The morning came very early today! After the fun times waking the boys up at zero-dark-thirty and getting the zombies ready to roll, it was off to get Loch boarded on a bus headed for Washington D.C.! I am proud of myself, the only place my nervousness showed was his overpacked cooler of food and the ID tags hidden all over his backpack and pockets :) I had to brief him on proper procedure "just one more time" on what to do if he gets separated from his group - his response was "I'll find some creepy guy in an ice cream truck and ask him for help" - it was his humor that let me know he can handle it, and he is definitely my kid, LOL!
Have I said lately how much I love the Math & Science Academy? Fantastic program, teachers, and some bi#ch^n field trips!! Public schools too, I must add! I feel badly for parents and kids who don't have such great schools, but I feel that so many good schools and teachers bear the brunt of this "public school is awful" mentality. Nope, I grew up in a great public school, and my kids have one too and I want to recognize those teachers for the devotion they have to the kids. Don't get me wrong, our school board has some ridiculous stuff going on that I'll rant about another time, but the teachers are what make these kids, along with the parents supporting them and picking up the slack at home. I'll stop now :)
Loch (in the red shirt):
These kids made me laugh trying to maneuver these coolers!
National Arboretum bound! These buses hold the 3rd, 4th & 5th graders from the Math & Science Academy, Loch says they separate once there into grades, one going to Smithsonian, one to Arboretum, one to the National Zoo. They will go each year so by the time 5th grade is here he will have seen all of those. That's what I hear anyways, but that's coming from a 3rd grader LOL.
On to other happenings from the weekend:
A bolted cilantro plant in April? Even when there's an early spring apparently the cilantro can't be timed with the tomatoes haha!
More vole-holes, they are everywhere this year, ugh - any bets on whether there will be any turnips attached to the foliage when it's time to pull LOL?
Seedlings are finally IN!!
Finnegan was my helper and planted most of the peppers. The tomatoes got planted about a foot deep and were still tall! I'm sooooooo glad that's over, now we wait...
I forgot to actually get a count of everything planted so I'll have to do that another day.
I also had the first day of the Ready, Set, Grow! program this year. Yes, I'm still a Master Gardener - it was just me throwing an anxiety tantrum when I said I was going to quit because I was too busy, I'm back at it for another year :) We had 2nd grade classes today at Finn's school, and Thursday will be another full day of classes at another school. This month is our busy month for the program, as we have it coincide with the end of the kids' school based curriculum on Horticulture in science class.
I'm exhausted. I'm also wishing I was about 28 again, I had lots of energy then :)
I still have to manage to pick up Loch this evening when he gets back, I can't imagine how much fun he's having right now!
How exciting for Loch! And I would let you pack my cooler any day, supermom. Your garden looks like it's off to a great start - we are forecast for frost tonight (why? because I couldn't wait to plant things, that's why.) I'm glad that you're still in the gardening program - you have such a lot of knowledge to impart to those active little minds (and hands).
ReplyDeleteSusan, I hope you don't get frost! I really do love this program at the schools, I've done it for 3 years now and this year is the first as a team leader so I'm suckered in for sure :) I do love the kids, they are like sponges!
DeleteYou wish you were 28? Heck, I wish I was 58!!!
ReplyDeleteLoch and Finn are keepers.
Gran, you mean you aren't 28, or even 58? LOL you have more energy than I do from the looks of your gardens this year!!
DeleteWhat great trips they have. I'd like to go!!
ReplyDelete:D
And Erin, seriously--you have SUCH a neat garden. Master Gardener, my hiney---more like SUPREMO gardener! Mama Pea has her work cut out for her-LOL. I say this because I KNOW she is reading this!!!!
Sue, HA! I only hope to have gardens like Mama Pea's someday - she grows and puts away so much, and it's all the more amazing considering how much work went into making that huge garden, no small feat when there's little top soil and many rocks to haul LOL! And listen to you - "Miss Botanical Garden Looking Gardens" LOL! Can't wait until we start seeing all those flower beds and veggie beds filling in there, don't worry your summer will come!
ReplyDeleteI hope Loch had a great time. Were those coolers just for one day?!
ReplyDeleteJane, I'm not sure what they were doing with those coolers since we were all told to pack little personal insulated bags for their food - maybe they were making room to stuff kids down there? LOL, those were the "bus coolers" not anything we brought :)
DeleteI grew up near DC and always LOVED going to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History (not so much the other ones), but we *never* took a field trip to the Arboretum. In fact, I had never been until I started volunteering there in 2009. It's an amazing place! I hope he took photos of all the azaleas--it's a weird year, and it's about peak bloom right now. And I hope my friends who work there were uber-nice to him!
ReplyDeletePS--if you ever have time, my garden plot could use your (and your children's!) touch. I've never built an arched trellis before... I'm thinking PVC piping with wire fencing draped on either side.
YOU ARE GONNA HAVE ENVY COMING AT YOU FROM EVERY DIRECTION SHOWING THAT BEAUTIFUL GARDEN,JOB WELL DONE AND I BET YOUR RELIEVED. WASH,D.C. -WOW -YOUR THAT CLOSE ,THEY CAN MAKE THE TRIP IN ONE DAY,I GUESS I NEVER STOPPED TO THINK WHERE EXACTLY YOU ARE?YA ,ALL WE HERE IS BIG CUTS IN THE SCHOOLS 2 YEARS AGO THEY TOOK MY GRANDSON UP TOWARDS MOMMA PEAS CANOEING AND SUCH -FREE, NOW THE SENIORS ARE HAVING A PIZZA PART AFTER GOING TO THE WORK FORCE CENTER, WHOOPEE
ReplyDeleteJudy, we are about 3.5 to 4 hours from there depending on the traffic, so not TOO close LOL. Maybe those kids will kick out all of Congress and take over while they are up there, better tune in to the nightly news tonight :)
DeleteWhat a fun field trip! One of the things that makes me miss (well, for a minute or so) being in or near a big city.
ReplyDeleteMy spinach bolted like two WEEKS ago; frekking weird weather!!
I've been thinking about taking the Master Gardener program here, but knew I didn't have time. Then just yesterday my Mom gave me a HUGE binder and it was the Arkansas Master Gardener handbook! She was given it by a friend to put into their local FD Yard Sale, but knew I'd probably enjoy it. I couldn't wait to get my home-study project under way! And within twenty pages I realized that I forgot just about EVERYTHING I "learned" (but obviously didn't retain) in high school. Monocots? Dicots? Phloem, Cambium, Xylem??? Wow, it's been a long time.
PS - Do the plastic snakes really work? I don't know as DD keeps taking them to play with.
CR, yours is bolted and I only have 2 tiny plants out of a whole bunch that I planted! I admit it, I decided to become a Master Gardener so I could have that manual!!! Haha I have it on my bookshelf right next to the couch and love it! Ah, dicots and monocots... luckily the 2nd graders don't ask about that LOL... YET! And the snakes, maybe depending on the bird they work - my mockingbird laughs at me and hops around the bed with the rubber snakes hahaha
DeleteHa! I though Loch was going for several days with all the coolers, bags, packs and such the kids were hauling. I absolutely loved his retort to you about what he would do if he got separated from the group or had any trouble. I can just see him dead-panning that spiel to you! (Don't know where he gets his quirky sense of humor.)
ReplyDeleteI would trade my garden for yours OR Sue's like . . . in a second! You both have such a sense of style and flair in the way you lay things out and always have everything looking magazine lay-out ready. Me, I'm growin' FOOOOOOD, and it doesn't always look pretty. Just stuffin' in those seeds to get maximum harvest! :o}
Mama Pea, I admit I packed a LOT of food for him, they needed all 3 meals today and all I could think of was the bus breaking down on I-95 in rush hour and him needing more snacks! Hey, the garden is supposed to be for food! If I didn't have to sell this house eventually and make it more "curb-appeal-y" I wouldn't bother with half the stuff I do.
ReplyDeleteOkay, time to go get dinner (have to do something special for Finn since he didn't get to go) and then off to pick up Loch at 7 pm! I can't wait to hear ALL about it :)
Oh MY GOODNESS! They go on luxury buses and not nasty old school buses? Now that's the way to travel. All our school trips are on school buses, poor kids. I bet he had a blast.
ReplyDeleteI hope the bugs, beasties and weather cooperates so you get a fantastic harvest. Your garden is looking wonderful voles and all. I think you may need to borrow a cat to get rid of the voles.
Man, I want to go to DC!! Peppers look utterly fantastic. I'm going to go down and yell at mine: "Grow! Grow!!" Think it will work?
ReplyDeleteHope you got some rest.
I have never been to D.C., sad huh? Sounds like a great trip and an even better school!
ReplyDeleteEnvious of seedlings out in the garden.