5 June 2011

On Monday we went to a wildlife refuge and the kids got to pet a hedgehog. Hedgehogs are not native to Oregon, but this little fellow was rescued from an illegal breeder.

Abe received an award this week for having 500 Accelerated Reader points. The Accelerated Reader Program encourages kids to read books, then take a test to check their comprehension. Each book is worth a certain amount of points based on its length and difficulty. For example, the Magic Treehouse books are worth 1 point each, the Percy Jackson books are around 15 points each, Harry Potter books are all worth more than 25 points each. Abe's strategy has been to read a lot of books at all point levels. Some of his favorites are Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Magnificent 12, and other high action adventure series.

 

Abe's soccer team celebrated the end of their season this week with a party at a local pizza parlor. Becky called ahead to see what they had on the menu that Abe could eat. Nothing. They offered a gluten free crust, but it had eggs in it. Even the chicken wings were breaded. The manager was pretty flexible, though, and told us "You bring a crust he can eat and we'll build a pizza on it." We had a big misstep when the workers put cheese on the pizza (they scraped everything off the crust and started over), but all in all it was a great tasting pizza. Abe's teammates marveled at all the vegetables he had on his pizza-- that was more remarkable to them than a wheat and cheese free pizza.   ~   [to the right] Abe planted a beefsteak tomato, a red pepper, leeks, beets, carrots, basil, broccoli and pole beans. Gibson planted corn, a yellow Roma tomato, a cherry tomato, rutabagas, bush beans and pole beans. Helen planted an Early Girl tomato, peppers, carrots, turnips and red onions. 

 

It's rained most of the week, but we took advantage of a break in the weather to plant our vegetable garden. Abe planted a beefsteak tomato plant,a red pepper plant, leeks, beets, carrots, basil, broccoli and pole beans. Gibson planted corn, a yellow Roma tomato plant, a cherry tomato plant, rutabagas, bush beans and pole beans. Helen planted an Early Girl tomato, lots of pepper plants, carrots, turnips and red onions. Becky snuck some edamame in with the peas that are already growing (using the untested theory that when the peas are finished with the bamboo supports, the edamame vines will be ready for them-- we'll see.) 

 

Sophie and Brandan have been missing the past two posts as they've been on a 15-day trip to the UK. We'll let them catch up on their amazing adventure in a post of their own. We loved Skyping with them while they were gone-- their enthusiasm for their experiences was infectious. Brandan also left us a bunch of tiny notes, written on origami paper and tucked all over the house for us to find.

 

The travelers made it home last night, after a grueling 27 hour day. We're glad they had a great trip, but we're super happy to have them home again.