Happy Hallowe'en!!

Remember those leaves?

Here they are in production. Ingredients: Flour (Addie), Salt (Ella), Oil (Dries), and water (Nora). Pour them in, mix them up,

then knead.

Knead, knead, knead.

Examine, consider, feel ...

and (if you're 13 months old) taste, of course!

Wait! You can eat that stuff? Daisy would very, very, veeery much like to share!

Menu Monday

Monday: Vegetable chili, baking-powder biscuits

Tuesday: Vegetable muffins

Wednesday: Lentil soup over rice

Thursday: Spaghetti and meatballs (meat-free meatballs)

Friday: Chickpea-spinach soup

Also! Some of you had asked Melanie for her recipe for the salad she brought to our party on Friday, so she graciously -- and promptly! -- sent it to me. Here it is, in all its yumminess:

Yummy Bok Choy Salad recipe (inspired by similar recipe on All Recipes.com)

Ingredients:

Scant 1/4 cup olive oil 1/8 cup rice or white vinegar 2 Tbsp white sugar 1 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce 2 bunches baby (or full sized) bok choy, cleaned and sliced

1 bunch green onions, chopped 1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted ¼ cup craisins

Directions:

1.	In a glass jar with a lid, mix together olive oil, white vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce. Close the lid, and shake until well mixed.

2.	Combine the bok choy, green onions, almonds, and craisins in a salad bowl. Toss with dressing, and serve.

Monsters!

Those monster napkin rings at the very beginning...

We Are NOT Amused

We were baking. Addie wanted Ella to get her own chair. I said no, there wasn't room for two chairs, but that two little girls could easily share one chair.

They made the attempt. There was much pushing and jockeying for superior position (aka "all the chair").

So Ilona taped a line smack down the middle of the chair. This is YOUR side, and this is YOUR side.

Ella, whose main role in the struggle had been a valiant attempt to not land on the floor, immediately saw the usefulness of such a system. (Given the dynamic of the struggle, I think she may be forgiven for what is unquestionably a smirk.)

Addie? Addie, whose main agenda in the struggle had been to ACHIEVE AND MAINTAIN CONTROL OVER THE ENTIRE CHAIR!!!, was ... somewhat less than impressed.

That face is so damned entertaining, it's tempting to stop right here, but in the interests of fairness, I should show you the following few minutes.

Both girls on the chair, now united in defense of the muffins against Daisy, the muffin-marauder. Having a common enemy does pull people together!

United at last! Addie buys into the whole 'shared chair' experience! Muffins were consumed by all.

Tree Time!

I recently told a friend,

"Done right, the trip home from the park takes us half an hour."

(For the record: An adult walking alone can make the journey in an easy ten minutes.)

Here's one part of the "done right": 

Tree-Climbing at the park.

It's a great tree, perfect for small, scrambling bodies. A nicely-sloped trunk.

hand-holds at convenient spots,

platforms for standing on.

We visit this tree almost every time we go to the playground. It's Tradition!

Library Rocks

No trip to the library

is complete without

some rock-climbing.

 

 This is how Tradition is born.

Tradition, aka "But we ALWAYS [fill in the blank]."

Hilarity

Dries was pushing Nora in the stroller, and the whole experience was just so very, very, very funny!

Treats at the mall

The crumb sisters share a chair and a scone.

Last Days of Summer

An old post, that I never published.

I think this was Ada's first trip to the park with us.

Nora has a dog!

Nora has a dog, and is fascinated by all things dog. Now, there are two real, live dogs here. However, Daisy is much too lively and not at all cooperative with children's games, while Indie is too mellow and uninterested -- and plain old too big -- to be a very good playmate.

Not to worry! Since when has reality stopped a three-year-old in her pursuit of a Good Game? You take a doggie chew toy, and tie a lace to it...

and there! You have a dog! That you can take for walks!

If you look closely at Nora's dog, you may discern something inside it. It may even look like a piece of paper, but you'd be wrong. That is not a piece of paper, that is a piece of poo. A piece of poo which sometimes, when the dog is being dragged around the house, falls out! Falls out and must be picked up.

Picking up poo, it must be noted, is possibly the most exciting part of walking a dog. In case you didn't know.

Wheee!

Godzilla-baby

The doll house. An  unexpectedly challenging toy.

Ella and Nora like to actually play with it. Their furniture arrangements may be unorthodox, but they understand the play value of the house, the fixtures, the dolls.

 Daisy? She understands the chew value of all of the above. That's the first challenge.

Dries? The doll house is largely lost on him. It doesn't do anything. He's a social little dude, though, so he tries to enter into the girls' play, but given that a) he doesn't get the point, and b) his fine motor control isn't the finest, he mostly just knocks things down. That's the second challenge.

 And now Ada has become the third challenge to the girls' enjoyment of this thing:

Because to Ada, it's neither house to arrange nor a social opportunity, it's a climbing structure. Look! She fits right in!! 

It's very fun. For Ada. Ella and Nora watched her for a while, and then decided to go do puzzles in the dining room. A wise decision.

Butterflies!

Daniel suggested yesterday that the Butterfly Exhibition might make a good outing. He was right! I rounded up some help, and off we went! Rebekah wanted to try out the Ergo, and Addie was firmly attached to my hand and thus out of camera range. Mat, I think, thought he was similarly out of range. (Wrong.)

We await the arrival of the number 7. Eagerly, because we LOVE taking city busses. Addie was very clear on this. "This is not a school bus, this is a CITY bus."

(I think Rebekah enjoyed the baby carrier more than the carried baby. Hee.)

Ta-dah! It was somewhat of a surprise to the tots that the bus ride wasn't the entire point of the outing, but Nora recognized the sign for what it was: "BUTTERFLIES! The butterflies are here!"

There was no line-up at all, and we were soon inside. Mesmerized. At first, you don't see them, and then, suddenly, the air is filled with movement, and they're everywhere!

Look, I see one! There! And another, there! Look!

The time of day conspired with the carrier, and the heat of the greenhouse put it right over the top. Ada spent the rest of our butterfly outing like this.

And THEN! Not only do you see them flying around, but you can coax them to land on oranges! Daniel suggested we bring some, which we did, but there were slices provided on a tray in the entry as well. Addie is AMAZED!

This

was by far

the very

very best

part of the

entire outing. Enchanting!

The photo op butterfly in the foyer, though,

was probably my second favourite part.

SO CUTE!

Thank you, Daniel, for the suggestion. We had a terrific time!