I've posted before about Susan aka WhyMommy from Toddler Planet. Susan is a mom to two little boys, about the same ages as H&H. She's also a scientist and an awesome writer. Oh, and she kicked cancer's ass a few years ago.
Unfortunately, Susan's back in surgery. Once again, she has tons of bloggy support. In fact, Jean from Stimeyland came up with a great way to let Susan know that we're thinking about her. Not by talking about cancer, but by teaching our kids about science.
While I've fallen off of the blogosphere radar for awhile now, I had to participate in this. I hope she'll read all of our posts in a few days and realize how many people are thinking about her and, most importantly, following her example.
For our "science project" we planted a garden! This is a big thing for me. Despite the fact that I'm married to a guy who grew up on a farm, we've never attempted to keep anything green, aside from a few hardy houseplants, alive. In the interests of full disclosure, I must admit that we currently only have 1 remaining houseplant. All the others have fallen victim to our benign neglect or the careless cruelty of our cats.
T did all the heavy lifting and constructed our garden boxes:
Hollis helped a bit!
The boys "helped" T load the boxes with soil:
We planted peas, green beans, squash, cucumbers, onions, lettuce, broccoli, peas, corn, watermelon, tomatoes, sunflowers and peppers. Of course, they wouldn't all fit in our two raised garden boxes, so we also cleared out some ground near a fence for the corn and sunflowers. We also used some garden boxes up on our patio for the overflow.
After we planted two weeks ago, the boys asked me every. single. day. if their veggies were done yet. And every day, they came out and helped us water the garden.
And now, they can see the results of their labor:
(Holden checks out the cucumbers.)
(I think the boys were most impressed with the green beans!)
The boys still haven't lost their enthusiasm for helping out and we're going to milk that for all it's worth!
The boys now understand a bit more about how and why things grow. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they'll decide that vegetables they grew themselves are definitely worth eating. As for me, I think about Susan every time I look out at the garden and send her a big virtual hug.
Don't forget to go read the rest of the Team WhyMommy Virtual Science Fair posts.
All of these photos were taken on my iPhone. Just in case you were wondering.
