craft week take five: cup+paint=miniman art

craft week take four: more gifts that just flew the coop

craft week take three:

up and away - to welcome new babies into the world

craft week take two: klara's hand sewing

she asked last week "when can i start a sampler?". thank you laura ingalls wilder!

craft week take one

just thought i would post some pictures of crafts and art projects happening in the house this week. this first one is of two dolls made for klara's scchultute, which she got on the first day of school. on the left may i present Ronja, k's favorite person to dress up as and pretend to be. the shaggy headed dude on the right is the little prince. he seems to have already lost a few hairs- where'd i put the glue?

papa's helper in the lab

this child of mine, the one with over a million silly faces has been helping her papa the last couple of weekends run some fly behavioral experiments in the lab and loves it! she helps look for the behaviors of interest and track the flies who are "behaving" rather than those doing the fly equivalent of sitting around scratching their butts.

(many hairs) cut

i know i'm lame...

instead of some images higlilghting the past week how about a whole bunch of images from a single day?

miniman botanizes

trying desperately to carry all his sandtools to the playground

a rice cake moment

checking out the acorn top - will it fit on my head?

not just a painting but also a scratching post

digging time with his pal Izzy

klara checks her teeth for renegade pieces of spinach

"bee bee bee bee bee!!" - miniman loses it trying to point to every bee

dance breaks are a must in this family

Sunday outing for Raspberries and Herbs

little helper

big helper

miniman loves ladybird beetles

grasshopper

Mist Netting and Bird Banding

saturday morning we all piled on our bikes and rode off to watch scientists from the Illinois Natural History Survey band birds. Klara was absolutely taken! Looks like we will become regulars on the morning Audubon birding hikes this fall :)

removing female cardinal from mist net

banding and measurements

magnolia warbler


magnolia warbler

Klara gets to release on of the magnolia warblers

kids + map = adventure

gearing up for a family outing. who's got the map?

a dynamic duo

we pass this every day on our walk to the schoolyard and it always makes me laugh

a bit of self reflection

It's Monday and the little guy is sleeping and klara is at school. don't i have anything better to do with my time than take silly pictures in the mirror? sometimes it is the best medicine when life feels too serious!

Now we know who Abe is voting for

1stSeptmeber: more letting go

gathering leaves for Pill-Pill before heading to school



this was not the first "pet" for klara. she has had plenty: multiple snails all named Whiskers, ants, fruit flies - the girl even took the meal moths in our old place in PA under her wings and referred to them as her pets. Yes, we did get plenty of strange looks when klara told complete strangers all about her pets that competed with us for our flour, rice, and cereal. but this pet was different - it was bigger than any other pet she had before and this pet almost looked like a real pet with its soft body and big head. this pet was "Pill-Pill" the tomato hornworm discovered in our garden last week. klara took to Pill-Pill like bread to butter. upon returning from school yesterday klara found her latest pet to be a bit umm, under the weather. Little did she know that this caterpillar she took into her care had been harboring parasitoid wasp larvae inside of it. their white fuzzy coccons were discovered covering the back of Pill-Pill after arriving home from school. It broke her heart. that is until she realized that she would now have dozens of mini wasps as "pets". perhaps it is time for a fish.

31stAugust: Letting Go...Holding On

klara's first day of kindergarten:
in the morning with her Schultuete (school cone) on her head of course!

posing with papa. kidnergartener or not she still looks like a "mini me" version of her papa

the walk to school



in the schoolyard

beginning of class

mini man begins his day of utter confusion. the poor chap looked for big sister all day and called for her. there were many visits to her room and his "viewing window" to look for a sign of her. Miniman, you were not the only one feeling like something was missing today

August30th: Manduca aka Pill-Pill