A Grand Day Out

The kids and I spent some time downtown today.  With Bryan working long hours and being out of town a few times this month, we really needed this fun little outing.  Although a little chilly, it was a beautiful, sunny day!   We had planned to go to the Discovery Center (children's museum) but discovered, just last night, that it is closed on Mondays.  So our day started out at the library.  The kids really enjoyed it as we hadn't been since before Christmas!  (bad mommy)  We checked out tons of books, 2 books on tape, and a few DVD's.  After that, we headed to lunch a Qdoba where the kids enjoyed quesadillas and applesauce and I had yummy tacos.  Since the kids ate well, they also got a brownie for dessert.  Next, Isaac spotted our local comic shop and asked to go inside.  They had a little section labeled "Wholesome Comics" which I thought was nice for the kids.  Izzy found a Lego:  Ninjago comic right away and just had to have it!  He also picked out a Transformers comic.  Lorelai chose Spongebob and Betty and Veronica.  I was surprised that neither of them picked out a Superhero comic.  Moving on, we browsed through two toy stores, The Animal Kingdom and the Growing Tree.  Last, we picked up some big pretzels at he Philadelphia Pretzel Company to have later for dinner.  It was a lovely afternoon.

After our little outing, the kids went upstairs for some room time.  It wasn't long before I heard them in the hallway.  They had set up chairs and pillows and made themselves a Hallway Library.  They spent the majority of room time reading through all the new books and comics! ☺
                                                                                                                     

♥  Happy Valentine's Day!   ♥

We've had a pretty nice Valentine's Day.  The morning started off with strawberry muffins for breakfast, treats, and cards.  After Lore got home from school, we baked our cookies (it's been a long couple of weeks so, yes, I just bought ready to bake cookies).  The kids made their own heart pizzas for dinner which they enjoyed with cucumber slices on the side and sparkling apple cider.  Now we're settling in to watch our specials- Berenstain Bears Comic Valentine and Be My Valentine Charlie Brown as we await Bryan's return from out of town.    XOXOXOXOX

For Izzy.

For Lorelai.

Lorelai's Valentine projects from school. 

The table all ready for the kiddos and strawberry muffins.

One of my Valentines.

And another.

Opening up the goodies.  :)

Making the heart-shaped pizzas for dinner.

Both kids chose pepperoni and black olives.  Yum!

Dessert!

Lorelai's dessert recipe.  She "worked so hard" on it.  Most of the ingredients came from school.

The Berenstain Bears Comic Vallentine (Kids Klassics Verison) (Part 1 of 3)

                                             Happy Valentine's Day!

Lorelai, Isaac James, and the Giant Peach

We've been reading and watching James and the Giant Peach recently.  In one scene, James makes a little hot air balloon out of a bag and a birthday candle.  Isaac always likes to make hot air balloons after seeing that.  So he enlisted my elementary origami skills and this is what we came up with...

Kids in Motion

This past week, Isaac and I were invited to join friends at a local gymnastics gym for a program called Kids in Motion.  It's basically an uninstructed playtime that gives younger kids a chance to use lots of fun equipment.  Isaac had a lot of fun jumping in the foam pit, hopping around on giant foam shapes, running, playing on the parallel bars, and the balance beam!  He decided that the line was too long for the trampoline, maybe next week.  Isaac had a smile on his face the whole time we were there and he didn't want to leave!  We'll probably be making this a weekly activity for him.

 Other pics

I got the kids these cute little camping chairs this week.  They were $5 at Sam's!  They have really been enjoying them and we plan on doing some camping this Spring.

The lovely Lorelai

The 100th Day!

Today marked the 100th day of school for this year!  It's a very big deal in kindergarten.  The kids have been working on counting to one hundred by ones, twos, fives and tens.  They had a party today that included a special trail mix and something to do with the other classes (it is sometimes hard to get all the info out of Lore).  The kids also had to do a project representing 100.  Each child had to make something using 100 somethings.  For example, an igloo made out of 100 sugar cubes or a rainbow made up of 100 Skittles.

Lorelai bounced around quite a few ideas for this project, but finally settled on 100 thoughts.  What a great idea-she fills pages and pages with her ideas!  She drew a picture of herself and surrounded her head with 100 thought bubbles filled with ideas!  We are all very proud of her and all the hard work she put into her poster.  It turned out great!

I lucked out and found these folders with speech (or thought) bubbles printed all over them!  This was a big time saver.

The finished poster!  Lorelai and her 100 thoughts!

Some close-ups:  a nest with blue eggs, family, "What if the sky was pink and the ground was purple?" -just to point out a few.

At the end, Lorelai used her horse stamps to fill in some bubbles.  She does like horses and thinks about riding.

In this one, she wrote some words that she thinks about (which way is the right way to spell?), drew some fruit, taped on a tulip petal, and drew the Hutts (Jabba and 2 children-they're the green, red, and purple sideways "L's").

A lot of "?", cats, rainbows, more words, Africa

In the round bubble-farthest left, she did stripes in different skin tones in reference to Martin Luther King Jr.'s idea that "people of any skin color are perfect".  And I also like the rectangular bubble, lower-left.  It's a though about what lives underground.  She colored the bubble brown, drew a black worm tunnel, and there is a pink worm, although hard to see.

Oh, I Got A Day Named After Me...

...Feb-ru-ary two!  That's the day that I decide what the weather's gonna do."

HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!

The whole family was up this morning in time to see Punxsutawney Phil emerge from his oak stump on Gobblers Knob.  He did see his shadow and so has predicted 6 more weeks of winter.  I want to say "Ugh", but so far, this winter hasn't been so bad.  We've only had one big snow and it's been sunny and around 50 degrees the last few days.  I hope that we won't get hit hard in these next 6 weeks. 

In celebration of Groundhog Day, the kids had some friends over to play and make groundhog cupcakes.  I think they all had fun and I know they enjoyed eating the treats!  I also made our now traditional meal of whistle pigs-in-a-blanket for the family for dinner.  Yum!

Lorelai and I made these.  The ones that kids did earlier were eaten before I could get pictures.

Graham cracker dirt, Almond Joy groundhog, mini M&Ms for ears and cheeks, and icing for nose, teeth, eyes, and "glue"

Lore had this idea to look like she was thinking.  She insisted the picture be posted-done.

 

Jack Frost

This is another favorite special of mine and one of the two that I know of for Groundhog Day.  (The other being Groundhog Day)  It's really about Jack Frost but is narrated by Pardon Me Pete, the weather forecasting groundhog.  His adorable song, I've Got A Day Named After Me starts at the 39 minute mark.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Isaac informed me at dinner that he was a caterpillar and had asked for a piece of lettuce.  "Not a salad.  Just a piece of lettuce."  Well he didn't really ask me, but I got it for him anyway.  He then said, "Mom, caterpillars don't take the leaf off of the branch.  They just hang on the branch and eat it.  They eat the WHOLE thing."  And he proceeded to eat it like a caterpillar. 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle