Sunflower Seeds

Back when the boys were in preschool they did an activity where they planted a sunflower seed in a cup.  When it started to grow they were supposed to transplant it somewhere with enough room for it to grow up, apparently they can grow to 12 feet high.  I'll be honest, I didn't have high hopes that this little experiment would actually work, but with the TLC of Grandma it actually grew, and got really big!

  The plant got huge, and heavy.  We had to tie it to a steak towards the end.  Since we had such good luck we decided to try and harvest the sunflower seeds.   We started by picking the flowers...

 Then Spencer and Carter pulled out all of the seeds and soaked them in a bucket of water.

 After they had soaked for a while they had to dry off.

 Then we put them on a baking sheet and baked them, and finally we ate them!  It was a fun learning experience for the boys to see how sunflower seeds are grown and harvested, and best of all it was really hands on for them.  They were there every step of the way, from planting, to eating.  

September 2011

We went to Wheeler Farm with Amanda and her kids.  I haven't been there in so long, it brought back memories from elementary school field trips for me.  It also renewed an interest in farm animals for the boys.  They had fun feeding the ducks and petting the animals, but I think the most memorable thing for them was learning what an outhouse was - they thought it was hysterical!

 Matt and I hiked Ensign Peak with the boys.  They thought it was so cool to climb to the top of the mountain.  It was more difficult then I remembered, but we were able to take some breaks along the way - for the boys of course.

 Carter decided he wanted to try riding his bike without training wheels as well.  He did a great job!  Of course my camera was out of batteries so I had to plug it in on the porch in order to take some pictures.  I was very proud of him!