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Tuesday, May 29, 2012

How Pigs Keep Cool

 When it gets hot dogs pant to keep cool, humans sweat and crank up their AC.  Pigs can't do any of that, so their root in the ground to find cool dirt to lay in or roll around in mud to keep cool.   

On the first hot day of the year, we got out the hose and sprayed the pigs down.  

They LOVED it!  Where ever I sprayed they followed and tried to get all the water in their mouth or on their bum.  They are pretty funny!  Oh, and yes that is me - I don't know why Michael let me out of the house looking like a homeless person.  The jeans I am wearing fit great but are stained with paint, bedliner, and who knows what else.  The shirt is straight from Freshman year of High School FFA Conference.  I am pretty sure it says "A Time For Change" and every time I wear it I think - It's time to change this shirt but I keep it anyway.  Now, this outfit would be perfectly acceptable just to work on the pig pens and feed them but NO - we went to Walmart also - I am pretty sure I am now on peopleofwalmart.com!  Oh, well - back to the pigs.  

 
 Watch the pig closest to me ...



 I think he was a little disappointed with the lack of mud to roll in.  


And that is how you turn a pink pig brown.

Pigs roll in mud not only to keep cool, but also to ward off pesky bugs, and to sooth (and prevent) sunburn.

Commercial pigs are kept in temperature controlled barns to keep them cool in the summer and warm in the winter.   

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Heman Turns One!!

My little nephew Heman turns 1 today!!  Happy Birthday little man!  I love you!!
Here are some pictures from the past year:

 The day he was born. 

 A couple days old ...

 such a cutie!

 "Sitting" in his boppy thing.

 He fell asleep watching the ceiling fan. 

 Hanging out with grandma on the swingy bed.

 Sitting with Michael on the couch.  Can you believe how big he has gotten?

 Sitting up all by himself!

 Excited about the gun he got for Christmas. Not really excited, but he is still so cute!!

 Being adorable!

 He loves watching cars go by the hotel room window. 

 All dressed up for dinner in his cute little bow tie. 

 And at almost a year old he is standing and playing in the water. 

Now he is walking and a whole year old!!  I can't believe how fast the year has flown by and how much he has grown!  

Happy Birthday Heman!!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Heman Loves Water!

 Last weekend we went up to my sister's house.  My little nephew LOVES water ...

While Shannon was watering the flowers in her beautiful backyard, Heman stood up and stared her down. 

 "Look Momma, water!"

 He crawled over ...

 and stuck his finger in the water. 

 Shannon put the water down ...

 he crawled over

 and picked up the hose. 

 Notice the dogs behind him?

 Mac loves is obsessed with water too!

 "Hey, that is my water!"

 He played a while more. 

And headed back inside. 

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms!  
Especially to my amazing mom - if you want to be reminded of just how amazing she is, check out this post!

This is my sister's first Mother's Day!  She has been a great mother and I can't wait to see how much she teaches my adorable little nephew.  She has had a great role model (our ma) so I am sure she will continue to be an amazing mom!


Thursday, May 10, 2012

How we Made Flat Aggie

I hope you are enjoying all of the Flat Aggie adventures!  I know I sure am! My kids are learning so much from it and are having so much fun!

We started by reading the book Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown.  I then used my teacher magic to get the students to suggest that WE make a Flat Stanley.  If you are a teacher, you know exactly what I am talking about - if not, we talked about Flat Stanley until someone said it would be cool if we were flat.  Then, I got them really excited about that and went from there. 

 I printed this template (from the blog ARTventures) for each student then made a larger version for the class. 

 While each student colored their own flat person, I called each group to color one part of our person. 

 Yes, you read that right - 4 (or more) kids colored each part together. 

 They even had to agree on what color to make each part. 

 I even made then do the head together.  I will admit, that was interesting.  When we got to the hair I had the class vote on boy hair or girl hair and girl hair won. 

 I fixed her up a little then glued her onto a file folder so she would be sturdy. 

 She went on a test adventure in our classroom ...

 Then, I laminated her and typed out instructions on a manila envelope and decorated it for her. 

The reason why I had the class color Flat Aggie together was for buy in.  When kids see something that they created they LOVE it.  Since all of the kids worked on it together they all have buy in and they all love it!

** When we made the Flat Aggie army, each group made their own (smaller than the original) version and they colored it together. **       

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Quick Thank You Gift

 I saw this pin on pinterest and fell in love!  Perfect little gift for the people who came out to Farm Day.



It was pretty simple to make also.  I used a 4 by 6 file card to print "You deserve chocolate" on one end and "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!" on the other end (one is upside down so they can both be read when they are folded).  Then I filled a treat bag with chocolate candy and added the file card with a hole punch and some ribbon.  

It was so easy and very cute!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Flat Aggie visits a California Walnut Farm




Dear Friends,
I have spent the last few days in California on a walnut farm! Mrs. L introduced me to her daughter Sugar Plum Fairy who is in the first grade also and they took me on an exciting walk around the farm.  At first, I was nervous because I though these were caterpillars.
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Sugar Plum Fairy and Mrs. L explained that they are called catkins and are just the flower of a walnut tree.  There are different kinds of walnut trees and they all have flowers and leaves and nuts at different times .  These catkins on the ground are from trees call Hartley Walnuts.  The catkins that are still on these trees are called Chandlers.

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This is what the catkins look like before they get big…

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They fall off the tree after they have been pollinated and look funny on the ground.

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Mrs. L’s neighbor just planted a new walnut orchard. An orchard is a lot of trees planted together.  They look just like funny sticks right now, but we found some already growing some brand new baby leaves!  The sticks are painted white so they don’t get sunburned!  The trees won’t need the sunscreen in a few years when they get big and make their own shade.

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Mrs. L, Sugar Plum Fairy and I walked and had fun.  Sugar Plum Fairy even gave me a shoulder ride!  The walnut trees behind us only have the catkins on them and no leaves yet.

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These trees are called Hartley Walnuts and already have lots and lots of leaves.

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When the leaves grow big, that means the catkins have already fallen off…wherever there was a catkin, a walnut will grow. There sure will be a lot of walnuts soon!


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Mrs. L let us climb a tree!  It was soooo tall and so much fun!

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I asked Mrs. L what people use walnuts for and she said, “Oh LOTS of things! There are walnuts in cookies and candy and even some kinds of bread.  They smash them up and make Walnut Butter…just like Peanut Butter and oil to cook with, too.  Sometimes, people take lots and lots of the walnut shells and crunch them up.  They put them on their roads so there isn’t so much dust, like here.”

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Wow!  I didn’t know there were so many things you can use walnuts for!
Mrs. L let Sugar Plum Fairy and I sit on the Quad, too!  She wouldn’t let us ride it because we were too little, though.


 
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While we were sitting and taking a rest, a lady bug came to say hello to us…It sure tickled!



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Look how different the trees are…they are all walnuts, too!




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Sugar Plum Fairy was so nice to me and we had a good time walking back to their house.

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Before I left, Sugar Plum Fairy and I played with her new puppies!

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I had a lot of fun at the Walnut Farm! Thank you letting me visit!

Thank you!  What a fun adventure she had!  For more of Jen's adventures visit her blog The Nut House Five.  To learn more about walnuts check out her walnut posts and don't miss the videos on her Walnut Harvest post!

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