Standing Rocks

Addie Braves Eric

Rainbow Wand!

Froot Loop Rainbow by Dries

Climbing Tree

Menu Monday

Monday: Black bean soup, cooked carrots, cornmeal muffin

Tuesday: Lentil curry


Wednesday: Macaroni and Cheese, green beans

Thursday: Soy loaf, apple relish, zucchini skillet

Friday: Black bean enchilada bake

Friday is also the Rainbow Party, so for afternoon snack, we'll be having All-the-colours-of-the-rainbow Fruit Salad.

Rainbows at their Fingertips

Another theme-related activity.

The girls looooved it.

OUTRAGE!!!

Aw, a sad, unhappy baby! Um, not so much. Nor is he frightened. Nope, what you're seeing here is pure, unadulterated outrage. Why? Well, I've just told him that the pink slipper Ada is holding is not for him, that I am about to put it on Ada's foot, not his. ("You are wearing slippers, silly-billy. You don't need Ada's!")

WHAT??? But it HAS to go on his foot, because he WANTS it!!! This is completely unacceptable!

Yup. Outrage.

I was amused.

Ada is merely bemused. "Why is that boy making all that noise?"

Park in November

She wears a hat well, don't you think?

Menu Monday

Monday: Ginger-baked tofu, bean salad  

Tuesday: Swedish meatballs on egg noodles, cabbage-beet salad  

Wednesday: Singapore noodles (made with tofu)  

Thursday: Black bean couscous salad  

Friday: Veggie burgers, cabbage-beet salad

Who's Cuter?

There is a pet store at the mall. There were bunnies in one window and kittens in the other. Today, the kittens were the biggest draw. You can't see them, but behind me and my camera, two women stopped to coo and chuckle over the cuteness ... and they weren't talking about the kittens! Hee.

Peek!

A bench by the river is a nice place to rest our little legs when we are walking the entire 2 or 3 km to the mall. But toddlers never just sit when they sit, do they?

PEEK!!!!

Rainbow Bears

More rainbow activity! This is "tonging". Tongs provide a reasonable level of fine motor challenge to our three-year-olds. The motion and muscles used in tonging are similar to those required for using scissors and holding a pencil, so it's a good precursor to those activities. Also, it's just plain old interesting!

It takes concentration to pick up the bear.

More concentration to place it on the matching coloured square.

Even more if you're trying to make the wee bears sit on their bums! (Note how you can't see Nora's left hand at all? That's because she was instructed to keep it behind her back. Otherwise it couldn't seem to help itself, and kept getting involved in orienting the bears. Tonging is a one-handed activity!)

Busy, busy, busy. (A perfect Quiet Time activity! They were involved, they were engrossed, they were not running around the house, shouting!)

Rainbow Rice

This is what's called a "Sensory Bin". Our theme for the month is Rainbows, so of course the base had to be rainbow coloured! I figured it was a good use for the leftover rainbow rice that Nora and Ella used last week. This picture doesn't show it too well, but there's a fair amount of coloured rice grains in amongst the white. It was very pretty!

Dries really liked making a wee walrus 'swim' through the rice.

He made 'mountains' for the walrus to climb, too.

Addie was most interested in the feel of the rice in her hands. She'd pick up a fistful, crush it up a bit, drop it, then pick up another fistful.

Little Miss Snaggletooth has a go. Her preferred method of involvement was to beat on the rice with a cylindrical block.

Lots of quiet involvement, everyone sharing the space, the rice, and the toys extremely well. They played at this thing for a good 40 minutes. Someone might toddle off for a minute, and return in a bit. All four of them were not there the whole 40 minutes, but any two or three of them were playing with it for that entire time. Quite something!

Addie fills a jar for Ada. (Note the left fist full of rice!)

After he tired of the walrus, Dries moved on to excavation. Did you know you can plow the rice with a block? You can!

Nora was quite taken with the funnel. She was the only one at the table with the fine motor coordination to tackle that on her own, and it absorbed her for quite some while!

The Rainbow Rice Sensory Bin was a big hit, and stayed set up on the toddler table in the kitchen all week. By the end of the week, there was only a smallish drift of rice in the bottom of the bin, and my kitchen floor, despite very frequent sweepings, definitely crunchy in spots. It's a great activity, though, and we'll play in it again next week!

Menu Monday

Monday: Cucumber raita, toad-in-the-hole (cheese version for Ella)
Nora enjoyed the raita; the rest were indifferent. Toad in the hole consumed without comment, except for Addie, who pulled the sausage out of hers. 
Tuesday: Stuffed green peppers
This was a hit! They were stuffed with quinoa, feta and cheddar, egg, and shredded carrots. Everyone had seconds, a few went for thirds.
Wednesday: Spinach pie, corn niblets
They enjoyed this. I think the fact that it was served room temperature, so they could "eat it like pizza" helped a lot. Ella ate one helping with good attitude, the rest had two or more slices each.
Thursday: Aloo gobi, sloppy joes on kaiser rolls
Received with middling enthusiasm, but consumed by all. The aloo gobi (cauliflower and sweet potatoes cooked with mild spices in a tomato broth) was more popular than the meat, which I think was too spicy.
Friday: Southwestern Bean Salad, sweet potato soup.
Addie liked the bean salad. Everyone enjoyed the soup.

Open da moufieeee...

Snack at the park. Ada was needing help with her watermelon, and Ella was very pleased to offer it. (She wasn't asked to do this. She saw what was happening, and happily volunteered her services.)

I don't think Ella was aware she was oooopening her mouth like that. It's instinctive, it really is!

Dance Party!

Nora requested music. We set the iPod to Paul Simon, who sings, according to your kids THE BEST dance music out there.

Dance, dance, dance, dance...(and a little singing by Nora)...

and dance some more...

Dries's version of 'dance' looks more like everyone else's definition of 'jump', but it's enthusiastic!

Whee! Addie leads the dance cheer!

And then we all collapse in utter exhaustion. Some of us do 'exhausted' with more flare than others...

Whooo, fun!

Ada and Eric

Babies are interesting to other babies. They are not exactly human, mind you, just interesting. Ada attempts to fondle Eric's eyeball. Because eyes, they are interesting!

What? I'm not supposed to fondle eyeballs? Eesh. All these inexplicable adult rules and regs.