Spontaneous Delight

Joy School has been in session at our house this week. We are teaching by unit, so I have about 3 weeks to go. I was a little nervous about 4 preschool boys descending on me, but it has been tons of fun. It helps that our lessons were about being as silly as possible. I think the kids think my house it really fun, but it's only because I got the section where you let loose!

Balloon chaos transformed the living room into a war zone.

Luckily we had some rest time and listened to music. I was surprised how much they liked laying down.

We painted with shaving cream. This is a perfect example of why I loved this unit--it's so fun and out of the ordinary that the kids kept looking at me like, "Really? I get to do that?" It has taught me that I need to just let go more often and let the kids be crazy and messy! It all cleans up.

Ella has been my 6th student and has done really well sharing my attention. She keeps right up with the kids and thinks she's so big.

I attempted this science experiment. It took me two tries but we got the vinegar and baking soda gas to blow up the balloon.

We learned about circles and the colors red, blue, yellow, and green, so I had to get out Twister to kill some time before the mom's came.

Today we did some dramatic play activities and I was impressed with how well the kids did acting their parts. This was from "Caps For Sale" about a cap peddler who falls asleep beneath a tree and some monkeys steal his hats. Silly monkeys.


The crowning activity was the popcorn pop! I remember this from when I was in Joy School over 20 years ago. I had nightmares of it ending horribly with oil burns, but everything went well and the kids were very impressed. They won't be forgetting Joy School at the Andrews' anytime soon.

Kazakhstan

A lady at the park today told me that Ella talks really well for her age. We are used to Maddie's accelerated speech so I haven't thought much about it, but Ella does talk really well.

Here she came to my saying, "Mommy I butterfly girl!"

We figured we should be equal opportunity parents so we put a world map on Ella's wall too. She already knows Russia, Kazakhstan, and Canada. I wish I could learn as quickly as a toddler. Their minds are little sponges!

Winder Farms

I hate door-to-door salesmen. And I am not an impulsive buyer. Which is why it is so surprising that I signed up for Winder Farms today. The thing is, I have been interested in their local products for awhile but didn't do anything about it until this guy shows up and says I can have a free membership and a free cooler and $15 credit towards their products. All I have to do is order $8 worth a week for 24 weeks. I figured it was worth a try!

Has anyone else out there tried them? What are your experiences? I am hearing the produce is not-so-great... even the salesman said if I have done Bountiful Baskets then their weekly produce basket is not comparable. At least he was honest.

Hello Fall

I love fall. Let me count the ways...

1. The Harvest Moon was so beautiful. It was up from dusk to dawn on the night of autumn equinox. It kept me company when I went running in the dark morning... it's getting light so late now! (Good for kids, not for running. :)

2. I love squash.

3. We got out our fall decorations.


My friends and I made these fun black wreaths... just buy cheap supplies and spray paint it black!

4. The kids are so excited for Halloween. We got some library books to really talk it up and Ella carries this one all over the house. (I just love how kids flex their feet to keep books in their laps.)

5. We are having fun with fall crafts. Ella did O for owl.

This was so funny. Her fingers were sticky and she couldn't get the feather to come off.

6. BYU. Fall always takes me right back to being a student. Football games, new classes, the beautiful leaves and flowers on campus... it makes me itchy to go back.

So today we decided to go to the BYU Bookstore to get Maddie a new Cougar shirt! Ella is wearing her old 2T one, and anyone who can sing the whole fight song should have a BYU shirt of their own.

I learned a hard lesson this morning. When you remember that you forgot your camera within a mile from home, turn around and get it! I am a horrible snap-addict, but I never realized how bad it was until today. It was the most beautiful fall day, and my cute girls were so thrilled to point at every Y insignia they found along the way, and the leaves are starting to turn yellow and red on campus... I'll just have to remember the snapshots in my memory.

Also, I love the Bookstore. I worked there for almost 4 years in college and it still feels like home the moment I walk in the door. My supervisor's handwriting was still pasted next the computer screen, the break room and stock room (on my way to the elevator) smelled exactly the same. The candy counter still calls my name... and I still have the urge to buy everything I lay eyes on.

Sabbath Day

Sunday is my favorite day of the week.

I love that there's no guilt when I don't do any chores. I love that the house is full of beautiful music. I love that Mike is home and we can spend time just being together. No agenda (after church of course), just peace and rest. It is so invigorating!

Yesterday I loved laying on the grass and looking up at the sky while our salmon dinner baked in the oven.

I loved that my kids found little treasures and brought them to show me and snuggle me.

I love my girls' beautiful blue eyes.


I love that the kids got good Daddy time.

Ella has been asking for her baby book at naptime, so Maddie wanted her's too. It was so sweet to see them snuggled up reading through memories.

Mike started a new map with Maddie. Instead of countries (which she knew most of) they are working on states, but not just memorization this time. Mike is telling her stories from his life and putting dots on places.

Elder Andrews served in Indiana...

And we went on our honeymoon to San Fran. Maddie loves the stories and remembers what each dot stands for.

We ended the day with a drive to scope out some homes... yep, we're looking to buy. Someday, anyway. This one caught our attention, especially because of the spectacular view of Mt. Timp and Utah Lake to the east.

You can also see the smoke in the air... there is a huge wildfire near us at Camp Williams. We could see it from our front porch blazing in the darkness. Thankfully it blew mostly north and not south to where my sister lives, but my heart goes out to all those families in Herriman that had to leave their homes! It definitely made us think about what we would do in a crisis situation. Scary.

Quiet

It has been a pretty quiet week around here. Well, maybe quiet is not the right word... there has been plenty of high decibel noise from tired children because everyone keeps waking up an hour earlier than usual... at all sleep times. After 5 days, that adds up to about 10 hours behind on sleep.

Maddie has been practicing her name at Joy School. She and Ella were coloring together this morning and she proudly presented me with this:

My praises were at a pretty high decibel too! WOW!

Ella's letter for the week was S. She has been going around saying sssssssssssssssss like a ssssssssssssnake.


We got some miniature snakes (okay, also known as worms) to reinforce the lesson.


The girls enjoyed making crowns on a quiet afternoon.

We have been experiencing rather long and boring afternoons lately... I suppose that may be caused by said waking up early from naps. I think it's time to dream up some more creative play ideas. What do any of you out there to do make it through the 4 o'clock blues, as I recently heard them called?

Swiss Days

We went to Swiss Days in Midway last weekend. I have to be quite honest... it sounds wonderful... a green mountain valley celebrating their Swiss heritage on a beautiful September day...


Well, that doesn't take into account that it's also the world's largest craft fair and 60,000 people will trample it in 3 days. Unfortunately we didn't know that, so we waited in the long lines for shuttles and swarmed through the crowds with hot and tired kids in tow.


There were some highlights however. We spent time with Mike's brother Seth and family, and ran into a dear friend Molly. And we had pie and ice cream for lunch! Check out that slab of goodness!

So now we know. If I go next year, it will be early and without kids so I can browse the aisles. It's really a pity that such a neat event would be more enjoyable without all the people!

Prayers

Ella said her first prayers this week. I love when they repeat the last line of every phrase like a little parrot. She is very good at staying still until we say amen, and then she is bursting with pride!

In Maddie's prayer tonight she said, "Bless Ella that she'll feel better about her binki." Could it get any sweeter than that?!

Signs of Time

I know I keep saying this, but I can't ignore the evidence anymore that Ella is not a baby.

She finally got a big girl car seat! For awhile she thought it was Maddie's, so we had to show her both and convince her it was just for her. She was so excited about it! Buckles are one of her favorite things in the world.

Sionara, baby seat. Can you believe she was still in that thing? It goes up to 23 pounds and she is just barely over! We kept her backwards are long as we could because they think it's safer now...

This was the excited girl ready to take her first spin!

Off we go! She just loved the new view of the world and kept saying, "I like it, car seat Mommy!"

The latest letter was H for house. She got it right away and wanted to show Daddy her H when he came home. And because of it she told her first joke today. She was pretending to knock on the door of the house and said, "Knock knock." Maddie said, "Who's there?" Of course Ella said, "Banana!" Everything she says surprises me lately because she picks it up so fast!

And now for the doozie... with the car seat swap we figured it was time to say bye bye binki! It was so hard for me to cut the tips and plant them back in their places for her to discover. Those dumb things become such a comforting thing, and it's so sad to make them sad!

Here's what she thinks. She dismissed them after she realized she couldn't suck them, but asked a few times (as if to clarify), "binki broken?" The first day she sang her heart out in her crib for about 30 minutes, and then whined and cried for 30 minutes before falling asleep. Since then she pouts a little right when I put her down, but goes to sleep easily! Mike says we underestimated out little girl.

She is growing up!!!