Recycled Mini Greenhouses

Happy Earth Day! We love Earth Day at our house; not just because of the concept behind it but also because it is the anniversary of our engagement!  11 years.  Which means that this year marks our 10th wedding anniversary - wow!  

Anyway, back to Earth Day... To celebrate this year, Maya and I raided our recycling bin and made some mini greenhouses in which to start our seeds.  Okay, to be honest, the toilet paper tubes hadn't even made it to the recycling bin.  I have an issue with disposing (even recycling) toilet paper tubes.  I keep thinking, "There has to be something I can do with this."  So, rather than throw them in with my other recyclables, I end up lining them up on the window sill behind the toilet waiting for inspiration to strike.  My friends that use my bathrooms must think I'm very odd.  Check that.  They already know that I'm odd, it's the visitors that happen to use the bathroom that must think I'm very odd.  Oh well.  

Dissecting Bean Seeds

Spring has definitely arrived here and I am itching to get outside in the garden.  We have big, maybe too big given our newborn, plans for the garden this year including a square foot gardening project for the older girls.  (That particular project involves power tools - hooray!)  We just received some seeds we ordered in the mail this week from Seeds of Change (a great source for organic seeds - we got some San Marzano tomato seeds this year because I hear they make an amazing sauce!) and I made the comment about every seed having a baby plant inside.  The girls, as you can imagine with a new baby in the house, are fascinated by babies right now and wanted to see the baby plant so we decided to dissect some beans!

Materials Needed:

• variety of dried beans - we used a bag of mixed dried beans intended for soup
• water
• paper towels
• 5 plastic containers
• magnifying glass
• markers - I recommend permanent (for adult use!)
• science journal

Our New Owl - Welcome Baby Gabby

Well, I haven't posted anything for a while but for a pretty good reason, I think.  We welcomed our third daughter, Gabrielle Elyse, into our family on March 10th.  She's doing wonderfully and I've spent the last month in a state of newborn bliss - with all the sleep deprivation and good baby smells that it entails.  I've had some time to think about Momma Owl and though I debated taking a longer sabbatical, I have some science activity ideas I'd still like to share and I appreciate the creative outlet that Momma Owl has become for me over the last six months.  I may change things up a bit and incorporate some quicker activities that may better fit my (and maybe yours, too!) family life right now.  We'll see how it goes... Wish me luck - and some sleep!