Growing and Blooming

We haven't measured our plants yet, but we think some of them are nearing 7 feet tall!

And, we have our first bloom!

Sunflower Lapbook

If you don't know what a lapbook is, google it, and you'll find lots of information on lapbooking. Lapbooks are all the rage in education right now, and homeschoolers especially seem to love them. I have generally avoided incorporating them into our day because of the work and time that they take. Chloe, however, cannot get enough of coloring, cutting, and pasting. She cuts up every sheet of paper she sees and sticks it to something. If she isn't cutting paper, she's stapling it or clipping it together with paper clips. (Mmm... I think I figured out why my paper clip stash is diminishing.) Clearly, she has a need to do things with her hands! So, I have succumbed to the world of lapbooking---for Chloe.

This is the front of her lapbook on Sunflowers.

On the inside she has 2 simple flap books, lifecycle of the sunflower cards, sunflower coloring pages, and a color sheet of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers". She begged me to cut out her pictures, so they would look just right in her book.

Almost Ready to Bloom

For the last few days we have been finding buds on our sunflower plants, and we are pretty excited about the promise of a soon to be bloom.

Meanwhile, the plants seem to be growing taller every day.

Bigger and Bigger!

When the kids got home from Nana and Poppa's house, they were surprised to see how much more the sunflowers had grown in just one week!

A Colorful Hummer

We've put out a hummingbird feeder for the last three summers. I've been complaining that the only hummingbirds we get here in the desert are brown just like everything else! And then, this little guy showed up with some of his friends. He has a lot of orange on him, and his throat almost glows orange when the sun hits him just right. He's a shy little thing, and it's taken me several days to get this picture. I can't quite seem to capture him at the feeder--the click of the camera scares him off.

Even Bigger!

We are amazed at how fast our sunflower plants are growing. We did a little research and found out that not only is the state flower of Kansas the sunflower, but also the national flower of Russia is the sunflower!

Growing Big!

We were surprised by how tall our sunflower plants grew while we were gone last week.