Under the Sea!

Today was a great day to visit the aquarium....especially since it was a free admission day! yay! We checked out all kinds of sea creatures, from jellyfish to sharks. It's always a fun day there.

Melons...

Lola has been asking to plant cantaloupe for a long time. I decided today would be the day, but the problem was we had no prepared garden bed space left. The melon seeds required 4' spacing and we have a tiny, tiny yard. But I didn't want to let her down so we made a new garden space today. It wasn't easy to dig out the grass, but it's worth it to see if we're successful. I hope it's not too late in the season, though...I wish we would have started a month or two ago.
We worked all day and got it done. We even threw in a couple of corn seeds (kernels) to see what would happen! Next week, we need to get some peas going and our sweet potatoes.

Reptiles, oh my!

Today we went to the zoo with a friend to check out the insect house and the reptiles. We learned a bunch about snakes, spiders and bees! Too bad there were not a chrysalis to be found in the butterfly garden...we were too late for that.

Wanna sleepover?

Today, Lola made invitations to her friends for a pretend sleepover party. She can't wait for the day when this party will stop being the pretend party that she fantasizes about and become reality!! Anyway, on her invitation, she listed the items that she thought her friends should bring: slippers, sleeping bag and pajamas! So cute.

Tulip Town!

While in Washington, we took a trip to Tulip Town. We barely made it while the tulips were in bloom...they only bloom for about 3 weeks! Most tulip farms had already cut their blooms, but Tulip Town still had some fields that were uncut.
Tulips are huge in the Skagit Valley. In the mid 1920's there was an embargo placed on bulb imports by the United States government, so many growers in Holland began to send family members and friends to the US to establish farms and possible growing locations. Many of the Dutch growers had heard of the success in Washington State and came to the Pacific Northwest, settling mostly in Lynden, Washington. After discovering that Lynden winters were not suited for bulb growing, they began checking into the success they had heard about in Skagit Valley, about 30 miles south of Lynden.
The fields are beautiful. Too difficult to describe in words. The contrast of bright colors were like nothing we had ever seen!

Our trip to Washington state

We went to Washington for a week and stayed on one of the islands off the coast for most of our trip. We rented a house with a huge front yard that was close to the beach, which provided a ton of opportunities for learning about the local wildlife, both land and water-bound.

The beaches there are clearly far more "untouched" than any beach I have ever visited. For most of our beachcombing expeditions, we were the only people there. Of course, it wasn't exactly beach play weather. It was cold and it rained. A lot. Maybe it's different in the summer, but whatever the case may be, it was wonderful to see nature nearly completely unspoiled. There were treasures all over the beaches. Crabs, oysters, mussels, clams....not to mention the beautiful rocks, quartz and shells.

There was also a cute rabbit family living in our front yard. We saw them out and about everyday. We learned about some new birds...Lola learned about robins and red-shouldered hawks. We were also very lucky to see a bald eagle at the beach! She has seen some before, but she was too young to remember. Later on, while still at the beach, I tried to show her what I thought was a crane, Lola quickly pointed out to me that it was, in fact, a blue Heron and NOT a crane!

Scavenger Hunt!

We had just arrived to Washington, day 1 of our 7 day trip...The house and surroundings were beautiful! And what better way to get familiar with our new environment than doing a scavenger hunt?
We helped Lola to read the list of items that she needed to find and collect around the house and off she went! She was quite successful the first time around so we made a harder one next time!