And then I like to post about them. (Well, not really. Otherwise I'd post more often.) In my defense, this is my second attempt at putting these pictures on the interwebs. My first was thwarted a few weeks ago when I spent almost an hour uploading, captioning, etc, only to lose all my work. Then I said some inappropriate things to the computer, slammed it shut, and muttered about how I would never, ever post anything again as I stumbled off to bed. I have matured since then, and realize my decision may have been a bit rash, so now I'm trying again. :)
Leah loves, loves, loves to bake. I like baking too. Alone. Without flour, sugar, and other ingredients being accidentally spilled all over the place. (This is also why I don't bake with Jared, either.) But sometimes, I just have to let it go and accept the mess. And it's always worth the disaster of a kitchen when I see her excitement about whatever it is that we're pulling out of the oven.
This was our first ever attempt at a rhubarb pie.
I'm not going to lie; I just don't get what all the hype is about when it comes to rhubarb pie. It tastes great when you put a giant-sized dollop of whipped cream or ice cream on top, but what doesn't taste good like that?
In honor of Chrysalis season, we did a series of lessons on caterpillars, chrysalises, and butterflies. These were the results of caterpillar day's activities.
One of our most favorite activities lately was our ABC fishing game. We put our magnet letters from the fridge in a little container with some water and fashioned some fishing rods out of sticks, string, and some leftover magnets I had from a craft project. Once they fished out a letter, they had to match it with the coordinating foam letter blocks set up around the room. Isaac just had to tell me what letter he caught. Leah's job was a bit trickier, as she had to tell me the letter, the sound it makes, and a word that starts with that particular letter. They loved this game, and it was a huge hit. (Meaning, it occupied them for approximately 30 minutes.)
If you look closely, you'll see that our fishing pond is actually our "hats and scarves" bin from the closet. What you don't see in these pictures, are the hats and scarves scattered all over the living room floor.
"I daught a fis!"
On nice days, we like to open up the front door and be the official greeters as we eat lunch.
And I like to stand behind them, snap pictures, and think of how blessed this life is.
A few weeks ago, Jared was out of town for a conference and I took the kids strawberry picking. I was interested to see how the day would go, because berry picking can sometimes be lots of fun. And sometimes, not so much. We tend to be marathon pickers, and go for hours on end, picking relentlessly until we've gotten a somewhat acceptable quantity. This day? Was awesome. The kids picked with me, for as long as their little selves could without getting bored. Luckily, the playground was just across the field from where I was, and I felt comfortable sending them over there to play while I powered through the berry patch. It worked out great. We ended up with about 26 lbs of strawberries and 5 lbs of cherries. A stop at McDonald's on the way home for such patient behavior, and then this happened...
... about 30 seconds before I pulled into the driveway.
In case you are wondering what 26 lbs of strawberries and 5 lbs of cherries looks like.
In our house, the awesomeness of a day can often be determined by the dirtiness of little feet.
These pictures were Leah's idea. She was super excited for me to take a picture of all the berries while she gleefully stuffed her face with them.
By this point Isaac was all berried out and refused to participate.
Jared recently purchased a bunch of equipment to do all-grain beer brewing. (For more details on all-grain versus extract brewing--which is what he was doing-- you'll have to ask him.) From what I've gathered, all-grain brewing takes more time and makes a bigger mess. But maybe I'm just bitter since I'm not able to currently reap the benefits of his brewing escapades. :) We had a few large boxes in the house and I let the kids go buck-nutty with them.
If you ask me, this is the best box of goodies I could ever receive.
It all started out mild, and then things got a wee bit crazy. (And then the website stopped aligning my text. That happened too.)
I'm pretty sure these boxes lingered in our house for almost a month, with various activities and uses for them. (Tunnels, forts, houses, etc.)
Stay tuned-- more posts to come!!
