Bosom Buddies June 27, 2008

Our friends Ehlayna, and Ethan came over today! We had a relaxing, jubilant day filled with:

• GeoTrax! Elijah hasn’t played with these in quite a while (with all the floor improvements going on, we kept having to take down his tracks- I think that got frustrating). When he heard Ethan was coming over, he immediately wanted to do it up Geo style. We all helped to make this super-duper track and all the kids were zooming their trains around.

• Splashing! The spa is always a hit because the kids can touch the bottom. It was full again today with lots of raucous good times.

• Guy love! Elijah and Ethan are such good friends. They are both so sweet and mesh really well. The boys had a great day for sure.

• Fishes. Sadie wants to be a big girl like Ehlayna (to pronounce this like Sadie, it must sound like this: Eeelayna) so off came the floatie- which she prompted me to throw away- and on went the kickboard. The floatie was later called back into play but this was a pretty big step for this little girl! Thanks Eeelayna!

• Popsicles! I have found that nothing makes children happier than frozen juice. Accompany this with a tour of the cactus and succulent garden by Elijah and the day is complete.

Thanks for a wonderful day!

No Way, Ballet June 27, 2008

Sadie has been asking for quite some time to sign up for a ballet class. When I tried, the local rec center was completely booked until the end of the summer. Sadie was devastated. She ran and got a piece of paper and wrote out “Do you want to come to a (I wrote that part for her) BALELT (her letters) at my house?”

So we invited our friends to come do ballet with us at our house. There were so many that wanted to do it, we split up the group into two days. Today’s group was Gretchen, Anna, Jaiden, and Rachel. Sadie was done after a few minutes. It would seem that she would rather be sprinkled with fairy dust and immediately begin gliding gracefully over the floor. Never mind all this stretching and positioning. And here I stayed up all night watching “1st ballet class” videos on YouTube so that I could play the part of ‘ballet teacher.’

It quickly became a pool party and boy was it fun! Here Sadie, Jaiden, Anna, Gretchen, and Rachel pile into the ‘hot’ tub.

Book Worms June 26, 2008

They just couldn’t wait to dig in to the new Amelia Bedelia books from the library.

Fingerprints June 26, 2008

We went to see the smooth jazz and soul band Fingerprints at the town hall. They were fantastic!

Gretchen, Sadie, and Elijah are riveted watching the saxophonist play the longest, most melodic note ever. Christine called it ‘circular breathing.’ I call it awesome- stop ruining it!

Lest you not have enough motion sickness in your life- watch my video! The music is great. The pan of our friends could use some work (or a tripod).

After a bit, we meandered down to the lawn while the kids frolicked to the sweets sounds of smooth jazz and soul.

Wonderful Waffles June 26, 2008

Sadie ran out of the frozen waffles that Daddy didn’t eat while we were in California. This solution-oriented young lady knows how to remedy that situation. These were really yummy (just as yummy thrown in the toaster a day or two later)!

Whole Wheat Waffles

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpoes flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
2 cups milk
1/2 cup butter, melted

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine whole wheat flour, flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar.
2. In another bowl, mix together beaten eggs, milk, and melted butter. Mix well, and add to the flour mixture, beating until combined.
3. Cook in a waffle iron until golden brown.

Pool Party! June 25, 2008

We’re headed to a pool party with our friends at Jenny’s community pool. The day is cool even before the party starts as I pull the car to the side of the road and unload children to check out a big turtle crossing the road. He made it to the woods before I could get my camera but at least the kids got a good view of his crossing.

“I’ve never seen a turtle out in a place like this before,” says Sadie who means not in a cage or enclosure of some sort.

Here he is pretending he’s a rock.

What an incredible pool! Huge pool area with waterfall, 3 small kiddie pool areas (one with a dolphin that squirts water), a shady pavilion area, and bathrooms. What else could we need? Apparently not much because we were there for almost seven (yes 7) hours! Sadie and Elijah spent most of the day chasing (or in Sadie’s case- riding on) Kadence.

What is with these trains?

Baby’s Mamas (back to front)- Kelly holding Alistair with Liam on her right, Ethan and Ehlayna’s Mama (whose babies are older), Christa with Gavin, and Christine with her middle baby Gretchen.

Elijah stands mesmerized as Logan pulls out the remote control boat.

Everyone thought that was pretty cool!

Sadie stops a minute to play with Gavin and Renae. “This baby likes me!”

Then to Jenny’s house to bounce for a few. What fun!

Can’t get enough of the pools. Thanks for an awesome day, Jenny!

Wheels! June 23, 2008

We set off this morning to run an errand and get a little workout for Mama- all at the same time. Did we ever. Check out my marathon blog post for the whole sordid story.

Berries and Frogs- continued… June 23, 2008

Clearly yesterday had quite an effect. Today we started out the day by making frog puppets (as seen on the informative frog website in previous post). Sadie made a party frog and Elijah made a baby girl frog.

Elijah has been insisting since he heard we were going blueberry picking that we use some of the berries to make blueberry pie. I was less than enthusiastic but he was insistent.

I must admit he is quite a baker. That boy made one heck of a blueberry pie. He thoroughly enjoyed it too.

This is the recipe for the crust that we used (complete with pictures- love it!)

Filling (from Betty Crocker online)
3/4	cup sugar
1/2	cup Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1/2	teaspoon ground cinnamon, if desired
6	cups blueberries
1	tablespoon lemon juice
1	tablespoon butter or margarine, if desired

	In large bowl, mix sugar, 1/2 cup flour and the cinnamon. Stir in blueberries. Spoon into pastry-lined pie plate. Sprinkle any remaining sugar mixture over blueberry mixture. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Cut butter into small pieces; sprinkle over blueberries. Cover with top pastry that has slits cut in it; seal and flute. Cover edge with 2- to 3-inch strip of foil to prevent excessive browning.
	Bake 35 to 45 minutes at 425 or until crust is golden brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust, removing foil for last 15 minutes of baking. Cool on cooling rack at least 2 hours.

Sadie is very into lemonade and, having had blueberry lemonade

post picking, requested that we look up a recipe and make our own (I use Google for all recipes (and everything else) rather than cookbooks). The kids are pretty sure one can Google anything (as am I). Here Sadie blocks her ears but remains delighted about her concoction.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup sugar

Directions

1. Add all the ingredients to the container of a blender.

2. Process until smooth.

3. Place or hold a wire-mesh strainer over a pitcher.

4. Pour mixture through the strainer into the pitcher; discard pulp. (We left the pulp in- skins are great for you and it gives it a smoothie texture.)

5. Serve mixture over ice.

Humans Being Podcast- Introduction June 23, 2008

This is an alert to let you know something new is coming your way (and how to get it)!

Direct link to listen to Humans Being- Introduction

Are you ready for a complete shift in life philosophy? To respect your children as the people they are rather than concerning yourself with what they will become? Do you mean it when you say that you will be happy as long as your children are happy- no matter what? These only sound cliche if you aren’t able to recognize that children are capable of directing their own lives. As unschoolers and gentle parents we understand and live this. Humans Being will discuss facets of unschooling and gentle parenting as well as how they relate and work in our family and others. We’ll talk about a variety of unschooling philosophies, literature, and media as well as hearing from unschoolers all over the world who will share their experiences.

A Berry Good Day June 22, 2008

We hit the ground running this morning with a drive out to Sadler, TX to attend Bailey’s Berry Farm’s annual Western Day. We actually went to pick blueberries so the Western Day was an added ‘bonus.’

They’re quite the pickers! Some of our friends were there as well which made it even more fun- especially when the picking got tiring and a game of tag seemed like a better option.

(from left) Ehlayna, Sadie (behind bush), Elijah, and Ethan pick this bush clean. Happy pickers stop for a break on the way back to the car. Snacking on popcorn and blueberry lemonade and very proud of their blueberry take.

After a little TV-induced rest, we went for our daily swim. Elijah and Sadie try to push their kickboards across the pool using the water squirters.

Elijah spotted a toad peeking out of the pool filter (a rather large one on the heels of a tiny one we had found a few minutes before). Coaxed into the pool so we could fish him out with the skimmer, he was a little freaked out but we were delighted to inspect him and determine why he was a toad and not a frog. After some online searching, we think he is a Texas Toad. Though we could not find this type of toad’s particular call, we did listen to many different frog and toad calls (type “frog call” or “toad call” in the search field to listen to several). We found a great site for learning a variety of information about frogs and their life cycle.

Sadie tries on her new ballet duds and does a few leaps and twirls. The class I was going to sign her up for is full for all the summer sessions. So Sadie has decided that we will have ballet class at our house. We have enough friends interested to do two sessions orchestrated by Mama and a library ballet for kids video. Stay tuned!