For emily

Not sure if you can see the numbers.  She has 7 in a square ( hop on one foot)  and the next row is 2 squares next to each other, a minus in one and and a 3 in the one beside it ( land on 2 feet) and then the next row (hop on one foot) is a square with a 4 in it.  Then she turns around and does it the other direction but does addition.  Make sense?
She has a few certain facts that will not stick in her head so we are trying every thing.

Edit:  This picture is actually 9-5=4.

Fact practice hopscotch

7-4=3

Serving practice

Homework

Quick picture of homework in progress. We are super busy with homework and sports and friends this year. 

First day pictures

Ok, here are the pictures you've all been waiting for.  My lesson from this is to be careful what time consuming traditions you start, because you'll be expected to repeat them.  I edited the wrong picure too, I have one of her holding up 3 fingers for 3rd grade, but I put the wrong one in.  I'll fix it next year.  Remember you can click on the pictures to view them larger.

Headed to 3rd grade

Fairy house by parker

This is Parker! No, No, No not in the picture, i'm typing. I bet your wondering "WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT?"

Well, it is a house for ME to live in! just kidding it's a house for my fairy garden, I painted it myself. Here is the front. I also decorated it by myself!

And here is the top. On the back of the house there are orange polka dots. You can see the stepping stones 

and that I took this picture on the stove! He! He! :0 :)

Taco recipe

Parker wanted me to post a picture of her taco invention.  It's Mexican rice, little bit of mashed potatoes, a lot of avocado all wrapped up in a "shell" of Canadian bacon.  Maybe she's channeling Julia Childs on her almost 100th birthday.  Bon appetit! 

Happy 4th

Parker decorated her bike and rode it in the neighborhood parade today.

Random pictures

Here are some pictures from around Memorial weekend.  Need to post them before I forget about them.

Driving the Jet Ski.  Notice that Bob's hands are behind him.  She could have done this for hours.

Fishing with Papa.  There was no catching.

First blackberry harvest.  There were many many more handfuls to come.

Pretty daylily.

Magic kingdom

Notice the stuffed animal is wearing a dress fashioned from a shopping bag.

...via Android phone

Leader hatches

I'm not sure if "hatches" is the right word.  I'm sure Parker knows, but if I ask her, she'll be hanging over my shoulder for the duration of this post, and then you won't have any words to read.  

A few days after Follower came out of his chrysalis, so did Leader.  He looks exactly like Follower, even though his chrysalis was green and not brown, so I guess he was either camouflaging himself, or he had just eaten a lot more parsley.  

Leader was a much friskier butterfly than Follower, so I don't have any pictures of him in captivity - I was afraid to open the lid.  He hatched first thing in the morning, but Parker insisted I keep him cooped up until after Bob go home to see him.  

Releasing Leader

He immediately flew up over the top of the roof, and I didn't get a good picture.  He looked just like his roommate though.  

Good closeup of Follower

Note to Aunt Norma - Thanks for noticing our Vitex - it is a Shoal Creek variety - we planted it last year and we are enjoying its color immensely this spring and summer!  It seems to bring out the color of all the other blooming plants. 

Another bird ID

These are some bird pics from the spring.  I had a lot of traffic here for a couple weeks when the cedar tree berries were just right.

This is some kind of woodpecker, right?


Him and his wife...

This might be a different bird.  They would hand upside down and get the berries at the ends of the branches.  

I loved this little guy.  Doesn't he look so fluffed up and cold?

He's noticed me.  Not amused by the attention I guess. 

Is this how a bird moons someone?

So lets see who ID's the woodpecker first.....my mom or my nephew.  On your mark, get set, go!

Last day of school

Ugh, none of my test printed. Trying again.

The last day of school (half day, actually) was one big party.  The teacher didn't even bother with desks.

Hanging with friends.  Parker's made a lot of new friends this year.



They did a little craft - glued their picture to construction paper and then collected each other's signatures.

Mazes and hidden pictures

Then they all lined the hallways for the 5th grade "walk".  It's a cute tradition:  the 5th graders all line up and do one final walk through the halls.  All the other grades have noisemakers (waterbottles filled with gravel) and construction paper flags and they cheer and give them high 5's.  Very chaotic and loud but they love it.

 

Finished eggs

 

Did I ever post Easter egg pics?

 

Follower flies free

Follower emerged!

Talent show video

It sounds like my video works.  This is Parker's first talent show appearance. She and her friends did all the choreography themselves and set up practices, conned one of the moms into taking them shopping for outfits, got their permission slips signed, etc etc.  They performed it for the K-2nd graders yesterday.  Pretty cute I think.

Chrysalises

  Follower

Leader.   

The black dots are "frass", a way to say caterpillar poop that doesn't make 2nd grader giggle. 

New temporary pets

In second grade at Parker's school, they do a long project where they learn the life cycle of caterpillars and butterflies.  They get caterpillars and watch them turn into butterflies, they collect milkweed and hatch (?) some monarch caterpillars which then turn into butterflies, they visit a butterfly festival, and they sell milkweed seeds in decorated biodegradable pots to raise money for Save the Monarchs or somesuch.  

In my garden I bought and planted some dill....I don't really use dill but I read that it keeps the cucumbers company.  Parker found a couple caterpillars chowing down on my dill plants and captured them.  I'm not sure how a caterpillar/butterfly finds a tiny dill plant in the overplanted jungle that is my garden, but they did.  

 These are terrible pets in that they will only eat fresh organic herbs, but they are great pets because they eventually leave home.  Hopefully in grand fashion after they've become a Swallowtail butterfly.

There are 2 of them. One day, one of them basically doubled in size.  Parker named him Leader, and the smaller one Follower.  We've all enjoyed watching them mill around and chow on herbs.  One morning Parker was looking and looking and looking and finally said: "I can only find one."  That was sort of worrisome to think he might be loose in the house somewhere, possibly hiding in my shoe. I looked and looked too, and finally found the missing guy at the very top wedged between the lid and the side.  Bob later reported the one of them had been unusually active that morning, circling the top, circling the bottom.   Apparently he was looking for a spot to start his chrysalis.  ~NOT~ a cocoon, those are for moths I've learned.

Parker inspected him and realized it was the small guy, "IT'S FOLLOWER!"  We were all surprised...my money was on Leader to be the first to change.    Here's how he looked for about a day.  The next day his outer skin molted off - Parker showed me this by saying "see that thing down there that looks like his head fell off?  It didn't really, that's just molted skin.".  Luckily she told me that before breakfast or there might have been more than molted caterpillar skin on the floor.  

 

 Now he looks sort of like a leaf.  Leader made his chrysalis too, but his was lower down and it's green.  It will be interesting to see if they are a different type of butterfly, or if Leader somehow made his  chrysalis green for camouflage reasons.  I'll try to get some pics that taken and posted.

Outtage

I'm trying to get some pictures posted.  Bear with me, this time of year is totally insane!
Here's Parker's recent lost tooth.  It hung on for days and days and days and finally one morning it was hanging out and wouldn't go back, Parker was crying because it hurt no matter what she did.  So we both got our nerve up and she let me yank on it.  I was prepared to use all my might....we were running late, there was no time for tooth drama!  It came out so easily that she didn't even feel it!  She gave me such a look of "you are so useless" because she thought my fingers slipped.  The new tooth is already peaking through.

I made the headband she's wearing too.