Dries Loves Dogs

Dries approaches Indie. Yes, she looks worried, but that's probably nothing to do with Dries. Indie often looks worried...

 

Moments before, this was the perfect hug. Perfect! Dries had his face pressed into her shoulder, she was sniffing his head. Too bad my camera has a severe case of delayed reaction. Instead of the perfect hug, you get the post-hug blur...

It's still pretty cute, though!

Stumped!

We were on our way to the park the other day when we were highjacked! By a stump!

The construction is pretty appealing, too.

Explorers

I did not realize, when I bought the Ikea shelf, that I was not, in fact, purchasing shelving.

I was not even, as I thought, purchasing the basis for some funky seating.

No, I was purchasing a PLAY STRUCTURE! 

With bonus Crawling Tunnel!

Wheeeee!

Who knew?

Too many cooks

Make for most excellent cookies around here! Possibly because really, there is only one cook. (C'est moi.) The rest of them? Sous-chefs. But aren't they cute? Busy, busy, busy.

Cookies take lots of stirring. Lots and lots.

They need eggs, which need to be stirred, too. (That's Nora's hand steadying the cup for Addie.)

Nora finishes up the stirring, because Addie is "just little and needs my help".

The rewards of all that baking start a long time before the cookies are done...

Because really, it doesn't count as a true, Traditional Baking Experience if you don't get to lick the spoon!

Brantwood Park

Though we go to Windsor Park most often, in fact I prefer the play structure at Brantwood much more. It looks nicer, being primarily wood rather than plastic (and will thus age far more gracefully!), and I think it's safer. Fewer spots a child could tumble off a platform, the stairs are not too steep (I hate those super-steep metal ones on the green structure at Windsor!) and anything a child can reach on their own is safe for them to tackle.

Plus, isn't the view spectacular??

Menu Monday

Monday:  Rotini with sweet and tangy tahini sauce

Tuesday: Tofu-spinach curry, rice

Wednesday: Rice-lentil patties, cabbage-beet salad

Thursday:  Tortilla soup

Friday: Spaghetti and meatballs, salad

Reading Buddies

Every day, after lunch and before naps/quiet time, we read stories. Each child gets to pick a book, and I read them all to the group. On this day, I had sent them into the living room with their books while I put their lunch dishes into the sink full of soapy water. When I came into the living room, this is what I found.

Hee.

Hello! I know you all love Stella Luna -- if you haven't been yet YOU MUST GO. Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, soooooo good. (Your children have all been! I've seen to that.)   :-)

Anyway, they're having a special event tomorrow evening at 7:30, and I'm passing on the information to anyone who might be interested. Author and "food culture activist" Jeannie Marshall will be the guest and speaker. I am certainly interested in the topic of this woman's book, so I plan on dropping by.

If you want more information, click on the picture. It's a link to an article about the event.

Bench Snack

I love the orderliness of those little snack boxes. I'd probably like little bento boxes even more, but those things are expensive! Besides, I don't need anything that capacious. These are snacks, not full meals. In there you have two cucumber slices, three cooked carrot sticks, a slice of old cheddar, and four crackers.

That's PLENTY.

They are never required to finish a snack -- it's a snack, after all -- but I do control the order. "No crackers until everything else is gone." If they don't finish everything else, that's okay. (But no crackers, anyway.)

Awwww... Dries is such a snuggly little man!

Menu Monday

Monday: Grilled cheese sandwiches, cooked carrots
Do I really need to tell you everyone loved the grilled cheese? Everyone ate the carrots, though some with more enthusiasm than others.

Tuesday: Meatloaf, coleslaw, tofu fingers and ranch dressing dip
This was a hit. We had braised collard greens instead of coleslaw, which were eaten without much reaction one way or the other. Meatloaf (which incorporated rice, black beans, and grated carrots and beets) was very well received. The tofu fingers were a hit, too, because toddlers will eat anything they can dip. Anything.

Wednesday: Singapore noodles
Noodles. We like noodles. Even when they have crumbled tofu, celery, grated carrots, mushrooms, onions, and curry sauce on them. (Though it could be that one of us *cough* Ella *cough* picked the mushrooms out...)

Thursday: Chickpea-spinach soup, biscuits
Not a hit. At all. Everyone ate one bite, because that's required. A couple may have gone as far as three mouthfuls, but we'll leave this out of the rotation for a month or two, I'm thinking.

Friday: Lentil-beet salad, cucumber raita
Lentil-beet salad. A perennial favourite. Cucumber raita also. (Cucumber, walnuts, and yogurt. Nom.)

Happy Birthday, Dominic!

Three candles in a cupcake for the newly Big Boy.

The rest of us really enjoyed our birthday cupcakes. Thanks, Rebecca, for sending them along!

Windsor Park, visits #173 and 174 (at least)

Those of us who know and love Dominic know that that look on his face is his Mischief Look. What's up? Well, if you click on the picture and get the larger version, you'll see that each of his fists is filled with sand. Sand which is about to be dumped on my legs as I kneel in the sandbox. And then, see, I squeal about the "SAND ON MY LEG!!! Eek, eek!" and then Dominic will give his Evil Scientist cackle and race off for more sand.

Fun? Wow!!!

I like having snack at the park. I like packing their little containers, sitting down with them, chattering with them as they eat. For some reason, I find it satisfying in a way that having snack at my dining table just isn't.

Ella eats "ice cream" from a dollar store egg cup. Ella discovered immediately after this that no matter how hard you pretend that sand is ice cream, it still tastes -- and feels -- like sand. Ick!

Addie learns the same lesson a few minutes later. Only her sand was just sand. And guess what? Sand is gritty stuff!

Action shot! Whee!

Another action shot! (When your cheapie camera has about a 1.5 -second lag, this is no mean feat.)

New Arenas of Artistry!

You may have noticed that the baby puppy gate dividing kitchen from dining room is now purple.

What you may not realize is that the purple is a chalkboard! It's a very simple thing, to turn regular paint into chalkboard paint. (Thanks to Martha Stewart for the recipe.)

The baby gate is big enough for three, but since we have five, I figured we needed overflow.

Voila! My kitchen! A matter of ten minutes' painting and a few hours' drying time, and we have three more chalk boards!

Fun !

p.s. Martha says the paint has to be flat, but I just used what I had on hand, and though I don't know what it was, exactly, I am quite sure it wasn't flat. The only fiddly part is that you have to make sure the grout powder is very thoroughly mixed before beginning to paint, or it will show as white specks on your chalk board. (And goodness knows, otherwise, there would never be anything like white specks on a chalk board...)

Nom, nom, picnic

A blanket, a bowl of blocks, three toddlers. It could be anything, just anything! Today, it was a  picnic.

It was jokester Dominic, of course, who decided to push Ilona's buttons by covering the blocks in slime actually "eating" the food. (Can you hear his mischievous cackle? It's written all over that face.)

He's a monkey, this boy.

SPROING!

This is one of Addie and Ella's favourite park activities. My only input is one of caution:

"Ella, don't sproing Addie right off the bouncy toy, okay?"

So far, so good...