They Say It's My Birthday

In honor of my 34th birthday...33 years ago today. Some things never change.
homemade pizza for supper...365 pizza crust, Eden Organic pizza sauce, grated zucchini (a great way to hide a vegetable - grate zucchini or squash on pizza), spinach, tomatoes, pinto beans (not usually a pizza topper but I had lots of extras left over), red bell pepper, green and black olives, broccoli, artichokes, Tofurky kielbasa, Yves meatless pepperoni, and Vegan Gourmet cheddar and mozzarella

chocolate mousse pie - Wholly Wholesome Organic Spelt pie crust. In food processor, blend two packages of firm or extra firm silken tofu, melt 2 cups (I actually didn't measure, something like that) chocolate chips (I mixed chocolate and carob chips) in microwave then blend with tofu and a few teaspoons of agave nectar. I ground up extra chips in food processor to crumble on top...Soyatoo and strawberries on the side.

I had some help blowing out my candles. I had to cup my hands over my candle to keep the little anxious blowers away until I'd completed my birthday wish. Birthday wishes are very important to me.

Library Fun

Enjoying lots of fun activities at the library this summer, as usual. Here are a couple... Sand Art

He could not have had a bigger smile on his face the entire time he was riding.

The other two stood in line but chickened out at the last second.

They also played with bunnies, ducks, and goats.

Giveaway, Camera Straps, and Emmy Award Nominees Hang Here

A few things...here is a giveaway that I'm trying to win. I'm DETERMINED to win a giveaway one of these days. Weird,Unsocialized Homeschoolers reviewed the online version of Jumpstart. Tornado loves the JumpStart cd-roms, and after looking around at JumpStart.com, I know the kids would enjoy it, as well. I think it's only $7.99 a month for a family membership.

I love my new camera straps I bought from my photographer friend Karie (who I went to college with). They're much cuter than having Canon across my chest. Check them out here and buy one!

Here's something I was particularly excited about. Those of you who didn't see, Tornado recently celebrated his 9th b-day with a Fetch! Ruff Ruffman party. Fetch! is a fun show on PBS Kids. He LOVES this show and has wanted a Fetch! party for two years. I noticed last week that Ruff Ruffman HIMSELF left a comment on my blog post. Well, it was actually Jim Conroy, who does the voice of Ruffman. An Emmy-nominated actor/writer left a comment on my blog! I figured, at first, it might just be someone like Uncle Andy, leaving a fun message for Tornado. But I googled "Fetch Ruff Ruffman Birthday", and my post came up - as well as another blog about a kid who had a Fetch! party, and he'd left a comment on that one, too. So if it was really him, I just think that was SUPER nice of him to take the time to do that, and you wouldn't believe how much Tornado and I both SQUEALED with delight.

I'm behind on posting about our learning activities, etc. Here are just a couple of "moments" around here.
Dash was getting more familiar with letters by matching the magnetic letters to the flashcards.

Sissy was playing "upside-down" memory - finding matches with the cards turned face up.

Cousins Weekend

Another fun weekend with my brother and his family...Matt and Michele didn't tell the kids where they were headed Friday night. They gave them clues and let them guess until they finally pulled into our driveway, about 2 1/2 hours away. Sounds like a great Friday Night Mystery to me!

Uncle Matt was good for lots of playtime/wrestling. Sissy was especially attached to Matt this weekend.
Saturday we went to Little Rock. After they all ate lunch, we met them downtown at the farmers' market.

Sissy loves her watermelon.

After the farmers' market, we stopped by to see Tracy at the new restaurant where she works.

That night, Matt and Michele, in a rare move, went out with only baby Pierson and let us babysit the kids. We went for a long walk/ride around Googie and Papaw's neighborhood.

Papaw, with Sissy and Clara

The next day, they were all over fun Uncle Matt again. It never gets old.

While we made burritos/tacos, Tracy and Michele took them outside for some water balloon fun. Mexican food has always been a weekly event (at least once a week) in my parents' home, since I was little. The past couple of years it has become typical for us to do it on Sundays, and it has gained the name, "Sunday Burrito Sunday." (after U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday)

Ryan got to take his turn playing "Volcano Monster." Not sure where that term came from, but the kids are ALL about playing Volcano Monster. Saturday night, when Owen didn't realize Ryan wouldn't be coming over (because he had to work), he said in his sweet, little voice, "I can't wait until Uncle Ryan gets here so we can play Volcano Monster." Yeah, that's Ryan under the sheet, pulling Dash into his lair.
offering a pillow for the Volcano Monster to eat

Watermelon Unit

One of the sites I love, ABC and 123 (a great place to share ideas and gain inspiration for early learning), asked for watermelon activity ideas. It reminded me of the Watermelon Unit Tornado and I did years ago so I thought I would share. We culminated the unit with a Watermelon Party. I sent invitees (Daddy, Tornado, and Dash) an invitation on watermelon paper. They were instructed to wear red or green.

I made a Delicious Choices cheesecake. This was a company that used to sell vegan cheesecakes online. We occasionally ordered them. Tornado and I would both be so giddy, receiving a cheesecake on our doorstep. We'd immediately start digging in (no plates, just our own forks). Sadly, they stopped selling them, but for awhile, they sold the recipes online, which Ryan bought for me one Christmas. It seems the website is no longer valid, but here is a link to the recipes. I covered half of it in strawberry sauce and added chocolate chip "seeds."

We also ate - what else - watermelon, both red and yellow, at the party.

Decorations included green streamer vines hanging from the ceiling and red watermelon balloons with seeds drawn on them. Aren't my big boys so little?

At our next watermelon party, I would make these Watermelon Sherbert Smoothies. I had saved this recipe from Family Fun magazine. Here is the online version.

I had bought the book Wild About Watermelons (which is recommended for K-2, but we focused on the younger activities at the time) at a used curriculum sell, which is what originally inspired our studies.

Here, Tornado wrote out all of the words he could read at the time onto watermelon paper. I also remember making a watermelon clock. He painted a paper plate red. I drew little seed shapes around the plate, and he wrote in the numbers. I put clock hands in the center with a brad, and he could practice telling time.

Another math activity we did was basic fractions (1/2, 1/3, and 1/4). We cut out oval watermelon shapes and cut them into the appropriate fractions, then tried it with real watermelon.

An idea taken from the book. I cut the picnic basket out of a large painting Tornado had done, and he decorated it with fruit stickers we had. The names of different foods are written on the strips with velcro dots on the back to stick on the basket. He could also match the strips with pictures of the food and put the words in ABC order. There is also a watermelon dot-to-dot, from the book, hanging on the door. The book contains a reproducible booklet for the story, "Wild About Watermelons," and literature-based activities for these books:

Chestnut Cove by Tim Egan

Watermelon Day by Kathy Appelt.

He helped me twist the bulletin board paper to make the watermelon rind. He cut paper plates in half, then painted them into watermelons. Here is a link to more watermelon activities (sure my kids would love to have a watermelon seed spitting contest):

Watermelon Activity Ideas

There is a watermelon story by Michelle A. Pate I had tore out of Highlights magazine and happened to have in my "watermelon" file. Here is an online version:

Watermelon Fever

Mmm. I think I'm going to go eat some watermelon.

Blanchard Springs Caverns

Update: If you're stopping by from Field Trip Friday, we will be out of town; I won't have time to post about a new trip. Here is a visit to one of our favorite places in Arkansas.

We enjoyed having Daddy off for the 3-day weekend. Friday, we decided to go to Blanchard Springs, which is about two hours away. The only down side is how carsick Tornado and I always get. Practically any place we want to go in Arkansas gets the two of us feeling awful (but luckily, we never throw up). It doesn't help that we are the two that like to read in the car.

We had to stop at the Wal-Mart in Mountain View to buy Sissy a pair of shoes. Somehow she made it into the car without any. I'm not pointing any fingers. ;)

We found a lovely place to enjoy our picnic lunch and had a superb day.

It was really hot outside, and it was wonderful to step into the 58 degree cave. Tornado LOVED the tour. We chose the easier Dripstone Trail tour.

Dash enjoyed it, too, but he wasn't always quiet when the guide was speaking. He only got called out once for touching the cave wall, which was the biggest cave rule; it can damage the whole cave ecosystem apparently. Leave it to my son. In his defense, an adult man also got scolded once, as well.

Halfway through the one hour tour, Sissy had pretty much lost her patience. She was tired and thirsty. She wouldn't stop saying, "I want my juice."

It was impossible to get a picture to capture the cavern's amazingness, but if you're that interested, you can see a picture here. I literally said, "Wow!!" when we stepped inside.

There was a pretty good little museum to enjoy while we were waiting on our cavern tour time. The boys are now fascinated by bats, and we are starting a little bat unit because of their interest from this trip. Of course, they loved the huge piles of bat guano in the cave.

A little piece of trivia for you because I just looked it up to make sure I was getting it right: A cave is "any cavity in the ground that does not receive direct sunlight." A cavern is a specific type of cave. So a cavern could also be called a cave, but a cave isn't always a cavern. Got it?

We also watched a very informative/educational short film about the cave's formation/history.

We went swimming next. Here they are playing the Daddy-invented game, "Float the Rock." The goal was to land little rocks onto the big rock.

Dash could go swimming in the creek every day. He was right in his element.

He was the last one to exit the water at the end of the day.

There were signs at the main swimming area declaring the area closed due to unsafe water conditions (e coli). Is it weird that there were so many people swimming there anyway? I don't know how all that works.

The people at the visitor's center directed us to a different swimming area, which had apparently tested safe. Even so, we pleaded with the kids to keep the water out of their mouths as much as possible, just to be safe. This is my ever-so-obedient 4 year old, filling his mouth with water, even as we were begging, "Don't put the water in your mouth! You're going to get diarrhea!"

This did not phase him. Thankfully, it's been a week, and I guess he made it, unharmed. :0

"A good time was had by all..."

Clearly.

Visit Live the Adventure to read about other fun "field trips."

4th of July

Found my memory card and card reader. They were far apart from one another, underneath Dash's bed. It's amazing I found it because their room is not tidy. So glad I spent time rummaging through the disgusting kitchen trash last night in my desperate search. :0Better late than never - our "4th" pictures. Saturday, we went to the Frontier Fourth of July celebration at the Arkansas Historic Museum. We'd never visited this museum before even though I pass it, coming off the interstate almost every week. I was surprised how big the property really is because it just seemed like a tiny building tucked into downtown. There are restored historic homes to tour, live gardens, and actors dressed up 19th century style. You wouldn't believe how many attempts it took to get this photo. And Dash insisted on standing behind the flag, and Sissy insisted on posing like that.

There were three craft tables set up. They decorated their own flags and streamers (wrapping party streamers around toilet paper rolls). Here they are decorating "fans."

There was watermelon and lemon-aid to enjoy...there are more cute pictures of them on the Arkansas Democrat Gazette website. Here are a couple of links...click here or here, and there are a few others, as well.

Dash was amazing in the sack races (Tornado, bless his heart, not so much.) He took off, and there was no slowing him down.

Tornado did enjoy learning how to properly stand at attention, hold his weapon, and march in the militia. They also played in a spoon/water relay and practiced walking with stilts.

After our day at the Frontier celebration, we ate supper out, then decided to go home. We had planned on staying downtown for the fireworks celebration, but it honestly always turns into one of those things we do for the kids because we think we should - like we WANT them to enjoy it, but they don't really care either way. We decided they would have a better time picking out a few fun things at the fireworks tent and going home. Always my favorite - the black snakes. Aren't those things the coolest?

The kids loved their little race cars that zoomed across the driveway after being lit. We also had quite a good time with the little poppers.

Post fireworks treat...Raspberry flavored Natural Desserts Vegan Jel, which was full of fresh, chopped strawberries and blueberries and Soyatoo whipped cream on the side. A yummy alternative to bone/connective tissue Jello. (just sayin') :)

Search for the Lost Memory Card

Wish I could show you what a fun weekend we had, but I've been hunting my camera memory card for two days. It is plugged into the little usb adaptor. I am pretty sure I unhooked the little adaptor from the computer cord and set it on the homeschool table. I even thought to myself, "I shouldn't leave it there," but lazily thought I'll come back and put it somewhere else in a minute. I've been looking everywhere...inside all the toy bins, in the couch cushions, drawers, trash can...it looks like just the thing one of the boys would take off with, pretending it is an airplane or something. Currently, I am offering a $5 reward to the child who finds it.

On a lighter note, Tornado just read the book Bye-bye, Mom and Dad by Mercer Mayer. The little critters' parents go out of town, and Grandma and Grandpa babysit. Little Critter makes a special lunch - peanut butter and pickle sandwiches with potato chips, marshmallows, and chocolate syrup on top. After supper tonight, Tornado became very determined to make his own sandwich like this. I kept trying to dissuade him, and he pleaded. We replaced tortilla chips for the potato chips and whipped cream for marshmallows...Dash ate his sandwich (which was 1/4 of an actual sandwich), and Sissy ate a few bites. Tornado took a couple of bites, then said he was done. I said, "Oh, no - you wanted it; now you're going to eat it." He did his best, trying to force it down. I let him off the hook after a few more bites.

St. Louis Trip - New Nephew!

I am a week behind posting about my fun trip to St. Louis. I was in sort of an internet slump, for some reason. I'm back, though. And I'm sorry I haven't mastered the art of a short blog post yet. I'll work on it. My sister was having her second baby last Friday, and Tornado and I drove up there to take care of my niece, Winnie, and dog-nephew, Puddy, while they were at the hospital. We left Thursday and stayed until Sunday.As if it wasn't enough getting to spend time with my family and staying in a super cool loft in a fun city, Cary and Andy also gifted me with a Whole Foods gift card, a pretty scarf, and these cool silver-plated flowers (in their new home on my table). Not to mention - yummy, homemade strawberry muffins. Thank you so much, you guys.
I'm fairly sure I wasn't supposed to post a picture of Cary in her pajamas/Andy's boxers, but I'm overruling that because she looks super cute (cuter and skinnier than I've ever looked pregnant) - and it's the best picture to showcase her gargantuan stomach.

Tornado was - let's be honest - pretty psyched about having a little peace and quiet for a few days. Surprisingly, staying with a dog and a 15 month old was much quieter than a house with a 2 year old and 4 year old. They enjoyed lots of wagon rides and Winnie-type play, such as wheeling the shopping cart around and filling it with random objects.

It's hard to resist a 600,000 square foot museum/indoor-outdoor playground (with a bus hanging off the roof) that can be seen right outside your window. Tornado was hopping up and down, chanting, "Museum, here we come!" over and over all morning...until we finally got there (first delayed because I realized I hadn't brought my credit card, and we had to walk back to get it).

It was actually a little hard trying to keep up with Tornado. They have these metal cages and slides that span several stories, and I sort of panicked a few times, racing around with Winnie in her stroller, guessing where he may have exited. We stayed a couple of hours, then went home for lunch and a nap, then back later for another couple of hours. I left the stroller behind the second time, determined to hold onto Winnie and follow Tornado through whatever route he chose to go. (My knees got a little sore, but all in the name of fun.) As much as he loved crawling through all the mazes and enchanted tunnels, his favorite part was probably Art City. He stayed for a long time, helping the lady work on a magazine mosaic of the sun.

I wish my entire house looked like the inside of the City Museum. You feel like you're in this bizarre Alice in Wonderland type world; it's fascinating. It's really amazing how everything is reclaimed/recycled - and honestly, potentially a little dangerous, which is kind of refreshing to experience, in this sign-a-release/lawsuit crazy world we live in.

Winnie was clearly delighted to eat at the vegan restaurant, Vegadeli, in Chesterfield. :)
This is what we ordered to share...BBQ "Cheddar" veggie burger, sweet potatoes with apples and raisins, macaroni and "cheese", and nachos. We ended up going back the next day, too, (hee, hee) and ordered more macaroni (good stuff!), a "tuna" sandwich (made from seaweed and garbanzo beans - quite tasty), and lasagna (Winnie was a wild woman going after that one.).

We got up Saturday morning and headed to the hospital to meet Winnie's new brother! Unfortunately, I discovered that I left my camera memory card back at the loft so I didn't get to document my very first meeting with my nephew, sigh. We next headed to the Museum of Transportation. (I let Tornado choose our outing, and that's what he picked.) I bought a disposable camera in the gift shop. Tornado was very agreeable this trip, posing for pictures. Winifred, despite my many "Turn around, Winnie! Woo-hoo, look over here!" pleas, can often be seen in the pics, standing backwards or walking out of the shot.

The highlight of the museum trip was the ride on the train (and the ride on the tram that took us to the train). Very fun stuff for both of them. Here, they are just posing on the engineer's seat, and Winnie was not sure how she felt about that. We sat in the very back seat in front of the conductor, and the highlight for Tornado was calling out, "All aboard," into the microphone.

If you click on this picture, you can see the bird (sorry, I'm not up on my ornithology, not sure what kind of bird) guarding her eggs that were next to the tracks. It was so sweet. When the train started up, she'd pace excitedly until it was out of the way again.

Baby Rush, weighing in at 9.7 pounds. (See earlier photo of Cary's stomach.) That's how much Sissy weighed, but I didn't have to push her out. Go, Cary! We come from a big baby family. I weighed 9.12, and Cary weighed 10-something. After lunch, a nap at home, and a quick supper at Whole Foods plus little jaunt into Borders, we went back to the hospital for another visit.

lollipop buddies!

I love having nieces and nephews. I'm not just saying that. I won't be able to have the number of children I'd really love to have, which would be a houseful, so it does soften it to know I have so many special kids in my family altogether. Rush was #9 on my side of the family. (Just 1 other on Ryan's side; get to work, guys!)

glad to be back in Momma's arms

Sunday morning, we decided to sneak in a little trip to the Arch before "Mom and Dad" got home. Tornado had never been to the top before, and he obviously loves a good museum.
me and Winnie, in the Museum of Westward Expansion, which is located underneath the Arch

Winnie wasn't overly impressed with the museum. However, there WERE steps to go up and down, so she was happy as can be.

Again, Winnie is more interested in learning about "the builders" than my picture taking.

There was a slightly long-for-a-15-month-old wait (not to mention an eager 9 year old) to get into the elevator. (The wait really wasn't as long as I expected - maybe 30 minutes.) However, we eventually got to more steps - yes!

Tornado was giddy with excitement while we were waiting.

On the way up in the elevator, Winnie cozied right up to the man sitting next to her. No worries - he was a sweet Papaw/Sir type.

Winnie's first view out the Arch window

This teenager started talking to Tornado after hearing his excited narration of everything he was seeing. I thought it was really sweet of him to engage with Tornado. The teenager even told him, "See - that's Busch Stadium. I'm going to play there one day."

first father and son nap in the recliner together...Andy and Rush, home at last