Our First Visit To Wicked Tulips

Today's adventure took us to Wicked Tulips! It was the first time we have been there and as luck would have it, it won't be our last! I had mistakenly bought tickets for Tuesday instead of Wednesday for my mom, my sister, the girls and I. When I realized my mistake, I  quickly checked the website and was so very grateful that tickets were still available for Wednesday. I wasted no time putting five Wednesday tickets in my cart. I was hoping to sell the Tuesday tickets but no one came forward to buy them. When I woke up this morning and saw that it was an absolutely gorgeous day I knew that it was a sign that we were actually meant to go today and tomorrow! And what a wonderful blessing that turned out to be! It gave us a chance to do a dry run and to report back to my mom and sister all that we learned in preparation for our visit there tomorrow. We cannot wait to go back and share this very special place with two of our favorite people! xo

Pretzels!

Continuing with Emma's botany block, we made pretzels earlier this week to explore yeast/the fungus kingdom. Last year Grace made pizza dough when we did this block. We thought it would be fun to do something different this year. As an added bonus, pretzels have a connection to the middle ages which was a nice tie in for Grace who's been learning about that time period for the last several weeks. Two blocks, one stone, total score! I love when that happens!  

Homemade Yogurt

We are all so excited to be doing the botany block again! I can't believe it's already April and we're back to the beloved botany block already. This lesson year has totally flown by! For Emma's first project (and the first kingdom- bacteria) she made yogurt. We cut the recipe (pictured above) in half as it made way too much when Grace made it last year. This is a much more manageable amount and I dare say it came out even better this time around. xo 

Butterfly Release Day!

Last Sunday we left for New Jersey for the bat mitzvah of the daughter of one of my dearest friends. The day before we left I couldn't shake the feeling that I should find someone who could keep an eye on the chrysalises. I sent a quick text to our next door neighbor and she quickly replied they'd be happy to keep an eye on them. I brought them over, along with some butterfly life cycle books for her boys, and told them that there was a chance they may hatch while we were away.

Sure enough, Monday afternoon as we were on our way back from New Jersey, we learned that two butterflies had hatched! A plan was hatched (pardon the pun!) that we would gather the next day when the boys got home from preschool to release them together. The girls and I were super excited to share this magical moment with the boys! By the time we gathered in the yard, four butterflies had hatched. The first three flew away very quickly. The last one, stayed for a good long while and allowed each child to hold it several times. It was truly magical!

Oh, and interestingly enough, the last time we experienced the butterfly life cycle was five years ago. And, here we are, almost exactly five years to the day later, releasing butterflies once again!