Paper Plate Watermelon

In our house summer = watermelon.  I have to buy one every week for Eva and Daddy to devour.  Their love of the fruit inspired this craft.  All you need is a white paper plate, red, green and black paint and a Q-tip.  To start Eva painted the inside of the plate red and then the rim green.

When that dried, I bent one end of the Q-tip to make a seed stamp for dabbing in the black paint.

You could then cut it into wedges when it dries but Eva wanted to leave hers whole.

Bubble Wrap Painting

The other day Eva was playing with some bubble wrap (we buy toys why?) and commented that the bubbles looked like little blueberries and this idea was born.  I cut a square of the wrap and Eva painted it with blue paint.

Then she flipped the wrap over and stamped it onto a sheet of paper a few times.

She then decided her blueberries needed a bowl so she painted a circle around them to contain them.

After finishing with the blueberries she informed me that the bubbles also looked like corn kernels so I grabbed the yellow paint and cut out a cob shape from the bubble wrap for stamping.

I suggested painting some husks on but Eva insisted on another bowl so I bowed to the artiste.

I love how spur of the moment crafts can turn out to be the most fun!

Garden News

A while back I posted about the beginning of our garden for the year.  Since then, seeds have been sprouting and other veggies and herbs have been planted.

Our peas have shot up and have blooms.  We can't wait for the pods to appear.  Last year not many peas made it out of the garden.  Eva would pick them as soon as they appeared and eat them right in the yard!

The carrots have also been growing away and we should soon have a harvest.

Here are a few of the other plants we have growing in our kitchen garden:

Tomatoes- Roma and cherry with lemongrass and dill in the planter

Eggplant (with two little guys starting to grow!)

Zucchinis

Cucumbers

Peppers- jalapenos, poblanos, habaneros, cubanelles and cayennes

Lettuce

Parsley and cilantro

Basil and purple basil

Oregano and rosemary

Sage and marjoram

Kale

Butternut squash

Watermelon

Pumpkin

And for the first time, we are trying an upside down tomato plant.

Our roses are also blooming beautifully!

And my favorite flower- peonies!

What do you have growing in your garden?

Garden Sequencing

We have been spending a lot of time in our garden watching everything grow.  It's so neat to see a bud transform into a little veggie and then just a few short days later, be ready to be picked!  For this sequencing activity I drew four stages of a tomato and a cucumber on index cards and Eva set to putting them in the correct order.

After putting them in order, we set out to find the various stages in the garden.  Of course, that's when my camera batteries decided to die so I don't have any pictures of that but it was neat to find all the different stages, alive and growing before us.

Rolling Art

We broke out the produce again for this painting project.  This time Eva dipped tomatoes and blueberries in paint and then rolled them around on paper.  Easy and lots of fun!

The blueberries didn't roll as well as the tomatoes so we had to really tip the box (we used the lid to a sneaker box- it fit the paper perfectly).  Eva ended up making three masterpieces and I love the colors she chose.