You know you're a homeschoolin' mama...

when you go to the store to buy diapers, but come home with a bundle of tulips (though I would like to know how tulips are available in early February...).

Why tulips? Because you're studying Holland. So it's a must-have accessory. And Wally World (of all places) conveniently had them on sale.

And what do you do with them? Why you wait for them to open before dissecting them (we apparently don't simply enjoy flowers and their beauty, we take them apart, like all good homeschooling mini-scientists. The girls had their exacto knives and field microscopes ready before I got in the door). While you wait, you draw them!

Not 5 minutes after pouring water into the vase and sorting the flowers, the crayons, markers and paints spontaneously appeared and the creativity flowed.

The rebel of the family decided that tulips are nice and pretty and all, but a passion fruit flower would be more suitable for a sheet of paper and a post-pad sticky (it's amazing what my kids come up with!):

I spent some time with my watercolor set and slowly got a grip on my reality: I did NOT inherited my grandmother's artistic talent. So I took a picture:

Here's some fascinating trivia for you: In the 1700s the goverment of Holland had to begin regulating the sale of tulips because the national economy started to collaspe as the price of tulips rose well above the cost of living. And, though the tulip is a national symbol of Holland, it originated in the Mediterrean region. The Dutch were able to harness the beauty and bring prosperity to the Netherlands, thus creating the iconic tulip that we can purchase at the local grocery store.