Sunday, September 19, 2010

Pea Patch Garden - September, 2010

I haven't been very good at keeping the blog up to date about our garden this year. We have a slightly bigger plot, with the added bonus of a scarecrow made by a class last year. The weather has been less than helpful this summer, with many more cloudy and rainy days than sunny ones. So there are many green tomatoes still on the vine, waiting to ripen, while the pumpkin vine has already withered.

Here are some photos of the garden in its September glory.

The whole garden with the scarecrow. We had some fabulous lettuce in the left corner that lasted all summer.

Zucchini that never made it past the bloom stage, but the flowers are pretty! The basil, rosemary and sugar snap peas did well, though.

One green pepper!

We do have some red tomatoes, but there are more green ones than red.

Tomatoes on their way out, sadly.

I love weird looking carrots, and we have a bunch! (get it, a bunch???)

Griffin's lone pumpkin! We tried to grow more, but they never made it past the flower stage. I guess the bees were elsewhere, or maybe it was that bee shortage I read about?

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Raspberry picking

We went berry picking a few weeks ago, including Griffin's impersonation of a horse, a ride in a tractor-driven ride out to the berry bushes, one ladybug rescued from the dirt before we could step on her (or him), and two flats of raspberries picked.





Friday, July 23, 2010

Art

Griffin took a fabulous art class a few weeks ago, and I wanted to share his art with you. The theme was "Safari Explorers" and they learned about a few artistic ideas, such as shadows, cool and warm colors, point of view, and had a great time in a small class with enthusiastic teachers at Thrive Art School in Ravenna.

Look closely at the elephant picture and see if you can find the mother elephant!

A giraffe with the light behind it (Griffin's description)

African masks

Rhinoceros

Baby elephant (do you see the mother?)

Thursday, July 08, 2010

Griffin's brain

Today we had an argument about leaving the park to get home in time to take a bath and get ready for bed, nothing too unusual. On the drive home I made a comment about how he was feeling or thinking (I can't remember too clearly because I've already blocked out the bad moments to save my sanity). Griffin said forcefully, "You don't know, you aren't inside my brain!" and I had to agree with him. Then a few minutes later he said, "I know everything!" and I just had to try not to laugh. Can't wait for the teenage years!

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Summer vacation, Part 1

Griffin and I have been very busy the past week and a half, since school got out. He took a multi-sports class last week in the mornings (baseball, soccer, and basketball for three hours a day for 5-8 year olds), and decided he liked them all. He is going to take a baseball class next week just for fun!

This week he is taking an art class in the mornings, the theme is Safari Explorers. He is having an art show tomorrow and I'll post photos after that.

After each class last week we went exploring around Seattle, going to the zoo, the Pacific Science Center (they have animatronic dinosaurs!), and strawberry picking at a local farm. We also baked cookies, played some Super Mario Kart on the Wii, and basically forgot to relax.

This week we went to the Seattle Art Museum downtown, where Griffin was very interested in the Andy Warhol and Kurt Cobain exhibits, as well as the African masks and Native American art. I think he's ready for the Louvre!

Here are a few photos from the craziness the past week or so!

Photos taken by Griffin of exhibits at the Seattle Art Museum:




Aboriginal war shields from Australia:


Ladybug in our pea patch garden. We had lettuce from our garden as our dinner salad twice this week. We're going back to get the one ripe strawberry tomorrow.


Cookies! What's better than licking the beater?


Seven pounds of strawberries picked by Griffin and me. They were soon pureed, sliced or eaten. Strawberry jam to come soon.

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Salmon release day

My school has had a salmon tank this year, and after two sad episodes of the fish not surviving, the third batch was the charm. So on May 1st, the school community was invited to come to a park with a stream and help release the salmon into the wild. Griffin and I went, along with about 50 kids and parents from the school, and Griffin had a chance to release four of the fry into the stream.



Here he is waiting for his first fish.




He's very proud of his fish. He named it Freddy, in the 2 minutes or so that they got to know each other.




Here's Freddy the Fish!




Griffin walking down to the stream to release the salmon.



And there Freddy goes, to spend some time in the stream before he travels out to the ocean in a year or two.

Monday, May 03, 2010

Chef Griffin

We baked an apple pie for a friend's dessert auction, and Griffin was a master chef. He insisted that I call him "Chef Griffin" when he was wearing the hat. He helped mix and taste-test the apples. Then he wouldn't eat any pie, go figure.




Sunday, May 02, 2010

Museum of Flight

We visited the Museum of Flight next to Boeing Field during our spring break. Griffin loved being up close to all the planes, and walking through Air Force One and the Concorde. When I asked him what his favorite part was, he said, "Everything!"




Saturday, May 01, 2010