Grandma and Grandpa

What a fun weekend. My parents came for a visit. We haven't seen them since last year when baby girl was born. It has been awhile. We talk on the phone frequently, but it isn't quite the same as an in person visit. It was especially good to see Mom. She has had a rough summer, but things are looking up. Treatments are over and she is starting to feel better.

Saturday we spent a fun day with a beach picnic. We haven't been at all this year. It seemed like we always said to ourselves that the baby was too small. Well she is nearly a year old. Definitely not too small any more.

We also spent part of a day trying out sugar cookie recipes. I am looking for the perfect sugar cookie and have yet to find it. Mom brought her 6 favorite recipes and we tried 2 of them. Buddy boy loved this. Every morning he wakes up and asks what we are going to make today.

We also made curtains for Baby girl's bedroom. I have had the fabric for awhile, and even had it cut out, but just haven't pulled out the machine to sew it all together. I think they are quite cute. Now I just need to hang them.

It was perfect weather, warm and sunny, but not hot. It gets dark so early that there was still time to go outside to play in the dark after dinner. Buddy boy wanted to make cake and soup in the back yard. He set the table and called us all to dinner. He also likes to go in the front yard and run in lines, circles, squares, and triangles, as well as just playing tag.

How do they know?

How do these cartoonists know my kids?



Buddy boy's eating habits past and present and Baby Girl's adventurous climbing. Buddy boy used to eat all sorts of things. One day a year or so ago at the park he had sand and cupcakes for lunch. I really did have a real lunch for him, but he wouldn't eat it. Now Buddy boy loves to make cookie men. This week instead of gingerbread I made sugar cookies. He didn't like them that much and just licked off the frosting. Baby girl is enjoying climbing on footstools and coffee tables. She doesn't usually cry until she falls off whatever it is she had climbed up on. She hasn't mastered the turn and climb down thing.

pretty pictures

I came across this site that is a new favorite. It is more fun than functional. I LOVE the colors. Go ahead pick one or two. See what comes up.

Favorite Halloween book

Here is my favorite book for Halloween and a good one for other times as well. Find it here.

Movie for the Grandparents

Here is a movie of the preschool kids. The kids walked from their room down to the community center office to go trick-or-treating to the office staff, then had a little music program for the parents. Buddy boy has been singing about witches flying over ditches for weeks.

Halloween cakes

It was one of those days that Buddy Boy asked to make a cake. I bought a new pan thinking it would be fun for making jack o lantern cakes. It is just a generic dome. I could fill my cupboards with fun shaped baking pans. I do my best to resist, but one day I may need to get one of those rose mini cake pans. For my first try I used a pumpkin muffin recipe that is very tasty.

The jack o lanterns didn't work out to well, but the acorns were pretty cute.

Later I used chocolate cake to make a ghost and a spider. Much better.

Learning styles

I saw a link to a learning styles test on another blog. I have wondered how to know what my kids' learning styles are or will be and how best to adapt what I do for them. They are too young for this test, but it is interesting to see the results for me. I wasn't surprised especially the visual bit and the part about liking to work on my own. I was surprised about the music part, but I knew I am not a linguistic learner. It was pretty interesting.

Eight Styles of Learning:

Logical/Mathematical Learner
likes to: do experiments, figure things out, work with numbers, ask questions and explore patterns and relationships.
is good at: math, reasoning, logic and problem solving.
learns best by: categorizing, classifying and working with abstract patterns/relationships.

Spatial Learner
likes to: draw, build, design and create things, daydream, look at pictures/slides, watch movies and play with machines.
is good at: imagining things, sensing changes, mazes/puzzles and reading maps, charts.
learns best by: visualizing, dreaming, using the mind's eye and working with colors/pictures.

Musical Learner
likes to: sing, hum tunes, listen to music, play an instrument and respond to music.
is good at: picking up sounds, remembering melodies, noticing pitches/rhythms and keeping time.
learns best by: rhythm, melody and music.

Intrapersonal Learner
likes to: work alone and pursue own interests.
is good at: understanding self, focusing inward on feelings/dreams, following instincts, pursuing interests/goals and being original.
learns best by: working alone, individualized projects, self-paced instruction and having own space.

Art for 3 year olds

Here is our latest art project. I decided we need more art in our lives around here. It is not profound and does not have deep meaning or inspire the masses, but it is a lot of fun.

I saw a review of an art show of Calder's work that I think will inspire our next attempts. I don't know. He may be too young for mobiles and wire sculpture but I really like Calder's wire portraits so we may give it a try. The show review called the wire work sculptural doodles. I like that idea. During grad school for an entirely different subject I took a couple of bronze sculpture classes, lost wax casting. I made a few little things and I really enjoyed it, but it is far from doodling.

http://www.calder.org/

Monarch migration

What a beautiful weekend. We went to visit family in Santa Cruz and ended up at Natural Bridges State Beach. We went for the butterflies, not the beach. Each winter the migrating monarch butterflies come to the same eucalyptus grove for shelter. They are here October through March. On warm sunny days they are flying around. When it is cooler they are unable to fly and stay together in the trees sometimes in big drippy fluttery clumps. Either way it is beautiful. It just happened to be the welcome back monarch event at the park. There were butterfly crafts, songs, cookies and more.

flickr photo credit

It also happened to be the Santa Cruz open studio day. My Sister in law's neighbor makes beautiful jewelry from glass lampworked beads and silver. It is always fun to see what she has been making. I am lucky to have some of her earrings. I love them. I am fascinated by glass artwork, stained glass, blown glass, and lampwork. There is just something really cool about the heat and the color and the way the glass changes forms. In the finished pieces the light through the colored glass is something that just cannot be duplicated in paint or pencil.

Adventures in baking

Now that the weather has cooled I am starting to bake again. I just can't justify turning on the oven in an 85 degree kitchen. Here are the results.

PEAR TART

I made a pretty yummy pear tart with only a minor mistake. I was inspired by one I saw on another blog. I didn't use their recipe for some reason, but I like the one I found. Mine didn't look as good, but I liked it anyway. I used the wrong variety of pears (Bosc) and I think they were a little too green. As a result they weren't quite sweet enough and they were a little too firm. I love the flavor of pears with mace. I don't use mace much. I am much more familiar with cinnamon and nutmeg. It is great for a different twist. The layer of toasted almonds between the crust and fruit was also very tasty.

HALLAH BREAD

I made some Hallah/challah bread on Yom Kippur. It was a whim. Dad has been trying to convince a friend of his that we celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. That would be a good thing, except we aren't Jewish. So the leg pulling continues with a gift of Hallah bread. I love the way it looks when it's braided. It is traditionally braided with six strands in two loaves, twelve total for the twelve tribes of Israel. I found a video showing how to do the braid. It looks pretty cool but I used a different recipe. I just couldn't bring myself to use a recipe that recommends Splenda, not authentic.