We found our mittens!!! (and hats too)
Washed them and hung them up to dry.
Made “cherry pies” out of graham cracker crumbs, yogurt and cherries.
Lance was super excited about eating the pie.
We ate the pie with mittens on!
Lance reads the story.
Growing up!
The kids are growing up fast! It’s fun to watch them learn and develop new skills right before my eyes. They have such determination and work hard for mastery, flashing joyful smiles when they accomplish their goal.
Flora has learned how to pull to a stand which adds a new dimension of fun to playtime!
Shortly after learning to pull up, she started cruising and life became even more fun. She also loves to crawl up steps, over pillows and follow mom and siblings around the house.
Flora has just begun to sprout her first tooth! She loves to eat and has tried many new foods, including peanut butter and m&m’s, lovingly shared by Ivy.
One evening I took a bunch of water guns to the pool. In his desire to “shoot people” Lance decided to branch out into the big pool. He discovered it wasn’t as scary as he thought and now I can hardly get the kids to play in the baby pool.
Lance loves his floatie and the freedom it brings is quite exhilarating!
Ivy’s idea of fun is quite different. She has never feared the water and her propensity to jump right in has kept us ever watchful. Brian has been teaching her to swim and it’s finally taking hold.
She’s getting better each day! This was taken yesterday and shows the first time she gets her face above water (briefly) without help. This new skill is very exciting to her and she loves to practice.
I am so blessed to watch the minute, ever changing progress of my children. You may see the highlights but behind each video is days and days of practice and failure. Their determination is awesome and their joy is contagious. Thank you God for living, breathing pictures of change.
Apple a Day
Last week was Jonny Appleseed – a name the kids enjoyed saying.
We (mommy) peeled and cut up a bunch of apples to make applesauce. The kids put the pieces in the pot for me. Lance tried his hand at a peeler but couldn’t get the hang of it.
After cooking, we blended them in our fantastic blender (compliments to Brian for finding this one!) added a little cinnamon and enjoyed! Even baby Flora could participate in the tasting this time!
We made applesauce cookies (not with our home made applesauce) and shared them with friends.
We also did “apple science” – cutting up an apple, tasting it, smelling it, listening to it, feeling it, noting the different colors inside from outside, examining the seeds. It is now drying on the counter and we look at it every few days.
Ssssssnakes!
Our last unit study was actually about three weeks ago. Many things happened between then and now, but thank the Lord (and my parents who gave me my camera) I have captured memories and can relive the fun with my reading audience.
We read about snakes and engaged our whole bodies in an imaginative effort to be one. We crawled on our bellies – Ivy using hands and feet, while Lance expressed the difficulty of a cursed life (See Genesis 3:14). We curled in a ball, opened our mouths wide to swallow prey and “squeezed” each other in constrictor hugs. These hugs have now become a repeated bedtime request.
We learned to roll playdough snakes! They liked it when I made little “rabbits” or “mice” for their snakes to eat.
Ivy shows off the snake she rolled – looks like it already had a big meal.
Flora participated by watching from under the table. Must have been an interesting show.
Ivy has a constrictor snake!
We also made a snake sock puppet and spiral paper snakes that hang above their beds .
Snake holes built out of blocks! We actually got the stuffed snakes as a library reading prize the week before we studied snakes – God has such good timing!
I built this snake house and then Ivy “decorated” it. You can see Lance’s snake emerging in the background.
Our big project was making paper mache eggs with little toy snakes inside that we later hatched out. We did this with some friends and determined that paper mache is not a toddler activity. I think it will be a while before we attempt that again! We also watched snakes hatching on youtube. On a side note, the kid standing next to Lance is just a little younger than him.
Along with our snake books we read the story of Adam and Eve being tempted in the garden and acted the story out with Daddy. It was funny because when we had the kids play the part of Adam and Eve Ivy wouldn’t touch the “no-no” apples. She’s one smart kid!
Later we had trouble with Lance telling Ivy to get out of bed and throw things in Flora’s crib (which she would do). He knew this would get her in trouble and even said something to the effect of “mommy is going to get you” when I came in the room. So I spent a while talking to him about tempting his sister to do wrong and used the Adam and Eve story to hopefully bring some understanding. He hasn’t been doing it lately so maybe it helped.
Catch up
I know it’s been much too long since my last post – I actually have several things to post about but thought I would do a general “see how the kids have grown!” kind of post first.
In the pool:
Flora loves using her floatie in the baby pool. The shallow water allows her to walk herself all over and be a part of the action!
While Ivy will play with us in the shallow pool, she loves testing herself in the “big water”. She’s not afraid to go under water (we learned that last year!) and we’re working hard to teach her to swim. She kicks well and is starting to use her arms more.
Lance still prefers “the little” and likes to specify which pool we’re going to before we even leave the house. He likes to wear this float and practice swimming movements where he can still touch the bottom.
In the house:
Ivy LOVES to color and received several different art products for her birthday – one of which is a dry erase crayon board. Lance, who is not as keen on coloring, likes this board too. All three kids try it out after Ivy’s party. Lance happened to be coloring with a brown crayon, pointed to his work and told me it was “big poop.” Ivy giggled. Flora munched.
The kids got sick this week and I got a sick day! What I mean, is that they felt bad, laid around, didn’t drag stuff out and took such great naps that I had more time than I expected and organized the drawers by my desk.
Part of organizing included boxing up some stuff and Flora surprised me by pulling up to a stand on the boxes. This is a new and very fun skill for her and is now being practiced all over the place.
Here the kids are playing in their “rocket ship” – I think they were taking swimsuits to mars or something. Interestingly, story time at the library later that day was about space and Lance was excited to read about a rocket. I’ll have to do a space theme sometime soon.
Out and about:
Chick-Fil-A cow day had us making costumes – I think I spent longer doing this than I would have spent making dinner. Oh well, it was fun, the kids were excited to get their own drink and play on the playground. Lance also liked seeing the “cow” but Ivy was on the verge of tears as it passed our table.
I would have taken a picture of Brian and I but I forgot the tape, our costumes were blowing everywhere and the kids were in the parking lot Life isn’t always “picture perfect.”
One morning we all enjoyed breakfast on the back porch so Daddy could sleep in after a long night of work. While I was busy carting stuff in and out, Flora found some leftovers and introduced herself to a new food – NutriGrain bars!
We played with water guns and Lance had the strangest idea of fun. I also like the way they say “shooting.” Later we took a walk around the complex, shooting everything we saw. Unfortunately I didn’t bring the camera. Lance found an earthworm and carried it until it died. Ivy made a nest out of crepe myrtle flowers and put rock “eggs” in it like the dinosaur movie they saw the day before. Flora sat in the stroller and wished she could walk.
Hope you enjoyed some of the highlights of the last two weeks!
