A funny thing happened here yesterday when we were out for a walk. We were playing a game with Tanner as we walked along, and I will admit it got a little out of hand. Basically I was getting the girls running and stopping short - it's a game designed to train them to stop immediately when I call out STOP, because otherwise they do tend to take those potentially fatal extra steps before finally stopping and looking to see what I want. It's a good exercise. But this time, Cara had Tanner on his leash and running with her. Which he was quite enjoying, until they started to drift away from me across the grass. I didn't mind, but he did. He is, after all, of a herding breed. And we have had great fun with him several times, letting him herd the girls back to me as they run in circles. Anyway he started his usual barking and jumping, telling them to get back where they belong. But they didn't take it too seriously and neither did I. Until, that is, the giggles were interrupted by tears and Anika suddenly favoring one leg. At first I thought she had stepped in a hole but then I realized that Tanner had actually nipped her. Not hard enough to break skin (I checked asap) but enough to leave a red mark and a little bruise, and enough to make his point.

The lady we got him from had said that he bit her daughter once, on the bum, when she had run out into the street. Which we agreed wasn't a bad time for a nip, and which decidedly did teach the girl a lesson. Well, it seems he hasn't lost that need to herd and protect.

I didn't really punish him... on the one hand I don't want him to think it's okay to bite, but at the same time I do recognize what motivated it and I think he really believed he was acting in her best interests. Because he is sooooooo not an aggressive dog. LOL But I did make him heel the whole way home on our walk, and we have learned from this that perhaps it's not a good idea to let him run with them unless I'm right there and the one holding the leash.  I've been doing a little bit of damage control with Anika over it because I don't want her to acquire a fear because of it.

Now, out of the middle of this, there came a moment of "Wow!" I've been teaching Anika left and right in the same way I did Cara, just by constantly labeling feet, shoes, hands, etc. Well, I knew she could label her feet as right and left but I didn't know for sure whether she had taken that and generalized to apply to the rest of her body. Until yesterday, that is. She looked at me and said "Moo-oom, Tanner bited me, right there on my left leg!"

Momentarily speechless, then something along the lines of, "Yes, yes he did. And very good knowing that's your left leg!"

Smart cookies, these two.

Happy Birthday!

Perhaps there is some measure of overcompensation in the world of a deployed parent. Today's birthday party would almost seem to say so... I don't think I've put quite this amount of effort into any birthday party to date. Of course, I also had more time on my hands this time around, and two kids eager to pitch in, so maybe that's all it was. Either way, A's third birthday party was a hit all around.

A few highlights:

Making frames for their royal portraits (which we took later)

Making princess crowns (LOVE Dollarama for craft supplies!!)

One game - pin the star on the fairy's wand

Another game - "Dancing Slippers" (a la musical chairs but using printouts of pink glass slippers) Anika looked at me at one point, quite appalled, and said, "But Mom, there's not enough slippers!!!" Not much escapes this one. LOL

Snacks, of course!  Butterfly- and flower-shaped cookies, pink heart-shaped Rice Krispies treats, grapes, veggies, heart-shaped Nutella sandwiches and apple juice. I think we covered all the major food groups....

Decorating cupcakes - this was the birthday cake

Everyone got a candle to blow out, but the birthday girl's was a fancy sparkly one shaped like a three.

And finally, a royal parade around the block to let off some steam and make a lot of noise with party blowers.

Recipes:

Pink Confetti Cupcakes

I used the muffin recipe from here:
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/lemon-cranberry-muffins/Detail.aspx

But obviously left out the cranberries and almonds, and I used vanilla instead of lemon. Then I added a bit of red food coloring to make them pink, and about half a jar of the tiny round rainbow sprinkles.

I frosted them with canned frosting that I tinted pink, because it went on sale a few weeks ago for 99 cents a can, and I can't make it that cheaply!!!

Painted Sugar Cookies

I used the cookie recipe from here:

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/the-best-rolled-sugar-cookies/Detail.aspx

Incorporating suggestions from the visitor comments - doubling the vanilla, using three cups of sugar instead of two, and baking on parchment paper. Do pay close attention, they bake up fast (about 7 minutes). And refridgerating for an hour is a must. I cut them about 1/2 inch thick.

And for the "paint"? Mix together 2 tbsp. milk and 2 tbsp. corn syrup until smooth. Add in 2 cups icing sugar gradually and mix until smooth. If it is too thick add a bit more corn syrup, too thin add more sugar. Stir in food coloring, a few drops at a time, until you reach your desired color(s).

Give cookies, paint and clean brushes to enthusastic kids. Add sprinkles liberally.

Display artfully ;) Enjoy!

"I'm sorry, Mom. I'm just adorable."

- A. (age 3)



Yeah, you are.  Happy birthday, kiddo.

Believe it or no, A slept twelve hours last night. Slightly disrupted a few times by wandering over into my bed and by me pushing her off me (she's a very. close. sleeper.), but she was in bed and mostly asleep from 7 pm til 7 am. Color me impressed. Not to mention happy. It was doubly nice, actually, because I went to bed at 9 last night. I was fending off a bit of a sore throat, but between a good night's sleep and a Cold Assist tablet this morning plus a few cups of good hot tea, it seems to have retreated nicely.

This coming weekend is her third birthday. Three is the first birthday I really "celebrate" with a party and other kids and all that. One and Two are great, but they are really just little family occasions because really, the kids don't care as long as they have cake and a new toy. For C's third we rented the YMCA gym for a couple of hours, invited a dozen or fifteen kids and let them run crazy. For her fourth we did a princess party with a few good friends. For her fifth we did a pool party here on the base. Well, the gym option is a possibility but I really don't want to go to the expense or to have that many kids. The pool party the kids enjoyed but as the responsible and paying adult I was overall pretty unhappy with it. And there are other options that could be suitable, but all of them are $100+ for just the activity and that's before you add food, decorations, etc. So I thought, hmm.... how about a repeat of the princess theme? A had already made a comment or twenty about wanting to have a princess ball for her birthday (where do they come up with these things so young?). So I ran with that. We have six kids invited for a total of seven girls ages 3-6 and one boy age 2. Hopefully most of their moms will stay, but a few of them are old enough that I won't worry too much if they don't. (I've noticed a weird trend here that most people just drop off their kid and leave, and I'm thinking, are you nuts? But to each their own, I guess.)

The game plan is, the kids are all invited to "come dressed in their finest". The first activity upon arrival will be to go to the craft table and decorate a crown with jewels (I love Dollarama!). I also have some temporary tattoos of butterflies and such if they'd like one or two. While the glue is drying on their crown, they can go to the second craft table and decorate a crown-shaped picture frame. Then they can get their picture taken all dressed up and standing in front of the castle that the girls painted and glittered yesterday as a party prop. Those pictures will get printed out and put into the frames they make as a take-home souvenir of the party.

After everyone is done their crafts, we will move on to some simple games. C colored and glittered a poster of a fairy godmother, and game #1 will be to "stick the star on the fairy wand". Next we will do a variation on the idea of musical chairs, where the kids will step from one "glass slipper" to the next (paper ones on the floor). If they are up for another game we'll do "pass the wand" (a la hot potato) or "The Queen Says" (a la Simon Says). The prizes will be little princess story books, and the kids who don't win a game will still get one, don't worry.

When we are gamed out then we'll come back to the table for snacks where they'll decorate cupcakes and have little tea sandwiches (jam or nutella), cookies and fruit. I'm going to try tomorrow to dye some apple juice pink and see what happens.... if it works, great, if not then I have three more cartons stashed. The cupcakes will be the birthday cake and each kid will get a candle to blow out but A's has a special candle in the shape of a 3.

After that, of course, comes the all-important time for goodie bags and presents. It's something I did at C's third birthday and it paid off hugely - when I gave her someone's present, I gave that someone a goodie bag. It really cut down on the "what about me?!?!?" problem with little kids and presents.

At the end of all this, if there is still time left and the weather is nice, then the kids will lose their finery and we'll go outside to play. Or if it's really nice out, maybe we'll go for a royal parade around the block. That could be fun :) But it would lose something if they had to wear winter coats over their dressup.

So that's the plan. And I have a friend who is planning to come over and take pictures for me, or at least lend me her camera.

Methinks... perhaps... my mom isn't the only one who sets the bar too high for birthday parties. LOL

Sept 22, 2010

Busy, busy, busy... that was today!!!

The kids had free time this morning to play and they spent their time concocting quite an elaborate little plot with their dolls, it was fun to watch. Then off to the library for story time and craft time, where they made trees by tracing and cutting out the shape of their arm and hand on brown paper, gluing that to blue paper, and making red, yellow and green fingerprints for fall leaves all around. It was cute. I'd post a picture but I don't have a camera at the moment so you'll have to imagine it :) They picked out some books to bring home - C's are "A Walk in the Rainforest", one about Arctic animals, and one called the Enormous Carrot. A picked out some board books which C has been reading to her this evening. :) I love to watch that.

Quick lunch from A&W on the way home, stopped for about five minutes then back out the door, off to the babysitter while I went BACK to the dentist to have Monday's filling replaced (it fell out!!). Interesting bit of learning there - did you know that amalgam fillings do not actually bond to your teeth? The dentist makes a hole that is larger at the bottom and fills it with amalgam, and when it hardens it is supposed to stay put. Well, this one didn't. So I am now sporting a different kind of filling, which is (bonus!) white, and actually bonds to the enamel. So it ought to stay put. But I digress.

Off to the thrift shop where we found two fabulous princess gowns for $3.00 each - they need minor alterations but will serve nicely for the party this weekend and for Halloween. We also got some new games - Cadoo, Bioviva, Fish Addition Puzzles, and a Crokinole board (!!!), all for - get this - TEN CENTS each!!!!! The kids have been playing with the Crokinole board for a good bit of the afternoon, they think it's great. And I see a nice place for another hidden math lesson :)
Back home for a bit to play and have a snack before we hit the road for soccer (aka PE). Sadly, I am not sure how well it is working out... it sounded good at the start, because I was under the impression that there would be 3-4 year olds and 5-6 year olds on separate teams. As it turned out, they are all together. Well, this could work, I thought. A chance for the kids like C to chill out a bit and just play for fun. BUT. That failed to take into consideration the sheer drive for excellence that 6 year olds have. C has been in tears to one extent or another every single time we've been there. Either because the other team got a goal, or because she doesn't think she's playing well enough, or something else along those lines. Okay, I can usuallyf get her past it and get her back out there.

Tonight a brief solution was to put her in net and let her contribute to slowing down the other team. HER idea of a solution is that she needs to be on the other team. LOL But tonight there was another one in tears - a 6yo boy who, like C, has a year of soccer already under his belt. He stormed out and wouldn't come back because the little girl they had playing goalie was just standing there staring off into space and not paying attention to the game (she was four). Apparently last week he flat-out refused to participate once he saw how many little kids were there. So... I'm not entirely sure how this is going to go. I'm continuing to encourage C to play for the sake of playing, to take this time to practise playing and have fun with her sister. But I'm not really sure she's buying it. At any rate, they are getting a lot of exercise running around the gym and that was what I really wanted them to get out of it - exercise and a fun time together. Hopefully I can keep encouraging her and help her to see herself in some kind of a mentor role, and then maybe we'll see if she can join a different team after Christmas when Daddy is home to take her. Because let's just say, after a couple of weeks of them playing together, I don't want the nightmare of trying to take her to a soccer game right now where A can't play with her!!!

Now they're chilling out in the playroom, playing ponies (aren't they always lately) and winding down before bed. Tomorrow's plans - story/craft time at the MFRC, coloring, party planning, and if the weather is nice a Fall scavenger hunt around the neighborhood.

September 20, 2010

Today was fairly laid-back and started with us all waking up late. Whoops. LOL

We did some rote counting exercises - A to ten and C to thirty (she can count farther but tends to skip a number here and there so I'm focusing a little lower for a bit). This exercise was cleverly concealed within some fun, aka playing hide and seek. ;) Later on, A was working on one-to-one counting, she can get to five no problem and she quite enjoys counting her fingers and toes, especially when they are pruny from the bath (1,2,3,4,5 wrinkly fingers!)

There is a big emphasis on art this week as we make preparations for A's princess party this weekend. So today C worked on the fairy godmother poster for "pin the star on the fairy wand", A did her own coloring page, and I worked on cutting out the crowns for the kids to decorate.

Phys Ed came in the way of soccer practise this afternoon, and some social time came as they spent the morning with friends while I went to the dentist (meaning a short health lesson in what a filling is all about).

All in all we didn't really do any structured "school" today but it was a good day :)

I'm happy to report that we are all accounted for and safely ensconced in our currently-appropriate locations. We had a chance to talk to hubby a little while ago. Have I ever mentioned how much I love the whole video chat thing, and how much easier it makes all of this?

Today was the beginning of getting back to normal - church this morning, walking the dog, playing, all the normal stuff of daily life. Tomorrow we start with our homeschool year and working harder on sticking to a daily routine. Arts and crafts this week will mostly be geared toward Miss A's birthday party this coming weekend. We made up the goodie bags today - paper bags with pictures of princesses glued on them that the girls colored last night and today. I may or may not have a tendency to go a little overboard on goodie bags for my kids' birthdays... but they really are a lot of fun!!! We have plans for seven little girls and one boy, so I made his bag up separately with play dough, a toy dinosaur, stuff like that. The girls are all getting stuff like hair bands, beads, stickers... and of course all the bags have plenty of candy in them :) The next few days I'll work on the preps for the crafts we have planned, then I'll do the baking stuff at the end of the week. (Nothing too fancy, just cookies and cupcakes.)

There has been a lot of "I miss Daddy" today... oddly enough, mostly it's coming from the young one.  I think C has a better comprehension of what's going on and understands that it does have a semi-fixed deadline. She doesn't really understand the passage of time in detail, but she does know the order of seasons and calendar events, so that helps. A, on the other hand, is just kind of confused about the whole coming and going thing. It'll be good to be beyond this and back into having him home full-time for a longer period. Good for all of us. But in the meantime, we press onward, we embrace it rather than fight against it, and we look for the opportunities for growth and development hidden inside the experience. That's the way I look at it now. I could rail against the unfairness, whine and cry ... but that would be bad for all of us and would cheat me of another opportunity to say "Why me, God?" and mean it.

How's that for sounding all wise and mature-like? ;)