My Florida

My Florida

I've lived here my whole life. Sometimes when you grow up in a place and you still live there...and you see it everyday, you start to miss it. You start to not see it. 

You get so caught up in traffic lights and Target that you miss the beauty all around you.

At least I do. I'm constantly running through my to-do list. I'm constantly feeling just a little (and sometimes a lot) behind.

It can be awfully refreshing to put that all on a shelf for a morning and just take a walk.

To some place new and quiet. Some place peaceful.

To be a child.

It's amazing to see your home through your child's eyes. I remember when everything seemed so big and wild.

I remember believing that it was all just waiting for me. 

It's an exciting feeling.

And now it's all just waiting for my kids.

What an invitation.

I don't want to miss it.

I don't want them to miss it.

Because this is their home.

This is their Florida.

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Discovering Natural Florida

The other day I took the kiddos to a nature park.  It was really quite beautiful.  I do love where I live and I never get tired of seeing our marsh.

And it was educational.  We found tracks.  Sort of.

And discovered what "made" those tracks.  Well, you know.

And generally had a great time hiking.  Kind of hiking.  Soft core hiking.  On the concrete path.

My point here isn't the awesomness of this activity or the game changing tips I'm going to give you.  My point is that even the most normal activities are pretty amazing for young kids.  Sure, we walked along on concrete.  But for my city kids, we were in the forest.  The for-real forest.  If you live somewhere more rural, you'll have to get your feet a little dirtier to impress, so to speak, but even then, it won't take much.

The tracks we found?  They were the real deal as far as my kids were concerned.  And we did learn a thing or two about the animals that made them.  Or would have made them if we were actually walking along on dirt.  

We learned that our home is also home to the largest rattlesnake in north America (Diamondback Rattlesnake) .  They both loved that idea.  We talked about what to do if we came across that snake in the path (thankfully not a part of our day here).

We had a pretty good time watching the fiddler crabs crawling around the marsh grass in the wet sand.

And running along the boardwalk.

And then it got hot.  Really hot.  Summer is here, folks.  And when summer hits Florida, you'd better be ready.  With lots of water.  We weren't.  So after this shot, we made our way back to the car where our lunches and waters were waiting for us. 

But not before taking this picture.

Why, yes, that is my son picking his nose.  You're welcome for that.

If I was a little more prepared for our field trip, I might have made little books for the kids to "draw" the animals they saw today (which included cardinals, woodpeckers, lizards, and squirrels along with the fiddler crabs), but I didn't.  And you know what?  That's okay.  

Sometimes all it takes is a quick trip out of doors.  Are you guys getting outside lately?  What fun things has your family been up to?

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Friday's Art Smarts: Painting With Nature

Hello Spring!

Nothing says, "It's Spring!" like flowers in bloom.  Around here, we love flowers.  At least, Natalie and I love flowers.  I think the boys could take 'em or leave 'em (including my husband), but since Natalie and I are fans, we have them.  And decorate with them.  

Today's project is actually called "Flower Pounding," and the gist of it is exactly how it sounds.  You pound some flowers.  A lot.  And you end up with something really beautiful.  I thought this project might be the best of both worlds for my kids: Daniel gets to pound with his new hammer and Natalie gets to make giant flower gardens.

Okay, here we go.

Materials:

fresh flowers and leaves
fabric (we used cheap utility fabric from JoAnn's)
butter knife
scissors
hammer 
large piece of wood or mat

Since it has been such a nice day, I decided we should take this project outside.  And it's fortunate that we did, because this is a little messy.

Choose a few flowers and leaves and arrange them on half of a scrap of fabric.  I also picked a few blades of grass and weeds.  Yes, we have lots of weeds in our yard.  It's the natural look around here, folks.

Fold the other half of your fabric over your flowers...

And pound them!  Daniel loved this part.  The trick is to pound for just the right amount of time.  If you stop too soon, you won't get much color, but if you keep pounding (as I discovered) your colors start to blend in an unappealing way....leaving you with a lot of brown.

Natalie loved this art project and took it very seriously :)

Once you've decided you're done pounding, open up your fabric.

What a (colorful) mess!  Scrape off the bits with your butter knife.

You should end up with a very impressionist flower garden.

The artists:

There are so many fun ways to use these, but a word of caution: I can't vouch for how well they will wash.  The color might bleed...or fade.  So whatever you do, keep that in mind.

What did we do with ours?

I've had these hoops hanging in our dining room for quite awhile, so I decided to switch out the fabric and hang our garden in there:

Of course, I couldn't throw the extra flowers away.  

Spring!  Or summer, more like.  I can't believe June is here.  Crazy-town.

Have fun with this!  If you decide to try this project with your family (or on your own -- it was as much fun for me as it was for the kids!), I'd love for you to leave a link so that I can see how it turned out for you!

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Getting Dirty in the Garden

Materials:
plants or seeds
dirt and/or potting soil
spade
water

So, baby elephant ears.  

My kids love gardening, especially my daughter.  If she's allowed to dig holes, get her hands dirty, shower the new plants with water...she's a happy girl.  Daniel likes it, too, but his attention span is a lot shorter.

I don't think my kids are very unique in that way.  I think most kids delight in getting outside and getting dirty.  And if they can be a part of watching a new thing grow, all the better.  

There are also so many teachable moments when it comes to gardening.  Everything from root systems, to photosynthesis, to the insects and worms in the dirt can become a new lesson.

Exhibit A:

Earthworms are such friendly little guys.  Quietly, blindly, going about their business in the dirt.  

"Why are they slimy?"

"Why are they blind?"  

"What do they eat?"  

"Is it okay for them to get on the elephant ears?"

There are all kinds of lessons here...even an extended lesson on how to treat little animals (it doesn't include flinging them across the dirt, in case you were interested).

And then there's the satisfaction over accomplishing a goal.  Our front yard looked like this yesterday afternoon:

What a mess.  But things have to get worse before they get better, right?  If you look at the end of the garden bed over on the left side, you'll see a large clump of elephant ears.  Our plan was to spread them out to fill out the whole bed.  So we spent some time digging up the babies.  I dug them up and Natalie and Daniel spread them out.

And Silas helped.  Sort of.  Really, he just crawled around in the dirt.  

And ended up like this:

Sigh.  He's definitely been my dirtiest baby.

Then we dug new holes and planted them!  Natalie loved this part!  

We still need edgers and mulch, but this is looking so much better already.  And my hope is that by this time next year, we'll have some beautiful elephant ears to hide the old, stained concrete porch.  

All right now, get outside!  Go plant something -- and get your kids involved!  Tell them to observe as many bugs as they can find!  Start digging holes and those bugs come flooding to the surface.  And then go look up what earthworms eat...we still need to figure that one out ;)

I love Spring!

My yard is full.

Strawberry Plants and Herb Garden

Wandering.

Growing.

Tomato Plants 

And in bloom.

Bougainvillea

I love Spring!  And so do the kiddos...we're off to plant some baby elephant ears beside the front porch.  Stay tuned!