Summer is coming . . .

Watermelon salad.  Sure, it's not yet the season,
but I  was evoking summer! 

I am truly a summertime girl.  I love all the seasons, and especially the cycle and the movement as we switch between them.  But the warmth of summer, with her promise of an abundance of fruits and vegetables is my favorite.



Today was the first day this year that has said summer is coming.  It actually felt warm outside (and there were eight inches of snow on the ground a mere week ago!).  We didn't resurrect the outdoor cushions yet, but we put the glass back in the patio table, and we ate dinner outside.

Around here we call these "big fat nasty burgers"
The rule is: once you pick it up, you can't put it down!

It was lovely to send the kids in to wash their hands, and to otherwise not stir from the back porch.  Both kiddos were filthy--they'd been playing outside for hours in the dirt, and the evening finished with baths for all.

Caroline's strategy was to eat her burger in pieces:
first the bread, then the meat.

In other news, we're looking forward to Jack's first baseball game on Saturday, and it appears the weather is going to cooperate.  He's on the Red Sox this year, a farm team, so the coach pitches to them.  Trace has been helping with the team a little, and Jack loves to play catch in the yard.

Can you fit that in your mouth Jack?

I hope wherever you are the the weather is sunny and there's a hint of summer in the air!

Halloween 2011

Halloween is a busy day around here.  There's a preschool trick-or-treat around the downtown stores, and then in the evening we always trick or treat around our neighborhood.  This year was no exception, although it's hard to believe that after six years, this will be my last year taking a child around downtown.  These kiddos are getting big!

This year Caroline was a character from her newest favorite book, Ladybug Girl.  The girl in the book is even named Lulu, and since we call our girl Carol-lou, or Lou, or Lula, she seems like a perfect match.  Caroline was extra excited because she had outgrown her rainboots last year, and we've been waiting for her size to come in at the army surplus store down the street--and on the weekend before Halloween they finally did: so my ladybug girl had ladybug rainboots to wear just like the ones in the story.  I don't think you can see them in any of these pictures, but they might make it into some other photos this winter. 

Jack was a pirate again this year, with the addition of his talking parrot, which was fun to take to school.  He was wanting to be something scary, and we decided that the parrot startling people would be scary enough (just ask Grandma Jo--once the parrot said something when she was babysitting and the power had unexpectedly gone out.  That parrot can be scary!)

The rest of the pictures tell the story of our day.  First we have Caroline with her best monkey friend Marilyn, ready to go visit the downtown shops.

 

  

 Lindsey, Graham, Marilyn, Caroline and I.  Check out the next picture for an explanation of my outfit.  I am awfully lucky to have such a close friend who lives so near, and with kids similar ages.  Marilyn and Caroline also go to preschool together, and they're such good friends that Linds and I have both mistakenly called them Mar-oline and Car-ilyn.

 Caroline as a pumpkin. 

 Do we look alike?  Could we be sisters?  We were Waldo for Halloween--or actually one of the other girls at the store, Khrista, was Waldo, and we were the imitators.  Or maybe we were Wenda?

  Two kiddos ready to go trick or treating around the neighborhood.  Doesn't that pirate look tough?  He's pretty good at saying "Arrrgh matey," "batten down the hatches," and "shiver me timbers."  Trace even taught him a pirate joke: where do all pirates come from?  Arrrrgh-kansas.  I'm not sure Jack knows why it's funny, but he repeats it with a nice growl!

Oh, in the middle of the day Caroline had her Monday ballet practice.  In the midst of getting two kids, their costumes, and a Halloween snack for Jack's class (this was easy and cute, but time-consuming), I forgot Caroline's ballet bag with her ballet and tap shoes in it.  The first part of her class is ballet, and then the last fifteen minutes they work on their tap moves.  I ran home and got her shoes, so I missed the ballet, but I thought I'd share this video I took of the little girls, in costume, practicing their tap to Kermit the Frog's Happy Feet.  Too cute!

Caroline can ride a bike!

It's still October, so hopefully Grandma Jo can see these videos.  Caroline has been getting really good on her balance bike, so today we went for a bike ride and voila! she's a bike rider.  Aunt Becky stopped by this afternoon by surprise and we went outside to demonstrate Caroline's new skill, this time with a camera.  Here's three videos of the novice bike rider and her brother.  In the final video she's trying to get started uphill, and you can see how her balance bike skills come into play: she gets herself going (eventually), and I never help her.  She figured this out on her own, because she wants to ride in the Agony with her Aunt Becky someday.  Well done Caroline!

Pumpkin Fun

In their four and six years, my kids have never carved a pumpkin.  They've painted them, drawn on them, and decorated them in other ways, but we've never carved one before.  Come to find out, Trace has never carved one before either, so this was a first for our family.  We all had a blast!

     These first two pictures are the pumpkins the kids did themselves, with sharpies.  This one is Jack's, and this pumpkin came out of our garden!  Jack made it scary with silver sharpie.

This is Caroline's, and it's intended to be cute.  I think she succeeded! 

These are the bouquets the kids have been picking with fall flowers and leaves.  Aren't they sweet?  One has been added every day this week.  The little perfectly round pumpkin in the middle came from our garden too, and we're convinced that it's the cutest pumpkin ever--but we might have a little gardener's pride.

Here is Caroline scooping out the innards of her pumpkin.  She didn't love doing it like I thought she would--she said it felt like spider webs.  I told her it was more like spaghetti, so then she was willing to help.

Trace used the big knife and cut the pumpkins open.  I guess I have these two pictures in the wrong order.

Caroline took this picture of Jack and I working on his spider pumpkin.

Jack worked hard on this pumpkin.  We printed a spider template from online, traced it, and then carefully cut it.  He and I worked together, and our hands were tired by the end!

In this picture he's showing the scary drawings he did on this lid of his pumpkin.  There's a spider and a few jack-o-lanterns.

Trace carved Caroline's pumpkin, with her input.  She had chosen a large pumpkin, and then she wanted it carved into a kitty cat.  That was a little complicated for a four year old, but she was willing to watch Daddy work on it.

Trace working hard.  I think his hands got tired too!

Posing for me with their pumpkin.  Cute!

While Trace and Caroline were working on the cat, Jack turned his pumpkin around and drew his own face and then carved it entirely himself.  Here's his proud smile for a job well done.  Now he's got a reversible pumpkin: spider/jack-o-lantern.

Jack's pumpkin face.

Two lit pumpkins sitting on the front porch.

Putting in the candles was the best part--both kiddos had a giant grin when they saw these faces smiling at them!  It was great fun for all of us!

Girl play

This morning Caroline was playing shoe store. Jack has never thought to spend his time trying on shoes. She had baby dolls all lined up, with shoes on each. It's awfully fun to have a little girl!

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Marbelized Eggs

So we did indeed make marbelized eggs, and it was more kid-friendly than the robin's eggs.  Easier, and fewer steps.  The only difficult part was using blown eggs, but with a little experience I took care of that step before I told the kids about the project. 

Then we had fun making dye with food coloring, water and vinegar--they loved stirring in the drops and watching it change color.  The first step was to lightly dye all the eggs.  That was very hands on, because blown eggs float, so we gently spun them on top of the liquid (and yes, I was as surprised as they were, although I did realize that I should have expected that). 

Next we added concentrated the dyes by adding a lot more food coloring--also fun to stir.  Finally, we added a tablespoon of olive oil, and tried the first egg.

 

It worked!  They had lots of fun swirling the eggs, and watching the unique patterns that were created.  Choosing contrasting colors was also fun and educational.

 Caroline is my tactile girl, and she especially loved getting her hands dirty turning over the eggs.

 The finished product was colorful and should be very decorative on our Easter table.  We haven't even broken any yet, and it's two days later already.  We've all had fun turning them over to see the swirls, and both kids have chosen their favorites.  It's fun to have kids old enough to do these projects!

An Easter Craft

I have never made blown eggs before, but yesterday when I was looking up a chickpea salad recipe on Epicurious.com, I saw this "recipe" for robin's egg place cards.  I thought the kids and I would love to make them, so I called my crafty helper (the marvelous Miss Becky Miller) and this is how we spent our Sunday afternoon. 

The best pictures would have been of Becky and I (with occasional help from the two kiddos), blowing out 16 eggs.  That was harder than it sounds!  We were definitely all turning bright red from the effort.

These pictures are of us painting the eggs, and of the finished product. 

 Jack's ready!

 Caroline concentrating while Aunt Becky helps out. 

 Beautiful Becky.

 Jack starting on his second set of four is wearing some paint already.

 Hold your mouth right Caroline!

 The clever holders were a suggestion in the recipe, although the skewers that we had at home were too wide, so Becky and I modified them by taping toothpicks to the top with electical tape.  We thought we were pretty clever:)

 The finished product.  We won't put the rest of the names on until we get a final Easter head count, but we figured we'd be there for sure.  The speckling turned out to be harder than I thought, so I finished that after my helpers were in bed.  A fun project for sure, but probably more suited for kids a few years older. 

Next I saw a marbelized egg project on marthastewart.com when I was searching for the best way to blow eggs.  It looked a little simpler for kids, so we might try that later this week.  It's spring break around here, and today it's raining, so indoor projects are in order!  Happy Easter!

Our week . . .or so

Well this is an assortment of pictures which I've been meaning to put on the blog, but I've been too busy to do more than take the pictures. So here's an mixture of photos for your perusing pleasure -- especially for Grandma Jo who enjoys seeing her grandkids even without description. I'm posting this on my phone, so I can't see the pictures right now. Here's what I think they're about.
Jack has started t-ball practice, and he loves it! It is such a delight for this mama to see how eager and confident he is. He runs to help the coach, and to pick up a bucket of balls after throwing them all. For hitting practice they hit off a tee into a chainlink fence, and last Wednesday Jack hit the ball so hard that it went through the fence. His favorite part of practice is throwing -- I think he could do it all day. He can throw further than I can!
There are also pictures of both kids making cookies, a photo of Jack's muddy back at the park one day, and reading together on the couch.

The video is of my crazy kiddos jumping barefoot into the snow.

Oh and the funny faces are eating kumquats. Although both kids like citrus, kumquats were not a hit, as you can see.

In other news, Trace has acute pneumonia and he's been at home on the couch all week, so it's been rather chaotic around here. Actually I think the chaos might be entirely in my own brain, from lack of sleep. My sweet girl has also had a cough at night, so she comes to our bed in the middle of the night -- and as my husband aptly described, I become the middle of a cough sandwich. On a positive note, they are both definitely improving daily. I might even start speaking complete sentences again soon!

Until then, goodnight.

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