Prickly Pear Cactus

For our last week of Wildflowers the kids decided to learn more about the Prickly Pear Cactus. We used this CSU site for information, and read the fun poem My Grandma is Like a Flowering Cactus. The kids did a journal page and have decided we should bring some Prickly Pear home to eat. We'll look at the store next time we are there.

Nyah's:

Austin's:

Daisy

Wednesday Flower Study - Daisy

The Field Daisy

I'm a pretty little thing,

Always coming with the spring;

In the meadows green I'm found,

Peeping just above the ground,

And my stalk is cover'd flat

With a white and yellow hat.

Little Mary, when you pass

Lightly o'er the tender grass,

Skip about, but do not tread

On my bright but lowly head,

For I always seem to say,

"Surely winter's gone away."

Ann Taylor

Austin-

Nyah-
We are seeing plenty of these beautiful, happy flowers on our walks.

Flower People!!

We recently read a picture book that is a family favorite- Cinderlilly: A Floral Fairy Tale by David Ellwand. This book is a retelling of Cinderella using people made out of flower parts, and one reason it is a favorite is because we like to make our own flower people! The author of the book used a computer to create his pictures, but I think we had lots of more fun making ours with the real thing!

My daughter enjoyed picking the flowers, especially when I said she could pick any that she wanted, and not just the ones that were wilting.

The ones on red are my daughters and the ones on black are my sons.

My Favorite!

My Favorite!

In other family floral news, our Christmas cactus is blooming again- a wonderful surprise!

And we are getting ready to plant in our yard!! YEAH!!

Flowers!

For all my complaints about how stinky crabapple blossoms are, they really are breathtaking when in bloom. This street not far from our home caught our eyes on a recent outing.

While on a walk we spotted this butterfly/moth (we haven't had a chance to identify it yet!) getting a drink.

We spent a couple days doing some planting- Managing the hose, otherwise known as spraying everything possible including little sisters, is a favorite job, though not for the little sister.

We picked up some annuals and planted them in these fun tubs for our deck

Beautiful results-

My kids "weeded" a beautiful dandelion bouquet from the neighbor's yard for me.

My kids had been anxiously awaiting the first flowers from some bulbs we planted a couple weeks ago. Each day they would head outside to check the flower's progress. So it was a bit shocking for them when their 11 month old sister suddenly plucked the one closest to blooming- it got to bloom in a cup

Fortunately, it was only a few more days before there were plenty of flowers blooming.

For our flower study this week I let the kids pick any flower in our yard to draw-

Austin- Pansy

Nyah- Tulips

Dandelions

Wednesday Flower Study ~ Dandelions

"Professor Bailey once said that dandelions in his lawn were a great trouble to him until he learned to love them, and then the sight of them gave him keenest pleasure." (Handbook of Nature Study, pg.531)

I certainly felt the same way yesterday when I poked my head out the back door and immediately caught sight of these sunny heads! Yesterday was a bright, sunny, and windy day, and today is cloudy and rainy-- What a cheerful welcome to Spring the dandelion gives us!!

"The edges of the leaf are notched in a peculiar way, so that the lobes were, by some one, supposed to look like lions' teeth in profile; thus the plant was called in France 'dents-de-lion' (teeth of the lion), and we have made from this the name dandelion." (Handbook of Nature Study, pg. 532)

"The hollow stalk of the blossom-head from time immemorial has been a joy to children. I may be made into a trombone, which will give to the enterprising teacher an opportunity for a lesson in the physics of sound, since by varying the length the pitch is varied." (Handbook of Nature Study, pg. 532)

Well, we decided to give this a try, and after picking some flowers, we plucked off the heads, but we didn't get any sounds when we blew into one end. I guess there must be more to making them a trombone than I imagined.
When I said they tasted weird, my son said it was because of the white stuff coming out of the end. I told him its called milk, and he asked, "Is this like the milk we drink?" Yuck, the idea of dandelion milk makes me shudder!! Here is a poem I found about Dandelion Milk.

Just this morning I was reading Happy Birthday Kit out loud to the kids, which is a story of a 9 year old girl during the Great Depression, and they became so excited to hear about the main character collecting dandelion greens for salad.Nyah's Notebook Page

Austin's Notebook Page (he didn't want to color today)

Yesterday the kids helped me plant some Caladium tubers in these tubs so they will be ready to plant in the yard in a few weeks.

And we checked on our other flowers in the front-- getting taller!!

Wednesday Flower Study

My kids are having a hard time being excited about our recent nature studies, mostly because we haven't been able to see a lot of what we have been studying. Fortunately, this weeks flower, the Daffodil brought some excitement because these flowers are in bloom around our neighborhood.

Some of the flowers we've seen as we've been out walking:

Also this last week we planted our little section of yard that isn't in danger of being dug up as we landscape. We have some daffodils in there, but the snow over the last week has kept them from growing. They have shot up a couple inches the last day or so with weather warming up. Is spring finally here (or in the words of my daughter, "Is it done snowing yet?")

One of the dangers while walking in our area.

My daughter touched it, and when I asked why, she said so it would poke her. I'm sure the cactus was happy to oblige. In the outdoors again! Sticks, rocks, juniper berries- all found their way into hands, pockets, and our house.

Olivia loved being with us on our walk. She loved this tree because it was just her height, and grabbed onto the branch like Tarzan for a swing.

These are some tulips we planted just ten days ago . . .

And here they are today- getting ready to bloom. I brought them inside after they dried off from that snowy day. The smaller pot is Nyah's from a recent club activity, and it is growing mystery flowers because she can't remember what kind she planted.

In our last Wednesday Flower Study I posted about this plant:
As those who commented pointed out, this is a Woolly Mullein. Here is what this plant will grow into- the taller one is over 6 feet tall. The plant has small yellow flowers that cover the upper part of the stalks.

I love the unique shape.

Here they are all over our backyard,

growing on the neighbor's rock wall.