Trick-or-Treat!

Last night we headed over to my friend Ann's for trick-or-treating!  She lives in a cute little culdesack so there were plenty of houses and no one got tired, although it was pretty cold so the little ones didn't last long.  I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked, hubby couldn't make it so trying to drag the three of them around and take pictures was near impossible - thankfully Ann lent her hubby out for the night so it wasn't as bad as it could have been!  

Letter of the week - C

Well it seems that this little "lesson plan" of mine is keeping me pretty busy!  I haven't had time for much other than doing or thinking of our projects.  

This week we focused on letter "C" - Lorelei picked the sign up quickly and is starting to show me them in order when I ask. She had a harder time with the sound this week since "C" can sound different depending on the word, but was still enthusiastic when it came to finding things around the house starting with "C".

My idea-blog made cookies for their C week - but Lorelei loves Cows and Cars so we went with that instead.  She was so excited when we pasted that cow head on - she immediately knew what it was.  We made some recycled crayons out of all our old broken ones, she had fun taking the foil off but was a little confused at first.  Once I showed her how to use them she thought they were pretty neat!  We also made a Carrot cake which was a first for me!  Came out great if I do say so myself - but when you start with 2 cups of sugar and a cup and a half of oil you can't really go wrong.  Finally this morning we made a recycled car out of a juice box.  I made one myself last night to show her what we were going to do, which was the first time I've done that.  I was so proud of her, she looked at the one I had done and put the glue in the right spots and glued on the wheels all by herself!  They didn't really come out like I envisioned, but she knew it as supposed to be a car so good enough for us!

Next week we're on to letter "D" - we're going to make a "D"ragon and I think I'm going to try some donuts, which are her favorite!

Letter of the week - B

It's Friday again and the end of "B" week!

We didn't get out for a field trip this week - the plan was to go to the "B"each but it just didn't happen with the weather.  We did however make the beach instead, along with a "B"ee and a few different "B"reads.

Next week we'll be working on "C"!  The plan is to make this "C"arrot cake and also these "C"rayons.

Bitter Sweet

My son is walking now!  It's so cute - I'll get a video up on YouTube soon and post it for all to see.

I'm finding it a little bitter sweet.  In two ways actually - the first and most obvious is that he's not a little baby anymore.  Which is good because he was a very difficult infant, very difficult.  The second is that as I watch him fumble his way from place to place I'm realizing how much I regret that I wasn't able to stay home with Lorelei and see all these little milestones with her. The daycare she attended was great and wouldn't tell me she did something unless I had already told them I saw it at home - but I'd be kidding myself to think that she just happened to roll over, sit up, crawl, stand or walk for the first time on a weekend.  So although they acted like they never saw it, I'm sure more often than not I missed a lot of her actual firsts - and that's a hard pill to swallow.

But I see it now with John and soon with Sadie, that will have to be good enough because I can't go back and do it over.

Letter of the week - A

We've come to the end of our first letter.

Lorelei really enjoyed the week and it gave me a bit of direction as opposed to just getting up in the morning and trying to think of something to do!  

We started the week with taking pictures of things around the house that started with A and making the first page of our personalized Alphabet book, we also completed a fun art project using the letter A as a subject.  My friend Ann gave me the great idea of also introducing the sign for our letter of the week which Lorelei picked up quickly!  I decided to add in a little field trip as well so today we headed Apple picking which was a hit!

I can't wait for Monday so we can start on the letter B - I've already got a few pictures for the book!

Project ideas for the less creative

I have very few friends who can honestly say "I know how you feel" - meaning they have a toddler and twins!  You may *think* you know how I fell but trust me unless you have a toddler and twins you don't!  Sorry just a fact :)

Anyway one of these friends sent me this blog the other day - it's a great site for creative educational projects to do with my toddler.  I'm going to be doing a "letter of the week" project with Lorelei as soon as I post this - off to print Apples, Alligators and Armadillos!

chowda anyone?

I decided to make this for dinner tonight - sweet!

1/2 cup diced (1/4-inch) slab bacon (2 oz; rind discarded if necessary)
2 cups diced (1/4-inch) sweet onion (14 oz) such as Vidalia
2 large carrots, cut into 1/4-inch dice (1 cup)
1 celery rib, cut into 1/4-inch dice (3/4 cup)
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/4-inch dice (1 cup)
1/2 lb yellow-fleshed potatoes such as Yukon Gold (2 small), peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
1/2 lb sweet potato (1 medium), peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
5 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth (40 fl oz)
2 fresh thyme sprigs
3 cups corn (from about 6 ears)
11/2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Garnish: 2 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced; finely chopped fresh chives

preparation

Cook bacon in a wide 6- to 8-quart heavy pot over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until crisp, about 5 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain, then add onion, carrots, celery, and bell pepper to bacon fat and cook, stirring, until onion is softened, 8 to 10 minutes.

Add all potatoes, broth, and thyme and simmer, covered, until potatoes are just tender, about 15 minutes. Add corn and cream and simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes. Add sea salt and pepper, then stir in bacon.