Rainbows and Sunshine

I went to the store, when I went in it was raining.  When I came out there were 2 full rainbows spanning the sky.  All of which made me wax poetic...

Thought I'd Find Gold Here

But the Rainbow Kept Moving

Stupid Leprechauns

Bunnies, Beavers and Frogs with Chainsaws... Oh My!

 Ahhhhhhh went the shrieking girl, ribbit, plop went the frog and that was pretty much the theme of our trip to the Hudson Gardens, located Southwest of Denver off of Santa Fe.

We all know my love for the Botanic Gardens... lets face it, it has the most mentions of any other venue we visit regularly here in Denver. Plus, I get to share a lot of pictures of flowers I love. Chris and I had visited the Hudson Gardens a couple of different times before we had kids. The kids had all been to the free trick or treating event on Halloween, but we hadn't toured the gardens as a family ever. We thought it might be a good way to kill an afternoon and it really, really was. Given my love for the Botanic gardens, I'm going to say something shocking. Hudson Gardens was more fun for the kids and might edge out the Botanic gardens a wee bit in my favorites category. Hudson Gardens just seems more accessible to kids. They can walk down by the different ponds, they got to see some wildlife and there was a lot of room to run. At the Botanic gardens I'm always super jumpy my kids are going to fall into the concrete ponds and I'm not going to be able to get them out without damaging some sort of plant life.  Here, I had far less concerns as it just seemed like there was more room to roam. 

 Although there were plenty of great flowers to see, On this overcast day, I really came to see the irises, since they were in full bloom at the time. They were gorgeous, the colors, the size and just the incredible variety they had at the gardens. It's not pictured, but all the different varieties had name plates so you could find the one you like in a catalog. Even the kids had a good time looking at the big flowers and all the colors.

Miniature trains, it was hard to tear Lucas away from this awesome sight.  Hudson Gardens has a wonderful train garden with track that runs through a variety of plants and even a "replica" of old town Littleton. The trains, the tunnels, the little town, he was in heaven. If he could have actually played with the trains and cars and little people he would have never left the area. The train garden was a favorite for all the kids, although Lucas still talks about it a lot.

Down at the end of the garden, near the bike path there is "Monet's Place", with a lovely bridge, of course.

  Next to the bridge is the coolest place ever... a frog pond.

 Frogs, so cool yet so very scary when they jump. The frogs were really awesome, the numbers of tadpoles were astounding and the size of some of the frogs was just unbelievable. I can only imagine the cacaphony of ribbits that must occur in the evening with all those frogs trying to find someone to love. The funniest part was the reaction the kids had to the sudden jumps of the green amphimbians. We had multiple events of shrieking that made it sound like the frogs were mass murderers out on some sort of chainsaw rampage.

But for me, of course, the water lilies were the best part, so pretty and they didn't cause any type of high pitched screaming!

OK, I'll admit it, I'm not a big fan of evergreens. I don't like the texture (mostly sharp and painful), I don't like that other plants won't grow under big evergreens. And I don't like that they overwhelm the small scale plantings of the normal single family home. I really, really hate to see some cute house living in the shadow of some hulking spruce that will eventually fall during a windstorm crushing the house, a neighbor's house or a random car parked on the street. Fifty year old junipers are also another one I hate. Sure they were super cute when you planted them next to the sidewalk, but now they are trying to grab my kids and eat them while you try and cut them back as far as you can, turning them brown in the process. Not brown enough to be dead, on the contrary, the side facing your house is super green and looks great!

However, Hudson Gardens has a section of evergreens that is very well done and always makes me question my evergreen distaste. The garden does a wonderful job of playing with the colors and textures of the evergreens. Of course, the gardens also have enough room for these blocky plants to spread out and play well together. They aren't trying to eat some poor, tiny, cottage in the middle of a neighborhood built on single lots and competing with other plants better suited to the environment.

 One of the most surprising thing to discover at Hudson Gardens was a real, honest to goodness, live beaver, just hanging out in one of the ponds as if we weren't just off of Santa Fe in Littleton. I was quite surpised to see so many different animals on this trip. At one point Dee Dee almost stepped on a garter snake as we were looking at a sculpture. The bunnies were by far the favorite, although I'm guessing the gardeners would love for us to never see a bunny there again. While we were there, the bunnies were busy snacking on new growth in the oval perennial garden.

The kids had a great time and we actually had to drag them out of there, they wanted to stay longer... that hasn't ever happened at the Botanic Gardens.  I'm usually the one getting dragged out of the gates!

Dear Volkswagen,

You suck. Here's a sampling of why you suck...

Child 1- (POW).... "blue one!"

Child 2- "Ow! You aren't supposed to hit, just say the color! OH (POW) RED ONE!"

Child 1- "Mom he hit me!"

My kids don't need a new incentive to beat the snot out of each other, especially in the car. They can come up with plenty of reasons without your advertisements encouraging them to slug each other and random strangers just because a Volkswagen of any type is within eyesight. Its even more annoying because the game is supposed to be about assaulting someone because you saw a Bug, not a minivan or any other random type of car you people might manufacture. Slug Bug at least limited the number of cars you could get beat over, Punch Dub is just stupid. Sure, I get a little vicarious joy out of your commercials and the random beatings that occur, but the reenactments by my kids are sucking the fun out of it for me. Perhaps Hug Dub would be better, it can still be considered assault, my kids like to hug until someone trips and falls down, but at least it would be harder for my kids to do in the car. Better yet, Don't Touch Anyone Dub... now there is a slogan I could totally get behind.

Your Invisible Friend Did What??

Invisible friends... a right of passage for many younger kids, sometimes the bane of a parent's existence.

When Olivia was about 3 she had an invisible friend named Hotolita. Hotolita didn't talk much, do much, but she did have a book that Olivia needed to keep around at all times. The book was an old leather bound day planner that was given to me by my old job. At the beginning of each year we were given new ones and I kept the old ones to compare sales and promotions from one year to the next. Olivia found one of the older planners and liked to draw in it, so I let her keep it. One day she started to talk about her "Hotolita book" and was devastated she couldn't find it.  I asked a bunch of questions... hot book? hot to where book? what?... luckily Taylor was there to translate for me and from that point on that is what we called that particular book, The Hotolita Book. Taylor never had an invisible friend, she just translated for Olivia's invisible friend.

Actually neither Chris nor I had invisible friends, although Chris told me he used to wish he had one.  His complaint is that he was never cool enough to have an invisible friend.  I didn't have invisible friends, but then I had a healthy social life with my very real stuffed animals.  Each one had it's own personality and all of them had to sleep with me at night.  The animals used to fight over who got to sleep next to me, so I would rotate them so no one would get jealous.  Don't tell, but I did have a couple of favorites shhh... 

Fast forward and now Dee Dee has an invisible friend named Nicholas. She has had this friend for a couple of years and Nicholas is much more developed as a personality compared to Hotolita.  Nicholas, Dee Dee's friend is a little girl, just a bit older than Dee Dee and Nicholas gets to do and have everything Dee Dee doesn't. If Dee Dee wants a toy and we say no, Nicholas will be sure to have the coveted toy at her house. If Dee Dee complains we need a new car and we laugh, Nicholas' family gets a new car... you get the picture.  Taylor and Olivia love to talk to Dee Dee about her invisible friend, even going so far as to help make things up about what Nicholas does, lives and even how she looks.

Lucas realized he needed to make up invisible friends to combat Nicholas, Nicholas was just one too many girls in the house for him.  He first decided he wanted to be friends with the firemen down the street... he didn't have a really good grasp on "invisible" at that point. When I wouldn't drop him off for a sleep over at the fire station, Lucas threw a big fit and then he made up Boy.  Boy isn't really well developed in personality, he mostly just wants to go to all the parties that Nicholas has. Occasionally Boy gets a cool toy, but for the most part Boy is only around when Nicholas is mentioned. 

Nicholas lives in a big house and moves around a lot.  Dee Dee lives in a small home, shares a room with her brother and doesn't get to travel past the state line all that often. Not only does Nicholas often live in nice neighborhoods we drive by (usually in a McMansion), but she also sometimes lives in Africa, India and occasionally China.  Lately, Nicholas has been moving farther and farther away... I'm hoping she moves to the moon and stops talking to Dee Dee soon. As it turns out, Nicholas is a little bit evil, sometimes she draws on the walls and signs Dee Dee's name.  Or she encourages Dee Dee to brain her brother with a doll.   Nicholas  is a trouble maker, an instigator and has caused some big arguments in the family. 

For example, a couple of months ago, I'm driving down the road, listening to the radio and I hear some screeching coming from the back seat. Being the awesome mom I am, I turned up the volume to drown out the screeching. Then the screeching turns into arguing and I hear the names, "Boy" and "Nicholas" an awful lot. Realizing that I wouldn't be able to solve the problem by drowning Dee Dee and Lucas out, I turn down the volume of the radio, stare at them in the rear view mirror, swerve into on coming traffic, swerve back, stop staring at them and ask, "what the HELL is going on back there?" At this point I'm regaled with the tearful story from Lucas about how Boy can't go to the Halloween party Nicholas is having that night.  OK, first, this happened in January which makes me wonder what Nicholas' mom is thinking having a Halloween party in January.  Second, my thoughts were... "Seriously, how the hell am I supposed to mediate an argument between invisible, unreasonable people?"  Since the screeching was about to start again I picked a plan that involved me playing along with the whole Nicholas debacle.  I tell Dee Dee she can't be friends with Nicholas anymore if Nicholas isn't going to invite Boy to the party.  I then wonder if that is the most insane thing I have ever said, or if "Don't put your finger in your sister's butt!" edges it out as being a wee bit more crazy. 

That wasn't the first argument Nicholas has caused and it wasn't to be the last or even the best! Just the other day Nicholas turned out to be a huge problem when she turned Boy into a girl... Oh yeah, the one invisible friend gave the other invisible friend a sex change, out of the blue and while we were in the car. That time I deliberately swerved into oncoming traffic.

Sometimes Nicholas likes to cause trouble with the older girls too. After school the girls like to tell me about their day on the way home. In second grade Taylor had a teacher named Mrs. Bohm. At about this point in time Nicholas started going to school and her teacher was named Mrs Bones.  It was amazing, every day Nicholas did all the same things in school that Taylor did during her day. Boy also went to school, but Boy just did all the stuff in school that Lucas did at home. Unless Taylor or Olivia had a really funny story to tell and then both Boy and Nicholas had the same funny story to tell. This would sometimes cause the girls to argue with Dee Dee and Lucas about what Boy and Nicholas did during the day and Dee Dee and Lucas would then have to defend their friends... oh look oncoming traffic.

So at this point I'm thinking of developing some sort of 12 step program for invisible friends... some sort of IFA (invisible friends anon).  The meetings? A planning session for how to ummm... eliminate those pesky personalities.   The twelve steps? For the invisible friend... off a short pier.  Perhaps there could be some sort of "Strangers on a Train" scenario.  One person backs over another child's invisible friend with their mini van,  someone else flushes the other kid's friend down the toilet to sleep with the fishes... all accidental like.  I'm not sure if killing off the invisible is a legal issue or not, but I'm keeping the alleged scenarios general, just in case.   There might be moral issues about killing off nonexistent friends, but its gotta' beat the immorality of driving into oncoming traffic.  Or the health issues involved with keeping your sanity by drinking copious amounts of vodka.   Speaking of which, I seem to be out of vodka... I wonder if Nicholas' mom has been visiting...

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!