Sunny Days

Although we're enjoying the warm weather we've had the last week (and more still to come - 81 on Sunday!!?), I'm a little scared about what warm 70s (80s!?) in February means for the summer months.

Oh well, we'll enjoy today and think about that "tomorrow."

Shaken Not Churned

In spite of all the sickness around here, we've still managed to get a good bit accomplished in school. We're almost finished with our farm animals mini-unit, and after comparing goat's milk to cow's milk last week we moved on this week to learning about dairy products. We made our own butter, which involved a whole lot of shaking, a little creativity (using a nalgene bottle instead of a mason jar), and a little accident (shaking a bottle near your face may result in some trauma!).

After the butter was done, the girls sampled some in their "dairy party."

They had bread with their homemade butter, crackers with cream cheese, pretzels dipped in sour cream, cheese, yogurt, vanilla wafers dunked in milk, chocolate milk to drink, and (their favorite of course) ice cream. They definitely met their dairy requirements for today!!

Side Note: It's so funny how I just assume that they know where everything comes from, but they really have no clue! A couple of my friends and I were talking this week about how most Americans are so far removed from from the "food process." We just go to the store (without even marveling at the many selections!), pick whatever we're in the mood for, and buy it. Case in point, when I first asked the girls to name some dairy products after we had talked about some of the things that come from cow's milk, Kerri said she thought bananas came from cows. I laughed thinking she was joking and asked her why she thought that. She pointed out that bananas are the same color as milk, so they must be made from it. Emma Lee agreed and thought Kerri had a pretty good point. When I told them that bananas grow on trees, they were the ones who laughed and thought I was joking! I really hope it didn't confuse them that part of their yogurt for their dairy party just happened to be banana flavor....hmm should have thought that one out a little better!

Reasons

Reason number 2,856

and reason number 2,857

why I love this man so much!

Kerri's Turn

Kerri has been eagerly waiting for almost a whole year for her turn at a reading chart. She learned to read like everything else she's learned to do - quickly and with hardly any help from me! Apparently, having a sister just one year older creates quite the learning incentive! Hey, potty training herself in a day, reading whole books on our first real try . . . no complaining here!! After a couple weeks of her reading to me, I let her know that I thought that she was ready for her long awaited reading chart. She literally started jumping up and down and squealing. She had her first row filled within a few hours! Here she is proudly displaying her reading chart. 

Here's her first book she read for her reading chart.

Big sister is excited to be the listener!

E-Love

Since these Valentine's Day cards only made it out to grandparents and cousins, here's the e-version for you.

2-11-11

It's the second step of my 1-11-11 challenge to myself to get (1) semi-good picture of the girls every month until November (11) (which will lead right up to their birthday) of this year (11) = 1-11-11.

I decided to go with a school picture for this month because I feel like we're in a pretty good routine right now. The girls are learning a lot and enjoying it, and I am too! Here they are from this morning playing their favorite math game of the moment (which I invented on the spot a couple weeks ago - it literally took about 10 seconds of planning and they think it's the greatest thing - don't you love it when that happens!)

Here's the game - are you ready? 

Take a strip of construction paper and write _____ + ______ = 

There you have it - a wonderful math game!

We play a couple of different ways. Sometimes I call out a number, and they have to grab the right amount of whatever item we happen to be using and create a problem with that number as the sum. If I say, "7" Emma Lee might set up a 3+4 scenario, and Kerri will probably do a 7+0 (she loves the sneaky 0 - so I have to limit the amount of times she uses it!). I'll either move on to the next number, or make them see if they can figure out another problem with the same answer (5+2, etc.). Other times I call out the problem (4+6) and they have to set it up and be the first one to tell me what the answer is. It's riveting stuff, I know. One of these days we'll even get even crazier and branch out into subtraction. ;)   

Definitions

Pitifulness: Being sick and missing your first and long-awaited ballet lesson.

Sweetness: Little sister promising to pay close attention and teach you everything she learns.

Bubbles Galore!

There are certain things I sometimes wish had never been "invented." Bubbles for kids is definitely one of them. A pretty big mess is inevitable, at least with my girls. Of course, it's one of their favorites. We visited the Georgia Children's Museum this week and one of the first things the girls saw was the bubble area. I decided to just go with it - you know since the messy area was pretty well contained and it wasn't in my house. They had a tons of fun and even begged me (which hardly ever happens!) to take more pictures and video. Here's some of the fun I captured.

Here's the video of my crazy bubble eating Kerri and my little ham Emma Lee having fun at the Georgia Children's Museum

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Who Knew?!

Who knew there are whole blogs entirely devoted to hairstyles for your little girl? I guess it's time for me to stop bugging Emma Lee and Kerri to let me get their hair cut and start learning how to copy some of these fun and fancy hairstyles (although some of them are definitely a bit much).

Side note: If you like reading blogs as much as I do but don't want to spend the entire day sitting in front of your computer, check out google reader. You can add all your favorite blogs and see them in one spot. You can see in one glance which ones have added new posts and read them without having to visit each individual site. You can also arrange them in categories. I have a friends category along with baking, money-saving deals, adoption, photography, marriage/family, project ideas (home decor, crafts, & sewing), etc.

What's Wrong with This Picture?

So, I walk into the girls' room tonight and this is what I see. 

What's wrong with this picture (beside a really messy room)?

 

Okay, so Kerri's asleep on the floor. Yes, she did start out on the bed, but look closer.

 

Hmmm...

Someone's taking over!