Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Dragon Bread







Today is Michaelmas and Lexi's friend, Sophie, came over to join us in our circle time and baking dragon bread. Hmmm ... looks like the making of two pastry chefs ... especially the little touch of flour on Sophie's nose ;-) Baking is so much more fun with our friends over!

Monday, September 28, 2009

Thanks Aunt Susan











Aunt Susan made Boo Boo a beautiful sweater for an early birthday present. Boo Boo LOVES it and has worn it about four days in a row now ;-)

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Friday, September 25, 2009

Michaelmas Festival at Sea Star




We celebrated Michaelmas with all our friends at Sea Star. Boo Boo loves the wooden see-saw. Also, here she is with Ms. Beth shooting the bow and arrow. What a wonderful day!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Marigold Capes for Michaelmas











What a fun time of year! We picked marigolds from our garden, removed the petals and soaked them overnight. The next day, we boiled the petals for a while and then strained them out. This left a beautiful, golden liquid to which we added salt. We stirred well and then add a new white silk scarf and allowed it to soak all day and all night ... stirring frequently. The next morning ... a beautiful yellow scarf that we turned into a cape of courage. Boo Boo was so excited about the whole process and loved dancing and parading around in her glorious cape!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Making Dragon Cookies for Michaelmas


Boo Boo and her friend Sophie making dragon cookies. Yummy! Well ... at least they looked good. This was not a "keeper" as Boo Boo puts it. Oh well, some vegan cookie recipes just don't quite taste that good ;-)

Friday, September 18, 2009

Week One of Kindergarten

Well, the first week of Kindergarten is behind us and we had a wonderful time! We opened the week with a new tradition of measuring Boo Boo's height and then enjoyed a wonderful breakfast together. After our breakfast cleanup and morning chores, we headed off on our nature walk throughout the neighborhood, our backyard and the park. When we returned, we had a nice snack before starting our circle time. This theme for the week is APPLES. We had a few long time favorites for songs and some new ones. One of Boo Boo's favorites is "The Apple Man". But, nothing will top our newest addition to circle time: our clapping song and rhythm game (Boo Boo calls it the "pennywhistle game". For our clapping song, we sing "Peas, Porridge, Hot" and clap our hands together twice and with each other twice throughout the song. It's not as easy as it sounds but Boo Boo picked it up quickly and loved it. We had a couple trials with "Abigail" and "Teddy" before Boo Boo was comfortable with it ;-) Then, with mommy playing the pennywhistle, we played a game of dancing around the table and freezing when the music stops. When we recap our day (during our bedtime routine), Boo Boo says this is her absolute favorite part of the day. She is so cute when she "freezes" ;-) Mommy's pennywhistle skills are improving, so that is always a help (thanks Jodie for your wonderful curriculum!!!). Next, we had our story, "The Apple Star". In this story a little boy goes on a journey to find a little red house, with no doors, no windows, and a star inside. You can imagine his wonder filled eyes when he realizes the big red apple he hands to his mommy is just that. As his mommy cuts open the apple to reveal the star, his eyes light up! So, did Boo Boo's!!! That apple tasted even yummier after the story. Then we headed to the kitchen (Tuesday is Baking Day). We made homemade pie crust and cut lots of apples to reveal their stars. The result ... yummy homemade apple pie! Wednesday is Painting Day, so after our circle time and story, we headed to the kitchen again to soak our painting paper for wet-on-wet watercolor painting. This time, the yellow fairy played all over our papers and filled them with beautiful, playing, sunny yellow! Thursday is Handiwork and Seasonal Arts and Crafts Day. During our nature walk, we found hundreds of immature acorns all around our yard ... not a common sight here. The only reason for these acorns laying around our yarn, was that the tree trimmers had just visited and quite agressively thinned up our oak trees in the front yard. "Squire" and "Bo-Bo" (are two squirrels that live in these trees) were not pleased and barked quite a bit about it. However, we thought of a few things to do with the little acorns ... acorn babies, felt acorns ... fun stuff!!! We hope you enjoy the photos of our first week of Kindergarten as much as we enjoyed the fun of creating it all!

Baking Pie







BooBoo really put a lot of effort into rolling her dough!

A little dishwashing afterwards


A little snack while we wait for the pie


Apple Pie! Even mini ones with our initials!











Wet-on-Wet Watercolor Painting - YELLOW!


South Florida's version of Acorns


Circle Time Outdoors







Tuesday, September 15, 2009

FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN


I was laying awake this morning at 5AM, trying to get Boo Boo back to sleep. Yes, 5AM! Most days she's up a bit before 6, but not today. I guess she was too excited to sleep ;-) While I was laying there quietly, I was thinking about the day before us ... Boo Boo's first day of Kindergarten. Wow ... it really hit me ... this is the only "first day of Kindergarten" we'll have. This is the day! So, I was going through my mind, thinking about all I had planned for the day. One thing I knew is that I wanted to capture as much of it as possible on film. Also, I was thinking about traditions. One thing that came to mind was just how fast she's growing! Hmmm, maybe getting Daddy to finally put up her growth chart this morning and measuring Boo Boo would be fun. She has been begging for us to put up that chart since we moved into this house ;-) As you can see in the picture, she is really enjoying the process of discovering just how BIG she is ... 3 1/2 feet tall!

Saturday, September 12, 2009

WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING




Well, "Kindergarten" was supposed to start for us last Tuesday, September 8th, right after Labor Day. I have been planning, preparing, memorizing songs, verses, stories, making puppets, practicing my beeswax coloring, wet on wet watercoloring painting, learning the penny whistle ... I was ready :-) Hmmmm ... but the house WAS NOT! As things go in south Florida, work on houses does not usually start when planned, go as planned, and certainly not finished when planned ;-) So, my house was in the midst of having all the doors and baseboards painted and our glass tile added to the kitchen walls. Not the greatest time to begin. Instead, we decided to postpone our grand start to kindergarten until the 15th. However, we have still been quite busy crafting and getting the house ready for (drum roll please) ... AUTUMN!!!! Yeah!!!! I can feel the cool, crisp breeze in the air already and I can see leaves turning and just smell the apples ready to be picked and the pumpkins ... oh, yes, I guess I was dreaming. Not here in south Florida. It is still hot, steamy, stormy and very much like the tropics. But, a girl can dream. To get into the spirit, Boo Boo and I made Autumn leaves from wool roving, using cookies cutters, some soap and water. What fun!! Also, if you take a close look, you can see my little 1 X 1 glass tiles in the background ... the house is finally starting to look like a home.

SHE WILL BE MY BABY FOREVER



So, I had a dream one night that Boo Boo was still a little baby ... sniff, sniff ... and then I woke up ... sniff, sniffle. It was just a dream, and yes, time has really flown by. She is almost 4 years old! Don't get me wrong, I want her to grow and thrive ... but, does it have to happen so fast??? So, you have to know just how heart wrenching it was to see her trying on her very first pair of baby shoes, saying, "Mommy, see I can still wear them!". Oh, sometimes I wish ;-) but each day brings so much joy and new adventures ...

Friday, September 11, 2009

FUN PENGUIN




Boo Boo's dear friend Sophie will turn 3 this week and she LOVES penguins. So, I thought I would try my hand at making a little penguin. After creating the little guy, I thought he needed a home ... hmmm ... making an igloo wasn't as easy as I had planned. But, I figured it out. Boo Boo is so excited to give Sophie her little penguin. I am surprised she hasn't told Sophie about it yet ;-) Happy Birthday Sophie!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Seasonal Tree


Okay, so I finished my latest project ... our seasonal tree for our nature table. It was quite fun to make and I know it will be something Boo Boo will love to assist with in the future. However, there was so much punching and poking with that very sharp, barbed needle, that I felt it was much safer to work on this project at night while Boo Boo was sleeping. As of tomorrow, it will rest in the center of our dining table because we haven't quite found another good spot for our nature table/display. I will leave off the apples to start with and Boo Boo will be surprised with a grand green tree ready for us to magically embelish. I thought, after starting our new circle time and story (all about apples) next week, Boo Boo and I could create little apples together and place them on the tree. Here is a pic with a few little apples I made to get us started. As the seasons evolve, we will adapt our tree throughout the year ... oooh ... I'm getting excited for little pumpkins already!