Emily wishes Claire a Happy Birthday

Emily wishes Claire a Happy Birthday.



Sounds to me like she said, "Happy birth-cake!"

Then at the end she says, "Cheese" because it is what you say when a camera is pointed at you.

inspiration

Emily is fascinated with feeding everyone... she feeds her stuffed animals, dollies, parents, sister, and grandparents. This morning she was feeding her dolly using a preemie bottle. She is also teaching her dollies how to play the guitar. Another current interest is dancing. Anytime we hear music she will stop and dance even if its me tapping on a table and humming. Saturday she was pushing Claire in the stroller (all the way home from the pocket park) and had to stop and dance when she heard music coming from the rental hall we were passing.

The girls and I had a great time in Arizona while Mark was doing marksmanship training. My mom got me a book called The Artistic Mother: A practical Guide for fitting Creativity into your Life. I am inspired to do the 12 week workshop that the book suggests and had time to shop for all the supplies while I was in AZ. I also did some other preparations gessoed and painted some backgrounds to use in collages and other projects, tried out some new rubber stamps and did some rubbings and resists. Claire had fun with this last project too. Emily painted a beautiful watercolor which I have yet to photograph. I hope to keep you all posted with my progress through the workshop. The three areas covered in the book are poetry, photography and mixed media (collage). One thing she suggests is reading poetry each day to inspire. I have been enjoying this aspect a lot. I also had a chance to take a bunch of pictures of the girls and print them.

bachelor weekend extraordinaire

I just finished this 2-day training program offered by the Revolutionary War Veterans Association. Fun doesn't begin to describe it... [click on the title or picture to read my longer write-up.] Learning marksmanship was only part of it. I also learned some personal perspectives on Revolutionary War history, and I learned about myself.

Ever since I read this Appleseeds of Life & Precision article, I'd been burning to go. It was everything I hoped for, and I'm pretty enthused about re-upping. I think this would be a great part of home-schooling curriculum, and also a great way to earn a merit badge for a Boy Scout or Girl Scout.

I think my wife could sense my intensity as I prepared for the weekend, so she took off with the girls for a weekend with the grand parents.

dizzy

tickle kiss trick

Tickle me one
Tickle me two
Tickle me when you take off my shoe

Kiss me three
Kiss me four
Kiss me before you close the door

Toss me up 5
Catch me down 6
Let me show you all my tricks

Bumpy ride 7
Upside down 8
Higgly Piggly hurry don't wait

Read to me 9
Lots of books 10
Now lets do it all over again

Energetic Claire

About Emily

About Emily...
1. she can put her sister's shoes and some of her own shoes on her feet all by herself
2. she can unzip and take off her pyjamas
3. she is obsessed with shoes and tried on all the kids shoes during Claire's "My Gym" class
4. her favorite item of clothing is her overalls.
5. she likes to paint with a paint brush but not with her fingers.
6. she uses some 3 and 4 word sentences.
7. she enjoyed bonding time with Daddy on Saturday while Jen met with some mom friends
8. she has renewed interest in feeding other members of the family
9. she has been letting Claire wash her hair when they take a bath together
10. she likes to dance and even makes her dollies dance