cute animals

went to the pumpkin patch and enjoyed the petting zoo. see new flickr picts.

garden

I've been enjoying using the last of our garden produce lately. Cherry tomatoes in salads. Chard and onions in soup and baked up some winter squash.

Has anyone read Nourishing Traditions y Sally Fallon? If so I'm curious to know what you think of it. There are some good recipes and information, but one could really go to extremes in terms of time and money spent preparing food if one did everything she suggests.

The girls are doing well and playing so nicely together much of the time. Emily is becoming quite fluent in her speech. "Hello Mommy. I'm sitting in the bathtub." I wish I could think of some of the more amusing things she says. Claire said, "Emily tell me a story." And Emily replied, "Once upon a time there was a peacock crying. The end."

random kids pics

experimenting with different ways to post short link

Emily vids: reading, towers

Monday morning

We have been enjoying weekly outdoor kids concerts at the Grove and or Americana shopping centers. Our two favorite groups are Jambo (Jambojam.com) and the Hollow Trees.
Speaking of trees. Our morning activities consisted of a quick overview of a set of laminated icons I'm borrowing from Father Stephen, swinging and tree climbing in the front yard, building castles with mega blocks, sand play and water play in the backyard.

Claire surprised us by turnning on her light and looking at a big stack of books instead of coming directly into our room at 6:15. This was after wetting the bed at 5:30 and then going back to sleep after I took the wet things off her bed.

I've been working on teaching Emily patience and taught her the have patience song last week. Today while I was inside taking care of something she was standing at the back door singing "Have patience, have patience." So sweet. (She has been doing a lot of fussing if she can't have what she wants immediately.)

Claire has been sharing toys with Emily on here own initiative lately. Claire still takes things from her just to hear Emily scream, but I am thrilled to see that she is also learning to be kind.

See new posts on planner blog re food for small kids.

preschool activities/ kitchen tricks

I haven't posted in ages. Sorry grandparents and other friends and family.
I posted some of our activities on my homeschooling and general planning blog.

http://my-planz.blogspot.com

I also just started doing something to help organize our kitchen which I highly recommend. I put up a sheet on the fridge listing all the ready to eat foods in one column and the needs to be prepared foods in another so that I don't forget what is in there and end up wasting food. I first cleared out the too old leftovers. Then made the list. Just making the list inspired me to grill the big bag of muliti-colored bell peppers I got for a dollar a pound at farmer's market.

Another thing I started doing is having Claire put all the breakfast dishes into the dish pan and rinse them.