It's Almost Spring!!

I always love Spring! The plants start to grow and the grass gets green, and it means summer is coming. I like to be outdoors, in the sunshine.

A few weeks ago, I planted some seeds in my garden. I planted tomatoes, beets, squash, lettuce, and Swiss Chard. I was so excited last week to see that everything has started to grow! Today it's gray, cloudy and rainy, but my garden is growing!

When I was a little girl, I read the story of Peter Rabbit, who loved to get into Mr. McGregor's garden and eat his vegetables. I always thought that was kind if mean...but Peter didn't have very good manners, he should have asked before getting into someone else's garden.

See if you can tell what each of these plants are! (HINT: I named the things I planted already, all you have to do is figure out each plants are which!)

Here they are:
Number 1:


Number 2:



Number 3:




Number 4:


Number 5:




And Number 6:


You can barely see the last one! Send me your guesses, I might send something back! :)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Snails!

Grandpa's Fish Tank has some new residents!

You can see them much, because they live in the sandbed and help keep it clean.
They're called Nassarius snails. They look kind of interesting with a sort of snout that goes out and eats dirt in the sand.




I put four Nassarius snails in the tank. Right away, one climbed the wall and two went in the sand. saw the third one kind of laying on his side with his door shut and a hermit crab was nearby. Snails shouldn't lay on their backs, so I turned the snail over. The fish store guy said the snails would mostly live in the sand, so I didn't worry too much. I didn't like how the hermit crab was chasing after the snail, though.

I decided to read about the Nassarius snail. I learned about how they clean the sand with their snout, and then I read how hermit crabs will eat the Nassarius snail and steal their shells. I wondered if that's what I saw in the tank, that the crab was trying to take the snail's shell. Uh oh! Not good!

When I got home from work, I checked, and sure enough! Perched on top of a rock was a hermit crab wearing a brand new shell!





So now, the tank had only three Nassarius snails. I think.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A New Fish!!

Wanna see something cool? This is a new fish for Grandpa's tank. Some friends brought him this fish, called a Banggai Cardinal Fish. Isn't he cool?





His tail fins and lower fins are black with white spots. His lower fins are polka dotted! There is a black stripe running right down his face over his eye. We think he's really neat looking.

His favorite thing to do is just hover in place under a rock ledge. He doesn't swim around fast like the other fish in the tank, at least not very often. We have seen Pepe LeShrimp snap at him! We'll have to watch to be sure they don't fight!!




Since one of the friends who gave him to Grandpa is going to go on a mission, we thought this fish needed a missionary-like name, so we named him Elder Fish! Doesn't he look like he's ready, with his white shirt and black tie?




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Two shrimp in one!!

Hey kids,

I know most of you haven't seen Grandpa's fishtank yet, but this is a kind of fun thing, so I wanted to tell you about it right now.

First, here are the things that live in Grandpa's tank:

• A Yellowtail Damsel fish
• A Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
• 6 Hermit Crabs
• 3 Turbo Snails
• 2 Tiny snails (they live on the rock, and we don't see them very often, so we're not sure what kind they are yet)
• 2 Green Chromis
• 2 Clownfish (Nemo fish)
• And a Flame Angel fish

None of them have names yet, except the Angel fish. I'll tell you more about the others later, but today, I wanted to tell you about the shrimp.

You can tell why he's called a Skunk Shrimp, can't you? He has a big white stripe down his back, just like a skunk.

This morning, when I looked in the tank, I saw TWO shrimp! What happened?

I looked again, and realized that the shrimp had shed his skin, called an exo-skeleton, and was growing a new one. You can see the kind of clear exo-skeleton on the right, and the real shrimp on the left.

When you grow, your skins grows with you. But when a shrimp grows, he sheds his skin and builds a new, bigger one! Cool, huh?

  

So here's my question for you: What do you think we should name the shrimp?
If you click on the pencil below, you can type your answer! :)

Love,
Gramma

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Hey! Here are some fun winter memories!

This digital scrapbooking design created with Smilebox

Happy Thanksgiving!!

One of the first songs I ever learned was a "round" for Thanksgiving. The words go like this:
    
       For health and strength and daily bread we praise Thy Name, O Lord.

You can listen to it HERE.. It's a pretty song, and when you sing it in a round, it's fun really fun to sing. HERE is another one of my favorites hymns, the Prayer of Thanksgiving.

So here's my family contest: write a poem about the things you're thankful for. You can post it or email it. I have a treat for everyone who enters. If you're too small to write, you can draw a picture! I'm excited to see all the things you're thankful for!

Love,
Grandma Hoopes

It's Apple Time!!

This post is for our grandkids!!

Do you know who Johnny Appleseed was? Did you know he was a real person? He was!!

Yessiree! Johnny Appleseed, whose real name was John Chapman, was a nurseryman (that means he owned nurseries, where plants are grown) who lived in the midwest in the 1800's (that's over 200 years ago!). He travelled around planting apple trees all over the United States. He was also very religious, the way he dressed was very simple- shirt and pants, no fancy clothes for him! Some people say he took his cooking pot along with him on his travels and wore it on his head! Is that a crazy picture?

Here are some fun things for you to do:
Check out this recipe: http://scrambledhenfruit.blogspot.com/search/label/caramel
Doesn't that sound yummy?? Maybe you can help your moms out and get your homework and chores done right away, and then maybe she'll help you make these?

Here's another link (I'm pretty sure your Moms and Dads remember this!):

Ok, that's it for fun stuff this time. I'm going to post a Thanksgiving activity soon, though!

Love you all,

Grandma Hoopes

From The Beginning

This is the beginning of our blog. We hope that this blog will help draw our family closer and help encourage our children and grandchildren (well, yes...and our friends, too!).

For today...that's enough (figuring out all these templates is draining!! hehe, just kidding), but keep watching this spot...we promise wild adventures and true stories!