Monday, May 28, 2012

May in pictures

Sand Art




Bug making Apple pie
Zoe is ready to pop. We are all very excited for the birth.
I have started to introduce French to the Minions
The Apple pies Bug made
Working on building sentences with Bug
Sentence building and punctuation
Things are starting to poke up in the garden. We have cultivated this spot for five years now and have some well established plants now. This is Burdock and Willowtree is doing an herb study on it this year.
Mexican Bug for our intro into Mexico and it's amazing history
A Willowtree with a moustache?? lol
A day at the park lead to a interesting talk about crows and ravens. This lead to a day of learning about Corvids
Then on May 8th Zoe gave birth to five beautiful babies. 3 boys and 2 girls. We all sat with her threw the whole birth.
Polymer fun. We did a series of experiments with polymers and learned all about them and how we use them in our day to day world
We made sticky slime. They all had alot of fun with this.
During the polymer experiments we reviewed absorption and volume again
We went to a very large birthday party. It was great because we don't have alot of little kids in our world and there were alot there. It gave Bug a chance to interact with younger kids for a change. She did great :)
Surprise bouncy castle
We did more experiments with the polymers, this time we saw the differnent effects of heat and cold
We made cheese


First forage into the woods by our house to see what wild edibles are ready
We discovered a Woodpeckers home

Brought home cattails shoots (wild edible)

Learned alot about bees and identified 3 different kinds
Brought home pine buds for salad
We also identified plants to come back to later like this Apple tree
Willowtree sketching the Burdock for her herb study
King Connaher and Willowtree doing review on the human body by teaching Bug

King Connaher teaching Bug the internal organs
Willowtree reading for the rest of us
Daddy teaching Bug about earthworms and how they contribute to healthy soil
Willowtree and I planting seeds in our garden
Bug making rows to plant
Our garden all planted for this year. We planted Peas, spinach, chard, beets, beans, lettuce, carrots, green onions, basil, squash, radishes and nastursiums.
Then we blessed the garden for a good harvest
Willowtree making a rainbow tutu to wear at the pride parade in June
Lambs Quarter omlette, yay wildcrafting

We went to Medieval May in the city a look at 14th century life. With great educational displays and talks. This was the Display on writing and literacy in the 14th century.
We went to Medieval May in the city a look at 14th century life. With great educational displays and talks. This was the Display on feasting and food. With real artifacts from the 14th century
We went to Medieval May in the city a look at 14th century life. With great educational displays and talks. This was the Display on clothing

We went to Medieval May in the city a look at 14th century life. With great educational displays and talks. This was the Display on sigels, heraldry and shields
Bug in the stocks :)

Beltane 2012

We celebrated Beltane the same way we have for the past few years. At Edmonton's Beltane Faire!
Beltane falls on the 1st of May. This year it was celebrated by our Pagan community at the end of April and was a very special year indeed...
Willowtree is chosen to be this years May Queen
 The May Queen represents the Goddess of Earth. She presides over the Summer. Wikipedia says: The May Queen is a symbol of the stillness of nature around which everything revolves. She stands for purity, strength and the potential for growth, as the plants grow in May. She is one of many personifications of the energy of the earth.
The May Queen at this festival is chosen by a draw. All the women who are not past there child bearing years are given numbers and the corresponding number is drawn out of a basket. This year the universe gave the honor to Willowtree. It was a huge deal for us as last year I was the chosen May Queen. The Goddesses energy is definitely strong in us :)
The Knight of Winter challenges Her choosing
The handsome Knight of Summer steps forward to defend her honor
The battle begins
The Knight of Summer is victorious
My little Willowtree is crowned May Queen
She thanks her knight in shining armor with a kiss on the cheek
The May Queen on her throne
Then we danced the spiral dance for our May Queen. That's me with the green hair :)
She then helped with the Beltane ritual

Knights fighting in the Beltane tournament after the ritual
Dancing the Maypole
The May Queen, her very proud Mommy and a beautiful dachshund with the finished Maypole
The boys testing out their fighting skills with the knights weapons

Another highlight of our day was getting to meet the newest member of our family my baby Great nephew Keo. I also got to finally meet face to face with an internet friend of 13 years Rose :)

Beltane 2012 was an amazing day! Truly Blessed by the Goddess!