came in the house, I was getting Shy Ainsley settled in the living room when I hear Shannon's voice from the kitchen. "Is this a bag of owl pellets on your counter?" Crap! Forgot to move those. Welcome to a homeschooler's house. Owl pellets on the kitchen counter.

The day we sold our house, I gathered up owl pellets from underneath their favorite tree. Have you ever seen owl pellets? I always pictured them as smooth balls of fur that you neatly dissected to find interesting bones. Not quite. They're ragged lumps of fur that have interesting bones popping out of them at all angles and fall apart if you don't treat them kindly.


Our dissecting a few months ago turned up these bones -

All little mice, though I was hopeful for some rabbit bones since there was a rabbit foot nearby.

When I gathered this last bunch up, there was something right next to one of the pellets that hinted at what might be in them -

So I'm on the lookout for bones of my cat's catnip mouse. That should be fun. Do you think owls get high from catnip?

I have some extra owl pellets, so here's an offer you'll only see on a homeschooling blog - if you want a few of these (I don't have a lot), email me your address at unprocessedfamily at gmail dot com. If you're one of the first few to email me, I'll send some your way!

The dry run. Hiking-wise.

The kids and I went on a 'dry run' for our summer hiking today. What does that mean? That means we went with friends who could help me out if I'd overpacked or overlooked something or overestimated hiking ability of littles. It went wonderfully.

The hike we chose (out of Hiking Idaho) was a bit ambitious for a five-year-old and two two-and-a-half year olds, but not by much. It was a bit over two miles, but we covered that slowly. The terrain was not flat, but that added interest more than being too physically difficult. If I had remembered jackets for my girls, the wind wouldn't have affected them, and that would have helped.

We met up with our friends at a scenic overlook by the Snake River. Stunning view. Made scared-of-heights-li'l-ol-me lose my equilibrium just looking through the seven foot tall chain link guard fence, but my girls loved it.
That is a deep canyon.

When we got to the trail head, I got all situated with Gray on my back and a waist backpack (I will *not* say that I wore a fanny pack) on under his bum. That carried a first-aid kit, water bottles, snacks, bird and flower identification pamphlets, a map, diaper change kit, bug spray, pocketknife, a compass, and my car key. Next time, when we're on our own, I'll actually be carrying more - a little sketchbook and pencils so that the girls will have an excuse to sit down and relax along the trail, a magnifying glass, jackets for the kids.

We started up the trail with the kids predictably running off their excitement for the first few hundred yards. The first mile or so of the trail was lodgepole pine, absolutely beautiful and I can't believe that I got no clear pictures of it. Next time.

The girls all found walking sticks. Bella just used hers like a divining rod - it found every puddle of water in or around the trail, Ains used hers as a sword (of course), and Hannah carried hers for a lot longer than any of us expected just in case she ran into a giant who needed a walking stick.
I'm going to try to find a mushroom identification book for the next time we travel this trail - so many different kinds of mushrooms in the pine tree section of the trail. Ains was excited about all the fairy houses and Hannah was so intrigued by the different places they grew, the different sizes and shapes ... I wish I knew how to take close-up pictures of these things.

After we got out of the pines, we passed through a meadow.
I expected the meadow to be much smaller than it was - and much warmer. The wind blowing across the top of the mountain was cold. It also passed right by a Boy Scout camp where we were almost run into by five scouts who shouted frantically "HAVE YOU SEEN A FLAG????" Um, no. And that's cheating. Keep looking.

I heard Jo singing "Climb Every Mountain" and turned around to see this -
I like having friends who will unselfconsciously belt out fitting songs from musicals.

After the meadow, we descended into a section of the trail populated by Quaking Aspens. Cottonwoods? I don't know their appropriate name, but they were pretty. Hannah told her daddy that her favorite part of the hike was 'the trees singing when we left the meadow.'

We saw lots of these on the Quaking Aspens and on the trees dotting the entrance and exit to the meadow. Lots and lots of these little caterpillars just emerging from their egg sack.
Ainsley learned the fine art of becoming interested in anything and everything when she needed to slow down.
Then she recruited Bella to discuss her findings.
After we'd crossed through the Quaking Aspen section...
we crossed back into Lodgepole pine, and then to our cars. In the last section, Ains and I got ahead of the rest of the group and immediately were rewarded with lots of bird sightings. Ruffled Grouse, Pileated Woodpeckers, as-of-yet-unidentified birds that are captured in blurry images on my camera. It was exciting. And she saw three Bald Eagles. With red breasts, eating worms, natch.

Back at the trail head, we busted out a honeydew melon. (The amazing part of this photo is Grayson - not on my lap. He loved Reese.)
Then our friends left and we stayed at the picnic site for a bit longer, playing and chatting. Gray looks so grown-up.
I found these little pamphlets somewhere ... Barnes and Noble maybe? ... and grabbed them for just such a journey. Lightweight and laminated, made to be handled outdoors and by little hands.
I came back from taking Gray and our stuff a few yards down to the car to see this - Hannah trying to find the birds she'd seen (Ains told Hannah she'd seen a Macaw in the forest and Hannah couldn't find it in the pamphlet - go figure.) and Ains at the other end of the table, staring at the yellow flowers (Heart Leaved Arnica, we discovered), trying to locate them in the flower pamphlet. It was endearing, this sight.
So that was our first hiking trip of the summer, and it was a huge success. I learned that I was doing a lot of stuff right, that I forgot some stuff, that going by ourselves will have some perks (not keeping to someone else's schedule), that going with friends has its perks (I laughed really hard and my girls adore Bella), and that it is nice, even when you live in the country, to get out in wild nature. It feeds the soul.

I think this has been my longest post ever. And I've paid for it dearly. Cygnus crashed at my feet about five minutes after I started downloading the pictures (which takes forever, Photobucket) and has been cheerily farting up a storm the entire time. Maybe he's frustrated that we didn't take him with us. Three kids was enough for me on my first trip out. Maybe next time.

How hot is it now that summer is here?

Hot enough to melt crayons on the deck.


Hot enough to need root beer popsicles.


Hot enough to make a fruit salad.



It's always hot enough to tease your sisters.


Maybe a bit too hot to do 'training'.


But it's never too hot to go for a pony ride.


By the way, Ainsley's most common phrase these days is 'Change cothes! I change cothes.' Thanks to her older sister, she has figured out how much fun it is to change clothes ten times an hour. Go back and look at all the pictures again - fun stuff.

Art with flowers and fabric.

Before we moved, we made flower art with flowers and grasses from our property. I got the idea from OLM. Of course. She's full of lovely ideas.

We gathered up the necessary collecting receptacles. A bug net for Ainser...

and a basket for Hannah.

Then we filled the basket full of flowers and grasses and leaves.

The bug net got filled with chicken eggs.

Then we laid a piece of linen down on some cardboard, arranged the pretties on top, covered them with another piece of linen, and the girls took turns hammering.

I couldn't get pictures of their 'flower paintings' because they've carried them with them in their backpacks since we made them and... I'm afraid I can't find their backpacks. I know they're around somewhere. Maybe the car? Or the kitchen? Or under boxes in the craft room? I dunno.

Anyway, here's the one that they helped me arrange and make.

It's sitting in my 'to do' pile in the craft room. I was just going to put it in a frame and put it in their room, but it's calling to me. I'm thinking maybe I'll embroider to clarify and add detail? Not much, just a bit. I'm still thinking on it.

Astronomy and constellation resources for kids.

I made up this post for a friend who had kids getting interested in constellations and somehow it got saved instead of published. I'm so sorry, girl! Here it is.

Hannah got interested in constellations by pulling an intriguing looking book off of the kids' book shelf. It was a thin black book that I'd picked up at a thrift store because it looked like an interesting book to have laying around. The previous owner had copied the pictures of constellations throughout the book and cut them down into small squares, so when Hannah picked up the book the constellation pictures fell out. When she went to pick them up, there were lions and heroes and swans and bulls and princesses laying there - a whole lot of pictures that just *had* to have stories behind them. She asked for the stories and the rest is history.

We learned about all the constellations and a bit about planets, the moon, and the sun. For example, this little fact about the moon blew my mind - "Before life began on Earth, the Moon was as close as 14,000 miles away and filled a whopping one-quarter of the night sky. ... The Moon is slowly escaping from its orbit around Earth. In fact, it moves away from us about 1 inch (2.54 cm) every year." (From Marc McCutcheon's book listed below.)

Here are the resources we've used and loved. Some the kid loved, some the mother loved. I didn't list anything that we didn't find useful or intriguing.

I hope these help! And I can't wait until it's warm enough to hold our star party...

Books -
Star Gazing, Comet Tracking and Sky Mapping by Melvin Berger
40 Nights to Knowing the Sky by Fred Schaaf
The Stars by H.A. Rey (author of Curious George books)
Zoo in the Sky and Once Upon a Starry Night by Jacqueline Mitton
Stargazer by Ben Morgan
The Space Book by Marc McCutcheon
I'm looking for two other books that were recommended:
The Kids Book of the Night Sky by Ann Love
A Child's Introduction to the Night Sky by Michael Driscoll

Web resources -
Stellarium
Sky View Cafe
WikiSky
Kids Astronomy
Star Child (NASA's website)
The stories behind the constellations
Ian Ridpath's Star Tales

Podcasts -
Astronomy.com
Slacker Astronomy
Astronomy Cast
365 Days of Astronomy

Independence and Butterfly Wings.

Hannah's been asking for a bike for awhile and we finally had enough money to get one. (Thanks tax return!) So off to our neighboring town's Wal-Mart to check out the selection. Three bikes for kids her size.

Matt stuck her on one and she pedaled around for a bit. One of the pedals fell off. Screwed it back on. Two aisles later it's off again. Next bike.

Matt stuck her on and she pedaled around for a bit. Took a turn too fast (2 mph instead of 1) and the handlebar alignment was off. Matt fixed it, but didn't want to mess with a bike that got messed up so easily from a kid tipping it over. Tipping bikes over is kind of par for the course when you're learning to ride.

Last one. Princesses plastered all over it (and $20 more for the privilege of the decals). She didn't get all the way down the aisle before one of the training wheels came off and she tipped over again. When Matt put it back together, he stuck her on and the seat twisted. We looked at each other and decided without words that a larger portion of the tax return was going to have to go to bikes.

We promised Hannah she would get her bike the next day at a proper bike store. We're snobby that way.

The proper bike store also had three choices. None with princesses. Which, strangely enough, Hannah didn't seem to mind. In fact, she ignored the pink choice altogether and went with the orange one. The orange one with the bee on the seat. "Did you know bees are eusocial?" she asked the salesman. "No, I didn't" said the salesman. "Yes, the boys are just for having babies. The girls do all the work. They make the honey. They're even the guards!" says she. "Did you see this pink bike with all the flowers?" says he. (Nice try, buddy) "Yes. Bees love flowers. Then they do the waggle dance" (she demonstrates) "to tell other bees where they are." He looked kind of bewildered and tried "Want to get on and ride it?" That worked.

Ainsley picked out a dark pink one. Grayson tried chewing on the tire of a nearby unicycle. I considered letting him.

When we got home it was dark (our nearest proper bike store is in 'the big city'), so Matt let the girls ride their bikes in the house. When Hannah went to bed, she wheeled her bike into the room with her. What a thing to wake up to!

In the morning we heard some banging and Ains said "Hannah up!" Sure enough, out she came.
But don't think I'm just giggling at Hannah's attachment to her bike here. This is what Ains was doing when she told me Hannah was up. Oatmeal on the bike. Thank goodness for training wheels.

After breakfast we headed out and Hannah got the first major taste of independence a kid gets after they learn to walk - riding a bike far and fast.

She also learned that riding on gravel isn't as easy as riding on a slick store floor and that riding downhill, while scary, is thrilling.

Since yesterday, I go nowhere without neosporin and band-aids.

Wildflowers are so abundant right now that even bike riding can wait for a few minutes.

Then the wind overpowered her, so we went into the shed to escape it. We found a dead butterfly which made Ains very sad. "Buttfwy dead? No wings? No FLY??? *sob* ... Me hold it?"

So we looked very closely at the butterfly.

Very closely indeed.

Then Ains took the magnifying glass exploring. Baby goats...

and ponies.

And once more with the buttfly.