Assorted Learning

Here are some of the things we've been doing school-wise in the last six weeks... in somewhat random order!

First, we've been learning that newborns like to be with Mommy, and they sleep and nurse all day. They have short periods of "quiet alert" time in which they will pose for pictures with big sisters! The baby IS the lesson!

The girls made guardian angels with markers and glitter... these are from the Seton Art 1 book. Caroline copied the Guardian Angel Prayer for copywork... this was done around the feast of the Guardian Angels in early October. We also read the book My Guardian Dear.

The feast day of the Triumph of the Cross was just a few days after Lucy was born. I read the above book to the girls, and Caroline illustrated part of the story.

Chris took the bigger girls to the Booth Western Art Museum on free museum day last month. I stayed home and cuddled the baby!

Cecilia sorted some fall pictures and completed patterns with them.

Caroline worked on a "Things I See in Church" lapbook. At some point, I'd like to arrange a tour of our church... maybe our deacon would be able to show the kids various items in the church and explain what they are. Might be a good thing to do in preparation for First Holy Communion next year!

In math, we learned what a right angle is and that "rect" means "right" in German, which is how a rectangle gets its name. We also learned that a square is a special kind of rectangle that has all sides equal. Caroline found examples in magazines and catalogs and glued them on this paper.

We did a craft to go along with the song "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands," which we've been singing some in Circle Time... trying to find some preschoolish ways to involve the three year old! We made suncatchers...

...as well as permanent crafts on paper to be filed away and kept.

The whole world craft idea came from this post on Catholic Icing.

We made fall-scented playdough... lots of cinnamon and cloves went into this, and it makes the room smell great - nice, since I doubt I'll get a chance to take out fall-scented candles this year...

H is for Hike!

Last weekend, we took a family hike at a local forest... within the city limits! Kind of an oddity that it is there... but it was a nice place to walk around!

Cecilia was really excited about the blazes on the trail, especially when she came upon this one that she could reach by herself! She wanted to tap several of the higher blazes with a stick.

Cecilia blazes a trail of her own...

This will be a fun place to hike and observe the changing seasons several times throughout the year!

Halloween 2010

Happy Halloween!!!

Caroline decided how she wanted the jack-o-lantern to look and I sketched it onto our pumpkin. The girls helped Daddy to carve it while I was grocery shopping.

They were both cats this year. Caroline is wearing my ears that my mom made for me when I was about four years old. She also wore them the Halloween when she was two. Aside from the ears (which are really too big for a two year old!), Cecilia wore the same outfit that Caroline had worn when she was two (I had to use different, much shorter black leggings for Cecilia, though!). Cecilia's cat ears were mine when I was in high school, I think... yes, I trick-or-treated through all four years of high school and loved it!

They did really well with holding still while I painted their noses and whiskers!

Caroline really wanted to put up spider webs this year after seeing it on some other houses. It was something I did as a kid most years, too. Spider rings aren't made as well as they used to be, though! ;)

We went trick-or-treating with neighborhood friends, and they invited us to roast hot dogs before going around the neighborhood.

Cat tails: I made Caroline's out of felt the night before Halloween (at midnight or so....)

Group shot at their first stop

Cecilia's ears kept falling down.

They ventured up many sets of steep stairs to ring doorbells!

Peeking in her bag

Cecilia bummed a ride in our friends' wagon.

Fall Fun and Playing with Chickens!

With the beautiful weather, we have been making an effort to spend lots of time outside - especially after all that rain we got the whole month of October! I took a few pictures with the colorful fall leaves behind Cecilia...

She was beside the sandbox, digging, in these photos. She really enjoys those good ol' sensory activities like playing in sand and dirt!

Here's Caroline holding Chicken, the tamest of the flock. We let her out every afternoon because we know we can easily catch her again - even Cecilia can catch her (except she can't quite pick her up herself). The others are more jumpy and run away from me if I try to touch them, although since they have been laying, I have actually been able to pet them - they hold still and squat down insyead of running. Maybe it is an instinctual defense, like they are squatting to protect their eggs? Chris let all three of them out this afternoon though- he's braver than me - and Sally and 'Lorpie were not too hard to catch. Chris had to kick "lorpie out of the tractor though - she wouldn't just walk out the open door like the rocks. She's the most aloof of the three birds. I am sure she was quite happy to be out in the yard once she got there, though. They love to be out of their tractor!

Caroline carries Chicken around like this a lot. She even gets on the swing while holding her, and Chicken will just go limp in her arms and fall asleep! Crazy bird.

By letting them run around the yard when we are out there, they are able to catch more bugs and graze over a larger space. They are somewhat "free range" this way, and then moving the tractor daily makes them somewhat free range as well. Caroline has just gotten so comfortable with them, which is great because she is somewhat skittish with dogs and even a bit with cats. Even when the chickens flap their wings to escape from her arms, she is unfazed by it now. I am glad we have animals around for the experience it gives the children - and they are useful too, since they lay eggs for us now! This morning, we had three eggs in the nesting box! I assume that means they are all laying now. We have five or six eggs in the fridge right now, and we ate four fresh eggs yesterday... who knows, maybe they will lay enough for us to sell some.


This video shows how Caroline just plays with Chicken, carrying her all around like she is a pet puppy or something!


And here is Sally, acting agitated and pacing back and forth because her sister is out and she is trapped inside! She doesn't like that I block her from escaping from the tractor while letting Chicken out!

Lake Guntersville 2009

This weekend, we took our annual fall weekend trip with Chris's family to a state park in Alabama - it is about two hours away from us. This is the fourth year we have done this. It is nice to have a quiet weekend away, with nothing much on the agenda - just time to relax and be together, and where the kids can get plenty of outside time!

They also got some quality family time... here's Cecilia being read to by her Gran. She loves this book (Go, Dog. Go!). Mommy was very glad to have somebody else read it! As my mom says, "That book is just... weird. I don't get it."

Caroline enjoyed having her Aunt Sara read a book to her as well. That chair they are in is one of those armchairs and a half, or whatever they are called... the cabins here were refurnished last year, with these big comfy armchairs and couches.

Of course, we couldn't completely "get away from it all," despite having no Internet access... the boys still had their toys (their phones with Internet service). I am still amazed at how a cell phone can pull up my email account...

My nephew Andrew enjoyed the telephone in the cabin - which was not working, so he was free to play with it! Aren't his pajamas adorable?? The adults enjoyed the board games (seen in the background) during the evenings!

Cecilia and Caroline played by the lake - throwing in rocks and sticks - and on the playgrounds. This is one by the lodge, which had swings. The playground by our cabins had no swings, but it was the only one with seesaws and a working merry-go-round thing. They don't put those kinds of things on playgrounds any more! Cecilia thought the big swings were fun, even if we couldn't push her very high.

She also climbed to the top of the slide but didn't want to go down. She had to go down in our laps. I love metal slides!

Inside the lodge, there are many dead animals, much to the girls' delight! There are bobcats, a fox, and this turkey. The lodge is very nice - it was renovated and reopened a little over a year ago - and Caroline and Cecilia liked exploring it. There is a gorgeous view off the back deck. My camera batteries died - and the charger is apparently dead too, so we couldn't take any more pictures after the one below... I would have really liked to get some family shots b the lake, or at least a photo of the cousins all together. Oh well, maybe next year.

Cecilia has decided to enjoy riding on Daddy's shoulders like this. He put her up there in the lodge as we prepared to walk back to the playground where we'd parked our van, and she protested with, "Want Mommy!" which really sounds more like "Muh Mommy!" Then she decided it was fun and stayed up there! My dad used to carry us like this when we were small, and we loved it.

We had a very enjoyable weekend with wonderful warmish fall weather! Thanks, Gran and Grandad!