We met the Gieres at the arboretum one morning in October.  The kids had fun running around and wading in the creek.

All the cousins…

This next one has to be my favorite photo from the day, even though it’s blurry:

From this one picture, you can conclude many things about Peter.

1.  he’s fast

2.  he enjoys running

3.  he has a great smile

4.  he has his own sense of style

Ever since the day Peter began dressing himself, he has shown a unique taste in style.  Derek, during baseball season this summer, was required to tuck his jersey into his pants for games.  This inspired Peter to tuck his shirt into his pants.  Every day (and night).  Most recently, he absconded with Derek’s red baseball socks and now tucks his pants into them.  I love this about him–he does things his way no matter who snickers at him.  It makes the whole obedience training a little tricky, but that’s another story.

Later in the month, we visited Johansen Farm with the Goldings.  It was a gorgeous day, and, as usual, the kids were thrilled to play together.  Here they are holding the baby chicks, a favorite J Farm activity:

The Johaniks and Goldings have been visiting the farm for a few years now (how many, Tracy??), and our annual picture in the bus shows how the kids (and the number of kids) have grown!

Bubbie?

I am learning about tall tales in my grammar and I was supposed to write one of my own. A tall tale is a fiction story about someone who is huge or tiny and can do some things that regular people can’t do. I thought I can share this funny story with you.

The Story of Tiny Tim

One fine afternoon Mr.Sleepy who lives in Sleepy Town woke up at 2:43 P.M. and had some breakfast. Meanwhile someone called Tiny Tim just finished eating lunch. Tiny Tim is as small as a grain of rice and as strong as an elephant.

Mr.Sleepy invited two of his best friends for a slumber party Mr.Run-Out-Of-Time and Mr.Lazy. As you can see Mr.Run-Out-Of-Time is always late, well he was invited at 5:00 and he seemed to have fallen asleep in his car, and he drove straight  into a big fire truck tipping it over and his car pushed until he started driving again! Then he drove right into a small house! Then he drove straight into the biggest mansion in the whole town! Then he finely woke up at  6:30 after he crashed into the mansion and he drove to Mr.Sleepy’s house.

Mr.Lazy however crashed into a slow moving car causing a huge pile of pieces everywhere! They waited an hour and a half for the car repair truck came. Soon he drove to Mr.sleepy’s house.

When they woke up (at 1:26 P.M.) from the slumber party Mr.Run-Out-Of-Time crashed into a fire powered power plant causing fire to spread all over the town!

 The hard working clan of ants some friends of Tiny Tim spotted the fire. So Speed the fastest ant in the colony raced to about 100 mph to Tiny Tim. Tim called the fire department but the fire fighters were sleeping. So Tim hopped on Speed’s back going now about 120 mph back to the fire.

Tim spotted a water tower and a crane next to each other. Suddenly he got an idea. Him and Speed and the ants went to the water tower and the crane. Tim went up the crane and he smashed the top of the water tower with the hook of the crane. Then he climbed down and he and the ants carried the water tower and poured the water on top of the fire!

But their was still a little fire left. So the ants dug a hole until they reached the water pipes. So Tim went in the hole and broke a piece of the pipe and SPSSSSSSS out came the water! Soon all the fire was gone. 

Thats the story of Tiny Tim!

Jake

We have been learning about botany this year for science. I would like to show you some things we learned and did not know before. Flowers have to get pollenated before making seeds and animals that do this are bees, butterflies, hummingbirds… so when you see a bee in a flower its looking for nectar, a slimy liquid and bees make honey with it, but when their looking deep inside for nectar they get this yellow powder called pollen on them. It’s all a mistake!  So when they go to the next flower a tiny stem called a carpel collects some of the pollen and over time in the fall it makes fruits like apples, blueberries, tomatoes and all other kinds of fruits. Pollen can only go to the same species but not it’s own flower. A bee colony has a mission each day so one group go’s to one type of flower like a rose and another group go’s to another flower like a daisy, it’s amazing!

But once a plant makes seeds, how do they get planted? That’s easy, a farmer can plant thousands of seeds, but what about in thick forests filled with dangerous animals? Well their are other ways seeds can be dispersed, animal dispersal: an animal like a squirrel can plant many seeds, they can bury acorns in the dirt and then next year a little tree has grown! Animals also accidentally run in to a burr plant, a burr is like a bristly ball it is kind of like velcro so it sticks on an animals fur then when it gets home it scratches the burr which is also a seed and grows into another burr plant. Bad news to the animals! Their is water dispersal also, plants that live by the water may have special seeds like the mangrove tree that have seeds that float long distances and will find a suitable place to grow right on the shore. Another example are the water lilies they grow seeds that float for a short distance then sink to the bottom of the pond (or river). Another is called wind dispersal, a dandelion is a great example, like when you blow one all the seeds go flying away with the wind which would land on the ground then grow into another dandelion. Another one is the maple tree, the half winged seed case twirls down with the wind and grows into another maple tree. Human dispersal is when people like a farmer plants tons of seeds. The most interesting one is mechanical dispersal, the jewel weed is an orange flower like a jewel attracts lots of animals so when its ripe an animal like a bee will land on it then it’s seeds will shoot out in all directions making new jewel weed plants! Another one is called the squirting cucumber, it has a 2 inch cucumber-like case, when it’s nice and fat it explodes and a liquid mixed with the seeds shoot out and will grow into another squirting cucumber!

Plants are really amazing, so are the animals that pollenate them!

Jake