Welcome to Sweaty Town

OK so we had lunch and were feeling a little antsy so we decided to try it again. We managed to overcome the Great Sock Disappearance of '08 and were very happy to realize it was a FABULOUS day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, buds were budding on the trees. We made it to the school playground with only one trip/fall/skid by Scout who was a little over-eager.

Of course when we had been at the park for 3 phempto-seconds (just long enough for the smallest among us to become very excited at the prospect of the swirly slide) when some of our crew realized they had to go potty. So we turned around and went back...sigh.

Our THIRD attempt at experiencing the exhilaration of outdoor play was a triumph. We had our neighbor girls with us and Savannah, Hailey and Breanna were the cutest little mini-moms you've ever seen. They followed the 3 little girls like these kind accommodating angels. They're sweetness rubbed off on everybody and soon they were all helping each other and playing together.

The boys had a ball at the weird hoop-ball thingy and then just kicking balls against the wall of the playshed. If the NBA ever makes the move to 3 foot diameter hoops and lowers the backboard to about 10 feet we should SERIOUSLY consider starting a team. They were awesome.

We made it home safe and sound although very sweaty, wound up, hungry and grimey. We washed hands and had a snack. The kids were off to play next and built forts in the bedroom, played this weird game they called "kitties" and something they invented called Troll using the blow up bed.

Once we started having a lot of "injuries" (she touched my cheek! he looked at me mean!) and excess crying (I just want to be alone! She's following me!) we decided it was time for popcorn and a movie. So now it's Monster's Inc and blankets and pillows for everyone. There are about 5 kids that I could totally imagine falling off to sleep if we can keep things quiet.

I think they're all content and possibly thirsty...I should go check on that!

No School...AHHHH!

I didn't want to have the ENTIRE day dedicated to zombie television watching so we turned it all off around 8:30 and proceeded to get stir crazy in record time. It was really amazing. I got the great idea to take the kids out to the school playground for some energy releasing. We got our coats and shoes on (can I outlaw tie shoes? ^__^) and after a millennium of that we headed out the door.

We got to the end of our building when I realized this wasn't going to work. Savannah had wet hair from her shower, Sydney was still doing that half cough thing, our breath was not only visible but was the thick full-on cloud of a too-cold morning. We stretched our legs, walked around for a minute and headed back in. It was 37 degrees outside...not exactly playground weather but it was perfect for a morning constitutional.

I brought the camera but the batteries I stole out of one of the remote controls wasn't enough so I couldn't capture the image of our kids huddling together for warmth as I told them to say CHEESE! Just take my word for it...it was cute and pathetic.

Seems like it worked though. They're playing together with the option of snacking on cheese cubes, crackers and apples. The big kids aren't hungry (feel free to let your jaw drop in amazement) so they're playing happily.

Looks like the little girls are ready for some playdough! More later...

Valentine's Day

We started our day by immediately eating all the Valentine's Day candy. The girls convinced me that waiting any longer wasn't merely "enhanced interrogation techniques" but was actually torture. Hopped up on sugar and the joy of unrestrained indulgence, we did some fingerpainting.

I made the fingerpaints using a recipe I've had in my book for years but obviously haven't used much. It's a very simple recipe using only cornstarch, food coloring and water. I realize now why I don't use that recipe much. The first time I tried a batch I boiled the water and dumped in the cornstarch. Yep. That's right. Dumped 1/3 cup of cornstarch right into boiling water. Post Traumatic Stress Induced Flashbacks of nasty gravy experiments gone terribly terribly wrong passed, and I realized that the girls would probably not like to dip their digits into the lumpy pink slime.

Take 2 and I realized that while mixing the cornstarch with cold water avoided the lumpiness, this was not a good recipe. After burning my fingers trying it too soon I waited until it had developed a thick skin and cooled to a more pleasant temperature. Neither girl would touch it with their fingers. Oh well. Fingerpaints turned into paintbrush & craft stick paints. It's also translucent which adds to the feeling that you're smooshing your fingers into warm alien intestines.

We had heart shaped sandwiches for lunch which were a big hit. Who knew heart shapiness tasted better than squares or triangles.

Gotta run. I just told Ash Lee that I live in Wilsonville (not Target which is where she thought) and now she's very confused...apparently SHE lives in Wilsonville and the town's not big enough for the both of us! hehe what a great job I have!

HATS!

Well we made hats today. I'm no origami expert so I looked up a bunch of different ways to fold a hat and realized to my shock and amazement that paper hats are...PATENTED (United States Patent 5247709)! Weird.

We put hearts on them but they really interfered with the Marching Capabilities of the wearers so they were discarded almost immediately.


Please do not sell these hats for profit. I'm pretty sure we'd be violating federal laws!

5 Little Ducks

Both girls have been running around singing 5 Little Ducks all morning. When I tried to capture it on video they immediately stopped talking and just started posing. They were very cute but completely silent. This is our 3rd attempt at doing something other than ham it up in front of the camera. Unfortunately my batteries ran out so we won't try it again until I find some more!





The girls have watched this video 5 times now and they want to keep watching it. Ash Lee says this is "my favorite movie."

Edit: When the older kids came home from school Scout and Ash Lee were so excited to show them their movie that we watched it about 20 more times. Rand and Savannah both asked me what the heck they were singing so here's a translation:

(it's the last verse of the song 5 Little Ducks)
1 little duck went out to play,
over the hills and far away
But when Old Mommy duck went quack quack quack,
No little ducks came waddling back
But when Old Daddy duck went QUACK QUACK QUACK
5 little ducks came waddling back.

Marker...the new Haute Couture

I bought these awesome new chubby markers at the dollar store that are supposed to be perfect for preschooler hands. I figured it was the least I could do after not being able to figure out Ash Lee was a lefty for a month.

Well...turns out chubby markers not only color on paper but are FANTASTIC at coloring on sleeves and pant legs. Ash Lee was our designer du jour and did a magnificent job getting really great coverage out of those dollar store markers.

As we all know, the dollar store manufacturers don't really work hard..or at all...to ensure their markers are "washable" or "not dried out" or "in more than 5 colors" (Dear Dollar Store Owner, Rainbows made in brown, brownish orange and brownish black are just sad sad brown frowns) so I totally freaked out that this was a permanent new color development.

As we also all know, Ash Lee is a fashion Fiend. She has a style that is as unique as it is perplexing so when I swapped out her shirt to try to clean it quickly, it was necessary to also change the pants. Who in their right minds wears an afternoon shirt with the same old morning pants?! It's just not right.

Anyway, the whole reason for this post is this. Sprayable Oxyclean Laundry Stain Remover works and gets all the dollar store non-washable colors out of your fabulous wardrobe...much to the chagrin of budding designers everywhere.

Valentine's Mailboxes

We made fancy Valentine's Day Mailboxes today and hung them up on the door. When we were getting the big kids ready for Valentine's Day at school this week, Scout looked on with longing eyes. I figured all the little girls would like to make their own big kid mailboxes and deliver Valentine's to each other.

Daily Schedule

I thought I'd go into detail about what we're doing during all these times. This way no matter when the kids are dropped off or picked up you'll know what they're going to do or miss and you'll know there's some sort of order to all the chaos.

I like schedules a lot but I'm also a fairly flexible person so if something changes during the day our schedule will reflect that. I'm still working on a realistic schedule for when there is no school for the bigger kids but this seems to work well for the little girls no matter how many are here or when they arrive. It's sort of an organic device in my opinion though so it might evolve over time.

7:30-8:00 Breakfast
This one is kind of self explanatory.
8:00-8:30 Freeplay
I use this time to clean up from breakfast and prepare for Letter time.
8:30-8:45 Letter time
We spend some time with the letter of the week for the kids who are here. We're working on a letter book so at least once a week everybody colors their Letter Page.
8:45-9:15 Creative crafting
This is just a quiet free play time at the table. It's usually playdough, coloring or some sort of impromptu paper craft. While the girls are busy here I prepare snack.
9:15-9:20 Clean up
um...we clean up
9:20-9:30 Snack
Grain & Dairy are the food groups we usually pull from so usually it's crackers and cheese with water. If they're super hungry we add a fruit and milk.
9:30-10:00 Freeplay
Snack Clean up and answer email time.
10:00-10:20 Movement & Music Time
The girls are usually restless and grouchy by this time so we move around and have some music going while we do it. We dance & stretch or do motion songs (Head, Shoulder, Knees & Toes, Do As I'm Doing, stuff like that) .
10:20-11:00 Freeplay
Lunch Prep...although usually the girls like to help with lunch prep and we end up eating by 10:45.
11:00 Lunch
PB&J is sort of king of lunch around here. Sometimes we mix it up with Ramen Noodles or Mac & Cheese but mostly we do sandwiches. We also have a serving of dairy (usually frozen gogurts), Fruit (bananas, oranges or apples depending on our mood), Vegetables (baby carrots, cucumber, celery or broccoli), Granola Bar (extra grains but mostly it's just filler for extra hungry kiddos) and a treat (sometimes it's fruit snacks, sometimes a cookie or a holiday related treat).
11:20 Quiet Freeplay
Lunch Clean up, Craft prep and Blog update time for me, the girls usually play a board game or listen to books with CDs that I get from the library.
12:30 Theme Time and Craft
I try to do a theme each week although sometimes if we have a holiday on Monday or two holidays, the theme will change mid-week. Either way I try to make it related to the letter, color or shape of the week.
1:00 Circle Time
Here we are together
Name Song
Days of the Week song
Numbers (we add one everyday, identify numbers, count up and back down...blasting off when we hit 1)
Letters (sing the alphabet, do the sign for all the letters of the week we've had so far and sing their sounds...the M says mmmm, The M says mmmm, Every letter makes a sound, the M says mmm)
Story Time
Singing Time
1:30 Reading Time & Freeplay
I take the kids one at a time and do a reading lesson from Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. If they're very young, I do one lesson a week and work on pre-reading and pre-writing skills. When they're ready we work up to one lesson a day with "sounds writing" and more pre-reading and pre-writing work to increase our fine motor skills.
2:15 Clean up
The school kids have a better welcome home transition if everything is tidy.
2:30 Walk to the School
Rain or Shine or Rainy Rain Rain. It's a 5 minute walk and we have rules the girls are very good at following to keep us together. I just got 3 matching pink umbrellas which should make the rainy days a little more exciting. If it's cold we can wait inside the school but so far it's been warm enough that if we stay dry we're happy.
2:50 Homecoming Routine
Take off your shoes, hang up your coat, wash your hands, check your backpack for homework, lunch boxes and notes, homework kids to the homework table
2:55 Snack & Homework
Grain, fruit or vegetable and sometimes dairy. I try to make this one a whole grain so rice cakes, popcorn or wholewheat bread/crackers. I insist they all eat at least a little bit of the vegetable...and yes, they all fight me from time to time...and I always win. :)
3:15 Free play
During snack time and this freeplay time I'm usually still making sure no one's still hungry, helping with homework and various instrument practicing.
4:00 Quiet Free play
This is the time of day when I'm working with a hot stove and sharp knives so I insist that the kids are calm and not in the kitchen. When they're wound up or particularly grumpy we will watch tv or play the wii. We have a Tivo so we have lots of options already recorded and try to stick to PBSkids, NickJr. or Playhouse Disney. Random is currently in love with Star Trek so if the little kids are playing in the bedroom he may turn on some Voyager.
5:15 Dinner
Yep we eat dinner.
5:45-6:30 Dinner clean up, Room tidy, PJs
This is family chore time for us and once the chores are done the kids play until we're ready for them and then they tidy & do PJs. This time isn't actually very structured but we make sure we're all jammied and tidied by 6:30.
6:30 Scripture Time
If your kids are still here they'll be included in our family scripture reading. We let all the kids have a turn reading but we don't force them if they'd rather not. We're currently reading the Book of Mormon.
6:45-7:00 Bedtime Routine
7:00 Quiet Time & Sleeping
Scout goes to bed at 7 so it's serious quiet time. If your kids are still here they'll be sitting like quiet little lumps reading.

The Future is Here!

OK so that's a little melodramatic but I thought it was about time we took advantage of the technology around us to increase communication and give everybody who wants it an insight into our goings on.

To start with I will publish some artwork and schedule information about what we're doing and what is coming up for each week. I've set up the blog so it can only be accessed by people I invite and will not be listed on search engines or with blogger.com's list. If families are comfortable with this set up we will publish pictures so not only can you read but also see what's happening during the day. We will not publish personal details (last names, addresses, phone numbers etc) just in case.