fire station...

Buddy is getting so close to finishing his Wolf badge.  A trip to the fire station to talk to the firemen about fire safety means he only has four more requirements to do by June 27th in order to become a Bear.  He can do it. 

just the beginning...

Here is our garden!  Some of you have been asking to see what it looks like.  Well, as you can see, it is still very small.  Or short.  A lot of the plants are just starting to sprout.  Also, some of the veggies haven't been planted as of today still.  We did make it to the Master Gardener's plant starters thingy today.  A place where you can get starts for super cheap.  We got 14 plants for $15.  That was excellent!  Do you want to know what we are growing?  Of course you do!  We are growing:

sugar snap peas
radishes
turnips
broccoli
red onions
green onions
spinach
lettuce (3 kinds)
kohlrabi
tomatoes - roma
tomatoes - cherry
cucumbers
patty pan squash
yellow summer squash
zucchini
cabbage
carrots
peppers (3 kinds)
green beans
strawberries
apples
plums
sunflowers
nasturtiums
marigolds

I think that's everything.

sugar snap peas, radishes, turnips, spinach, red onions, green onions and a pepper plant

lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, vine zucchini and a pepper plant

kohlrabi, yellow squash, cucumber, green beans and I'm not looking at the key

same as two above

red onions, turnips and tomatoes

our garden plots!

extra lettuce and spinach

same as the one that I couldn't remember all of

Oh, and I should mention we have two little snake friends in the garden area.  I hope they like snails, which we have a lot of! (the picture of the four boxes is the first four boxes I took pictures of and I'm standing next to the small square box that looks half empty as I took the picture, if that gives you any clue as to what's going on, also you can see the last picture in that grouping outside of the fence to the upper left.

buddy takes some pictures...

Buddy is still working on several belt loops for Cub Scouts.  One of the ones he chose to do is photographer.  And since I LOVE taking pictures, he naturally asked me to help.  I let him use our good camera (it's not a DSLR and if anyone wants to get me one, feel free - I'm up for donations) and I taught him a few things about macro, zoom and lighting.  I think Buddy did a really good job taking pictures.

 These are by our front door and they are more of a purple color.  Like I said, we were working on lighting and this was in the shade.

weather balloon launch...

Dad will post the details on this later (we hope).

world book night...

Turn off the TV week is difficult.  However, the kids school did something different this year.  Every night there was a something fun to do, including gardening at the school's community garden, a nature walk and square dancing (we weren't able to attend all of them).  Monday happened to be "World Book Night."  We decided to make that our FHE activity because they wanted families, and not just kids, included.  We got to school and every kid got a new book, as well as one adult per family.  The gym was set up with little reading areas everywhere.  We shared our spots with our good friends, the Olsen's.  It was fun and something different to do.

Here are the kids with their librarian, Mrs. Jones.

interview with a third grader...

Buddy came home with a sheet he filled out at school today.  It was a little getting to know you type thing.  I thought you would like to see his answers.

My favorite colors are.....turquoise and blue.
A hobby of mine is.....collecting books.
I am good at.....not liseing to my perents.
One way I help at home is by.....washing dishes.
My favorite foods are.....spaghetti.
The subject I like best in school is.....reading and math.
My favorite book is.....Leven Thumps.
My favorite game is.....battle ship.
The thing people like best about me is.....I am smart.
The thing I like best about me is.....I know how to read.
My favorite television program movie is.....Rio.
My favorite song is.....I didn't.
In my family there is.....mom, dad, brother, and sister.
My favorite flavor of ice cream is.....birthday cake.
When I grow up I want to be.....a scientist.
The best time of the year is.....my birthday.....because..... I get prestents and get to see family.

(He isn't the greatest speller, but he certainly is trying hard)

cub camp...

Last week Buddy was able to attend Cub Scout Camp for the first time. He loved it all. Camp was held at a local State Park and it ran from Monday through Thursday.One of the days Buddy was able to use his loud and clear voice to call the Color Guard for the beginning of camp. It was very neat to see that and watch the boys reverence the flag of our country.Buddy also worked on projects. He made a sun dial, drinking spectacles (straws attached to glasses that you wear) and he also made this wonderful stool. It is awesome. The beads on top of the stool were earned for doing things like swimming, fishing and cooking.Buddy also learned how to shoot a BB gun and arrows. He came home raving about those. Check out one of his targets from the BB gun shooting.He wanted to include this in the post. The theme of the week was Gizmo's, Games and Gadgets. He learned how to make a sun print and this leaf turned out really neat.Here is Den D. They had a Den yell that went like this:

We are the Dudes, marching proud.
Wherever we go, we're shouting loud.
Keep in mind, we are very cautious;
Don't get to close, or you might get nauseous.
Buddy is very much looking forward to Cub Camp again next year.

empty kiln...

Last year our last class wasn't able to empty the kiln because it had just turned off. Last night I was very excited to learn that the pieces were cool enough to take out. I was eager to see how the kiln looked full. Wow. The door of the kiln is actually on a railroad track because of how heavy it gets. I didn't know that the pots were actually on the back of door on shelves. I wish I had brought the camera because it is so neat to look at. One other thing. As the pieces cool, they pop. It sounds like a metallic ping. The pots can ping for up to three days afterwards. Case in point -- after I came back inside from dropping Buddy off at the bus stop this morning, I heard one ping. So fun.

This bowl I had a little help with. Both of my teachers worked with me on this. At first it was because I wasn't able to center 4 pounds of clay. That is a LOT to work with. It turns out that I had a couple of air bubbles in my clay (not a good thing, it can ruin a pot). And then I needed help getting my bowl taller because I'm not good at that yet. During the kiln firing this bowl actually warped a little and it shrank quite a bit more than it should have. My teacher was surprised by this. I also stuck too much glaze on and it ran a lot. I will need to take a Dremmel to this and finish grinding it because it actually wouldn't fit in the grinding spot very well. Here is the same bowl from up above. I really like the inside look of the bowl, the way the white and blue swirled together.

And finally a close-up.

This color is so pretty. It hadn't been used for awhile, so I had to spend about 10 minutes stirring the container. Getting the pigment to come up from the bottom isn't easy. The stuff is like cornstarch on steroids - super thick and smelly. The end result was very nice though and worth the effort.I was going to scrap this piece but my classmates encouraged me to keep it. I'm still not sure about it and my teacher just gave me "the look" when I showed it to her.This color is supposed to be sea foam green. I think my teacher put in a little bit more of the element that makes it "pink." This is a cute little guy.This is what it looks like inside and you can see that all the glaze pigments hadn't mixed together all the way.This bowl was my second attempt at making something bigger. I used about 3 1/2 pounds of clay and I did this one without help. I didn't like it at first because it looked warped and was clunky looking. I kind of slapped on some glaze and didn't care how it turned out because I wasn't happy with it. This bowl is a perfect example of why you shouldn't judge a piece until it is ALL the way done. I LOVE this bowl. Here you can see the outside pattern. It's got browns, a little bit of black and some coppery colors.Here is the inside of the bowl. I love the sunburst look to it.Here is an extreme close-up of the inside. You can see that it looks like a sunflower and you can also see the coppery/metallic look that the glaze does on this bowl. LOVE IT!!!

That's it for this year. Look forward to more next year.

oops...

I accidently deleted this one off of the post and it would be a nightmare adding it on again. So this one gets its own post.

This would be a perfect cereal bowl, unless you happen to be one of my brothers. They would need one of the bowls I'm bringing home next week. I really like this one and think it's super pretty.