Doodle 4 Google 2013: There’s Still Time!

Don’t miss your chance!

If you hurry, you can still enter this year’s Doodle 4 Google contest. The deadline is March 22, 2013, and the theme is “My Best Day Ever…”

The winner’s artwork will appear on the Google homepage, and the winner will receive a $30,000 college scholarship, a $50,000 technology grant for [click headline to read more…]

Happy St. Patty’s Day!

Long time, no see! I’ve been offline for a while, but this weekend’s requests from two moms prompted me to share this post. Mind you, the majority of the work for this one fell to Matt. Let me explain…

Two years ago he built an amazing LEGO Leprechaun trap. Although we didn’t catch any [click headline to read more…]

Summer Beauties

Virginia ctenucha on a clematis blossom (Michigan)

According to Wikipedia, the Virginia ctenucha (Ctenucha virginica), pronounced ten-ooch-ah, is a moth that ranges from North Carolina to Canada, east of the Rocky Mountains. It inhabits wet meadows and open spaces with bushes. Virginia ctenucha caterpillars have multiple tufts of white and yellow hair and feed [click headline to read more…]

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

A few years ago we started making Leprechaun traps as a St. Patrick’s Day tradition. Matt and the kids create them a week or so before the big day, running a few trials ahead of time in case some Leprechauns are casing our house early.

On the night of March 16, they bait the [click headline to read more…]

Painting Sundays (Part 1)

Below are the results of a new tradition in our house: Painting Sundays. Matt has been setting aside a couple of hours every Sunday to help the kids learn watercolor techniques. They do the majority of the sketches themselves (on Drawing Saturdays, of course), and he coaches them on friskets, brush techniques, washes and other [click headline to read more…]