Catching up

We've been busy lately, but I've slacked off on posting photos of our activities. Here's what we've been up to:

Visiting local farms on the annual Piedmont Farm Tour. We visited two dairy farms, ate ice cream cones, and sampled cheese, chocolate milk, and hamburgers (that's what happens to the bulls on a dairy farm).






Finding our way through the woods at an orienteering event. Mary and I had an electronic scanner, and we had to use our map and compass to find 9 checkpoints in the right order. At each checkpoint, we scanned our device, and when we finished the course, we got a printout showing how long it took us to find each one. It took us about 90 minutes to do the whole course. The longest it took to find a checkpoint was when the most direct route was blocked by an "Area Closed" sign, so we had to backtrack and figure out another way to get there.



Showing Flat Stanley around town. In case you haven't heard of him, Flat Stanley is a character from a children's book. He was a normal kid until his bulletin board fell on him and flattened him. He discovered he could fit into and envelope and visit places. This is a popular elementary school project, and our niece Megan's class is doing a Flat Stanley project now. Her school sent us the Flat Stanley Megan made and asked us to send him back with pictures and other information about our area. Stanley visited my fencing class, Audrey's ballet class, helped out in the garden at home, met Anoop from American Idol and got his autograph, went sight-seeing around campus, and treated us to popsicles. We made him a UNC T-shirt and sent him back with a bumper sticker commemorating the college basketball championship.



Meeting Anoop from American Idol. We haven't watched the show in several seasons, so the kids had no idea who he was, but Flat Stanley was a big fan, so we all went to the meet-n-greet. Mary was impressed by the bowl of potato chips he had sitting out.



Visiting the NCSU College of Veterinary Medicine. The rain was kind enough to stop long enough to let us do the outside part of the tour. We saw all the farm animals the vet school students practice their large animal medicine on. The big pile of fluffy stuff is cotton seeds, which the cows love to eat. The pig area was pretty smelly, but the kids enjoyed petting a piglet. After the tour, a professor showed us animal skulls, lungs, stomachs, and other parts, and talked about the differences between carnivore and herbivore skulls and digestive tracts. Then we moved to another classroom to learn about careers in veterinary medicine. Mary, of course, was a lively participant in every discussion.

Scrap Art Zoo

The mall near here has an art exhibit called Scrapel Hill Art. Area artists created pieces out of recyclable and non-recyclable materials. In the spirit of Scrapel Hill, we decided to make our own Scrap Art Zoo.



Here are all the animals. There are two giraffes, an elephant, a bear and a mouse.



Mary made the giraffes. Most of the parts she needed were in the recycling bin, but she had to dig through the bathroom garbage for a toilet paper roll.



Audrey made the elephant. The can lid is the tail, the milk container is the trunk, and two plastic lids from salad containers are the big ears.



I made the little mouse.



Mary didn't think the zoo had enough animals, so she used whatever was left to make this bear. Lucky for our zoo I forgot to put the recycling bins out last week. We'll save our zoo critters for a while, but everything else gets put out tonight for tomorrow's pick-up.

Bean Teepee

We planted a bean teepee! First we tied six 6-foot stakes together. Luckily I knew where to find the twine!




The girls planted two different kinds of pole bean seeds. If they grow, we'll have an nice, beany hide-out this summer.

Mary's day at work

Scott has a scheduling conflict with the official Take Your Kid to Work Day, so he took Mary to work last Wednesday. She made her own video game. In the morning, she came up with the concept and did the artwork, and in the afternoon, Scott showed her how to program it. She's got it up on her blog. Check it out!

Audrey's new trick

Audrey has learned to skip!

Duke Gardens

Here are some pictures from our visit today to the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University.

Legend of the Dogwood

Mom sent me this poem:

The Legend of the Dogwood Tree

When Christ was on earth, the dogwood grew
To a towering size with a lovely hue
Its branches were strong and interwoven
And for Christ’s cross its timbers were chosen
Being distressed at the use of this wood
Christ made a promise that still holds good:
"Not ever again shall the dogwood grow
To be large enough for a tree, and so
Slender and twisted it shall always be
With cross-shaped blossoms for all to see
The petals shall have bloodstains marked in brown
And in the blossoms center a thorny crown
"All who see it will think of me,
Nailed to a cross from a dogwood tree.
Protected and cherished this tree shall be
A reflection to all of my agony.