herbs

Hannah and I are working our way through A Kids' Herb Book together a bit before each day's quiet time.  We also take notes in our nature journals as we listen to an audio herbal course together.  It is called Kids & Herbs: A Naturally Simple Course for Parents.  With these lessons, my four year old is so excited about identifying and using healing edibles.  Now we are seeing herbs (healing plants) everywhere!  On a recent walk, we found a street lined with gingko biloba trees!  Last night we ran out to the garden to grab sprigs of rosemary for our roast.  Every few days we put a bit of cooling aloe vera on our skin.

A few days ago, we brewed up for our cousins our usual rose hip mint tea from last fall's foraging adventures.  We then realized the rose hips and mint both came from their yard (with permission)!  Now their kids couldn't get enough of these teas.  It was an awesome realization to find we can give our cousins the gift of their own herbs.

This morning my husband proclaimed, "That's funny you have nature days.  Nature days for you all are like a priest having prayer days!"  Now you'll find us dreaming up herbal popsicles and making lists of herbs we'd love to plant, such as licorice and marshmallow.  With so many uses for herbs, it's hard not to be excited about salves, compresses, lozenges, steams, baths, and teas.  Yup, we're hooked and we're loving it!

What are your favorite herbs and how do you use them?

chamomile

chives and calendula

lavender

Oaks Park & Portland Zoo days

My friends know I try to hide from the hot sun at all times.  In the sun, it is either sunburn city or expensive sunscreen sneaks into our sweaty eyes again.  So it is of no surprise that we waited for cloudy days before heading to Oaks Park and the Portland Zoo.  Those are my favorite days to get out without the crowds and sunburn/sunscreen.  We spend a lot of time on the city train and at the zoo regardless of weather.  We love rollerskating at Oaks Park during the rainy months and love to head to Oaks Park Preschool Days with friends for summer rides.  The crowds are usually fairly small and the price is unbeatable. My little Liam, only 20 months old, went on all the big kid rides with me while grinning and holding his hands above his head while four year old Hannah watched with her feet safely planted on the ground.  She had a blast on her share of rides as well and felt more brave with friends at her side.  Going with friends also allowed me to get on rides with one child while leaving the other on the ground with an adult.  There was even a bit of conversation about ride velocities and speed and dizziness.  Dancing with Chipper (the ASL signing park mascot) was great.  We all had so much fun that the kids will most likely talk me into getting out there into the sun for one more morning of thrilling rides this summer.  If we have a rainy day anytime soon, I'll be the one racing them out the door!

The grins can't get any bigger on the Frog Hopper.

happy times in the boat

zoo caverns

We really cannot get enough of the zoo's sandpit!

trying to get wet at the zoo's tide pools before getting back on the city train

homemade chalk

A teacher friend gave us some old powdered tempera paints and told us we could make chalk.  Months later we have finally found a simple recipe and assembled all the ingredients.  A little box of plaster of Paris cost us $7 at Home Depot, so I don't know how cost effective this all is, though we are making use of our paints and learning how to make something for ourselves that we'd otherwise buy, usually made far away and shipped to us.  If this works, we will be able to supply ourselves with brilliant chalk, but also to gift it to our friends.

Directions:

1. Mix 1.5 cups plaster of Paris in a disposable bowl (we use our cement mixing containers).
2. Slowly add 3/4 cup of water.
3. Add 2-3 tablespoons of tempera paint.
4. Pour it into your molds (such as toilet paper tube with end sealed with strong tape).
5. Let it dry.
6. Use as awesome homemade chalk!

This is what happened.

Our ingredients list: containers with taped bottoms, plaster of Paris, tempera paint, water

adding and stirring (the water)

trying to make Hannah's favorite color (violet) with lots of powdered tempera paint

scraping the bowl clean after our first batch

Well, this was a great project to try together.  We made three batches and have enough plaster for a fourth.  Our first batch was as hard as a rock, though it works a bit after soaking in water.  The second batch was stirred too slowly and came out in fragile little pellets.  And our third batch works just right.  All the chalks came out in beautiful colors, though they all draw in white.  We will put together our fourth and final batch soon, this time adding more tempera paint, leaving Liam on my back in a carrier the entire time, and I will be the one to mix and stir quickly.  Once our plaster is used, I doubt we'll be making chalk again this year.  The kids loved making this at home and sharing it with neighbors.  Perhaps someday we will find a book involving chalk and throw a book club party with this project.

Have you made chalk?  Do you have any pointers for us?

Blue Lake Regional Park

Last week we headed to Blue Lake Regional Park to explore their natural playground.  We had expected something grand and worth the trek.  It was a pretty cool park, though the plastic-free portion was much smaller than what we'd anticipated.  And we paid $5 to enjoy it all too.  It was worth the trip for us, as the littlest ones spent their time in the sandbox (with our two Flat Stanleys) and the bigger kids hung out all over the place.  We built a fort out of logs, hopped along on the stumps, and watched the kids perform their personal play that was a mix of birds hatching and Little House adventures.  It felt good to go explore a new place, though we don't often frequent the same places outside our neighborhood.  And we were inspired to try to create more natural areas in our own yards.  An arborist friend may be able to share some stumps with us and I am angling to get some ropes strewn through our one stable climbing tree.  Oh the adventures we have yet to create.

hanging around with friends on log steps

two Stanleys playing in the sandbox

Flat Stanley goes to Ag Fest & Discovery Village

Once Hannah heard about the Ag Fest in our state capitol Salem and all its splendiferous activities, she talked us all into going with her.  Several of our friends raved about this event and Hannah's determination was just icing on our Ag Fest cake.  After hanging out with pigs and goats and rabbits and chickens, waiting 45 minutes for a balloon dragonfly, digging for potatoes, blowing thousands of bubbles, stamping blueberries onto a postcard, and eating an ice cream bar, Hannah finally got to see a lamb sheered.  That made the drive and fatigue entirely worthwhile.

Hannah had recently filled her chore jar with beads and had requested to go to Discovery Village, also in Salem.  Since we were there for the Ag Fest, we spent our last few hours at this village.  We highly recommend stopped here when you are in the area.  We got in for free with our OMSI membership card.  There are three buildings and an amazing outdoor play area.  Next time we'll dedicate a whole day to the Discovery Village.

the Stanleys eating Ag Fest corndogs

sweet sleeping pigs

bubbles and bubbles and more bubbles

potato digging

arranging Arthur's calendar at Discovery Village

virtual quilting as a story extension

A rocking chair for giants!

Zenger Farm

Zenger Farm is so awesome!  We already knew this from previous visits (Friday tour, honeybee festival, etc.), so we couldn't wait to spend another morning there with friends for a guided tour.  The kids were on a hunt for insects, of which we found a few.  We learned about bees, orchards, wetlands, a variety of snails, organic standards for raising chickens, and so much more.  We also learned that chickens prefer cauliflower to kale and some of those hens are quite loud.  After the tour, my two children and I hung out with our friend Flat Ellie (in photos below) around the roving chicken coop, the Children's Garden, consumed the rainbow chard with our eyes, and revisited the compost pile.  Hannah has asked repeatedly to join the chicken co-op and collect eggs once a week.  Until she has thoroughly convinced me to take on this responsibility (and all the joys that come with it), we are planning another carefree return visit to Zenger Farm.

more dandelion bouquets

going on a bug hunt, gonna catch a big one

Flat Ellie in a forest of rainbow chard

cherry trees are in full bloom

gotta love the Children's Garden

wormin' around in the compost heap 

Liam discussing the upcoming election with his new rooster friend

Mount Tabor Park

Nature days are so invigorating.  We love every part of these outdoor days.  We recently went to Mount Tabor with friends, not only to climb the trees and play hide and seek, but also to pick flowers and spontaneously build a survival shelter out of fallen branches.  As we looked up into the tall trees during our first snack of the day, we spotted a large dark nest in the nearby tree and talked about the possible creatures that could live in it.  Looking up from our second snack a couple hours later, we saw something I had never seen until this day: a bald eagle!  It was first trailed by two quiet black birds resembling crows (but when are crows quiet?) and later by a Cooper's hawk with a translucent tail gleaming in the sun.  It was totally amazing to see our national bird for the first time, and over such a metropolitan area.  It was such a beautiful day of sunshine that our littlest children uncharacteristically took off their shoes and socks and rolled themselves around in the grass.  We sat in the grass for what felt like a combination of forever and not long enough and eventually headed home in search of more food for our bellies.  Spring was surely in the air and we were glad to have been there to take part in the shifting of seasons.

squirrel and coyote (variation of hide and seek) with friends

a full day of picking dandelion bouquets

little toesies in the lush greenery while the big kids build a fort