From the week (and a little garden update)

 cleaning windows- a much enjoyed task for the little two

 composing/drawing their own stories for homemade books

 a hole in the yard, some water and golf balls- springtime mud play at its best

 five eggs in the house finch nest on our porch and no, your eyes are not deceiving you, there is one egg not like the others.  That egg belongs to a (native) cowbird.  It lays its eggs in the nests of other birds so they will essentially rear their babies for them.  It usually results in the cowbird nestling pushing out the other birds, but since house finches are an invasive species, we decided to leave the egg.

 daily checks on watermelon seedlings

 enjoying our first watermelon of the year

 the wildflower garden- the sunflowers are almost 2 feet already

 the snow peas have blossoms!  I don't think they will produce much as they just aren't getting enough sun, but that is okay

 one of the two volunteer pumpkin plants growing in the backyard

 tomato babies

a variety of sunflower that only puts out blooms in September.  This was a gift from a new farm friend Beth.  There is a pretty interesting story behind this sunflower.  Apparently, it grows as large as a giant sunflower (10-12 feet), but does not put out any blossoms all summer.  Then in September, it puts out blossoms from top to bottom.  The Native Americans used this sunflower as an indicator as to when to harvest the crops because, like clock work, two weeks after it bloomed the first frost would arrive!  

It has been a full week-visits with friends, trips to the park and library and the frozen yogurt shop (our first, ha ha!), lots and lots of playing outside after spending nearly two days cooped up inside due to some very much needed rain.  Of course, there was some lesson work thrown in there too, but even our formal lessons are slowly winding down.  It has been a tough week too...lots of developmental changes going on with the kids, especially the little two and as a result, lots of fighting and general grumpiness.  I have been stretched in the patience department and not always been able to respond as gently and kindly as I should have, but I am not perfect and just like my children, I am learning!  I am looking forward to a weekend of lots of family time and gorgeous weather and hopefully some crafting in there too ;-)