We Have Sunflowers!

Remember back in June when I tried growing some sunflowers? Little buds had started to form before we left North Carolina but now they are in full bloom! Thanks to my father for taking a couple of pictures and sending them to share! Here is a picture update:

Day one: Wet the seeds.

Week one: We see sprouts!

Week two: Time to take them out and plant them!

We picked a spot:

This is what it looked like before we put it into the ground:

Week 5: You can clearly see three plants growing!

Week 9: A flower is forming!

Week 10 - We have a flower!

Week 11: We have MANY sunflowers!

Of course the little buggers were a bit camera shy and decided to face towards the fence rather than the camera.....

I'm not sure which variety of sunflowers each of these are - while we labeled them in the glove I forgot to label them when we planted them into the ground. Whoops! That's okay. I am just tickled to death that this experiment worked! From beginning to end the entire process took approximately 2.5 months. It was well worth the wait!

Please see my original post for more details or head over to JesseKate Designs where the idea originated!

Growing Sunflowers - Craft

If there is one thing that I lack it is a green thumb. I am SO lacking that is makes me ridiculously proud of myself for keeping my father's poinsettia plant alive. Let's see, he received it right before Christmas which means I've kept it alive for FIVE MONTHS! That's gotta be a record! However, I have to give credit where credit is due. The ONLY reason why it hasn't died is because of the Aqua Globe. (They are the bomb, I tell ya! The bomb!)

Anyways!

Kailani's first grade class has been learning about the life cycle of a plant. At about the same time Kris from JesseKate Designs posted a related craft activity she called "Gardening with a Glove" It was a really cute idea and I thought I'd attempt it with my girls.

Since Kailani's favorite flower is the sunflower we bought five different kinds to see which would grow the best. Here are a few pictures from the activity. (Please go to JesseKate Designs for full instructions!)



And then a week later:

(HOLY SMOKES! IT'S WORKING!!!)

And today - approximately two weeks since beginning the activity.
(HOLY SMOKES! THEY ARE STILL ALIVE!)

We plan on putting them into the ground either today or tomorrow. I will keep everyone posted on how it turns out!

For tips on growing sunflowers click here.

Thanks Kris, for an awesome activity!

St. Patrick's Day - Today!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Well, today has been a lot of fun. I woke up this morning and purposely did not wear any green so Kailani could have the joy of pinching me. Sure enough she came down the stairs, made like she was going to give me a hug but gave me a little pinch instead. Oh the simple pleasures of a six year old. :)

Time for breakfast. How about some Lucky Charms? Kailani acted like I served her a gourmet meal. She was so excited to eat cereal that contained marshmallows. Rarely do I buy any - because that's all the two girls end up eating (not that I can blame them!) After breakfast she put on her skirt. She was so excited. I was just happy that it would be warm enough to wear it!

So off to school she goes. The first thing I do is get dessert ready. Dessert? Already? Yep. That's because I decided to make a layered rainbow Jell-O dessert. If you've ever made one you know that while it's easy to make it takes just about all day to do. These things are very popular in Hawaii but I had forgotten about it until I read Kris' blog at JesseKate Designs. What a great idea for this holiday!

While waiting for each layer to set I then prepared for the shamrock scavenger hunt to occur after school. Am I brilliant or what? Before you start applauding me I AGAIN have to thank Kris! Another wonderful idea! (Kris - can you adopt me?) I tweaked it a bit but followed her basic guidelines. With the weather being so beautiful out I opted to do the hunt outside. Just as Kris suggested I exchanged some bills for gold $1.00 coins and wrapped each one in some foil and then placed them in a goody bag. On the outside of each goody bag was a clue. Here's how each went:

Lucky Clue #1
On a warm sunny day this is where you like to be
You jump and you run and try to shock me.
(trampoline)

Lucky Clue #2
Stand over here and feed some fish
Close your eyes and make a wish.
(bridge over the fish pond)

Lucky Clue #3
All the birds get hungry, this you know
And when they do where do they go?
(bird feeder)

Lucky Clue #4
When you were younger you were afraid
But now you go high - you've got it made!
(swing)

Lucky Clue #5
It's new and you love it - it's orange and black
When it goes really fast Koa wants to attack!
(golf cart)

Lucky Clue #6
Check everyday to see if something is there
And when you send something put the flag in the air
(mailbox)

And then the last bag:
You found all the treasures your hunt is now done.
Save it or spend it on something real fun!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

After she found the last bag we came inside and she opened each one. She didn't recognize the coin and/or it's worth. My dad told her that each coin was equivalent to 100 pennies. For whatever reason she kept thinking 100 dollars. After she opened each one she would say, "100 dollars....200 dollars....300 dollars....." In hindsight I should've put a dollar in each bag in different denominations. Ex. 100 pennies, 20 nickels, 10 dimes, etc. as she is studying money in the first grade. Oh well. She had a blast and I certainly enjoyed watching her.

Instead of keeping the money Kris actually had a great idea of taking the money and paying it forward - to teach her children about servicing others (see what she did and her final note here.) I considered doing it as well....but Kailani has been saving her own money to buy a prize of her choice and I really haven't given her an opportunity to make any money. Bad mama!

After the excitement of the scavenger hunt it was time for some rainbow Jell-O!




These little glasses were perfect for it. Would've been better if they were smaller but I had to work with what I had. Instead of using yogurt I used evaporated milk instead. I found that it took about 40 minutes for each layer to set. If you look close you can see that some of the colors "bled" - that was because of my impatience (the green is actually supposed to be yellow...but blue + yellow = green!) Next time I may make individual servings and put all of them in clear, plastic cups.

As you can see, the little bowl isn't so little!
Momo decided she only really wanted the whipped cream anyways.

Kailani checking out all the layers....

Happy St. Patrick's Day! And a special thanks to Kris at JesseKate Designs!