I love Dandelions!

“If dandelions were hard to grow, they would be most welcome on any lawn.”

Andrew V. Mason

I love Dandelions! I know its an incredible, bold statement, in some neighborhoods it would be better to love E. Coli than the dreaded dandelion, but love them I do. Dandelions are the perfect color of yellow...happy, warm and buttery. OK maybe butter is the perfect color of yellow, but be that as it may... The flowers are soft and puffy and tickle your nose when you give them a sniff.

The seeds are incredible and possibly the best part of the plant. The poofs beg for a puff of breath to send them on their aerodynamic way. If the poofs are too new the seeds won't fly away easily, if the are too old, just picking them up has the seeds flying in all directions. Occasionally you find that perfect one that has the holding power to stay but the slights breath will send the little parachutes flying into the breeze.

The smell always reminds me of my own childhood and picking huge bouquets of them for my mom. I can remember the feeling of pulling the flowers up and the white sap making my warm hands sticky. My mom always greeted these short lived bouquets with the proper enthusiasm and put them in a jar of water to be enjoyed by anyone around for the next hour before the flowers closed up forever. Now, as a mom myself, I get to enjoy being on the receiving end of these generational offerings and it really does make me smile. Here's the thing, the dandelion is more than a nuisance in the lawn or a beautiful flower arrangement to any mom, they are also very versatile plants. They grow just about anywhere, even in spots where other plant fail because of the heat or foot traffic, they are
very drought tolerant thanks to their long tap root and every part of the plant is edible and purported to have medicinal value as well.

The serrated leaves can be used in a salad, the young plants taste a bit like arugula, the older leaves are bitter and better used for cooking. They can be baked, boiled or sauteed with a little garlic. The leaves are high in Vitamins A, C and K, Carotene, Lutein, Calcium and Iron as well as other nutrients. The leaves are also known as a blood purifier and can be used as a diuretic.

The flowers can be eaten in a salad, made into wine or dipped in batter and deep fried. That's right folks, dandelion flowers can be fermented into a wine. Can your fancy, shmancy rose you labor over, worry over and mourn when it's killed off by random frostbite, be made into an alcoholic drink... or deep fried? Not to mention a rose dies if you look at it wrong... a dandelion barely turns brown with the addition of herbicide or a good stomping. In fact in can be hard to get rid of these stubborn plants as the tap root will easily grow another plant if the whole thing isn't carefully removed.

That long tap root can be brewed into a drink that is something like decaf coffee... although if you've actually had coffee and like it, you might not be really wowed by it. The tea is said to have a lot of benefits including as an anti inflammatory and an aid to digestion.

All these great benefits are why our ancestors brought the plant over to the new world. The botanic name of the Dandelion is Taraxacum officinale which can be translated to mean, "disorder remedy". I might not believe its a panacea for every disorder that affects us or even listed on the net, but the vitamins and minerals are something the plant does contain in abundance.

So the next time you are thinking about spraying a dandelions in your yard, take the time to look at it a little more closely. That plant you hate so much brings joy to kids and there aren't many plants that can lay claim to being completely edible as well as medicinally useful. Yet the highly maligned, humble dandelion can do it all.

Earth Day (picture heavy)

For Earth Day Dee Dee, Lucas and I made our annual pilgrimage to the Denver Botanic Gardens. DBG has hosted a free day to celebrate the Earth for the last few years.  This year the day dawned rather cold, wet and blustery, it looked like we were going to have to spend all of our time in the conservatory just to stay warm and dry.

Since I was worried about the weather we left a little late and stopped by the dollar store to buy umbrellas and magnifying glasses for some extra fun. We didn't arrive at the gardens until about 11AM and at that point the rain cleared up, the sun came out and everyone and their kid arrived at the parking garage at the same time, like some sort of Earth Day miracle.

The gardens were beautiful, it had rained just enough to wash everything clean and leave sparkly drops on all the leaves and flower petals.  The kids enjoyed the puddles and muddy trails that were left behind.   The drops I liked, the playing in the mud and stomping through puddles I could have done without.
Dee Dee and Lucas were a little disappointed about the weather... new umbrellas beg for a good rainstorm. But then Dee Dee pointed out that umbrellas could be used to, "keep the sun off of us!" and everyone was happy.  Dee Dee used hers quite a bit on the trip, Lucas just wanted to swing his around, so he ended up putting it away so I would stop giving him the evil eye. 

It was hard for Lucas to decide if he was a "sthecret sthpy or a sthcientist", he finally decided on scientist rather than secret spy and immediately got to work observing things just like a scientist would.

This year was especially nice because the gardens are hosting sculptures by Henry Moore. I always enjoy when they have art in the gardens... it's like going to an art show without having the stress of taking my kids to an actual "don't touch that, OMG we can't afford that if you break it" art show  Although, in fairness the kids would really have to try to damage some of these sculptures.  I'm not saying they couldn't do it, it would just take a little more effort. 

The Day was fill with flowers, fun and even a little art.   When we left Dee Dee said her favorite part was the umbrellas.  Lucas said his favorite part was parking in the garage.  My favorite part....... well, all of it!

A Frozen Walk by Clear Creek

Whenever we drive my husband to work we always pass this certain stretch of I70 that goes over Clear Creek. On bitterly cold days the water is always steamy and the trees and brush along the banks are covered in frost. This has intrigued me for a couple of years and I finally decided to stop and check it out. Dee Dee, Lucas and I dropped Chris off at work and then on our way back home, stopped and I took these shots before my camera froze up a bit from the cold. The temp that day was something like 23°F. We only walked for a short distance because none of us had gloves (bad mommy) but the scenery was breathtaking. My theory is the water is warmer from being released from the Coors Brewing Company which is just a couple miles up river. I'm sure it has all kinds of environmental implications, but it still made for some pretty pictures.

The 7 days of Halloween.... or something like that.

This year Halloween was a lot of fun and lasted for several crazy days and a couple of insane nights as well!

Every year the big decision is what to be for Halloween. We usually start discussing it a couple of months ahead of time in case they want to be something really intricate. This year was pretty straight forward. We had a vampire, a witch (the mean kind), Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and a pirate.

Taylor decided she wanted to be a vampire pretty early on, so I whipped up a silky red vampire cape. Having the big stand up collar was an important part of the costume and the only thing she really requested. But she was also pretty happy to wear her fancy red dress since we don't go to a lot of occasions that require wearing a fancy red dress. We made the spiffy necklace out of an old brooch I have and a silver chain we had lying around. She made up lore about the necklace and how it was the reason she could go out in the daytime even though she was a vampire. Its just not Halloween without a little made up lore to go along with your costume!

Taylor practiced this scary stare for a long time, don't look too deeply into her eyes!

Olivia at first wanted to be a pirate, but then she saw a cute Dorothy costume in the Spirit store and decided that would be the ticket. Of course what sold it was for an accessory you could buy a basket complete with Toto. She almost changed her mind when I told her that we weren't getting the Toto basket...I'm not paying 15 dollars for a stuffed rat dog in a tiny little basket! After discussing it she decided she could use one of the animals we had at home and borrow a basket from Diane. I made the dress for her so it would be adjustable and fit over her coat if it was a cold Halloween. (It wasn't)

Dee Dee wanted to be a princess because she is always a princess, but then decided to be a witch... "a Scaywee witch!" So I reworked the dress I made last year for Olivia, bought a new hat and daddy painted her green so she could be a super terrifying witch.

Lucas was the hardest... he wanted to be a fireman, no- a policeman, no -a delivery man, no -a UPS guy. We finally found a pirate hat for cheap and told him he was going to be a pirate. At first he wasn't too sure about it, but he got on board the pirate ship after I bought him a pirate tattoo.... I hope he's always so easy to bribe:)

For the week before Halloween they wore whatever part of their costume that they wanted, but the first day of Halloween was on Oct 25th when we visited the:

Haunted Sorority House...

It was a dark and snowy day in the city of Boulder when the children ascended the steps to the haunted sorority house. Inside they found a chamber or horrors filled with pretty girls, games, crafts and worst of all... CANDY!

Every year the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority house hosts a party for the kids that benefits a local charity. The kids always have a good time and this year was no exception. They had fun winning cupcakes, making bats and hammering golf tees into a pumpkin.

The second chance to dress up and have some Halloween fun occurred on Fri. October 30th. We attended the trick or treat street in Olde Town Arvada. This is one of my favorite events, all the kids are so cute dressed up in costume and the shops always have a lot of candy to hand out to all the ghouls and goblins who are out wandering around in the dark. Its a fun night for the parents, the kids and I think that most of the merchants enjoy it as well.

That same night we went to a Halloween party and enjoyed snacks, games, (including doughnut bobbing)(pirates really are cheaters), a haunted house and participated in a costume contest (we didn't win)

The next day was THE DAY.... Halloween! We went to another trick or treat Street in Denver at Highland's Square and showed off the costumes to friends in the neighborhood. Had we mustered up the stamina we probably could have easily visited a dozen different venues on Saturday. Lucky for the kids Chris and I were pretty much wiped out at that point! So we went home and took the traditional Halloween nap...its an important part of getting ready for Halloween night.

FINALLY we went trick or treating for real in our favorite neighborhood as soon as it got dark. It was a little cloudy, a little creepy and a whole lot of fun was had by all. The kids collected so much candy they complained about carrying their pumpkins and we were out long enough that the kids were begging to go home. At that point Chris felt like he had won a small but important victory in parenting:) It's always nice when you can end a fun evening with the kids being grateful to get in the car and go home.

I think I'm still a little exhausted from all the celebrating and I'm glad it's over but I can't help but wonder what costumes I'll be making next year...