happy birthday, nana!

We need to make a card for Nana's birthday, what should we do?

I know, Maddie! Wet's make a BIIIIG cahd. Bigger dan any we ever made!Okay, let's get to work! I'll color on this side.....and, Caleb, you color over there.
How you doween, Maddie?
Well, I think I might need a little help down here.

OK, I'll hewp you out coss we got to finish fast.
Yeah, it's almost Nana's birthday!

Wow, this is pretty big!We did it!We love you! (All 4 of us!)
We hope your birthday is special!

bobe on a roller coaster

The other day, I rolled the butcher paper out on the floor and quickly traced the kids' bodies on it. I left them to color themselves in. When I walked back in a few minutes later, I started laughing, because I saw this...Check out that groovy hair! I think the fact that his arms are up adds to the whole mood. You gotta love the big nose and those cute little eyelashes. If you're wondering, like I was, about the large black splotch on his head--that's his forehead.

handwriting practice...

...can be so tedious. But there are some fun ways to practice handwriting skills and strengthen small motor skills in the process. One way is 'cornmeal writing.' Pour some cornmeal in a low dish (Maddie used a pie plate), pat it out to smooth it, use a finger to write. Maddie practiced her numbers this way. An added bonus is that this activity also keeps little wild hooligans occupied.

Depending on how wild your hooligans are: go outside! ...or lay down a few ground rules, consider laying down a tablecloth or tarp, keep a sharp eye on 'em, and be prepared for a little dust. (It wipes up easily, though.)

maddie visits hawaii - episode 2

We are currently working on making many, many tissue paper flowers for leis. We will be wearing our leis at the end of October at our big Family Luau. The Family Luau will be the culmination of our Hawaii Unit where Maddie will demonstrate all that she has learned about Hawaii. We'll have food, dancing, and all kinds of Hawaiian fun!

where the wild things are

So the wild animals have had mercy on me, and we actually have had a decent harvest of tomatoes. Not a lot of brandywines--that plant was eaten twice over, poor thing. But I did harvest the seeds to save for next year. We've ended up picking a daily supply of miniature yellow romas and yellow cherries. It turned out to be a much better harvest than I thought possible. And for that, I'm grateful!

heaven and hell...uh, according to maddie

Maddie and Caleb had paused in their playing and were gazing out the front window.
"Caleb, do you know when you're going to go to heaven?"
"No."
"When you grow up and get old and then you die you'll go to heaven. But if you are a bad person and grow up, you go to hell, and that's a bad place and it's far away."
"Oh."

garden pizza

Fresh from the garden...

...to this! Yum!

becca's bridal shower

On Saturday I got to spend nearly the whole day with my friend Rebecca, celebrating her upcoming wedding, in which I am a bridesmaid and Maddie is a flower girl. I helped organize and got to attend her bridal shower, cart gifts into her new condo, go out to dinner with Becca and all her bridesmaids, and then have a special bridesmaids gift-giving time with Becca. It made for a wonderful day! Thanks for having me (and Maddie) in your wedding, Rebecca!

monday monday

Monday morning, daddy's home, I'm busy making pancakes in the kitchen. I notice it got awfully quiet in the living room, and I glance in to see......Mr. Bobe lounging on the couch awaiting his breakfast.

now that caleb has his crayons back...

Here is Robin Hood shooting lots of arrows.
(Note the hat with the feather in it.)

a window into my world

what caleb did for school last week

Remember this? Ah yes. Well, over the course of a couple days he added to the collection.

Right here...

...and here...
(Red seems to be his color of choice.)
...and across my laptop.

Needless to say, Caleb's crayons, markers, colored pencils and his new schoolbox (with 'special school crayons') were all taken away for several days. When I finally pulled out his crayons yesterday, he said, "Mommy, I onwy going to cowuh on the papoh." You betcha!

little snippets from a party

On Saturday Maddie and Caleb got to go to their friend Tate's 3rd birthday party. Upon arriving, KJ and Maddie were quite happy to see each other. They stood there (Maddie smiling and KJ staring) for about a full minute before KJ broke the ice and blurted out a greeting: "I REALLY like your flipflops, Maddie! They are really coo-ool." "Thanks," big smile.

At the dinner table, KJ saved the seat next to him for Maddie. As they sat eating, KJ showed his affection for Maddie by opening his mouth really wide and sticking it in her face, "Ahhhhhhh." At this point in her life, she received that as friendship and giggled. She enjoyed their time at dinner.

Caleb and KJ had some great boy-time in the ball pit in the basement chucking soft plastic balls in each others faces and laughing hysterically at every hit.

Maddie and Caleb each got a little goodie bag from the party. The next day after lunch they got to eat their rice krispy treats from the goodie bag for dessert. Caleb finished lunch first and plowed through his rice krispy treat. After about a 10 second pause to think (and I am sure his brain was working hard on this one), he said to me, "Mommy, I am WEAWWY hungwy. Can you open Maddie's tweat and cut it in two pieces and she can haf one and I can haf one? Cause I am WEAWWY hungwy."

peaches

I made our favorite breakfast cake again, this time with some of the fresh peaches we picked.

The rest I sliced and froze up in 2 gallon size bags. Last year I learned from good ol' Martha Stewart that when freezing fruit, first spread the fruit across a cookie sheet, put the cookie sheet in the freezer for several hours until the fruit is frozen, then put the fruit in freezer bags. Now when I open my bags, I have individually frozen fruit so I can easily remove a small portion. A bit of extra prep time on the freezing end, but it's worth it in the long run.

And speaking of frozen fruit, along with those 2 bags of peaches, we have 5 bags of blueberries, 2 of strawberries, and 3 of blackberries--all from our summer picking. Now we will enjoy fruit smoothies, blueberries in our oatmeal, the occasional cobbler and other fruity treats throughout the winter months.

our snuggle bug

Caleb was snuggling in our bed the other morning. He had been curled up with Daddy for several minutes when he began squirming, "I want to sweep wif Mommy."
"Why?" asked Daddy.
"Becuss you awr a widdle bit stinky."

caleb's schoolday

Period 1 - play with pattern blocks.

Period 2 - continue playing with pattern blocks and build a fence around the entire table.
Period 3 - color a fish "wif wots and wots of eyez and diffwent cowuhs of hair."

Period 3.5 - get distracted while coloring fish and experiment on floor.

Period 4 - learn about consequences.

family pictograph

car conversations

Maddie was telling Caleb about the 'lipstick' that Mommy had put on her before we left the house. Not wanting to be left out, Caleb insisted that, "When boys get to be two, den dey can weah wipsticks."

I was left explaining to Caleb that first, boys do not wear lipstick, and second, he will be 4 next year, not 2.

the clock game

Maddie has really enjoyed the Clock Game. I found this activity in my phonics/handwriting curriculum, Spell to Write and Read. The game is simple--set up number cards like a clock face and do simple tasks.
Some tasks we've done:
-go to a particular time, like 4:00
-go to a time of day, like breakfast (8:00)
-set up the clock by herself.

We're doing this activity as prep for handwriting where we'll use the clock face to help direct her strokes, but this is also a great activity for learning the basic concepts of telling time. Even Caleb likes to participate. Who wouldn't like jumping around a circle?

This week's practice: using blank cards and performing the same tasks on a blank clock face.

oh how my children love me

After breakfast we were sitting around the table, the 4 of us, and conversation led to the color of our eyes. I was sharing sweetly how Maddie's eyes were so dark blue when she was born, they looked like a cross between navy and violet.
"Did you think it was pretty, Mommy?"
"Yes, I did."
Maddie and Caleb began to look at Braden's and my eyes. Maddie, really scrutinizing my eyes, observed (innocently I might add),
"Mommy, your eyes are the ugliest color of green I ever saw."
And if one time wasn't enough, she repeated herself, quite amazed and emphasizing UGLY. Then to add more salt to the wound, Caleb added,
"Youh eyes haff red cwacks in dem. Why do dey haff wots of wed cwacks?"
I said, "Because you wear me out and I'm tired this morning!" No, I'm kidding, I didn't say anything. I just laughed. Ah kids, you gotta love 'em!

breakfast conversation

"Caleb, are you an old man?"
"Noooo," putting his cup of milk down on the table.
"Are you sure? Because you have a BIG white moustache on your face just like an old man."
He giggles and wipes his face, as Maddie chimes in pertly, "Speaking of water, I need to go potty."

maddie visits hawaii - episode 1

What I decided to do for Madeleine for kindergarten this year is to complete the core subjects (math and language arts) on T, W, F, S, but on Thursdays we are having Arts & Crafts days. But not just any arts and crafts--I have integrated history, science, geography and social studies into the arts and crafts.

Our first unit: Hawaii.

We will be learning all about Hawaii through September and October. An unusual fall unit, I know, but this summer we went to see a childrens' theater production of Hawaiian dance that was fabulous. It piqued Maddie's interest in Hawaii, so I thought I'd just run with that. Besides, it sounded fun!So here we are, having completed the first lesson. We learned the basics of Hawaii, including that it is a chain of islands, and we learned what islands are. We focused on the geography aspect, making the salt dough map--an excellent hands-on activity!

Stay tuned for more of 'Maddie Visits Hawaii' this fall with dance, music, flora & fauna, food and native crafts!

serve yourself lunch

After a bit of a rocky morning, when lunchtime rolled around, something needed to be done! I recalled that my mom often has the kids help prepare their own lunch and serve their own plates at her house--and they seem to really like doing so.

Thinking quickly, I filled bowls with healthy, substantial fingerfood items I knew they liked. I laid the spread out across the table; Maddie and Caleb were intrigued. They had to serve a spoonful of each item on their plates first, but then they were able to go back for seconds and thirds as they desired. Caleb served 1 full cup's worth of peas on his plate and ate every last one!It was amazing how something that simple helped change the course of our day and give us all a bit of a reprieve. There are a few reasons, I think, why this lunch worked well: Maddie and Caleb got to...
-serve themselves
-make decisions
-have responsibility
-make choices
-and experiment.
They were also kept busy by 'working' to get their lunch. They had tasks to do. They sat still and happily munched away for 30 minutes. It turned out to be quite a relaxed lunch for all of us...and so I say, Hurray for Serve Yourself Lunch! We'll have to try it again some nutty day.

bobe art

After drawing many many (many!) fish wif shawp teef, Caleb is...
...still drawing fish with sharp teeth. Hey, at least this one has hair! ("An' two sticks an' it's eateen WAAAAHTS of fish eggs.")

our county fair

We were able to go to the fair with Bubby and PopPop. Of course it was a sweltering hot day, but the kids really loved it. Some highlights...

Riding a pony.

Looking at the baby chicks that had just hatched...

...and were hatching.

And of course for Bobe, sitting on every single tractor!

He kept saying, "I wan to wide on da twactor," and we thought he meant the tractors pulling the trolleys around the fair. But no, all he meant was climbing and sitting on all the John Deeres in their exhibition area.

* today we started school *

Our classic "first day of school" picture on the front steps.
No shoes at our school!

Just a taste of our first day...
Maddie teaching Caleb the lesson I had just taught her.

Working with pattern blocks.

Cheers to a successful first day!

more birthday for braden

While Braden was sleeping in, the kids and I made a surprise birthday banner for him.

All that was all too quickly left of birthday breakfast crepes. I should have made more!

Maddie and Caleb's favorite birthday gift of Daddy's. A card that plays "Another one bites the dust" every time you open it. The card has since survived numerous spills, grabs, rips and 10,432 times of being opened and closed...and it still plays.

Happy Birthday, Daddy! We love you!