Last week Natalie went to her first Vacation Bible School hosted by Bethel Grace Baptist Church. She had sooo much fun as did I in helping her get ready for the days. Tuseday was crazy hair day and that was the most fun. I braided her hair several times and spray painted it blue, fun!

Of course when she came home, she had to keep it and have more blue in her hair!

Wednesday the kids had to dress as their class animal. Natalie's Kindergarten class were the Elephants, so here she is :)

They had wacky water day and the last day was come as an explorer. She took her own 'explorer' bag with her.
That night was the closing ceromony where all the kids sang for us and after the program, they had bouncers and live animals too.

Okay, so these obviously are not the live ones but later we all got to see and pet various animals like a snake, a salamander, a toad, a chinchilla, a possum and a bearded dragon. I was too excited to take pictures :)

The live animals were brought by an organization called Inside the Outdoors.

Can you spot the tiny spider?

Natalie found this little grasshopper. I took the above photo, she took the one below.

More things growing. Some might be my seeds and some might just be more weeds :)

It's been awhile since I have updated about our little plants and such so I thought I would! Here are the very first seeds we planted, our little lavender. Though it will be awhile until we will see those pretty purples, it already has a faint smell of lavender!

My borage definitely has courage! After our trip to Monterey I got sick and was put out for a few days. Those days were vital and some of our plants suffered for it including the borage. Thankfully it's coming back but I can't say the same for some of nat's little buds in her teacup garden and for our cerinthe and sage. I planted new cerinthe seeds and am still trying to get the sage back up, so we will see.

These are the two that are doing quite well in her teacup garden (too bad I have forgotten what've I planted where!) I can always go back and look to see though..

Calendula, almost looking it was a bit lost too but is doing much better.

Remember our little silver mist plant we bought? well, it's grown and looks happy too!

And I can't forget Natalie's Hawaiian Tomatoe Plant with nice green little orbs (she is delighted!)

Now to the part of my entry where I am not too sure what what is (does that make sense?) We have begun to plant seeds directly in the soil now and since we have been watering more because of the seeds, weeds are sprouting too. SO this is where I need help if any one is knowledgable in plants, herbs, flowers and/or weeds.

The next little sproutling is where I threw a few moonflower seeds that had been soaked already and was not doing well (or taking waaaay too long) in Nat's egg carton container. I am not sure if this little stalk is from that or from a weed.

In this next photo, we planted a few black hollyhock seeds (the watcherman) but I did not mark the ground as to exactly where. There seems to be three different kinds of things growing there, I just hope one of them is the hollyhock.

The next two photos are where we planted apricot sunflowers and mark the ground after we made the seed markers. I am not sure if it's the sunflowers growing or something else.

This next one are clovers growing and something else, can anyone tell me what? This is also by where I threw a few moonflower seeds.

The last photo is a little tree/bush we have and yet another unidentified sprout growth.

If anyone knows what any of these are or might have an idea, please feel free to let me know! :)

The days of summer have been beautiful and surprising not overly hot. I've started volunteering a bit at Caring for Life USA by watching the kids of my two friends who work there. Today I got the kids (including Nat) outside to begin a little yard work so that we can start a garden soon. We also did some chalkboard drawings and hopscotch. After lunch we had art time. I drew a few owls (one for me and several for the kids to color in) along with aliens and some woodland creatures. We had a lot of fun today and I am thinking of things we can do for when I go again next week.

I also wanted to share some photos from some of my internet friends. Violet Folklore are one of my favorite two gals I've meet 'online' because of their love for the outdoors, vintage things and herbal goodness. Here are a few of my favorite photos from them...

 

Today was a much better day for the bubelah and I. We went out into the sun and dirt to plant a few seeds and afterwards made a few markers for them. I managed to take some photos from my phone (yay for camera phones) so you can see what we did today.

I drew the flowers of the seeds we planted and she colored them in. I wrote the names on the back of the papers and just laminated over the paper on top of popsicle sticks. We made markers for california poppy, apricot sunflower, moonflowers, nigella and cosmos.

She wanted to keep doing crafts and I suddenly remembered about some dried ginger root I had bought at the farmer's market several weeks ago. I loved their strange shapes and just reminded me of little friendly root monsters. She loved the shapes too and we decided to make a necklace out of one. She picked the one that looked like a flower to her. I made a whole in it with a knife and she painted it violet and green. Once it was dried, we put them string in and added the beads. Instant necklace :)







I have one root that I am drawing on with pen ink. I can't wait for it to be finished because it's just so different and quirky.
 

Wednesday morning and the girl and I are doing much better since we caught a little summer bug of a cold (and a bit of a fever for her). The camera I had been so graciously loaned I think really did breathe it's last and I finally uploaded the last few pictures that were still on it. I don't know what I will do with out a camera, especially because I like to remember things and share things. Hopefully I won't suffer too much and hopefully this blog won't either :) With that said, the last photos from the little red camera that I would like to share :)

 

I wish I had better photos but maybe another time :)


 

Coming back home we took the coast and I was perpetually delighted at all the forestry and beauty. All I could do was just dream and take a few photos from inside the car. I also had some time to finish re-reading Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince before the movie is released.

We made a stop in Big Sur for a bit and I think we all were just in love with all the surroundings.

A couple of hours later we made another stop for a bit to eat. Afterwards we stretched out our legs a bit behind the restaurant and took in all the beauty. I picked up a few black, jagged rocks and Natalie went exploring a bit.

Hopefully we will back again very soon....

Our second day at Monterey we returned to the aquarium but decided to park in a residential area not too far away from it. I wish I had more time in the town because there are so many houses and buildings that I just fell so hard for! Beautiful!

Once again in the aquarium, snapping up photos of wonders that lie beneath the salty waters..

On Cannery Row, a nice stone bench for a little rest.

Oh the breeze!
Returning to the street we were parked, we decided to take a peek into two consignment stores there. Once we left we also passed a Goodwill where we absolutely had to go to! While I was looking at the dresses my dad picked out this coat for me and he was so thrilled!! He said, look at it, it's all you and only 16 dollars and he was right! What a perfect fit and in such great condition! You will see my sporting this come fall and winter :)

Natalie also picked out a top for herself, channeling her inner boho spirit it seems!

And two more of my finds: this fabulous scarf for three dollars and change and these flats for five dollars and twenty five cents!

Yay for thrifting and yay for Monterey!