Reading any good books? I am!

Well, I went MIA without planning on it. But in between my last post and tonight, we took a four-day trip to visit my Grandma, had swimming lessons (Sister, to be precise), and hosted playgroup (which involves a LOT of cleaning... before and after!) So, it's been busy. And we've also just been enjoying summer. I've been logging on a good bit less these past weeks, and that's a good thing sometimes.

One of the perks is that when I do go to read my favorite blogs, there is a lot of new stuff! Fun!

Rather than share lots of little anecdotes from life (not in the mood tonight), I'll give you a few book reviews.

Here are some good books we recently checked out from our library: (The cover images are from Amazon.com)

The Circus is Coming by Hilary Knight

This one is a classic, but the new edition is printed in rich color on glossy paper and it's fabulous. Depicting fantastic scenes from a circus parade, Sister can pore over these illustrations for hours.

Peter Spier's Circus!

Another classic! If you've never seen this book, it's a must. I love Peter Spier's super-detailed illustrations (so much to see!) This book really shows circus from start to finish, from setting up the tent and seeing that the circus performers are real people with families to seeing the spectacle of the performance.

Toy Boat by Randall de Seve

This is a sweet story of a little boy and his homemade toy boat. They are best friends, but one day the boat gets tired of being restrained by the string and decides to go out sailing on its own. Of course, the sea is a big, scary place and in the end, the boat just wants to be back with his boy. Happy ending!

Ladybug Girl by Davis Doman and Jacky Davis

This is a cute one. It's starts with a little girl standing in a pile of discarded costumes, enjoying her "ladybug girl" reflection in the mirror. (Reminds me of Sister from page one!)

What I like most about this book is that the message is about learning to entertain oneself. Lulu (aka Ladybug Girl) has "nothing to do"- said while standing in a room FULL of toys. (Sound familiar?) Her parents stand firm, however, and require her to fill her own time. In the end, she does so in traditional childhood style- walking through the yard, imagining heroic scenarios, rescuing ants from a rock, etc. It's definitely worth a library check-out.

The Littlest Mayryoshka by Corinne Demas Bliss

What a wonderful story! A Russian doll-maker makes six matryoshka dolls but the littlest is knocked to the ground before they are sold. Her "sisters" are sold to a little girl but can't stop worrying about their littlest sister. Meanwhile, the littlest doll has quite a traveling adventure (reminded me of the steadfast tin soldier.) Fortunately, there is a very happy ending. A sweet story of sisterly love and reunion.

I'm still playing along with Jade's Expose Yourself challenge. But I'm waiting on some "after" pictures. (Plenty of "before" shots, don't you know!!)

I'll try not to be gone another week before I post again. But, hey, it's summer, so if I don't do my homework, who cares?

Ten Things Making Me Happy This Weekend

Thanks so much for all the comments you left regarding food allergies (my last post.) You all made great points, and I'm going to do another post about it after I've had a few days to mull things over. Feel free to continue to add comments to that post.

Anyway, I feel that perhaps my blog hasn't had quite enough positive vibing lately, so I'm jumping on Amanda's bandwagon and listing 10 happy things.

1. These drawings by Sister. She suddenly has moved from scribbling, to drawing circles, and now... people! They are just the cutest things ever!

2. A morning to myself. Ahh... so nice. DH took the kids to the park and left me home alone for some "me" time. I worked on the next thing that is making me happy...

3. Mini-swap with Kate. It's coming together! I can't say too much because it's a surprise, but I'll have lots of crafty goodness to share here after next week. I've got a theme going and I'm so excited about it... hope you and the boys like it Kate! (Sneak peek below!)

4. A book swap with Jade. So cool- her kids are an age and gender match with mine. I'm already thumbing through our stacks and picking out some cool reads for them.

5. This photo of Sister's Barbie. Now, people, I want you to understand that nothing about this photograph was staged. As I was cleaning the kitchen this morning, I just came across this lovely scene- a whorishly dressed and disheveled Barbie leaning against the Kleenex box next to the dollhouse toilet. (Guess it was a rough night!) I swear I have no idea how the toilet got there. I fear that Sister's Barbie has been corrupted by Beck's Barbies. And she used to be such a sweet Irish dancer type. Oh, dear.

6. A renewed interest in scrapbooking. I must say that I hate the term "scrapbooking." It sounds really cheesy to me. But I love the idea of documenting life by putting pictures together with writing (memories, stories, descriptions, etc.) and some beautiful art supplies to create a truly special and unique momento. Ali Edwards calls it "life art." Sounds more like it. I've seen some of the new products that just came out and they are making me want to dig my scrapbook stuff out of the garage and get back to it. Specifically, I'm loving:
Jenni Bowlin's stuff
Heidi Swapp's new stuff (always love Heidi)

K& Company line featuring Land of Nod artist

Sassafras Lass papers- digging those robots and those adorable owls!

7. This awesome free butterfly applique for a shirt for Sister. (Heck- me too!) It's from Sandi Henderson and I love it.

8. Health. We're all back in action. Thank you, God.

9. These books that my kids are loving right now. (Me too.)

The Usborne Book of Everyday Words

On Market Street

We are Different, We're the Same (a great Sesame Street book)

10. A really cool "radio" website- Pandora. You can type in an artist or style of music, and they'll play a continuous run of music in that style. It's great background music while you're cooking supper.

Happy weekend, friends!

Mudballs: A yummy toddler snack

In my quest to help Sister become a better eater, I have tried letting her help me cook as a way to make the food more appealing. So far, so good. She has already "cooked" and eaten oatmeal, a spoonful of veggie soup (hey- at least she tasted it!) and a new snack favorite called Mudballs. I found the recipe in Trish Kuffner's book, The Toddler Busy Book. I am a sucker for this genre of parenting book that promises lots of creative ideas and activities for toddlers, and usually am disappointed. Seriously, how can an author fill a book with highly UNoriginal "activities" like, "paint with water on the driveway" or "take a trowel to the sandbox and let your toddler dig" and get published?
Anyway, The Toddler Busy Book has enough creative and original ideas to be a keeper. (Though if I were you I'd try to check it out at the library before I bought it.)
Anyway, the kids had a lot of fun making the Mudballs and ate gobs of them. And, the mudballs are pretty healthy, too. (At least healthier than a cookie!)

Mudballs

1 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup dry powdered milk
1/2 cup raisins
Crushed Graham crackers (we used about 1/4 pack) You can increase if the mixture is too sticky.
Chocolate milk powder

1. Mix all ingredients together in a medium size bowl. (Except chocolate powder.)
2. Form the mixture into small balls.
3. Place a small amount of chocolate milk powder on a plate and roll the balls in the powder.
4. Eat as a tasty snack or refrigerate and eat later.

Notes: In order to crush the graham crackers, I put them into zip-lock bags and gave one baggie to each kid. They had great fun smashing the crackers into crumbs. I had one too, and every few minutes I'd call out "Switch!" so I could make sure all the crackers got crushed fine.
Also, I quickly found that it was very important to make very small balls with my kids because they would put whole mudballs in their mouths and peanut butter can be a choking hazard if you're not careful.
Also, my kids had trouble forming the balls but my three-year old enjoyed rolling them in the chocolate powder. We formed a little assembly line and had great success.
Finally, I will warn you that these are not pretty. They will not be an appetizing treat to set out at, say, your PTA's father-daughter dance. But they taste pretty darn good!

Let's Go Outside

Blah. I hate winter. I have always disliked this time of year. Cold weather is fun around Christmas because it feels festive, but now it just feels cold. It's especially hard with little kids what with all the bundling up and limitations on how long we can stay out in the elements.

I was just thinking that we are missing our outdoors time when I received the January newsletter from the Featherstone Education company. As a former teacher (and current teacher of my babies, thank you) I keep myself abreast of current "education" happenings and info. I found Featherstone when I was teaching kindergarten, and have kept my eye on them ever since. It's a wonderful little company based in England that is focused on early childhood education. Their best products (IMHO) are their "little books." There is the Little Book of Outdoor Play, the Little Book of Treasure Baskets, and the Little Book of Celebrations. (Plus tons of others.) Some are available through Amazon.com- those are the ones I have purchased. I am impressed by the fresh and fun ideas in these books and highly recommend them to others with little ones.
In fact, my new standard birthday present for 1 year olds is a "touch basket" which I read about in the Little Book of Treasure Baskets. The idea is that you fill a basket with tactile things- brushes, swatches of different fabrics, natural objects such as pinecones, shells, and leaves, foil, wax paper, etc. (Of course, careful not to include any choking hazards.) Let me tell you- babies love these things! And so do their parents. It's a nice, creative gift that can occupy a young toddler for quite a while!

Anyway, as I read the editorial by Sally Featherstone, I was struck again by the importance of getting our children out into the world on a daily basis. In fact, that belief was one of the things that prompted us to chose the house we are renting: it has a cool backyard. The guy who owns the house has a green thumb, and he planted the backyard with all kinds of plants that create little hidey-holes and paths throughout the yard. At first glance, I thought, "Ooh- not enough room to run around." But as I considered it further, I realized that the yard we had before, and never enjoyed, was a huge strip of grass. Boring! So I am curious to see how my children respond to this new yard so full of green things and squirrels and secret spots.

This excerpt from the Featherstone newsletter really got me thinking:
"Most boys (and some girls) only really come to life when they are in the garden – able to move with freedom, use their imaginations, stretch their muscles and experience things with all their senses. It is not only their bodies that are stimulated by the combined effects of space, time and freedom, outdoor play actually stimulates the brain to grow.
Ronald Kotulak, in his book ‘Inside the Brain’, says:
“The discovery that the outside world is indeed the brain’s real food is intriguing. The brain gobbles up its external environment in bits and chunks through its sensory system: vision, hearing, smell, touch and taste. Then the digested world is reassembled in the form of trillions of connections between brain cells that are constantly growing or dying, or becoming stronger or weaker, depending on the richness of the banquet.”
And this is particularly true of the natural environment out of doors, and effect that was realised well before the brain research confirmed the instincts of pioneers in early education. Nearly 200 years ago, Friedrich Froebel put the garden at the centre of his philosophy, calling it the Kindergarten (a garden for children), with outdoor and natural experiences at the heart of provision. His work is now reflected in provision across the world, where outdoor play is seen as an essential component of high quality provision in nurseries, daycare and schools.

It's so true, and yet how often do we spend months (even years) planning and designing the interiors of our homes while (almost) totally ignoring our outdoor spaces? It's making me do a lot of thinking about what I want our backyard to be at our next house. It's also making me find the coats, hats and gloves. We're going outside.