More March

We had did a babysitting swap with another family; here we are having s'mores on our evening to host (girls only; boys were playing Legos inside)

Green oatmeal for St Patrick's Day. The girls were into it, but Monkey said: "It looks like throw-up" (fair point, especially since he had, in fact, spent the whole night prior doing exactly that. He and I were the two victims of stomach flu this month; Roo had pinkeye and strep and the littlest two had pinkeye. Quite a run of illnesses in these parts this month)

Roo's reading has really taken off. Here she is reading Biscuit books to Mouse:

The kids entered an art show in Federicksburg at the encouragement/organization of their teacher, Miss Debbie.. The number of entries was much smaller than usual because of all the snow days. Happily, this meant that all three of our oldest kids won ribbons. The goose was actually the only contestant in the 'pencil and pen' category for 4- and 5-year-olds; thus she won first and second place for her contributions.

In conjunction wit the art show they held an 'expo' with art/craft stations on Saturday, so we went back and participated in that. The girls were in heaven.

Monkey made several new friends this month, and we've benefited from having them come play. Here's a friendly chess match with Jack:

Columbus Day & Professor Noggin

What type of bed, used by sailors thereafter, did Columbus discover on his first voyage to the Americas? Do you know? We didn't.

This was the question that greeted us this evening during our Professor Noggin's "Explorers card-playing during dinner, an activity loved by all but especially by the Monkey. The oldest two came home talking and singing of Columbus, due to the upcoming Columbus Day, and the monkey delighted in pulling the Christopher Columbus Card out of the box to test our corporate knowledge.

[We also have the Birds of North America box, which have been brought into school for communal use in the current science topic: biology and the study of animals. (To further this study we were supposed to take a group field trip to the Washington DC zoo tomorrow, a trip that's been canceled due to the government shut down.)]

I must say, these cards are the real deal in terms of  "fun for the whole family" and a great way to get everyone engaged in fun learning during otherwise chaotic times, like meals. Even the mouse delights to yell out "False!" the minute a "True/False" question is begun.

For Christmas I'm guessing a bunch more boxes on other topics offered will be on the list...

The answer: Hammocks.

Check-ups

Annual wellness exams for the August birthday girls this morning... Thankfully HF was available to watch the other two, especially because it took a very long time. All well, however. 

Thankful to have found a good pediatrician we like right here in town... Many people schlep all the way into Fburg, which I try to avoid whenever I can!

Heard this morning: 

--"Last time we were here, the doctor almost stuck a Popsicle stick down my throat" (check for strep). Very good description by Roo, I thought...

--"Mommy, why did she put a hole in my skin?" The goose, in tears after shot. Again, aptly put. 

Resident ninja and his party

 So there's this thing called Lego Ninjago... About which, up until about August, I knew absolutely nothing. Not so anymore. The boys in our neighborhood are besotted with this new movement in Lego ninja, and the monkey is very into it. For his seventh birthday, he asked if he could have a Lego Ninjago party. We have never held a proper themed birthday party before for any child, but since we now have outdoor space to host - and since we will be moving soon and will soon be apart from these friends - we decided to go for it. 7 seems like a good year for a real birthday party anyway.

I went online and found an ridiculous and frightening extensive amount of ideas and activites related to little boy ninja parties. So I lifted a few of them, and we spent a day or two preparing. Attendees were the families in our farm neighborhood, our two close neighbor friends from our old suburban neighborhood, and the monkey's good friend Josh - his closest homeschool buddy. About 20 kids, ages 1 - 10, and 11 adults, comprised the attendee population. We pre-made pizzas in the brick oven pizza yesterday and served slices as our main "appetizer" for our 3 - 4 :30 pm party (a hit).  Attire was "ninja optional."

Yesterday, when the monkey and his pals were creating ninja-themed decor, our soon-to-be 7-year old took it upon himself to write up some rules for the party. After all, "weapons" were going to be involved (darts and origami throwing stars), so protocol was necessary. The list:

Here's what we ended up with:

a) Looking the part (here the monkey is decked out alongside his close friend Josh):

b) Dart practice: throwing darts at balloons which contained pieces of candy in them

c) Crafts and names: making construction-paper ninja faces (simple, and I had pre-cut the pieces) and finding out our "ninja names" using a handy dandy short-hand code I found online

d) Throwing stars. We distributed throwing stars made out of construction paper (which I pre-made, origami-style), and we lined the kids up and had them throw them as far as they could to see whose went farthest. The monkey, happily, won two out of three.

e) Pinata: note the Ninja "star-thrower" shape...

f) Lego count. Guess how many legos are in the (Ninjago) container?

g) Ninja cupcakes!

 Of course in the midst of all that, there was also time to sit around, hang out, and eat... Photo evidence on this for the oldest and youngest party-goers.

Dear Tooth Bud...

The tooth came out this morning! With just a touch of help from Dad. The monkey is very proud (as you can see.) He even discovered that he has a second wiggly tooth, the middle one adjacent to the hole.

Here's a note he wrote to the tooth fairy or tooth "bud" - evidently there may be a separate visitor who comes for boys' teeth (or so his peers have told him). The plan is to leave the note with the tooth tonight. Happily he has a special tooth pillow that the Scherreis made for him for his sixth birthday, all ready for the job... 

I'm dreaming of a California Christmas...

We're awash in Christmas activities over here and greatly enjoying it. The two oldest being 4 and 6 this year really gives the season some legs, and it's all taking off. This year for our gingerbread house, HF wanted to make it from scratch, so we tackled the 3-part project last week. True to form with him as the project-coordinator, it all went swimmingly and was a big hit. Thursday the kids and I made the dough, Friday the cut and baked the forms (using this recipe and measurements), and Saturday we assembled and decorated - using leftover candy from Halloween, I might add. Fantastic use for it. Big hit, and everyone was happy. Last year we decorated our house the day before our firstborn and I got the stomach flu, and every time he looked at the house poor monkey would say it made his stomach hurt. (I could relate.) He remembered that and was worried, but thankfully we've had no such trouble this year.

Friday I took the monkey and Roo, along with 22 other moms and young kids from our homeschool groups, to a one-hour long "community outreach" performance of Act 2 of the Nutcracker. It was somehow my first time ever seeing any of the performance, and I adored it (as did Roo for the first 25 minutes, after which she became a bit bored, as any 4-year-old might at a ballet.) Monkey, on the other hand, told me afterwards that it was "terrible," and "for girls," adding, "Mom, can I never go to the Nutcracker again?" Classic.

This year is our first having a full-size tree instead of one sitting atop our living room table. We got it Saturday, decorated it Sunday, and knocked it over today (for the first time, at least). Learning opportunity? Here's hoping.

Thanksgiving prep

We were Dad-less for six days starting mid-week last week, though happily HF returned last night from a trip up north. In the meantime, we've been busying ourselves with a full-court-press Thanksgiving focus. Our oldest two are now at an age where they can really conceptually grasp gratitude and the idea of taking time to focus on it, so we've been implementing a series of activities to delve into this. They've loved it, and an added bonus is how much more it makes this holiday feel like something special to be doing these things.

I also got on the ball this year and, before Halloween was even put to bed, ordered up a bunch of Thanksgiving children's books from the library, and we've been enjoying reading and re-reading those. Monkey, in classic monkey format, has absorbed and is mentally working through the events of the first Thanksgiving. Here are some of his drawings that depict various events from (top) the pilgrims and natives cooking up the first Thanksgiving feast, including turkey, eel, and rabbit... and (bottom) the passengers of the Mayflower being seasick in the bottom windows of the ship while others catch various seafare to eat. It reads: "Mayflower, 66 days."

Last week we also got together with the Jamisons - nine children under age 7 between us, 6 of whom are pictured below - for a Thanksgiving crafting day. The kids ate a Thanksgiving-themed meal including turkey (sandwiches), popcorn, and cranberry jelly. We made Indian head dresses and colored in turkey pictures. A great time was had by all.

When the monkey asked what we were going to do on Thanksgiving, I told him that the holiday will be a nice quiet day for us to eat great food, be with our family, and spend time being thankful. (We have activities happening Fri, Sat, and Sun of Thanksgiving weekend, but turkey day itself will be just the six of us at home this year.) His reply was classic: "Mom, what do you mean, 'a quiet day?' It's never quiet at our house!" And truer words were never said.

We have a camper in the house!

The monkey is having his first day camp experience this week at Painted Pony Farm in nearby Santa Paula, attending with his good friend Bo.

Today went very well: he milked a goat, made ice cream, and swam in the pool. He evidently told leader/owner Pam: "I've been waiting my whole life to go to farm camp! This is the best day ever." I'd say: success.

Snoots and such

This is a snoot:

What, you haven't heard of it?! Imagine that.

It's a creation of the monkey's that he and Roo find hilarious. No one's quite sure where it came from... In moments of silliness they'll bring up terms like 'cuckoo head' and 'snoot.' And laugh hilariously. Somehow in the midst of this process, the snoot took on a life of its own, and yesterday Monkey decided to draw one up.

In other sweet child news, this morning Roo was looking at the wedding photos that hang above our bed in my and HF's room. "We weren't there yet," she said. "I was in your belly, and (Monkey) was in Daddy's!" 3-year old's unclear on the concept. So, so darling though.

A few minutes later I asked what they'd eaten since they awoke a half hour earlier and hung out with their dad. "I had a bowl of cereal," the monkey said. "It was what was on the menu."

Over last weekend I was away for four days, visiting family and friends in New England on something of a baby-moon. Lovely, wonderful time... and I find that all the things my children say and do now seem sweeter and more memorable than they did before. Ah, the beauty of returning to your treasured life after a few days away to catch your breath; if only there was a way to bottle it and keep it forever. The kids and their dad did very well on their own, but both they and I were excited to be together again.

My dear cousin (quasi-sister, really) Starr is getting ready to birth a baby boy in mid-March, and I got to participate in - even help host - a shower for her while I was back east. My due date is five weeks after hers, but we're about the same size now. She looks fabulous. The shower was great fun, and we are all so very eager to meet Starr and Josh's sweet son after he arrives! I was so pleased to be there to celebrate his pending appearance.

Overheard...

• "Right is my favorite side, but left is pretty cool too." ~Monkey

• "My dolly is a black-eyed tree frog." ~Roo

• "Mom, (Roo) is my sister and my best friend." ~Monkey

• "Uh-oh." ~Goose (About the only thing she says coherently. Uttered at least a dozen times per day.)

We missed Daddy for the past 5 days while he was in San Diego and are glad he's back tonight. The kids and I had two fun beach days - approx 75 degrees in the sun - on Saturday and Monday with different families while he was gone, among other activities. Goose is now walking basically full-time!

Pray Creek lingo

A few amusing expressions frequently heard around our house... We do correct them, but I must say that I find these adorable and hope they don't disappear too soon

Monkey's:
Tavel (as in, "the kitchen tavel")
Cajamas (as in, "I can put on my cajamas all by myself")
Fly swapper (this is a big activity is our house just now... Keeps the monkey busy for good chunks of time)
Hockey-talky (every night and he and Roo go to opposite yards, under Dad's direction, to compare notes as to whether any pigeons have been spotted on the roof)

Roo's:
Hippee! (as in, "Ice cream for dessert? Hippee!")

Sidewalk sprinklers

Summer is officially here, though in this part of the world it feels strangely like... all the other seasons of the year. Afternoon highs are usually around 70 ish, maybe 75 in the sun, with a cool bre. Everyone's excited about summer stuff, but truth be told, it's on the chilly side for swimming or even sprinkler play in these parts.

Nevertheless, the garden hose and sidewalk sprinkler have been all the rage this week. The monkey, who generally dislikes being wet, has been particularly delighted and has begged to go out every day after rest time. It's been good fun.

Yesterday the Scherreis joined us, as well as other neighbor friends, and we had two sprinklers going side by side. (Note that Roo and Natalie Scherrei, 4 1/2 yrs old, are exactly the same size.) When the kids got overly cold they'd lie on the pavement to warm up. "Mom, I'm so cold my teeth are wiggling," the monkey told me today when we were ready to come in. Too cute.

Notes and nomenclature

While the girls take their afternon naps, the monkey and I have been doing a ten-minute reading lesson together most days before his hour-long rest time begins. He delights in this time and has been picking up the concepts fairly quickly. He's decided he wants to also begin writing the letters, and thus he's been putting his pencil and various scraps of paper to good use. You can see one of the recent results.

The other day we had a sweet moment when I was finishing kitchen clean-up and needed him to wait for me before we could move onto the next thing (I forget now what). "Why don't you practice your letters while you're waiting for me," I suggested. He replied: "'OK. Can you tell me what letters I need to spell: 'Dear Mom, I am glad that you are my mom'?" Which of course I did- with a gushing smile in my heart. I later remembered that this hearkened back to a Frog and Toad audio story we'd listened to in which Frog writes Toad a note with the exact same wording - except "my best friend" instead of "my mom." Lovely sentiment and noteworthy memory.

Roo has picked up quite a funny, cute habit as well in which she often speaks to me using "my Mom" rather than simply "mom." As is: "My mom, can you please help me put me shoes on?" Her big brother and I both get a kick out of this...

And the goose joins in on the communication action too! She has begun a loud, screechy effort at dialog which delights her older siblings and which - needless to say - they imitate back at her with equal volume. Rowdy but fun.

A night-over with Snoofy

At preschool last week the monkey was sent home with stuffed animal Snoopy and a 'homework' form for him to record what he and his beagle friend did together. There was also a suggestion that we take a photo of the duo in action together if possible. The event was billed as an "overnight with Snoopy" but in our house it turned out that we preferred to call him "Snoofy." We also preferred to call the overnight a night-over. Amusing. Snoofy was returned to school yesterday and is now enjoying a night-over with some other lucky preschooler from Teacher Maria's class.

A second big event in our little boy's life was his first-ever visit to the dentist today. It went as well as it could have and the enthusiasm we laid on - as in, "Wow, lucky boy, you're big enough to visit the dentist now!" - seems to have been absorbed...

Early 2nd birthday celebration

Sunday was Q's special day, celebrating her (nearly!) two years of life. We adopted the birthday morning tradition of our friends the Marburys and got her a candle-laden donut to kick off her day, which she loved. What kid wouldn't? After breakfast while still PJ-clad, we opened gifts of dollhouse, food for her new play kitchen, some dress-up clothes, and a new baby doll. She was delighted. Our pizza dinner birthday celebration with our neighbor friends was great fun too.

The transition between a 1-year old and a 2-year old is pretty amazing. A year ago Q was still crawling (and climbing things) with a bit of cruising here and there and the occasional attempt at a word. Now she's running, talking, engaging, exploring the world - a full-on girl. She has a great sense of humor and a decided sense of her likes and dislikes, which she's not afraid to make known. This emerges most notably in flare-ups with her brother that are now as often prompted by her as by him; sibling spats have definitely become commonplace over the past month or so - though for the most part they get along well and enjoy each other.

Her singing is quite hilarious, especially her rendition of "Old MacDonald's Farm" with only one chorus of "a boo bee bear" (rather than "moo moo here and moo moo there")... We have all started imitating her which brings giggles from everyone.

Happy almost birthday, our dear little much loved Q!

Yule Love This...

Well we're ensconced in a merry Ventura Christmas - a bit different to be sure, but enjoyable nonetheless. We went to a fun, kid-friendly 5 pm service at our church with our neighbors last night and put our milk and cookies out for Santa after a garlic shrimp pasta dinner. This morning we did the whole kit & caboodle - stockings, big breakfast, presents, play, overtired-and-oversugared kids by 11 AM.

Our nephew Micah, age 3 1/2, is into these little plastic army men, which Y loved too when he was a kid, so we bought them for Micah's gift and got a batch for J too. After pulling the army men from his stocking this morning and inspecting them, J said, "Look Dad, they're surfing!" An astute observation and certainly a fair assessment of the heavily armed men standing on surfboard-shaped slabs of plastic. Our California boy, providing a good beachside-life Xmas morning laugh.

[Quick aside on terminology, by the way... Many Christians I know dislike the term "Xmas" because they feel assume its use is intended to denigrate Christ or take the "Christ" out of Christmas. We discussed this at length last Christmas among the girls in my Bible study. The opposite is actually true - the term is rooted in the Christian church. "X" is derived from the word ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ, transliterated as Christos, which is Greek for Christ - Greek being the language in which the New Testament was written. Originally, Xmas was an abbreviation where the X represents the Greek letter chi, which is the first letter of Christ's name. For this reason, I intentionally utilize the terms "xmas" and "xian" as Christ-centric terms...]

Out of the mouths of babes at Christmas time...

We took a road trip up to San Luis Obispo today, about 120 miles up the coast, which is a beautiful spot and made for an enjoyable outing. We'd hoped to do a camping trip in Joshua Tree, but nightime temps were in the high 30's which sounded miserable. We hit a fun barn-style farmstand where we got our fix of barnyard animals (goats, ostriches, donkeys, chickens, etc) and also bought a Christmas tree. Daytime temps here have fallen to the mid-60's over the past 10 days, so it is feeling marginally more Christmassy which is nice. We chose a small tree and a table-top locale, which we feel will work best for little fingers...

J has been hilarious this week. Last week we set up our little nativity scene (the term 'creche' is unknown to our neighbors here, we found), and each day we look it over and identify the characters with J. For the first two days he used the term "Baby Jelly" to refer to our Lord and savior, which was rather adorable. Then today we were talking about God, and when he asked, "Where's God?" we explained that He's everywhere, but He's invisible so can't be seen. Whereupon J say, "Is God hiding? I'll go find him," and proceeded to do a hide-and-seek run on his big wheel around the kitchen looking for God.