Silky

It is silkworm season. Every preschool around here seems to be raising them, and Clara's Science teacher had about a zillion of them, which she offered out to any student who could supply the little grub with a steady diet of mulberry leaves. Well, we happen to have two giant mulberry trees in the backyard. I love the trees, but I don't happen to love the fact that I told people about them, because now we are feeding the entire silkworm population of the city. Anyway, Clara brought home a silkworm, aptly named, "Silky", and we have been watching it eat, poop, and grow for a few days now. I can't say that I really like the thing, since it looks like something you would eat on a survival show. I am also a bit wary of anything that doesn't try to escape its enclosure. In any case, we were excited today to see a bit of tangled thread in Silky's tub. Let's hope he/she/it cocoons sometime soon, while we still have a few leaves left on our trees.

Friendship Bracelets

Aunt Jan and Uncle Bill sent Clara a bead set for Christmas, and she has been getting it out several times a week and starting the process of making a bracelet. Her big plan is to hold a bracelet sale one day, and raise money to buy toys for herself. Until today, though, she has never actually finished an entire bracelet. You see, the beads are tiny, and it takes a good deal of time and patience to get the job done.
Today, Clara came home from a birthday party, very excited about having met a new friend. She immediately set to work on a bracelet for Brooklyn, carefully picking out each bead.
As she proudly showed me her completed project, I congratulated her for having worked at it from start to finish. Clara said, "I finally figured out why I couldn't finish any of the other bracelets. I was making them for the wrong reason. I mean, they're called friendship bracelets, not money bracelets." Nice insight into motivation, sweetie.

Sprinkler Tag

Today it was sprinkler tag and ice cream cone weather. We even heard our first ice cream truck of the year (fortunately we were already eating the aforementioned cones). I've always wondered who chooses the tinkly songs that those trucks play. This one was sending out a not-so-stirring rendition of "I've Been Working on the Railroad", which had Trevi speculating that it might, in fact, be an ice cream train.

The kids spent a good two hours running and leaping. I hope that all of these summer activities will act to balance out the sun's early arrival in the mornings. A healthy dose of sprinkler tag just might exhaust them enough that they'll sleep in past six....