A penguin or the Pope?

You decide!

Reader

How cute does Grace look in my "readers"?  I took them out to get a closer look at the missing tooth space in her mouth and then she put them on to read her book.  I was pretty shocked when she started to read the first line of the book, "The little read car..."

Grace's hair is wavy because she had it in a braid for most of the day.  When she took it out, this is how it looked!

A bear-y nice place to live

Well, the day finally came....the ol'e diorama animal project that every kid in America must do at some time in their elementary career.  We were warned by Grace's kindergarten teacher about a week ago that we (and I do mean "we") were going to need a shoebox for an up-coming homework assignment.  The project directions were sent home on Wednesday and the project is due on Monday.  To most people that means 5 nights to get it done, but in our house it is very difficult to add any "extras" to our normal routine of dinner, music, bath, and a little reading.  The few hours we have together before Grace goes to bed is already jam-packed! So, our project needed to be completed in three nights.  Not a problem....I've got this.  I work with 700 preK, kindergarten, and first graders.  I have seen hundreds of projects like this.  The only problem, as my secretary pointed out on Friday afternoon, is making sure it is mostly Grace doing the work.  THAT part is the challenge.

Mrs. Peterson's "spin" on the project was that the children needed to begin with a small stuffed animal.  It had to be one that you could find in the real world - dinosaurs, unicorns, and mermaids were not allowed.  We started by taking out all of Grace's stuffed animals and counting them.  Any guesses how many she has?

This pile includes a grand total of 68 stuffed animals!  That is a lot but I actually thought she had more.  Then, out of all these animals she need to choose just one for the project.  Her choice was the most recent purchase, the black bear from the Disney movie Brave.  She named him "Fuzzy Bear", we looked up the habitat of black bears on the internet, and took one of Kyle's shoeboxes for the diorama.

Our plan was to make a cave and a forest.  Fuzzy Bear needed a place to sleep at night when he and the other animals were left alone at school.  Grace said she thought they were going to have a dance party or a parade in the halls.  Who knows?  Maybe they will!

Lost!

After weeks of wiggling it, Grace's first tooth fell out this morning.  I think she was in bed playing with it because she came running to tell me before anyone in the house woke up!  Grace asked if we could put her tooth in a plastic bag until tonight.

She is beyond excited and is now working on the other loose one right next to it.  Pretty soon she is going to have a big gap in the front where her very first baby teeth popped out years ago.  My baby is really getting to be a big kid!

January 28, 2013 - The Tooth Fairy came last night!  Grace awakened to some money, a certificate from the Tooth Fairy saying she is please to add Grace's tooth to her collection, and a book called Bear's Loose Tooth.  

Curls

We put Grace hair in curlers last night.  She called them "little pillows" since basically all they are is squares of foam and a little wire wrapped in white fabric.

And this is how it turned out.  She bounced around all day in her curls.  Every girl needs a change now and then, don't you agree?

BTW - This last shot was with my iPhone.  It is good in a pinch (like today when my camera was upstairs but the stairway was blocked by the electrician who was installing a new foyer light), but I can never get good quality photos with it.  

Colorful

Grace chose this colorful, mis-matched outfit for herself this afternoon.  She just quietly went upstairs and came down 15 minutes later all dressed.  Even though it is a mix of snowflakes, tie dye, stripes, and glitter somehow it all worked together!  

Then she got a cardboard box from the new hall light we are having installed and painted a garage for her Barbie car.  My girl is so colorful and creative!

Tasty Science Sunday

One of the presents Aunt Nancy and Uncle Chris gave Grace for Christmas was a "Tasty Science" kit where you experiment with things in your kitchen.  This was a perfect gift because Grace loves to cook and she is at a perfect age to scoop, pour, and measure - as long as mom doesn't care about a little mess!

Inside the box are test tubes and a stand, string, cupcake liners, different size scoops, and packets of baking soda, citric acid, and flavors (grape, raspberry, watermelon) and instructions for 10 different activities you can do and taste.  For some of the activities you need to add things from your kitchen but they are mostly staples that you probably have on hand.

Today, we started at the beginning and tested some liquids to see if they were acidic.  The kit give you litmus paper and a pipette and when the paper turns red or orange you know it is an acid.  That part was fine.  The hard part was explaining to Grace what an acid is.  You can see we tested orange juice, milk, lemon juice, and Diet Coke.  After this we learned how to make drinks fizzy by mixing a solution of baking soda and water to one with citric acid and water.  Grace loved when the test tube bubbled over!

We added flavor to the fizzy mixture to make grape soda and then for the finale, we used sugar and raspberry flavor to make powder candy (think of the candy we had as kids with the powdered sugar and a white candy stick).  Grace was so thrilled that she wanted to call Aunt Nancy to tell her how AWESOME this present is.  We had a really fun time playing and experimenting!

The nest thing on the test kitchen agenda is making rock candy.  The recipe calls for 4 cups of sugar!  We will make these, but you can be sure we will also be sharing them so Grace doesn't bounce off the walls from a sugar high!

Hangin' with my favorite girl

Just a simple Saturday

After music lessons this morning, we planted an amaryllis bulb.  With any luck it will be blooming by my birthday.

Since Grace was having fun and letting me take some photos, I took advantage of the sunlight coming through our windows and switched to manual mode without the flash.  

Snow everywhere!

Flying back from Florida  this time of year is strange because three hours in the air changes everything outside the plane window.  We left sunshine, blue skies, and warm breezes, and arrived to snow covering everything!  It is pretty shocking to look out the window when the plane descends below the clouds to see miles and miles of white broken up only by roads, rivers, and the brown branches of trees.  The lake behind our house is about 90% frozen and the geese and ducks seem to have left temporarily for a warmer place.

But, when you are 5 years old, the snow is a new adventure and the pool and beach quickly became a fond memory.  As I was dreading the blast of cold we were about to feel, Grace was rattling off all the things she wanted to do - build a snowman, make snow angels, sledding and ice skating.  All at once!  

"Can we do it mom?  Can we? Can we?"

Well, this morning, she did get out in the snow (boy, it was COLD - maybe not even 20 degrees when she and Kyle were out there!) to accomplish some of the things on her list.  Tomorrow I promised I would take her ice skating - inside, of course.  I am a baby about the cold!

Auld Lang Syne

It is traditional to sing Auld Lang Syne on New Year's Eve to signal the change from "old" times to the new.  The Scottish poem written in 1788 by Robert Burns has had many changes, but the sentiment is still the same - remember the friends from your past as you move on to new memories.

Well, we ended 2012 with family and friends in Florida enjoying the sunshine, salt water, and sand. December 31 was the only day of the trip that I took out my camera, but I am glad I did because I captured these memories.

At first Grace didn't want to get in the water.
The waves were pretty big!

But with Kyle's help, she took a chance and went in!

Her face is priceless!   

But after getting hit with a big wave, Grace decided
it was safer to bury herself in the sand!

Later on New Year's Eve day we ate seafood at a waterfront restaurant.  It was the perfect atmosphere for the end of our vacation and the year.

Here's to some AMAZING things in 2013!

The last week of 2012

The last week of 2012 was a busy one in Florida.  As soon as we arrived on Christmas Day we headed directly to the pool because that was all Grace talked about on the flight down. The pool and Aunt Phyllis.  Just like when I was as a kid, Grace is in love with Aunt Phyllis because she has this way of making you feel like you are the most special person in the room when you are with her.

Grace was the perfect little helper in her apron cleaing up after dinner and when it was time to hand out Christmas presents to everyone.  She loved hangng out with her Godparents, Aunt Nancy and Uncle Chris, too, who were full of hugs and kisses for her!

Aunt Nancy and Uncle Chris planned an awesome day with Grace!  They picked her up in the morning for an adventure to lunch, the movies for Wreck it Ralph, and to see their dog, Bella.  Gace told me that Bella jumped on her and kissed her face.  She said, "Mom, Bella must really love me!"

Grace waiting for Aunt Nancy and Uncle Chris.
She was so excited she even got her car seat and put it by the door. 

Nana had tons of activities planned for the week, too!  We were busy every minute!  The following day included a trip to the strawberry patch with Aunt Phyllis and Nana.  These strawberries grew up on vines instead of along the ground.  They brought home a basket to share and the red, ripe strawberries didn't last long!

Other days were full of hanging out, opening more presents, cooking together, dancing, playing board games, swimming the the pool and ocean, building sandcastles, a ride on the Diva Duck (an amphibious vehicle that went on the land and water) and Segway riding for Nana and Mommy!

All of the pictures in this post were from Nana's camera.  I had my big camera with me, but for some reason I had little desire to take it out this week.  Sometimes I spend too much time behind the camera and not enough time just enjoying what is happening.  My favorite photo fom the week is this last one of Grace and Ba's hands together.  Love!

After all that fun, Grace didn't want to leave Nana and Ba.  She was so sad when she realized our vacation was coming to an end.  But, we know we will see them again very soon.