Magic!

A while back, C and I were watching tv in bed and he flipped to this show I had seen before, David Blaine Street Magic. I asked him to stop to watch it. We ended up watching this show and going back and forth on commercials (which drives me crazy, but I did not have the remote) to another magic show, Criss Angel Mindfreak. Ok, I don't know about you people, but there is no way some of that stuff isn't REAL. I mean I saw Criss Angel walk up and down walls, for crying out loud. Freaks me out! I was thinking about how I should Tivo the shows for A since she has expressed interest in doing magic, so I did. But they got deleted before we could watch them. She asked about them the other day and I saw they were gone, so I set up another recording. Well, tonight, she asked if they were there. They were and so we watched two episodes of Mindfreak. A was very excited watching them, getting freaked out by some of the stuff he did, and not being able to watch other stuff he did, like when he swallowed a piece of string and pulled it out of his eye. No kidding. I SAW it. After the show was over, she asked if we could go read, but not before expressing extreme agitation about wanting to do magic, real magic. She got so worked up, she was balling her eyes out. This is what I call not dealing with reality very well. I tried to just be there for her, saying gentle things like that she could learn magic if she believed she could. I think the problem was that I could not with all honesty tell her it was all a trick and that you just had to learn the trick. I mean, I have NO IDEA how they did some of that stuff. I think she got a sense of that and it overwhelmed her feeling of ever being able to do it. We need to go see one of the magic shows in town, so she can see more "normal" magic, not that I will know how they do it, of course. And, as C mentioned tonight, a trip to a magic store is in order to acquire some tricks she can handle herself. The funny thing is E watched the shows as well and her reaction? She did "magic" for daddy while A and I read. No problem in her mind about doing it. Of course she can do it. I had to ask her not to talk about it in front of A, for fear she would cry herself to sleep! She practically did anyway. Such different people, my children.

Pumpkin Patch, sorta

Yesterday was such a whirlwind, I tried very hard to take things slower today. We had a nice start to the morning, with breakfast all together and then we got ready to go get us some pumpkins. The place where we went was set up in a shopping center parking lot, so it was a far cry from a real pumpkin patch, but what can you expect from the desert? They had a huge inflatable slide and a bounce house, a bungee/trampoline jumping thing, and a swing ride. A took one look at some punky looking teenagers working the slide and decided she really did not want to slide after all. But E marched right up, climbed all the way up by herself and zoomed down the big slide. She went several times, and A still did not change her mind. I walked her over to the swing ride and we waited for it to stop so she could ride. E came over with C and joined us. They had fun on that one. It went around pretty fast. After that A saw the kid with the mohawk spiked hair working a different ride, so she agreed to try the slide. We ended up buying more tickets for them both because they loved the slide so much. The sun was pretty hot, so we urged them to pick out some pumpkins so we could go. They got two and we headed home. They were both very clear about how long they could have gone down that slide: forever! When we were driving home, A said, "Who wants to relax and watch a movie when we get home?" E said she did so they decided to watch the Muppet Wizard of Oz. C snuggled on the couch with them to watch and I caught most of it while I did dishes and made treats for the Halloween party. We looked up ideas on the internet and found some fun spooky food recipes. We also made the jello brain for our ghoulish dinner. We are going to do a bunch more tomorrow and carve the pumpkins, too.

Frightening Friday

Today was the day we met to put together our haunted house for our Halloween party with the Lifelearners. Everyone, five families, met here to get this place all spooked up for the party. I emptied out our library, which did not have much furniture to move anyway, and hung sheets to section off corridors and rooms for the "house". In between running around and playing, the kids all helped us drape spiderwebs and spiders, carefully place bats and rats, and hang skeletons. A had the idea to make one of the "rooms" a spooky diningroom, with a table full of gross food, like eyeballs and brains. We made a mummy who will be sitting at the table enjoying the meal. I have a grim reaper that I made years ago for a party long before kids, that will hang in the corner and point out his next victim as they enter the house. The kids all had a blast running through the house screaming, practicing for Monday night when they will come for trick-or-treating in our neighborhood and the party. We will spend the weekend getting the final touches done and ready for the big night.

Thrilling Thursday

We had a whirlwind of a day today. I was focused on getting ready for the Lifelearners to come over tomorrow, so cleaning and setting things up for the haunted house got done. We also had to get my nephews birthday present in the mail, so a trip to the post office was in order. I needed to check on some trim for the stocking at the craft store so we hit that after the post office. E saw a penguin stuffed toy at the post office and she was very interested in getting a penguin toy. I steered her away from the ones at the post office, because they were probably overpriced and the last thing we need in this house is another stuffed animal! I said we could find something penguin-y at the craft store. We did find some plastic animal figures and we searched through them for a penguin. We found two types, one of which we already had and the other, a Humboldt penguin, which we did not. So that one came home with us. A got herself a panda cub and a white tiger. I found the exact trim I needed, which was a minor miracle, since the original stuff was bought by my mother six or more years ago! E also saw some paint by number pictures and she wanted one. We have a few, but they are A's, so I got her one of the easy ones, with a picture of a unicorn. She promptly got started painting when we got home. And in true E style, she ignored the number/color rules and painted it exactly as she wanted to. Boy is that hard for me to watch! But I kept my mouth shut. Who am I to squash her joy?

A got out her paint by numbers pictures and worked on them for a while with E, but then she wanted to sew. A couple of years ago my SIL got her a beginning sewing kit that makes beanbags with felt pieces sewn together. She had started one then, but had not touched it since. Tonight she finished that one and the other, too. She wants to make more, but doesn't seem to believe me that she can make her own with the felt and yarn we have on hand. I'll have to show her what I mean soon.

C was not getting home until 9 pm tonight and rather than getting the bedtime routine moving along, I decided to bake carrot cake muffins at 8:30. The girls were very into helping me tonight. So, he came home to us in the kitchen baking away. A cracked the eggs and was very proud that she got two out of the four needed completely in the bowl. The other two, she got most of the egg in the bowl. E wanted to cut up carrots for her bunny (toy) so she did that while A and I fed the food processor with carrots. A said it was too bad she did not want to eat any of the muffins, but she had fun helping anyway. I tried to get her to agree to taste them, but she refused. Maybe someday she will get tired of the limited foods she eats and will try something new.

We did end up doing the routine afterall, just later than usual. A about drove me crazy with the constant interruptions to ask where the word I just read was on the page, and if this says this, and how do you spell this. I am glad she is learning to read, don't get me wrong. She is just obsessed!

Wacky Wednesday

We had our Lifelearner park day today. The weather was beautiful and we had a whopping seven families join us at a really nice park with neat play structures and a pond with ducks. It was a very satisfying day with friends. Cool conversations and great imaginative play for the kids. At the end of the day we packed up our stuff and walked with the kids over to the pond to feed the ducks. The setting sun was the only thing that made us want to leave. A very nice day!
In lieu of lots of words, here are lots of pictures:

E at the top of this cool climbing thing. She was very proud of herself for getting all the way up by herself.

If you look closely, you can see the village the kids built in the sand as a surprise for us moms. They had a castle and a whole bunch of houses and roads and walls. It was cool! After I got the picture, it was promptly kicked down. Such is the ephemeral nature of life, I guess.

A feeding the ducks at the pond. She was showing me a white duck with a huge puff of feathers on his head.

E basking in the glow of a beautiful sunset across the pond. Or E just being E!
And finally:

The kids playing in the sand volleyball court, hamming it up for the camera.

Gloomy Tuesday

The day began very dark and gloomy, with thunderstorms covering the whole valley. We were supposed to have a park day with the Life Learners, but the weather was not good. I had to make a decision about what to do. We ended up moving the park day to tomorrow and that seemed to be best. Then the skies cleared and it ended up a beautiful afternoon. Go figure. Oh the joys of predicting the weather.

C went flying this morning and then went into work late. He came home for lunch which is a rare treat to see him during the day. While here he got the girls started playing this Furby board game our neighbor had given us. After he left for work, A and I played three times and she beat me all three times. Not that it required any skills, as it was just a game of chance, no strategy. I was thinking about how younger kids games are like that and how much they bore me. I hope that as the kids grow I will be into playing games with them more, since the games they can play will be more and more challenging. Now, I just play hoping chance will favor them as they still have a hard time losing. I spend time drooling over these awesome looking games in catalogs, waiting for the day the girls are old enough to actually play with me.

Since we are hosting the Life Learners on Friday, I needed to do some cleaning up and the girls were happy to let me. They helped a little, but I mainly worked on the craftroom, which still had glitter all over it from the last LVLL event here! Best they stayed out while I did it or the glitter would have been all over the house again! They watched the Netflix movie we got in the mail yesterday, Alice in Wonderland, Disney version. After that, they wanted to play out front, so I continued to sort craft stuff in the garage while they pulled each other up and down the sidewalk in the wagon and said hello to neighbors passing by.

We retried the crystal growing kit, so I will keep you posted on how that works out. I basically dumped the rest of the crystal powder into the existing solution, hoping it saturates it enough to grow something. We'll see. A wanted to watch the Avatar episodes we have missed, so we sat down to watch them together. I checked on TIVO to see if a new one is coming up, but it had nothing new to show for the next few weeks. Frustrating. I wish TV stations didn't string you along like that.

Pretzels....mmmm!

Monday, again. No fair. We had such a nice weekend, it should be allowed to stretch a little into Monday. Oh well. After a slow start to the day, with the girls coming into my room to ask if I was getting up yet a million times between 8:30 and 9 am, I decided I needed to finish the Christmas stocking I am making for my nephew so I can send it with his birthday gift this week. The girls were amazingly cooperative with this decision and let me work while they played. After a while I stopped and asked if they wanted to bake some pretzels. E wanted to help shape them and A said she would eat one. So, pretzels were baked and eaten (yummy if you ask me, but E said they were "badder than the store bought ones"). A went out to check the mail about three times before it actually came, the first time to put the tadpole coupon in the mail so we can get our froggies. Yes, I splurged and got two. Two kids, two frogs is only fair. After the mail actually came and was collected, A wanted to go play outside in the front, so we did that for a while. I went through this bag of fabric and crafty stuff my neighbor gave me to see what was in there. Found a bag full of cool rocks and seashells, a binder full of craft projects that look like they were published mid eighties, and a ton of fabric that will be great for the girls to make doll clothes out of over the years. While we were out front a big truck went by that looked like the tank in back held water. It did. It came down the street spraying water, presumably to wash the road. Torrents of water flowed down the road and it was hard for the girls not to get in it, but I had to ask them not to since it was almost black from tar dust. Not much else exciting happened that I can think of. Tonight while reading to A, she got all excited when a scene from the movie trailer was explained by what we read. I am trying hard not to go pick up the book and read ahead to see what happens myself. It has been years since I read it and I don't remember much, so it has been like the first time. Can't wait for the movie!

Lost Tooth #3

Another lovely day. This morning, after breakfast, A wanted me to do the puzzle we got yesterday with her, so we sat on the floor of the library and put it together. C and E sat with us and played their own game. Then when we were done with the puzzle, A got out another one and C helped her do that one while E and I played with the geomags. It was a nice family time together.

After that, C and I got dressed to do some work around the house. We needed to get the pool folded up and put in the garage, but a space needed to be made in the garage for it first. We worked in the garage and the backyard while the girls played around us. Our neighbor came over and said that she was doing some cleaning out of her daughter's stuff and asked if we wanted to go through it to see if we would like any of it. We went over and checked it out. The girls picked out some games and books and puzzles. We also got some dress up clothes and a hair wrap maker and a laptop-like learning game thingy. A good haul, overall.

We had some lunch and then I went out in back to plant some lavender plants I got a few weekends ago. A helped for a while until a neighbor friend came over to play, then she and E played with her all afternoon and evening. C had invited a friend from work to come over for pizza so we got cleaned up for that. We had a nice evening of eating and playing with friends. C's friend kicked the soccer ball around with the girls, including the neighbor friend, for a while before it got dark and then we lit a fire in the firepit and sat around chatting and poking the fire. It was a beautiful night, just cool enough to have the fire feel good, but not too cool. We went inside after a while and E put on a karaoke show for our guest. A joined in when we put in the Phantom of the Opera CD.

After everyone went home, they wound down with a little TV until reading time and bed. While laying down with them, A pulled out a loose tooth. She got up to show daddy and they wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy since A wants to keep her baby teeth, instead of the Tooth Fairy taking them. That makes tooth number three. E keeps asking when she will lose a tooth. Maybe now that she is five, it will happen soon.

Froggy!

Today was a nice day. I had set up a massage for myself and one for C as a surprise. He was happy to hear that I had done that as he admitted he would not have done it on his own. This morning we got a few things done in the yard and just hung out. Then we all got ready and headed out to drop me off for my massage. C took the girls to Target to exchange E's Smoochie Pup for one that worked and to browse the toy aisle. Then we swapped. He went in for his massage and the girls and I went over to TJMaxx to see what we could find. We hit the toy section and we found a lot of good stuff, some I bought and some the girls bought. I got them a floor puzzle of an undersea scene with a ton of animals on it, a small set of geomags, and a frog habitat. The frogs will be delivered, tadpoles actually, and we can watch them develop into frogs. E got a princess cell phone and a tule skirt that has flower petals and beads inside the layers of tule. A was saving her money for a computer game (Barbie Pet Rescue), so she only got an outfit for a doll for 2 bucks. We went back to pick up Daddy, who very much enjoyed his pampering, and then went out to dinner.

They enjoyed doing the puzzle with C once we got home. I opened the frog habitat to see what it involved. There is a certificate to send away for the tadpoles and we only get one, unless we want to pay a little more and get two. I'll have to think about that. A has wanted to get one of these frog things ever since we watched our neighbors fish and frog last year. This will not be like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly and then you set it free. You get a frog who will live for a while, up to five years. I guess I just got us another pet! A came into the family room where we were watching tv with the frog home. She had filled it with her plastic frogs and said, "Look, we have frogs!" I guess she's excited to get the real ones, because she played with the plastic ones all evening, even bathing them while listening to HP and taking them to bed with her.

Freaky Friday

We had our Lifelearner event today. We were supposed to be working on the Haunted House we have planned to do for our Halloween party, but little got done. The kids seemed very intensely to need to play, with short breaks to talk scary plans. I was a bit distracted today for some reason and could not focus too well on it all, so we just let it be what it was and had fun. We had four families join us and the kids had a great, if loud and crazy, time playing together. They spent a lot of time throwing these gooey eyeballs and a spider/octopus thing up to the ceiling or high on the walls and waiting for them to fall back down after they unstuck. By the end of the day, the two eyeballs were stuck very high up on the wall and did not come down! The dad of the host family is a tall guy, so I assume he got them down when he got home! The haunted house will be here at our house and we will be getting together here this Friday to put it together. I figure even if the kids play that day and don't help too much, they will still have the memories of it all and us parents can have fun doing it. It is all good.

Voracious

That would describe A's appetite for words. She actually asks me if she can try to spell a word, "Mama, can I try to spell lion?" Uh, sure thing. "L. I. O. N." You are correct, girl! It is absolutely amazing to watch her learn to read. Her mind does not take a break anymore. Everything she can read, she does, and everytime she sees something to ask about, she does. She sat in the movie theater tonight reading outloud anything she could recognize on the screen during the previews. Very cool.

We had a good day today. This morning we looked through catalogs and cut out everything we wanted. I focused on Christmas gifts for the girls and my nieces and nephews, and also a pile of stuff that I figure we can acquire over time. I noticed something while looking through these catalogs. What was interesting was that the pages labeled educational had all the alphabet and number stuff, and sometimes geography. The rest of the pages' labels were things like exploration, dramatic play, crafts, or discovery. But the numbers and letters stuff all used the words learning or educational. Now, I ask you, what isn't educational? Everything offered for sale in these catalogs could be learned from. Why is it only the stuff related to reading or math that gets labeled learning toys? With such a narrow definition of learning, it is a wonder we make kids go to school past the time they learn to read and do simple math.

Anyway, we needed to get some food in this house, so we did some grocery shopping after lunch. The girls were great shoppers today, helping me pick out produce and not running amok too much. They wanted to look at the lobsters, but the tank was empty, so they collected coupons from those automatic coupon dispenser thingies instead. We picked out some candy from the Halloween stuff to sneak into the movie tonight, along with some home-popped popcorn as well.

After C got home, we headed out to pick up their friend M and then go see the Wallace and Gromit movie. It was very cute and the three of them giggled together all through the movie. The credits had some hilarious rabbits that they howled with laughter at, so we stayed till the end to be sure we did not miss a single bunny. Of course, on the way home E cried that she missed M, but cheered up a bit when I reminded her that we will see M tomorrow. She is having trouble remembering what tomorrow, yesterday, etc mean, so I had to clarify that after we woke up and then after lunch we would get to see M again. Thank goodness it was tomorrow and not next week!

Happy Birthday to E!

My baby turned five years old today! I don't know why, but five is the one that gets me. Anyway, when we got up this morning, she opened all the presents that she had left to open. C and I got her a karaoke machine as her big present. She can sing and watch herself on the screen, record her voice on a tape, and sing along to regular CDs or tapes as well as karaoke ones. She and A had fun singing to the kids song CD I got to go with it. They had Mary Had a Little Lamb stuck in their heads and mine all day long! Her Nana got her a Smoochie Pup, which she had asked for, and she was very excited to get it. It does not work like it is supposed to, but she loves it anyway. She lived in a fantasy world with that toy dog all day long! She put on this dress that Nana had got her as soon as she opened it and wore it all day long. It is for Christmas and I hope it lasts until then. I know she is only one day older today than she was yesterday, but she seems so much bigger to me. She talked to just about everyone who called to wish her happy birthday, even thanking everyone for her presents, unprompted by me. I think she has it in her head that five is a big girl and she is determined to act her age. This evening, the girls were watching the Cinderella DVD, one of the gifts, and I went and sat down on the couch to snuggle with my birthday girl. I looked at the clock and saw that it was a little after 10 pm (at least on the East coast where she was born at 10:10 pm) and I held her and told her she was born exactly five years before, right at this moment. I hugged her and kissed her head and remembered that first time I held her five years ago. Time flies....

Since Daddy got home late tonight, we are going out to the movies with her friend M to see the Curse of the Were-rabbit tomorrow night, so the birthday celebration gets extended a bit more.

Two for One

Yesterday was a resting day and yet we did quite a bit. A played with her Top Secret Adventures with me, while E played in her own little world. I realized that if a cake was to be made for E's birthday on Wednesday it would have to be then, so we baked one. She wanted a penguin cake, so that was fun figuring out how to make. The girls had gotten a present in the mail from my brother and SIL, and since A was having a hard time with it being E's birthday and not hers, I got that out for them to open. It was an Ello Creation Station, which is kinda like a lego-for-girls toy. They had a lot of fun playing with that for the afternoon while I baked and cleaned. A was very proud of the creations she made. After C got home from work, I headed out to purchase E's present (another gotta do now or it won't get done things). I also got some black icing coloring to finish up her cake. You can't make a proper penguin cake without it!

Today was our Life Learner event. We were supposed to go to the orchard to pick apples and pumpkins, but it was raining hard. We had back up plans to go to one of our member's houses for a playdate and three families joined us there. The kids all had fun playing and jumping on their trampoline, even if it was wet. We brought the cake to share, so we did the whole light the candles and sing thing for E. One of her friends, who had come camping with us this weekend, got her some Bratz babies, which he had found out she liked while we were there. I thought that was very sweet and E really liked them. We stayed until 6:30 pm, our standard 7 hour LVLL day, and headed home to meet daddy.

A Place of Sanctuary

That is what Zion means and that is what Zion is. I mean look at that scenery above. How can you not feel awe in a place like that! Our camping trip was wonderful, despite two of the expected families not making it and our getting rained on Saturday night. Our missing members were not there due to chicken pox and head colds. Bummer! The rain might have dampened our gear, but not our spirits.

We left around 10:30 am on Friday and with one stop for lunch and a time zone change, we arrived at 3pm. One family was already there and the other showed up shortly after. We all set up our tents and stuff while the kids ran around the site and explored. They were all eager to go hiking, so once we had it all set up, we decided to head down to the river to explore. It was a relatively short walk through the campground to the river and we found a spot with a sandy beach to check out the river from. They call it a river, but it was more like a creek. E brought her net and tried her hand at catching critters with it. She only caught a water bug, but had fun nonetheless. A's "boyfriend" found her a stone that was shaped like a heart (she is holding it in the picture to the left). Later E found another heart-shaped rock. Several of the little kids got wet playing in the cold water and the sun was going down, so we headed back to camp to get dinner.

We all had a bite to eat and the kids ran around playing while the parents chatted. My girls had not wanted to go without our reading time, so we brought Harry along with us. I offered to read to the whole group of kids and they all gathered around to listen. It did not matter that it was the fourth book in a series and we were halfway into it. They all enjoyed it anyway.

Saturday dawned bright and beautiful. After breakfast, everyone but one mom and her baby, headed up the hill behind our site for a little hike. We climbed up a trail that led us up on top of a small ridge. The views from the top were spectacular! As you can see from this picture of the kids on the right! A could have climbed all day. She wanted to keep going UP, but we grownups were not prepared to go that far away or to climb that intensely. So, we headed back down, taking a different route to satisfy the kids need to explore. Lunch was had, the kids ran around, parents chatted and we decided to go to the park museum. This required a walk to the buses that take you up and down the canyon, and a ride to the museum. There was a movie that covers the history, geologically and socially, of the canyon that we wanted to see. It was a very small museum and the kids were done in about five minutes, so they went outside to play until the next movie started. I think the kids all enjoyed the movie. It was quite good. But, A took the cake. She kept saying over and over, "That was so cool!" It had lots of shots of the wildlife of the park and so I assumed that was what she enjoyed most, but she said it was the scenes of how the rocks were formed and eroded that she thought was coolest. Made her rockhound Mama proud!

We took the bus back to the campsite and hung out for a bit. The moms drove into town to get ice and check out the shops. While we were gone, it started to rain. When we got back, the guys had the kids in the tents because it was coming down pretty hard. There were thunderheads all around and we got the brunt of a few of them for the rest of the night. One family, who had slept in their van, and therefore had no tent to take down, decided to go home. It was just the mom with three kids and I don't blame her! The rest of us made the best of it. We hung out in our tents and enjoyed our families until we got hungry enough to venture out to see about dinner. It actually stopped raining enough for us to light a fire in the grill and cook some brats and hot dogs. I swear that was the best brat I have ever had! The kids all piled into the other family's van to watch Sharkboy and Lavagirl, which they had brought on DVD. The mom and I sat in the front seats and talked, while C and the dad sat at the "fire" and talked and roasted marshmallows until an early bedtime for all.

Even though it rained off and on all night, by morning it was sunny and nice. That was a great relief, since we had to pack up and check out. We all pitched in to make a nice pancake breakfast and then packed it all up. The kids played nicely while we got that done. We said our goodbyes and headed home. The girls wanted to stop at one of the shops in town to buy rocks, so we did. E got a rose quartz heart with her own money and A got a shark tooth fossil and a dolphin carved of Arizona gold stone with hers. I also got a couple cool rocks, a chunk of aragonite, from who knows where, and a cut and polished cube of rhyolite, which was native.

We got home about 3pm and had a very nice afternoon and evening together, unpacking and relaxing. In the mail was a movie from Netflix, Because of Winn Dixie, so we watched that together. That was a sweet ending to a sweet weekend!

Gone Camping

I will be brief because it is almost 11pm and I am not packed for camping all the way yet. ACK! Ok, it is not that bad, I had just hoped to be ready a whole lot sooner. C has been out of town this week and is due to arrive tonight at midnight. I hope I am resting in bed when he walks in the door and not frantic, still. The girls had a day very like yesterday, not much to report. I have a few thoughts to share, but not right now. How's that for a tease? I will have glorious reports of our camping trip to report on Monday. Ha! I am giving myself three days off from blogging. I figure communing with mother nature at one of the most beautiful national parks is a good excuse. See you Monday!

Busy, Busy, Busy

We had a busy day today getting ready for camping. We ran out to get a few items from Target and had lunch while we were there. A bought herself some clothes for her babydoll and a Playmobil princess and unicorn. She kept saying she wanted Legos, but when we got in the aisle that had Lego, she said that was not it. It took me a while to figure out she meant Playmobil. She was extremely pleased to see that they had this whole princess and unicorn line. She only had enough money for one little set, but she plans to come back later for more. I remember playing with them when I was a kid and having a lot of fun. E got another Littlest Pet Shop set. It was a set with two cats in it and she said that she only wanted one of the cats and that she would give the other one to her friend M.

When we got home, I bounced around from one thing to another, getting stuff ready to pack and doing laundry. I told the girls that we had until tomorrow night to get the house picked up and that they might want to do some of it now, so we won't be too rushed later. They did not jump on the idea, but eventually, A was doing dishes with me and E was running around putting toys away. I was thinking about how if someone asked me how I got my kids to be so helpful, I would only be able to say, "Never make them do it". It works!

I am trying to think of specific things the girls did today while I was busy. They played on the computer at Barbie.com for a while. E colored in some of her coloring books. A played with her baby and they both played with the new stuff when we got home. I was outside for a while, putting some stuff away in the backyard and they came out with me. E pretended to catch bugs and frogs with this net we got for the camping trip, intending to use it to catch fish or whatever in the river. A asked if the cat could come out, that she would watch her if she did. I said ok, so our kitty got to be a wild cat for a while. It took all three of us to get her back in the house when A was done with cat sitting. She was hard to corral! Our neighbor came over to get the details on watching the cat for us this weekend and said she would come over tomorrow after school to hang out. I might get her to watch the kids while I go shopping for food if we don't get to it earlier.

Sheep!

We had another lovely day at the park with the Life Learners. Five other families joined us at this very beautiful park that often has big horn sheep grazing the grassy areas. Today was no exception. When we got there this morning, the sheep were there and when we left this evening, they were still there! It was kinda cool to be hanging out with a herd of sheep all day. They kept their distance, but we got to observe big horn sheep behavior. There was one female who must have been in heat because she had a whole pack of males following her and pestering her all day. There were even a few little babies, mostly in the center of the herd, being protected by the adults. I think the little guy in the photo above was convinced he could get the sheep to eat out of his hand. He kept creeping up on them with his arm outstretched, doing a "come here" motion with his hand. It was too cute.

A was keen on doing some hiking/climbing on the hill next to the park, so a few of us moms headed out with the kids to do that. I helped one of the girls tackle her fears by staying close and offering my hand as she needed it. A was way up ahead with some of the braver kids. When they had reached the top, I got this shot of the photo-willing of the lot of climbing kids (they are under a power line tower, hence the metal bars). The lake is visible in the background (one of the reasons this park is so beautiful). Instead of going back down the path, most of the kids chose to head of the edge onto an unbeaten path of their own. I and another mom followed, but soon one of the little boys had to go back up after he fell and was afraid to go on. The other mom took him back up and then down the path to his mom. I was left with seven kids to keep an eye on as we headed down the hill and around to the trail. We all made it down, I'm glad to report. The little ones were total troopers, trying to keep up with the "big kids".

The kids found a dead rabbit, well, only it's head, really. They decided to dig a grave and bury it, putting rocks and a stick with flowers as a grave marker. It was really sweet and they even remembered to handle the head with sticks, instead of their bare hands. Of course all the ants swarming over it probably helped with that choice! They also saw lots of live bunnies at the edge of the grass. They did not let the kids get very close, much to the chargrin of one of the little girls.

It was a very nice day with our friends.

Crystals, Camping Gear, and Cooties

This morning the girls wanted to see their crystals from the kit we did earlier. I poured out the liquid to reveal....nothing. Not a single bit of crystal was to be seen growing. I think I know what went wrong and we will try again soon. I think the solution was not saturated, so we will saturate it up the wazoo and grow some crystals, darnit.

A wanted to organize the stuff on her shelves in her bedroom, so after I got breakfast we headed up to tackle that and some other clutter upstairs as well. It was nice to start the day with that level of productivity, for me anyway. I had a hard time slowing down the rest of the day for the girls. We spent a long time out in the front yard this afternoon, since A wanted to take her babydoll for a walk and I wanted to start pulling down the camping equipment. We leave on Friday and I want to have as much packed in the car and ready by Thursday afternoon as is possible. So while I worked on that, the girls played in the front. E picked up their fishing pole and that got me thinking that we could fish in the Virgin River at the campsite. I put some weights on the end of the line so they could practice casting. A said, "Does this mean we have to eat fish when we go camping?" I am not even sure we could catch any worth eating in the section of the river by the campground, but we will have fun trying.

A wanted me to play chess with her all day, and since I was on a roll I kept putting her off. She ended up playing and beating her daddy this evening. While they played, E and I played Cooties. She said it was not a game for winning since she would cry if she lost. She beat me, if we were keeping track! After A beat her father in chess she wanted to play Cooties with me and E, so we did that before bathtime. E won again. Not bad for someone who does not play to win.

Oh, E is letting me send Sharkboy and Lavagirl back to Netflix tomorrow, but she says we have to buy it! It was watched a couple times today and she has not changed out of her pink dress yet.

Dream Dream Dream Dream

You know how E was soooo into Spongebob? Well, she seems to have moved on. Now it is Sharkboy and Lavagirl. Particularly Lavagirl. She told me today that it was a good thing she had so many pink dresses, so that she can always look like Lavagirl. She makes me laugh sometimes. Needless to say, the movie was watched many more times today! A and C played some more chess, with A beating him for the first time. I called my dad to wish him a happy birthday and chatted with my brother, SIL, my step mom and my nephew, too. It was nice to talk with everyone. After lunch, I got ready to make a run to the nursery to buy some plants and seeds for the fall crop and A came along with me. She was too cute wanting to pull the wagon all around. We saw a water garden set up with koi and turtles in it. A wants us to make a little water garden for our yard sometime, so I guess I'll have to think about how to do that. She also wanted to look at all the plants to find a good one for her bedroom. I told her that the ones we were looking at really liked to be outside, but she picked out some columbine seeds anyway. They like partial shade so maybe we can start them inside and move them out in the spring. When we got home we planted some peas and spinach. We will get to the rest tomorrow. C was taking me out tonight, so I had to get ready. Yes, twice in one week! Our teenage neighbor T came over to watch the girls and we went out to eat and wander around Lowes for a while. It was nice to walk slowly and look at anything we wanted to without someone asking if we were done yet. We somehow managed to find 100 bucks worth of odds and ends that we did not know we needed until we saw it tonight! Not exactly romantic, but good for the marriage nonetheless. C was feeling tired, so we came home a bit early and he went to bed to try to shake this cold he has. T hung out with us for a little longer, since the girls were not ready for her to leave yet. They have fun when she babysits and A asked me when she was going to do it again. I think we will try to make it a more regular thing. That was our day.

Checkmate

That chess set I bought at the thrift store got some use today. A had played with her friend yesterday who is a good chess player and she wanted to keep learning. So, C offered to play and learn with her. They played several games over the course of the day. The method of teaching the game seems to be pretty successful. I guess it is my turn to give it a go.

We had received Sharkboy and Lavagirl from Netflix and that got watched at least four times today. To say it was a hit with the girls, especially E, is an understatement. The first time through I told E that she looked like Lavagirl, since she was wearing pink and had a smile very similar to Lavagirl. She took that as a huge compliment. It was a fun family movie with a good message, even if it was a little over the top for us adults.

I needed to go grocery shopping, very badly, and when I was about to walk out the door, E begged me to take her with me. A was playing chess with her daddy and E was feeling left out, so I said yes. It was a very nice shopping experience. E was helpful and fun to be with. I need to trust her to be growing up as much as I do A, instead of worrying she is still where she might have been the last time we tried to do something, like go shopping. When we were in the checkout, E was ahead of me, standing by the bagger, singing to herself. The young man, who was bagging our food, asked her for her autograph and said she was a very good singer. I think it took E by surprise, because she looked at the guy like he was weird. I told her what an autograph was and that if she was going to be singing like that in public, her fans were going to find her.

In the mail today was an intro package to some animal card-type thingy called Weird and Wild Creatures. We opened it and let the girls look at the cards, mostly thinking it was junkmail they could have fun with for a while. Well, A loved them! She wants me to sign us up for the club, where we get more cards every month. They came with an activity card as well; the one we got today was a crossword. A was interested in filling it out, so I helped her figure out the answers and spell out the words. I figure it will be a well spent $5.95 per month, even if we cancel after a few months.

Life as a Puzzle

Our Life Learner day today was a group art project called a community puzzle. I had purchased this a few years ago, thinking it would be cool to do sometime. Well, it seems the time had come. The puzzle has pieces that are all the same shape, so they go together any way you want to arrange them, then a border is added on. We had four families join us. Everyone worked on a piece to add to the whole, parents, too. We added the name of the group to the border and had the kids who wanted to do more than one piece create more art on the remaining border pieces. The finished whole is such a cool reminder of the diversity of the creative abilities of different people. We all had something very unique and beautiful to contribute, even those of us who did not think we were artists. We still have a few pieces to add, as some families did not make it but wanted to be a part of the puzzle. I post a picture when it is complete. As usual, the kids played and had a great time. The last family left at 8:30, if that is any indication of the fun we had!

Here is a portion of an article I have written that I am going to adapt for publication (hopefully!) in an unschooling magazine:

My daughters have a beautiful puzzle that is really a set of square wooden tiles with fragments of a scene painted on them. A piece of sky, with sun or rainbow, here, a window, door or roof there, various animals, people, and plants as well. There is no correct way to put it together. You start with one piece and add on, as you like. Each picture is different, but they are all beautiful. Four tiles, ten or 30, it does not matter; each is a complete scene.

I like to think of life and the learning that happens as like a puzzle with no edge pieces. There is no limit to what you can learn and no set time frame for how long you have to learn it. Each piece you find will fit somewhere in your own personal puzzle of life but it does not have to connect to any particular other piece. You build it as you fancy it. And it all adds up in the end because it is YOURS. It does not have to, and really should not, look like anyone else’s picture. Our present method of educating our children is to hand them the standardized puzzle pieces and tell them they have 13 years to complete it. And that they will be failures if they don’t complete it or if their puzzle looks different from everyone else’s or if they reject the standardized picture.

Unschooling is honoring that individual picture of a life in each child, even that picture in ourselves as well. Respecting that we each have a picture of our own choosing to create. Trusting that we will “finish the puzzle” because in each given moment it is complete. Knowing that all the moments leading up to the present moment create a finished life. You never know which moment will be your last. Why not live each one as if it IS your last?

I felt that was appropriate to share after our wonderful day today.

So much to do, so little time

Ha! That about sums it up. I am posting early because I will not be up to the task tonight when we get back from the party and I will not have time in the morning, getting ready for the Life Learners to come over. I have fifteen minutes to tell you a story of our day before I must go get clean and do my nails and shave and get pretty.

I cleaned the house and set up the family room with tables for our project tomorrow (of which I will tell all tomorrow) and the girls watched movies and played computer games and helped me out a bit and played on their own .

But I wanted to tell one little moment. Every day, I ask A if she would like to get the mail for me. She usually says yes. Our neighborhood has a group mailbox, that happens to be across the street from us. Today, I went to find the key off my keychain, but she grabbed them from me and said, "I can do it!". We went to the front door and I let her out. She walks to the sidewalk, stops and looks both ways and back the first direction, then runs across the street. I stand in the open doorway watching. She takes the key and unlocks the little door, takes out the mail, closes the door back up again, and turns to face the street and home. Once again, she looks both ways and back the first direction. Then back to me she comes, bearing the day's load of catalogs, bills, junkmail and an occasional card or letter.

Some day soon, I will no longer need to watch her. Maybe that day is tomorrow, maybe I should have trusted her to do it alone sooner. Who has the answer to this question of when to let your child grow up? When I was her age I was getting on a school bus each day and navigating a school day on my own, running all over the countryside with the neighbor kids and my younger brothers. Not totally without incident, I might add. It was a different world back then. I feel pressure to shelter my child more than I know is good for her growing sense of independence. But how will she know how to function on her own unless she gets to function on her own? Nobody said this was gonna be easy.

Zest for Life

We're on the upswing. Everyone, even C, is feeling healthy and a zest for life is back in us all, I think. Today was one of those days where you could get a lot done in order to save yourself work in the future, and I tried to make it that way. I thinkI succeded a bit. Tomorrow night, C and I are going to a party, an office party. The girls are going to a friends' house for the evening, which will be fun for them, and C and I get to dress up and pretend to be sophisticated adults for a while, which will be fun for us. On Friday the Life Learners are coming here to do a cool art project. I felt today would be a good day to get some of the prep done for those things in advance to give myself a lesser load tomorrow. So that is why we ended up running around town doing errands! I love to do anything but what I should be doing. ;-)

Seriously, I needed to do these other things and the girls had a fun time coming along. We went to the post office to mail a box of clothes to my cousin for her daughter, and my dad's birthday gift. Then we went to pick up the girls' penguins at the pottery place we went to last week. We left there and made a stop at the thrift store to see what we could find. I got a deal on two filters for our pool pump and the girls found a few trinkets. We also got a chess game that teaches you how to play the game. I have always been interested in learning and so has C, so maybe we will all learn as a family. The girls were not very patient in the thrift store, because our next stop was Walmart. I had something to return and they had money burning holes in their pockets. They took one look at the thrift store and decided they were not going to find anything good there. I managed to convince them otherwise to some extent, but I think it will be a while before they appreciate the finer side of a good bargain.

They each got a Fur Real pet at Walmart, A got a baby panda cub and E got a kitten that bats at the toy you wave in front of it. They immediately started playing with them when we got home. After a while they also wanted to watch the movie we had bought, the new Barbie Pegasus. It was watched twice through before the night was done. I hate to admit it, but I like those Barbie movies. Great messages and the characters Barbie plays are always such strong role models for girls. E spent a good portion of the second viewing dancing around in imitaion of the ice skating scenes from the movie. A was inspired to go play her computer game based on one of the other Barbie movies, which she did until we read HP and headed to bed. The reading thing for her is kicking into high gear. Not a hour goes by that she has not asked what a word is or how to spell a word. She interrupts me constantly when I am reading to her to ask questions or point out words she knows. Exciting stuff!

Peak Experience

Views on the mountain: gorgeous old pine trees, the kids climbing, and a columbine blossom.

Today our Life Learner event was to go up to the mountain and picnic together at a beautiful spot by a creek. Two other families came to join us today. When we got there, the wind was whipping and we were regretting not having brought warmer clothes, like hats and mittens! We had to park and then hike in to the picnic spot, which was a more sheltered spot. The wind was blocked and it was pleasant enough for us to enjoy ourselves. The kids explored the creek, and climbed the banks of the gully we were in. And us moms had awesome conversations, while we hiked around with the kids or watched them play nearby. Sometimes having a smaller group leads to more intimate talks and today was no exception. I have met such wonderful women through running this group, I am so blessed! We have really created a community of kindred souls in this sprawling city. The kids may have found great friends in this group, but so have I!

We got home a bit earlier than we usually do on LVLL days, probably due to the cold. It was weird to be chilly up there, when it was almost 90 degrees down at our house. Granted it was windy down here, so it probably did not feel that warm. The girls wound down when we got home by watching a little tv and playing quietly. A wanted to play this board game she has called Herd your Horses, so we did that. E joined in, but she had a hard time with not getting her way each time a move did not get her a horse card. It will be nice when she can play a game without getting sullen and/or surly! Anyway, the horse theme continued as A got involved with her Breyer horses, playing with them in the toy barn. She has not done this in a long time, so I guess the new horse inspired her. She announced to me that she wants to collect Breyer horses and asked me about 5 times if I liked horses. I told her I did, but that even if I did not , she could love anything she wanted. It seems she has pulled herself out of her rut, as she is planning to play with the horses tomorrow.

Crystal Clear

Almost as soon as I was vertical this morning, A started asking if we could do the crystal growing kit. I got myself fully awake and we set it all up. The girls were too cute with their goggles and aprons and gloves. Not that the chemicals were that dangerous or that I was letting them do it all, but they were happy to dress the part of a scientist in the lab. We got one crystal set up, which should give us blue rocks in 3 or 4 days. We can't see through the blue liquid, so I can't tell you what is happening in there yet. I'll keep you posted. We have yellow crystals as well and we can mix the two to make green ones, too.

I needed to get laundry done, so I got into that after our adventure in chemistry. A watched Discovery Kids and E played with her Polly Pockets. I asked them if they wanted to bake cookies. E jumped at the chance, but A said she did not want to help or watch, just eat them. But, after a few minutes she wandered into the kitchen and asked if she could help. E cracked the eggs and I was amazed, looking at the way her shells broke, that she did not get one single shell fragment in the bowl and every drop of egg ended up in there, too. Cool! We finished the cookies and spent some time cleaning up the pile of clothing in the girls' room. I had to find cool weather clothes that fit for our trip up the mountain tomorrow with the group. Then we got ready to go out for dinner.

We had a dinner date with one of C's work friends at her new apartment. She is a grown unschooler (now an engineer working for the government) and I credit her with saving my marriage when C was not yet on board with unschooling. He was willing to hear from her what I had tried to tell him and it made all the difference in how he came to accept my crazy ideas. Anyway, her mom was in town to help her move and since we had met this spring, she wanted to see us while she was in town. It was cool to talk to her about unschooling and she was great with the kids. T, C's friend, lives in a very nice apartment complex with a pool and hot tub, and a community "party spot" with grill and gas fireplace right by the pool. We came ready to swim and even though it was cool tonight, the girls had a blast going back and forth between the pool and hot tub. They miss swimming in our pool. I will have to take them to the rec center a lot this winter. It was a very nice time.

We are going to have a full day tomorrow, driving up to the mountain to hang with the Life Learners, so I best turn in.

Shopping Buddy

Today was a good day. We had a nice morning together having breakfast and snuggling on the couch to watch cartoons for a bit. C left to attend church and the girls and I made chocolate pudding, just because. I made an effort to let the girls do as much of the measuring and pouring and stirring as I possibly could. I saved the cooking part for myself, since I did not want burned pudding! They both had fun, did not fight over the various tasks and for the first time A asked for more. What I mean is that she has not been so interested in cooking with me and would watch for a minute and wander away leaving me and E to finish up. This time she held in longer and asked to make something else with me. We did not get around to it today, but I will remember to ask her more often to cook with me. Maybe letting her do more was the trick!

When C got home, we spent some time out in the backyard getting the pool emptied and ready for the winter. I fertilized the shrubs and trees in the back and C caulked the threshold to the backdoor. A came out and played in the flood of water we drained out of the pool (the chlorine was down to zero, so no harm to the grass). E stayed inside most of the time, playing in her own little world with a stuffed Neopet penguin toy she got from her friend M the other day.

When we were done with being outside, I got some lunch and started getting ready to go to the outlet mall for some shopping. C was playing with E and A was wandering around saying she did not know what to do. I pulled her aside and invited her to come along with me to the mall to help me find a dress for this party C and I are going to this week. She wasn't so sure until I promised we could look in the toy store, if she promised to be a good trooper and not whine while I shopped. She agreed and I finished getting ready to go.

When I was almost ready, E came into the bathroom crying that she did not want A to go. A was very sweet to her and hugged her and promised she would be back soon. E said she was going to miss her too much. I'm not sure what A said to her but she convinced her it would be ok for her to stay here with Daddy. A and I headed out on our shopping trip. We walked from one end of the mall to the other and worked our way back. I found a very nice dress, with A making suggestions and approving the choice, and even got a rhinestone necklace on clearance for 3 bucks. In the toy store, she found a Breyer horse to buy with her money and I got a crystal growing kit for us to do sometime. We had dinner together in the food court and she even let me check one more store for some fall clothing. It was probably the most pleasant shopping trip with one of my kids that I have ever had.

While we were gone, C and E played outside, rollerskating and running around with one of the neighbor kids. When we got home, E seemed to have forgotten her sadness and was happy to see what we had got. She did get a bit upset when she saw the jacket A had got. She has a ton of clothes and just doesn't get why A gets new stuff every season. I do buy her new stuff, but she loves wearing her sister's hand me downs. The frugal mom in me has a hard time with buying new stuff for someone who's closet is overflowing, but she does deserves clothing of her own. Her style is turning out to be very different than A's, so I see a lot more new stuff for E as they grow. I'll probably start donating A's stuff as she outgrows it instead of saving all of it for E, as E doesn't wear the same kinds of clothes as A. And I think a lot more thrift store visits are in our future to afford to clothe the both of them each season. It was so much easier when they just wore what you picked out for them!

Pampered Parents

I had another massage today and while I was gone, C and the girls had fun playing and rollerblading together. Before I left the house, I pulled A aside and told her Daddy was feeling worn out and like he was not getting enough time for himself and that I had a plan to help him out. She was all ears. I told her that when I got back, we were going to give him some pampering. Rub his feet and hands, do his nails (not girly, manly!) and make him feel special. She was sooo excited with the idea.

When I got home, C was about to collapse. He had been up very early to go flying with a friend and the girls had worn him out. So, I sent him to take a nap. We cleaned up the house and got everything ready for our spa-at-home. A was ready to offer him a drink and a plate of fruit. E had put on her ballet outfit to dance to the classical music we had playing. And I had prepared all the lotions and scrubs and nail files and hot water to soak his feet in . I went upstairs to wake C and told him to come down to see his surprise. He is not an easy man to wake, and the girls were so eager to pamper Daddy, we were all waiting at the bottom of the stairs for him. He came down and when he saw what we had done, he about cried. We spent the next hour showering him with TLC. The look of pride on the girls faces just melted my heart. I forgot that in doing something nice for my husband, I was also showing my daughters how good it feels to be good to someone else. Between my massage and his pampering, we were two very happy parents today.

After dinner, E wanted me to snuggle with her and watch her favorite sea creatures cavorting about while A and C played States Bingo. I remembered that we had a Netflix DVD to watch, Puff the Magic Dragon. I heard the song the other day and remembered the show from when I was a kid, so I checked if Netflix had it. They did! E enjoyed it very much, she is a sucker for anything musical. I liked the themes of finding your true self and forging ahead despite your fears to be very auspicious in my life right now. It is amazing what you can get out of a children's cartoon!

Metamorphosis!

Oh and by the way, yesterday's little tirade was not provoked by anything. I was just frustrated with feelings I had inside of me and felt like venting. And now back to your regularly scheduled blog...

Today was the Life Learner Game Day. It was lots of fun. Everyone brought some of their favorite games to share and play with their friends. There were five other families with us and we had over twenty games, maybe thirty, to choose from. It was nice to get down on the floor and play the games with the kids. I am not very good at doing that at home when it is just the girls and me, but with a bunch of people, it was great. C even got to join us as he got off early from work. I know he worries about fitting in with a bunch of women, but they love him. The girls were glad he was there as well. Us grown ups, after the kids had moved on to other pursuits, even sat down to a few card games. We were having such fun, we were plotting to do a Mom's night out to play games!

A was still in her lost as to what to do with herself mode, so she ran out of steam earlier than I would have wanted to go. E was having such a great time with her friend M, I knew she did not want to leave. So C asked A if she wanted to go home with him. They left about 6pm and went out to dinner on the way home. E and I stayed a few more hours, since the party was still going on!

One of the hornworms emerged today! Technically he is a Carolina Sphinx Moth now. We were not at home to see the momentous occasion, but maybe we will catch the other two in action. Since they got home before me and E, C and A got to see him with his wings very small and watch him pump them up with blood as they dried off.

E wanted me to snuggle on the couch with her and watch Spongebob when we got home, so C took A upstairs and read to her. We have started HP#4. We finished the last one yesterday and I was having a hard time reading the last chapter without tearing up. A was very pleased with how it ended and immediately ran to get the next one to look at the pictures. She was talking to me yesterday and said, "We have read 3 out of 6 and when we finish the next one we will have read 4 and have 2 to go, and then it will be read 5 with 1 to go, and then it will be read 6 with one to wait for!"

Back when A was only 2, when my mother was still alive, A would do this little dance for her when they would meet. My mother called it the crazy girl dance. That was the beginnings of the funny girl that A is now. She is a true comedian and she is particularly good at comedic timing and physical pratfalls and antics. She really cracks me up! And you can see how proud she is of herself when she makes others laugh. It is a joy to watch!