Our Graduate

We are so proud of our sweet O(5) who graduated from Montessori Preschool 2 weeks ago!  She made a commencement speech in front of more than 100 people, and she did an amazing job!  We are hoping to start 1st grade homeschool soon, but we have been very busy with dance lessons, swimming lessons, baby showers, and now Vacation Bible School so far this summer.  Fun times!

Customized Wooden Dolls...A Review!

Amaria from Amaria's Paper Works sent us these gorgeous wooden "paper" dolls to review shortly before we found out about Elliott's brain tumor.  So, the review was put on hold, and I'm finally getting to it!

We love these customized paper dolls!  She used pictures of the girls to make the dolls.  My favorite thing about these dolls (and the thing that makes them different from other dolls that we've reviewed) is that they are mounted on a wooden backing!  They are very sturdy and well-made.

I also love the packaging!  Here is the front...  It includes a picture of the paper (wooden) doll and a biography of the child which makes a very special keepsake.

Here is the back of the package... 





Here is a description of the dolls from Amaria's shop...

"The magnetic dress-up dolls from Amaria's PaperWork are designed to be played with. They are mounted on 1/8" craft wood with a magnetic sheet sandwiched between the layers and finished with varnish. Both the dolls and their clothes are printed from my own original artwork. The clothes are laminated for strength and durability and attach to the doll with magnetic dots."



Another thing that I LOVE about these paper dolls is that they have multi-cultural clothing!  Amaria sent us outfits that corresponded with the countries that we've studied (or will study) through our cultural exchange!



The outfits are laminated and attach to the dolls with a magnet.



These paper dolls are a great addition to our cultural studies, and I plan to set them up with their various multi-cultural costumes in the geography/culture section of our new school room!  Thank you to Amaria for sharing these wonderful dolls with us!

More of What We Eat

Since several of you asked me to post more pics of what we eat, I decided to do that today.  I've been so busy with O's graduation, doctor appts, planning for Bible School, planning for a baby shower we are hosting, work, swimming lessons, gardening, working on O's yearbook, recital rehearsal, and the dance recital, that I haven't had time to write any posts in a while (I usually write several at once and then just post one a day).  Posting food pics is easy and fast!

This was a fast breakfast on Friday.  They had fresh cherries (E barely ate hers), walnuts, bananas, and watermelon.  They also had organic milk to drink and yogurt drinks.



This was supper one day last week.  The girls had their first ever fish sticks, and they LOVED them.  It's not something we'll have often, but it did make for a quick and easy meat.   They had sugar snap peas, carrots cooked with olive oil, dill, and garlic, fish sticks, cauliflower with cheese, and kiwi with frozen strawberries.



This was lunch (I think) one day last week.  They had cucumbers and tomatoes, frozen fruit (mangoes, blueberries, and strawberries), macaroni and cheese (their first instant mac and cheese...Annie's...they loved it and I added in a couple of spoonfuls of organic Greek yogurt to make it healthier), chicken, and ketchup for dipping.

Pure Joy

An impromptu ballet recital on the deck...does it get any better than this?  I don't think so :)

Reading, Painting, and Loving It!

The girls and I really enjoyed a "homeschool" activity last week....I read to them from a book about Vikings while they painted with their liquid watercolors.  It was so wonderful and peaceful, and we all learned a lot!  This is how I am envisioning us spending much of our school day...the girls painting or coloring while I read to them from our vast selection of books...love it!

When E(2) asked O(5) what she was painting, she said "it's from my imagination."





E said that she was painting a bird (and she was wearing her "old time" dress...another perk of homeschooling...they can wear pjs or dress-up clothes all day if they want to).

Polishing Silver

E(2) spent a long time (maybe 15 to 20 minutes) polishing a silver cup when we were at O's school for her last day.  She loved every minute of it!  Since O(5) also loves the polishing works, I'm planning to have several of this type of activity set up in our new school room.

To polish the silver cup, E(2) dipped a q-tip in toothpaste and rubbed the toothpaste all over the cup.  She then wiped it all off with a small washcloth.  Fun and simple!

Water Transfer with a Baster

E(2) and I spent O's last day of school with her (I am the class photographer, and I'm making the school yearbook, so I wanted to get pics of graduation practice and last day activities).  I didn't actually intend for E(2) to do "work" like the other students, but she jumped right in, and since it was fine with O's teacher, it was fine with me.  E thoroughly enjoyed herself, and she showed me several works that she wants to have on her homeschool shelves.  She particularly likes any "work" involving water.

She enjoyed transferring the water from one bowl to the other using a baster.  This is an easy and fun work that I'll definitely be putting on the Montessori shelf in our new school room!

Chocolate Banana Pops

E(2) and my mom had fun making these yummy treats last week while I was at work and O(5) was at school.

To make these yummy treats, they sliced the bananas into chunks.  Then they melted dark chocolate candy (Dove...about 1/3 of a cup) and mixed it with 1/3 cup of peanut butter and a tablespoon of coconut oil.  They dipped each banana piece into the mixture, put them on wax paper, and put them in the freezer.  They waited a couple of hours and enjoyed their delicious treat!

A Fun Transferring Activity

I revamped our frog and insect transferring activity by adding in a set of chopsticks and putting it on a new tray.  E(2) was EXCITED when I offered it to her this morning!


She loved feeding the insects to the frog, and she did a great job.


I love that we can do "school" activities on our deck.  We almost never used our deck until we FINALLY (after several years of thinking about it) bought furniture for it about a month or so ago.  Now, we eat all of our meals out there, paint out there, the girls dance and put on recitals, and the girls have started playing in their formally neglected deck playhouse almost everyday.  Good times!

What We Eat...

So, I was trying to think of a quick and easy post to write, and I thought it might be fun to share pics of our typical meals (since this is something we share with our cultural exchange participants).  I really don't like to cook, but it's VERY important to me that our girls are healthy eaters.  We eat LOTS of fruits and vegetables.  We have lots of variety within our meals, but not too much variety between meals (which is something I'm working on).   I fix almost all of their meals (except breakfast) on trays.  It just makes it a little bit more fun :)  


This was lunch on Saturday...they had watermelon, kiwi, avocado on the half shell, raw carrots and brocolli, and fried grouper.  I made ranch dip using ranch powder and Greek yogurt for dipping.  Unfortunately, I accidentally bought vanilla flavored yogurt and didn't realize it until I was mixing it up...we all tried it, but none of us could eat it.


I do not encourage the girls to "clean their plates," but I do insist that they "try" everything that I offer them.  E(2) is not a fan of kiwi, but she will usually take at least one bite and occasionally, she will gobble it all down like she loves it.


This was supper on Saturday.  They had oranges, kiwi, frozen blackberries, zucchini cooked with onions and garlic, raw carrots, baby dill pickles, pesto and veggie pizza on whole grain crust (the crust was store bought), and baked sweet potato.




This was lunch on Friday (or maybe supper...I can't remember and it doesn't matter :).  They had zucchini cooked with onions and garlic, steamed brocolli, carrots, and snow peas, rotisserie chicken, cooked cabbage and onions, avocado, and walnuts.



They had milk (organic) to drink and kiwi to share.


We went to Sam's Club recently, so we have lots of avocados, kiwi, broccolli, and carrots, so it will be more of the same tomorrow.  Luckily, they love it, and it's easy and healthy!

The Children's Garden

We have really enjoyed our garden so far this year.  For the past couple of years, we've only planted grape tomatoes in our earthboxes, but I wanted to have a raised bed garden this year so that the children could be more involved.  So far, E(2) has really loved working in the garden, but O(5)'s interest comes and goes.  We planted the garden in their old sandbox (Thanks to Grandpa for this idea!  It worked perfectly!).





We planted eggplant, bell pepper, and cucumbers in the sandbox.  E is especially proud of the eggplant, and she regularly says "Look at my eggplant!"

In addition to planting in the old sandbox, we also planted in 3 earthboxes...grape tomatoes, tomatoes, and squash.










We have several other containers, and we have also planted sweet potatoes, onions, and carrots.  We planted lots of marigolds to put around our tomato plants as natural pest deterrents.  O loves arranging the marigolds around in the garden, and they both like pinching the suckers from the tomato plants.  O is convinced that we are not going to have to go to the grocery store anymore, and she's pretty excited about that!




I just realized that I neglected to mention that my mom is the driving force behind our garden (as she is every year).  I tell her what I want to do, and she makes sure it happens.  Thanks, Mom!