Piano Girl

Playing her piano is one of E's favorite things to do! She loves to pull up to her piano, and I couldn't believe when she stood up and started playing her piano a few days ago. Our baby girl is growing up way too fast!!!

Little Ballerina Shadowbox

O just completed her 1st year of tap and ballet lessons, and she LOVED it! She spends most of her time dancing and putting on shows, so her recital was especially exciting for her (and us!). She glowed on stage, and we were so excited to see her so happy.

I made this ballerina shadow box as a memento of her first year of ballet lessons. I used double sided tape to attach her 1st pair of ballet shoes and her ballet picture to the matte. This shadowbox took about 5 seconds to put together, and I love how it turned out. O gets VERY sad when she sees it because she's so sad that she doesn't fit in her ballet shoes anymore (she has several hand-me down pairs that do fit), so she says that she can't even look at it. What a sweet and silly girl!

I'm looking forward to making several more shadowboxes of special mementos...the only problem is that I have no where to hang them. I wonder if we should buy a bigger house just so I can have wall space for O and E's artwork and shadow boxes...

From Art to a Softie

I found this post saved in draft from months and months ago. I can't believe I haven't posted this already...

A few months ago O drew this portrait of her baby sister. I loved it so much that I wanted to do something to preserve it (she drew it on lined notebook paper). After thinking about it for a few days, I realized it would make the perfect softie!

I traced around O's drawing with an iron-on transfer pencil (I have no idea where to find these pencils. I have looked and looked, and the only one I could find was in my mom's old sewing stuff, so it is probably 30 years old). I ironed the drawing onto a piece of cotton fabric. Then I embroidered along the lines using the backstitch. This was simple and fast to do, and O was VERY proud.



After I finished the embroidery, I cut out the fabric along with a same sized piece for the back of the softie. I pinned them right side to right side, sewed them, and left a small opening for turning. After I turned the softie right side out, I stuffed it, and my mom sewed the small opening closed. Done!

O stared it for a while and wondered why she didn't give baby sister a nose or a neck :) I'm looking forward to making more softies from the girls' drawings. I'd also love to make pillows using their drawings (which would make a great gift for grandparents).

Edit to add: I photocopied O's drawing 1st...I didn't ruin it by tracing over it with the iron-on pencil. The actual drawing is framed downstairs in the kids' art area and is hung low on the wall at their eye level.

Learning the Art of Patience

We always practice the art of patience by trying to catch minnows in the lake each spring and summer. We usually use our hands, but my niece left her net here which makes it much easier. O kept swiping (sp) at the fish to catch them and was getting frustrated. I reminded her that if she sat very, very still and was very, very patient they would come to her. They did, and she was thrilled. She named her minnow "Lucisander," and she loved Lucisander very much for the hour or so that she was in our bucket. When we went to pour Lucisander back in the lake, we discovered that she was gone from the bucket. This was a good lesson in determination since Lucisander was so determined to get back to her family in the lake that she jumped out of the bucket back into the water. O was sad, but I think she understood Lucisander's motivation. A few days later she asked if fish had good memories...she was quietly calling Lucisander's name and was wondering if Lucisander remembered her. Moments like these are what I want to remember from O and E's childhoods...we've put aside most of our Montessori and preschool work, and we've been spending hours and hours playing on the beach each day. It's a wonderful life, and I treasure every moment with my beautiful girls. God is good.

A Lesson Learned

I was suckered into subscribing to Mothering magazine by the promise of a free mini beco carrier. I didn't need another magazine to read, but I thought that O would love a mini beco carrier for her 4th birthday, and I've always been a little intrigued by Mothering magazine. So, a couple of days ago, I received a book in the mail from Mothering. It seems that the mini becos went fast, so they sent books to everyone else. HUGE disappointment. I called Mothering and left a message that I would like my money refunded since I only subscribed to the magazine since they were offering mini beco carriers for new subscriptions. Someone called from the magazine and was very nice. They'll cancel my subscription, but I have to go through the hassle and expense of mailing the book back. Grrrrrr. I would have thought that the people at Mothering would have been technically savvy enough to have a notice on their site that alerts subscribers when certain deals have been sold out...they only had 300 mini beco carriers, so after 300 people subscribed a message should have come up when the code was entered saying that the deal was no longer available. Anyway, what's done is done. I'm hoping that they'll cancel my subscription and just charge me for the book (I can save it for a birthday gift). I've learned a valuable lesson...don't subscribe to magazines just for the free gifts! Also, I don't think I'll ever be intrigued by Mothering magazine again...I'll stick to Living Crafts and Family Fun!

Conversation Jar

My mom made a Conversation Jar for us for a fun Easter gift. She filled the jar with questions and activities written on slips of paper. O chooses slip of paper each night during dinner, and we answer the question or do the activity. O really loves this nightly activity!

Where do you host your photos?

I've been using dropshots to host my pics for a while, but my account is full. I don't want to pay 60 dollars to host my pics...I need somewhere free! So, where do you host the pics that you blog? TIA

More on Earthboxes

Several people have asked for more info on the earthboxes, so here is the link. This is our 3rd (maybe 4th) year of growing our vegetables in earthboxes. Usually, we also plant tomatoes in typical containers, but the plants grow so much faster and produce so many more tomatoes in the earthboxes that we decided to only plant in earthboxes this year. We have our earthboxes on our 2nd story deck, so we have very few bugs. We are able to grow organic vegetables with very little work. We just have to remember to water them which is not as easy as you would think :)

Doing a Little Tinkering...

You can probably tell that I'm playing around with the layout of the blog. It's needed updating for a very long time, but I've never taken the time to do much maintenance. There's still a lot to do, but I've added a button for people to subscribe via email. Many people have requested this, so I'm SO glad to finally have it on the blog! There's also a link to subscribe in reader. I want to make a lot more changes, but I really don't know what I'm doing and have very little time, so it could be months before I get back to this :) Enjoy!

Gardening with Kids

For the 2nd year in a row, we have opted to plant our vegetables in earthboxes rather than in a traditional vegetable garden. Earthboxes are SO much easier to maintain than a traditional garden, and the plants grow so fast. We have grape tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes,yellow squash, bell pepper, cucumbers, and basil. Other than a little end rot on the tomatoes, the plants and vegetables are doing great. O is always excited when it's time to pick!

Painting with Yogurt

Since both girls were taking their 1st antibiotics, I'd been trying to get them to eat lots of yogurt. Since we needed a fun activity to do, I decided to let them finger paint with yogurt.

O and I put out 3 plates of plain yogurt. We tried to color one plate of yogurt purple with blueberries, but it didn't work that well. We made one plate of yogurt brown with chocolate syrup, and we left one plate of yogurt white. I taped a big piece of paper to the floor of the screened porch, and O dove right in. E was a little more hesitant. O smeared the yogurt on the paper and all over herself. She rubbed it into her arms and said it was yogurt lotion.

The girls had a lot of fun with this activity. We didn't get any great artwork out of it, but it was all about the experience, not the art :) Also, this was a great sensory experience for the kiddos. We may try painting with pudding once E is a little older and can eat pudding.

Life Sized (Kid Sized) Lincoln Logs

O had a great time building a house out of tobacco sticks with her grandparents a few weeks ago. The great thing about them is you can knock them down to build again another day. I think this is an activity that O (and E) will enjoy for years.

MMM...Smells Good!

I recently found a set of 6 glass spice jars at the thrift store, and I could not resist buying them to set up a scent sniffing activity for E.

To set up this activity, I put a cotton ball with a different scent in each bottle. (I plan to change the scents every couple of weeks). Right now the bottles have the following scents: vanilla, apricot oil, banana flavoring, pineapple flavoring, tea tree oil, and rubbing alcohol. O, E, and I sat in a circle and passed the bottles around and talked about the scents. O and I described what we smelled...she said the rubbing alcohol smelled "horrible," and the vanilla smelled "sweet." Matching scents is one of O's favorite Montessori activities, so she was very excited that "baby sister" has a similar activity for her shelf.

An Easy, Healthy Dinner

I don't have much time to cook, so I try to make things that are fast, simple, healthy, and don't require many pots or pans. This meal met all of my requirements, so I make it often :) I'm not sure what to call it...maybe Veggie & Chicken Couscous Casserole.

To make Veggie & Chicken Couscous Casserole, you need frozen carrots, frozen brocolli florets, whole grain couscous, and precooked rotisserie chicken (I love buying cooked rotisserie chickens from WM...one chicken usually lasts several days and makes my life so much easier). I saute the brocolli and carrots in olive oil and garlic. Once they are cooked, I pour in whole grain couscous and water (I don't measure anything...I just add couscous and water until it looks right). I shred the rotisserie chicken and add it in. This is a quick, easy, and healthy meal, and it's also great for mashing into baby food :)

Imbucare Box

We gave E this Imbucare Box for Christmas, and I introduced it to her last week (I found it for around 5 dollars and could not resist buying it for her). She LOVES it! I think I may have another Montessori girl on my hands!