A Hike Around The Lake

Having kids is an adventure. Every single day with them is adventurous. Thrilling and exhausting. We could stay home and do nothing, yet amazing things still happen. Out and about, it's that much more exciting and amazing. And did I say exhausting? Today was no exception. We decided to hike around Round Lake today. The first half of the hike was energetic and fun. We discovered interesting things in nature the entire time! Mushroom, bugs, decomposing leaves, the songs of birds and frogs, how fast we can run uphill....and then, going downhill just about half way around the lake, we discovered what it's like when Esperanza's face and body hits the ground unexpectedly after tripping over a small rock. We sat in the middle of the trail for about 20 minutes while Esperanza sobbed and clung to me. She was wet and muddy. Cold and tired. Scraped and hurt. I had no band-aids to make her feel better, no warm clean clothes to re-dress her in. No stroller or baby carrier to carry her. It was a tough thing for her to accept these things, get back up and continue the long trek the rest of the way around the lake. 

We made it. And when we got home, the kids took a nice warm bath.

Our Thanksgiving Tree

Every day, during the month of November, the kids write one thing they are thankful for onto a leaf and we hang it onto this tree. We call it our Thanksgiving Tree. Esperanza and I started it a little over a week into November so she got to fill out several leaves in one day so we could catch up and fill up the tree a bit. I built the tree with construction paper and she helped cut out leaves (a great project while Ezra was napping). Esperanza has been thankful for all sorts of things, from honey to dolphins. I tell her how to spell the word, and she writes it on the leaf. Ezra comes up with things he is thankful for each day as well. He picks out a leaf from the basket, I write the word on the leaf, Esperanza gets the tape and he sticks it to the tree. 

I am forever thankful for these precious little gifts of mine!

Evenings With Ezra

Ezra is a night owl. Every evening, around 8 o'clock, the kids and I go about our bedtime routine. Then we all climb into bed, the lights go out, Ezra nurses for a few minutes aaaaaand then he gets up and leaves the room. While he has a little Daddy time, I lay with Esperanza until she drifts off into dream land. Then I get up, and I spend the rest of the evening with Ezra until he finally wants to go to asleep, usually around 11. 

This isn't just sometimes, this is nearly every single night. The only exception is when he doesn't nap, which is once every other week or so. I do enjoy and treasure this time alone with Ezra, but I also can not wait until the transition to no naps is complete and I get evenings without kids.

For now, we keep busy during the late evening hours with various different activities like puzzles, blocks, nesting dolls, legos, books, bubbles, the marble run, tea and cookies and whatever else we can find that is quiet and entertaining.

 I guess we didn't even bother putting jammies on him this evening

And a video

My Dad's Guitar

My favorite (and only) Aunt Marti gifted me my biological dads guitar. She got it all packed up and sent it via UPS all the way from Ohio! My mom says she remembers my dad having this guitar before they got together and married, so it's been around awhile. Marti took it to Woodstock back in the 60's and played it often. I have memories of my dad playing this guitar when I was a little girl. It's a pretty special thing and a prized possession of mine now. 

When the UPS guy arrived at our house to deliver it, I jumped with joy knowing what it was. The kids (we had a house full of people and kids) all enjoyed playing with the packing peanuts while I held the guitar and re-lived some memories. It needs a good cleaning, tuning and possibly some other small repairs, but overall, for it's age, it's in great shape! I have NO idea how to play it though. One day, I will take it in to get it all fixed up and take a lesson or two on how to play it. For now, it's beautiful as it is and I'm grateful to have inherited something so special and meaningful to remind me of my dad.

I'll be finding peanuts in my house forever now

Children's Museum With The Biggi's

We met Cyndi, Tony and Roman at the Children's Museum the other day. They added us to their membership so we only had to pay a small amount to get in. It's a drive for us, so we rarely go. But when we do, the kids have a ton of fun. This day, we visited the clay room where we spent a good amount of time. The kids crafted many different shapes out of clay and I got creative and made a little cat. Esperanza (being the cat lover she is) immediately fell in love and insisted we fire it. We had to leave it, plus a small fee, and we'll pick it up in a few weeks. After we left the clay area, we listened to a few stories, played in the construction zone area (where Ezra threw a shovel and almost hit a woman in the head), got our hands wet in the water section and then headed home. All the fun we had wore the kids out and Ezra napped all the way home.

Homeschooling Adventures In October

Since homeschooling by definition tends to include experiences at 'home', I'm limiting this post to include just the days, projects, stories and pictures at home in October. All other activities, like ACE, dance, music, parks, field trips, 'play dates' with friends and the numerous other extra curricular activities will saved for other blog posts. We do so much outside of the house, that this homeschooling thing is beginning to make this home-body-mama second guess her supposedly stay at home mama homeschooling gig. Not really, but I certainly have a mouth full of answers for those who ask the popular "what about socialization" question.

For now, here is a short glimpse into our home-homeschooling adventures we had in October.

Shape shadow boxes

 Esperanza has a journal notebook. We use it for various types of writing/illustrating. Sometimes, she'll draw a picture of something representing a book we just read, and then write a word or phrase below the picture. Other times, she'll draw a picture of something we are learning about. Here, she is drawing a picture of a hummingbird, one of the animals we spent some time researching and learning about. Below her picture, she wrote something short below it.

 They cook too! So much learning goes on just during the few minutes it takes to make pancakes. 

 My vacuuming fairy visited me

 I'm trying to get and stay organized. Trying is the key word. It's a struggle for me.

 Pop-up books are so cool

 We've recently taken up needle felting. One of the neatest crafts I've ever discovered!!!

Ezra looking at some picture books

Quilt squares for Esperanza's future Kindergarten quilt. These ones turned out beautiful!!

October's art door. It gets pretty overcrowded.

Just some 'educational' materials we borrowed from the library. Lots of info on apples, pumpkins, fall, leaves, the human body, hummingbirds, history, fairies, horses, phonics, polar bears, and other random interests the kids had.

We did many fall themed activities and baking this month. Here we did stamps with apples then we baked pumpkin muffins with maple syrup icing. Yum!

My first attempt at 'zen tangling'. Esperanza did one as well (below this picture).

Fun with the marble run (motions, gravity, physics, engineering...that covers science for the day)

Oh sweet sleep

 After dance class school work by the candle. We light a candle when we begin our work, it's a nice transition and it does help keep us focused and grounded with what we are doing.

 Shapes, colors, words and picture magnets. 

 We did a small 'unit study' on the Human Body this month. As a fun project, we decided to trace our bodies with chalk and draw our skeletons inside. Did you know we have 206 bones? And 650 muscles. Fun stuff!

tube knitting

 Human body, fables, seasonal, flower fairies...

 Good 'ol educational dvd's

 The kids LOVE this farm and will play with it for hours. A huge favorite!

How many Legos does did doll weigh?

 Adding/subtracting number/picture magnets

Esperanza helps me made apple butter in the crock pot then can in the next day. Best stuff ever. 

Mailing a homemade birthday card to a friend

Love us some lego play time