Happy Birthday!

From Penguin Girl to me.

Sprouts

As part of an effort to eat more healthy foods, I ordered some seeds to grow my own sprouts.  I happen to like sprouts.  I have ever since I first encountered them in the dining hall salad bar of my southern California college.  I thought there might be an outside chance that Penguin Girl, despite her vegetable aversion, would be interested in eating the sprouts if they were home grown.   A very small box of alfalfa sprouts costs $2-3 at the market.  A 1-pound bag of sprouting seeds cost me less than $5.  I couldn't even begin to say how many sprouts this bag would grow.  A couple of teaspoons of seed is enough to grow several handfuls of sprouts.

I researched the internet for seed sprouters and using a mason jar for sprouting.  I concluded that what you really need to do is just keep your container and seeds rinsed well so as to prevent mold and mildew.  I thought that would be easier for me to do just by using a shallow plastic container with its lid, saved from an order of Chinese take-out.  I got a mix of seeds:  alfalfa, red clover, radish, and mung bean.  Here's what they look like out of the bag:

The first step is to soak the seeds for about half a day.  Then I lined the container with a bit of damp paper towel, poured the soaked seeds into the paper towel, and loosely covered the container.  Each morning I would gather up the paper towel with the sprouts and run the whole thing under running water for a good rinse.  Then I'd rinse the container before replacing the sprouts and lid.  By Day 2, there was clearly some serious sprouting action:

They grow remarkably fast.

In about 5 days, they were ready to eat.  Mr. Destructo actually tried them with some enthusiasm at various stages of growth.  He likes beans and sunflower seeds so he was more willing to eat them in the first couple of days.  He'll eat a pinch of the really sprouty sprouts but that's about it.  Penguin Girl thought the growing process was very cool but not nearly cool enough to make her want to eat them.  I still asked her to try, which she did, but she did not care for them.  Maybe she'll like them when she goes away to college.

Whew!

Spring Break is over and Penguin Girl is back at school.  I think I need a vacation after last week.  Early in the week, I bought an old school Spirograph toy off Ebay.  And I paid more than I planned but you just can't get Spirograph anywhere else.  The new ones out there are ridiculously poor imposters.  The set I ordered got here mid-week.  Penguin Girl and I were both excited to play with it.  Then I realized the colored ball point pens I had did not fit well into the tiny Spirograph holes.  I rummaged out an ordinary click pen with dark blue ink for Penguin Girl to use until we could go to Staples the next day.  Wouldn't you know it but Staples had a set of gel pens on sale for 2 bucks and they were perfect.

I demonstrated a bit for Penguin Girl and realized Spirograph is much harder than I remembered but still very fun.  I also realized that Penguin Girl is much more creative than I am.  She didn't just make designs; she incorporated her designs into her illustrations.

She said the little creature is a hamster.  Of course it is.

We also made terrariums one day while Mr. Destructo was napping.  I chose a very small jar and it just wasn't big enough.  The moisture just completely fogs up all the glass and you can't see a thing.  Penguin Girl's turned out really great.

We got 2 types of groundcover moss and a mini sedum from Home Depot and Lowes.  We only used a tiny bit so we're giving the rest away to friends so they can make their own.

And to crown the week, Penguin Girl got to attend a classmate's birthday party.  He was a mad scientist and they did experiments like baking soda volcanoes and Mentos shooting out of soda bottles.  Best of all, she got to run around like mad with her friends.

Is it Still Spring Break?

Why, yes it is.  Over the weekend I ran across a cool craft idea and realized that I had all the necessary materials.  Years ago, I had the idea that I would felt wool around wiffle balls and make a neat plaything for Penguin Girl.  I mentioned this to my childhood friend, A, and she promptly sent me a big box of multi-colored wool roving, dyed by her no less!  I knew A was a knitter but did not know that she also dyed and spun her own yarn.  (She also sent along some of her yarn and, I must confess, I have yet to knit it up.)  Well, after a whole lot of felting, Penguin Girl was pretty lukewarm about the felted ball.  I don't know where that ball is today but all the leftover wool roving was in my crafts closet.

I went outside and cut a couple of flexible branches and bent them into hoops.  I used some of A's homespun yarn to  loop around the hoop.  Then we both took a loop and started weaving the wool roving through the yarn.  Penguin Girl was able to do most of the weaving herself.  I helped her out when she got to the tree trunk.  I went with autumn colors.  Penguin Girl decided to go rainbow.

Both trees are now hanging up in Penguin Girl's room over her bed. But we still have a ton of roving left.  Thanks, A!

More Spring Break

When Penguin Girl is off from school, I try to take her places that she normally doesn't get to go to but that her brother and I go with some regularity.  She always thinks she is somehow missing out on the very mundane when she hears me talking about these places.  We took a trip to the farm store.  Normally, I pick up some fresh produce in the store while Mr. Destructo plays with their cute little set up of table, chairs, toys, and whatnot.  However, I actually made the trip to visit the organic gardening center that's in the barn behind the store.  But the kids still like to go into the store.  Mr. Destructo must play with the airplane, helicopter, and school bus, and Penguin Girl pets the dog, Mort, and chats up the owner.

Out at the barn, there is a lot of running around to see the chicks that are inside and the hens and rooster in the coop outside.  Somewhere in all this running about, I buy a big sack of diatomaceous earth.  I read that you can safely sprinkle it around to kill bugs.  I am waging a war against the ants that are living somewhere behind our siding and coming into the house through the master bath.  I have to stay away from just spraying Raid everywhere since we don't want Mr. Destructo to grow a third eye or a hump on his back.  I have tried all sorts of baits, store-bought and DIY, with varying degrees of success.  Mostly not much.  The diatomaceous earth is supposed to dessicate the ants and kill them.  (I tested it by catching a few and putting them in a container with some of the DE.  We went out to Trader Joe's and when we came back, the ants were in fact dead.)  We'll see if it has any effect on the little buggers in the bathroom.

After the farm store, we headed over to the sandbox park.  Penguin Girl loved this park when she was little.  She used to mill around in the giant sandbox and could do so indefinitely.  I take Mr. Destructo a couple times a week.  It's usually fun.  He'll often get into a kerfuffle with another child over a toy and does the whole throwing himself to the ground thing and cries most piteously.  But, alas, life is hard.  We need to learn how to take turns and share.  They started off having fun together.

That didn't last long.  Mr. Destructo went off to do his own thing.  Penguin Girl realized the sandbox park is really meant for children smaller than her and did her own thing, too.

Spring Break

Penguin Girl's school holiday began last Friday.  I don't know what happened to spring.  We seemed to have skipped right on over to summer.  I had to (gasp and sputter) turn on the a/c for a few hours at dinnertime yesterday.  But still, we've got to run around outside or Mr. Destructo will go bonkers.

At the start of the week, I took both kids to the Carolina Raptor Center.  (I even had a coupon--yay!)  I timed it so we got there right as it opened so it wouldn't be too hot.  It was gorgeous.  The last time we were there, Penguin Girl was much smaller and brother-free.  This time she could read all the very descriptive signs.  "Mom!  This bird had severe tissue damage in his wing!  What does that mean?  What is amputated?"

The Raptor Center is not huge so we were there for only an hour.  I was a bit disappointed that their eagle viewing area was closed so as not to disturb the baby eaglets in their nest.  But the kids didn't mind.  We were mostly chasing Mr. Destructo down the trails, hardly had much time to see the birds.  I took this one photo where the kids look like they are happily running along, hand in hand.  But actually, one or the other of them, I can't recall which, is madly running after the other because it's just unbearable to have your sibling ahead of you for any length of time.