Friday, August 21, 2009

Exercise in Randomness

Facebook has taken over my life, or so it seems. It has taken away much of my motivation to blog... But, I like to think of my blog as a journal, something that will be around for many years. So, I'm going to try to keep updating at least a few times a month...

We've definitely had an interesting week and a half! School started on August 12, and Hannah is now in first grade and Elijah is in his 2nd year of Montessori preschool (pre-kindergarten year).


Here are the kids on the first day of school.

Hannah has quite possibly the coolest teacher EVER! So, here are a few pictures from her class blog.


The class on the new nature trail behind the school (Hannah is at the back in the blue skirt)


Mr. R explains something to the class


Hannah and her friends build a house for their shoes using gum drops and toothpicks.



Here is Elijah working on our traditional beginning of school bag decorating project. All the kids at Montessori have identical school bags, so decorating them is an easy way to know you have the right bag at the end of the school day.



Leah will be starting preschool (though not Montessori, since she won't be 3 for another year) after Labor Day, so she needed a school bag too.



Elijah and I made a Lego tower that reached the ceiling!



Not to be outdone, Hannah had to try her hand at it as well.



Last Saturday, when there was a 0% chance of rain, we had a nice little rain storm... and the kids splashed in the puddles and generally got soaking wet.








***


On Monday, my dryer broke in the middle of laundry day... so I had to buy a new dryer. It wouldn't be delivered for 2 days, so I got a clothes line as well.



Elijah and I made an 'airplane' from a diaper box



The beautiful NEW dryer... it's pretty amazing ;)



Leah and Elijah wanted to do some preschool stuff at home, so we


played with play-doh


painted at the easels


and poured beans.

***



Today, Hannah and I discovered MORE than THIRTY cicada shells on our crabapple tree. I guess we just had one of those 17 year cycles!

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

It's Official...

Leah really is a 2 year old!

This is what 2, 3, and 4 year olds do... They crash after refusing to take their nap. This is the first time Leah has done this, so it's a real milestone for her!


Elijah is still doing it... I found him like this Friday at dinner time. Believe me, finding your pre-schooler like this at dinner time is a BAD thing. At least Leah had the decency to nap earlier in the afternoon.

Here's a few other pictures to share

A princess tea party






An angry jester


A stinky trip through Amazonia at the zoo (Elijah is holding his nose)


And the puzzles we put together for Family Night. Elijah "helped" Pete put together the 100 piece Hello Kitty, Hannah put together the 100 piece Littlest Petshop (all by herself, and she's proud for persevering), Pete put together a 60 piece John Deere, and I put together the 24 piece Little Einsteins, the 24 piece Cars, and the other 60 piece John Deere (with a little help from Leah).

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Wesselman Woods

I didn't even notice Heather taking these pictures! We had a mini-adventure yesterday :)

http://olivecraver.blogspot.com/2009/08/nature-preserve.html