Blooming Broccoli

I am interested in broccoli today because yesterday we were eating broccoli when me, Micah and Joey asked, "Are broccolis really trees?"

Mom said, "No, they're flowers."

Then we were all like "Cuckoo!"

Today I did some research (mostly here) and learned that broccolis really are flowers, not trees. And they actually turn out to be pretty. They are green with yellow petals.I learned that even after the broccoli flowers, it still tastes good. And if you cut the main head off of it when it's a flower and eat it, it grows a new one only not as big. It tastes just as good. (Or bad, if your opinion about broccoli is bad.)

Basil leaves keep away cabbage worms, because cabbage worms don't only eat cabbage. They eat broccoli and I think spinach. One of the reaons they eat broccoli is because I learned that broccoli is actually a type of cabbage. (I learned that just now from Mom.)

My opinion about broccoli is bad. (Unless it has Ranch on it!)

Whale Vomit

I know this is gonna sound crazy, but whale vomit is used to make perfume. But not all perfume, just some. It starts off stinky, but after 10 years it smells heavenly.

Are you wearing whale puke today?

Fraction Frenzy

Today I was reading one of my mom's cookbooks. And I asked her what one of the signs was. It looked like a number and a slash and a number. She explained with a pizza.

She said if we we make it into two pieces, and we take one half, it makes a fraction that shows 1/2. The bottom number is the total number of pieces. The top number is how many you take away. So if we make 8 pieces of a pie, and take away 2, the fraction would be 2/8. And this does not work if the pieces are not all the same size.

Now I'm gonna go play fractions.

**Conner's mom sneaking on here now...here's the fractions he wrote and drew while he was reading the cookbook some more and "playing fractions." :)

Purple-Eyed Peas, Purple-Eyed Peas, P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-Purple-Eyed Peas!

I just got back from Yogi and BooBoo's. I helped them in the garden a lot.

I picked purple peas. I called them "purple-eye peas." You know, because they weren't black, you know, "black-eyed peas?" I learned that when they get ripe, they turn purple. When they're not ripe, they're green.

I got to shell them, and it's really cool. You stick the shell through and they go right through and purple-eyed peas shoot right out. Here's me and Micah shelling peas last summer:

What I Learned at the Zoo Today

I went to the zoo today. And I went to the reptile house. There were two zookeepers. One was telling people about the crocodile and one was telling people about the python. The crocodile and and the python were both the same size - 15 1/2 feet long. The python was from Asia and the crocodile was from Australia. The crocodile's name is Salty and I decided the snake's name should be Slimey. Salty weighs 1500 pounds and is about 55 years old and Slimey weighs 125 pounds and about 25 years old.I also learned that tarantulas shed their skin just lizards and frogs do. The zookeeper called that dead skin a "molt" and I got to touch it. It felt really soft like a cat.I got a compass from Vacation Bible School last night and brought it with me to the zoo today. I learned that the way to work a compass is to turn the compass and wait until the red arrow is lined up with the "N." "N" is north, "W" is west, "E" is east, and "S" is south. Whichever one is at the top is the way you're going.

Hydromulch

I saw hydromulch at the BRiCk. It looked like they were painting the grass very light green. But then I learned that it was just lots of seeds and fertilizer and green liquid to help the grass grow, because when they were building the BRiCk they had to dig all the grass up. So they put the grass back with a bunch of seeds called hydromulch. I also learned on wikipedia that aircraft can put hydromulch on places that had a fire. And helicopters put hydromulch on big places that need it.