"La nuit porte conseil" is French for "sleep on it".  It means, think about it overnight and don’t make a decision until tomorrow… often good advice! The photo is this saying on the door of a Broom closet in Herald Square (New York). –Mama Lisa

Towards the end of WWI two cousins, young girls, took photos with fairies they said they had met.  Later they admitted they faked the photos.   Yet many people at the time believed they were real, including the author of the Sherlock Holmes stores, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle! The fairies came to be called the "Cottingley Fairies". ...

Here’s a cool poem called The Wicked Zebra by Frank Roe Batchelder with an mp3 recording… MP3 Recording of The Wicked Zebra The Wicked Zebra The zebra always seems malicious, He kicks and bites ‘most all the time; I fear that he’s not only vicious, But guilty of...

One way to teach children about both art and nature is to bring them on a trip outdoors and create Land Art.  Monique from France chaperoned a trip last year and sent these ideas and photos of land art to create with children… How to create land art: 1,  Use stones and dead wood to create...

My friend Maria Hayda, who has family from Ukraine, wrote: “Lisa, pussy willow is what we use for our Easters :) since Eastern Europe is unable to grow palm trees… My Grandmother had a huge bouquet she saved thru the decades. Now I’ve started my own bouquet.” According to Wikipedia, “The flowering shoots of pussy willow...

Jingle sticks are inexpensive and fun to make!  All you need is an unsharpened pencil, small bells and pipe cleaners.  Now you can easily create an instrument (which can double as a pencil or eraser for kids). Here’s how to make your jingle stick… 1.  String a large bell in the center of a pipe cleaner. 2. Next...

Gian Carlo Macchi wrote to me about Santa Lucia in Italy.  He also shared these photos from the Santa Lucia celebration in Arzago d’Adda, Lombardy (about 30 km from Bergamo and 30 km from Milan).  Santa Lucia (St. Lucy) was born in Syracuse, Sicily around 283 and died in 303 AD. The myth is that...

Watermelon radish is a cool-looking vegetable that has a tiny tiny hint of radish taste… it’s a little bit sweet too. We peeled them, sliced them and ate ‘em.  Even my 10 year old liked them.  So if you see these gems, pick ‘em up and eat ‘em! You’re never too old or young to try new...

Looking good at 3 1/2 million years old… "Maybe a face lift would help?" –Ray Lee Check out a bunch of poems, songs and rhymes about Halloween. Mama Lisa

I love this photo that Valerie Mellema took of La Pedrera in Barcelona, Spain.  She used Photoshop and a different picture of a log to make the texture in the sky.  It looks like a fantastical place in a kids book.  It could be fun to show this pic to a child and have them...

Ha Long Bay in Vietnam is home to about 1600 people who live in floating houses.  Most of them make their living through fishing. Here’s a photo of Fruit vendors in the floating village on Ha long Bay. Thanks to Purabi Khisa Tandra for sharing these photos! Mama Lisa

This fantastic photo was taken in Jamaa el Fna Square in Morocco by Monique Palomares on a visit to the city of Marrakech last year.  The square looks like a market, but it’s actually filled with outdoor restaurants.  The tall tower in the background, with the light on top, is the Koutoubia Mosque. The name of...

Photo of Speckled Eggs We saw these wonderful marbled eggs at a restaurant we went to today.  The lady said she used a paint brush. 

Last week we went Geocaching with my daughter and two of her friends.  Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunt.   You look for hidden containers, called geocaches with the help of a GPS device.  In our case, we used an iPhone to find the treasure. On our search, we passed the knotted tree in the...

My pup all covered in snow! -New York Suburbs

Yesterday I went ice skating in Rockefeller Center, below the famous Christmas Tree in New York City.  My daughter and I were there for a birthday party.  While skating, we heard news on the rink that some guy went down on his knees on the ice and proposed to his lady below the Christmas...

    Rockefeller Center, December 2010

My parents recently shared this article from a newspaper showing 10 of my relatives who were in World War II.  My grandmother and grandfather held a welcome home party for them after the war.  My grandparents are the couple in the far right (front).  My grandfather didn’t go to the war because he worked...

Chalk Drawing of a Pumpkin by Lila