Too Long

It has been way too long since I have posted. I want to post, intend to, and then get distracted by our baby or daily household chores. We moved in June, and our summer has been swallowed by life.

Since we moved to a better school district, I am unsure if we will continue to homeschool for the long haul. Georgia is three, soon to be four, and I am choosing to homeschool her for this year of preschool. Next year I think it will do her good to be in a more structured setting for preschool. I don't want her to be at a deficit when she begins kindergarten (with the inability to sit still or understand classroom norms).

So there is where we are at...some homeschool and public school plans on the horizon.

Backyard Play

We enjoyed a rare, warm, spring day here in Seattle. Theo was thrilled to rediscover his playhouse and spent many hours opening and closing the door and drawing on it with his chalk.

Georgia spent her time trying to catch bugs in her bug catcher. She is obviously wearing and displaying her self dressing skills.

Pizza Making

We love to bake and pizza creating is a fun part of our routine. We tend to make homemade pizza at least 2-3 times a month and really should do it more often. The kids enjoy kneading their dough and then decorating their pizza's.

Easter Egg Hunt

Today was the Bunny Bounce at Woodland Park Zoo. We took the kids to their egg hunts in 43 degree weather (with a very cold windchill which brought the temp down to the 30's). Note to self~do not do this again, the weather was just too cold. The kids found some eggs and received marshmallow peeps and a few chocolates for their hard work.

After the hunt, we went out to lunch with Leah's family and Leah gave the kids Easter baskets filled with candy, eggs, books, and toys. She is such a spoiler and the kids love her family to pieces. After lunch we shopped around the mall and then they came over and ate a spaghetti dinner at our home. Jon played video games with Thom, the kids napped (Theo is a bit under the weather), and Leah held the baby and chatted with me. Our teens went downstairs and watched Sixteen Candles and hung out together. It was a relaxing day :)

Tomorrow we plan to scavenge for eggs, open baskets, eat brunch at Briana's, and order take out dinner with Brian. Brian and I are rooting for Chinese take out but Jon is resisting the idea. I just don't feel like cooking and eating a traditional Easter meal.

Cousins

Here are our "cousins." Theo and Haywood are 3 weeks apart, but Haywood has eyes for Georgia (and all her big girl activities) right now.

Siblings

Since I am an only child and love to see my children enjoying one another, here is a photo of 3 of our youngest. This was taken three weeks ago, when Augustus was 10 days old. Do you see the joy on Georgia's face and the curiosity on Theo's?

Easter Eggs

This year I tried a new way to dye our Easter eggs: use wire whisks to hold the eggs. The handles made them easy for little hands to hold the whisks and the eggs didn't bounce around and crack.

Here are some pictures of our little people dyeing eggs. Georgia, at age 3, was fantastic at it. Theo, at 22 months, first put the dye tablet in his mouth and then thought he needed to "stir" the eggs in the dye which created a large mess. Regardless, both had a great time and want to dye more. Better yet, this egg dyeing business encouraged Georgia to eat her very first hard boiled egg. She liked it so much that she had two!

I haven't done any other Easter activities with the kids. We have a 4 week old and I am still recovering from surgery. I am certain that next year we will do all the bunny related art projects and studying of rabbits which are so pertinent to the season. We do plan to go on an egg hunt at the zoo, so will use that as a social opportunity for both and emphasis on colors and counting for Theo.

Schoolwork

Georgia has begun doing "schoolwork" out of a large preschool workbook that I bought at Costco. Mainly it is just tracing lines and letters with some coloring thrown in. I let her do it when she feels like it and she often says she needs to do her schoolwork. She often gets frustrated at writing the letters, but is getting quite good at writing the letter "O" and recognizing 23 out of 26 alphabet letters.

I bought her this for two reasons. One, many of her friends are now attending preschool and talk about school to her. I wanted to give her a reference for schoolwork and be able to converse and have a sense of what they were talking about. Secondly, I think that letter recognition is invaluable and it doesn't hurt to give her opportunities for this as well as to develop her fine motor skills.

Art

Our kids love to paint. They scribble, they slather, they drip paint everywhere and love every minute of it. If you ask them if they want to do art, they come running and are as eager as can be. I have a mixture of watercolors, finger paints, poster paints, and some unidentifiable glitter paints in our art box. All of those come out and they go to town on their splat mat in the middle of the living room.

Theo mainly likes to scoop up HANDFULS of finger paint and open and close his hands. Georgia mainly likes to paint with a brush and then proceeds to paint an entire page one color. Blue is a favorite color for her at this point.

Anywho, art around here is usually a Sunday morning experience that makes me smile. Jon and Kate get pretty nervous with it and avoid it like the plague, but I sit back and enjoy the view of happy and contented kids making a huge mess.

Friends

Here is Georgia and her friend CiCi frosting Valentine's Day cookies.

Nature Art

I try to give the kids some art time at least 3-4 times a week. I wish it were more, but in my 35 weeks pregnant status (not to mention our home is on the market), art time doesn't happen daily like I would prefer.

For me, art is about experimenting and getting messy. I find it essential to give the kids supplies and possibly some small directions, and let them set upon their own creations. Often they need baths afterwards because Theo has either rubbed his face with a glue stick and Georgia has stamped the color of her arms and hands into a darkened rainbow of hues. I don't mind that the kids are covered in paint/marker/glue/glitter and think it is evidence of time well spent.

Last week we took a neighborhood walk and gathered items that seemed interesting. I gave both of them large ziploc bags and they scavenged leaves, bark, small pebbles, empty nut shells, spring flowers (in January!), and moss. We then went home and got out the glue and glued away. Theo lost interest after the first two gluings, but Georgia glued her entire paper for thirty minutes. She did a fantastic job gluing and even showed me that rocks and large pieces of bark could be glued down with simple Elmer's glue. What did I know?